U.S. Department of Energy said Monday it will purchase 1.2 million barrels of oil to help replenish the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve.  The purchases will be made at an average price of $77.57 per barrel from two companies after 18 bids were submitted. Reuters reported, “The administration of President Joe Biden last year conducted the […]

Findlay-based MPLX recently said expansion of the Whistler pipeline was completed at the end of the third quarter.  The 450-mile pipeline (42 inches) moves natural gas from Waha in Permian Basin to Agua Dulce in south Texas.  It was increased from 2.0 Bcfd to 2.5 Bcfd through the installation of three new compressor stations.  MPLX […]

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum said recently private equity firm BlackRock will invest $550 million on behalf of its clients in development of Stratos, the world’s largest direct air capture facility in Ector County.  Oxy said Nov. 7 BlackRock signed an agreement to form a joint venture with Occidental through its subsidiary 1PointFive, which will own Stratos.  […]

Denver-based Ovintiv reported last week production in Permian Basin in third quarter of 194,000 boed (83 percent liquids).  The company is increasing fullyear 2023 production guidance to 550,000 boed to 560,000 boed on strong well productivity and faster-than-expected integration of Permian assets acquired in multi-billion dollar deals earlier this year.  Fullyear capital investment is now […]

U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that oil production will grow by 5,000 b/d in December in the Permian Basin to 5.981 million b/d from 5.976 million b/d in November.  Oil production for November was revised upward by EIA from its original forecast Oct. 16 of 5.901 million b/d.  Production for October was 5.931 million b/d […]

Midstream operators connected 3,524 oil and gas wells to gathering systems in the U.S. during second quarter, according to data from the most recent issue of Midstream Pulse.  That’s up slightly from 3,447 wells connected during Q1 and flat compared to 2022.  The most active region was Permian Basin with 1,435 new well connects followed […]

A new climate vulnerability index developed by a professor at Texas A&M University and Environmental Defense Fund shows one Texas county in the top 10 of U.S. counties most vulnerable to threats from climate change.  Jefferson County in southeast Texas (Beaumont) ranked ninth in the index developed by Dr. Weihsueh Chiu from the A&M School […]

Rig counts in Texas and U.S. tumbled for the second straight week, but Permian Basin remained unchanged with 310 oil and gas rigs.  Baker Hughes said in its weekly report of Nov. 10 there were 302 rigs in Texas (304 week ago, 373 year ago) and 616 rigs in U.S. (618 week ago, 779 year […]

Calgary-based Enverus Intelligence Research said last week recent wells targeting Barnett interval in Midland Basin show higher oil recoveries and lower breakeven prices than other secondary zones.  Emily Head, senior associate at Enverus Intelligence Research, said, “Sometimes the best place to find new oil is in already producing areas, which neatly describes what’s happening in […]