Houston-based Apache Corp. said last month in its quarterly report that it plans to add a second drilling rig in Permian Basin by midyear in a return “to a very modest level of activity in the U.S.” John J. Christman IV, CEO, said Feb. 25 that Apache will boost upstream capital spending in 2021 by […]

A new Texas-based group is proposing a shift in responsibility for plugging and abandoning orphan wells to the nonprofit sector rather than government agencies. RigZone said earlier this month that the Texas Well Protected Energy Foundation is seeking 501c3 status with U.S. Internal Revenue Service to operate as a nonprofit organization focused on plugging and […]

Bloomberg reported this week that methane emissions from the Permian Basin have rebounded. Data came from the Permian methane analysis project of the Environmental Defense Fund. Emissions declined 60 percent in March and April 2020 as producers shut wells because of the pandemic and declining crude oil prices. “But methane emissions are now back at […]

Attorneys general from Texas and Montana are lead plaintiffs in a suit filed March 17 by 21 states in an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s decision to revoke the cross-border permit of TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. The states argued Biden had no legal authority for his […]

Led by Eddy County, New Mexico, the count of active oil and gas drilling rigs in Permian Basin increased for the eighth straight week, according to the March 19 report from Baker Hughes. Eddy County added 7 rigs in the past week for a current total of 37. Permian Basin has 216 rigs (up 4 […]

Permian Basin is the only one of seven major producing regions in U.S. expected to increase crude oil production next month by U.S. Energy Information Administration. In its latest drilling productivity report, EIA said Permian Basin is forecast to produce 4.292 million barrels of oil in April – up 11,000 b/d from 4.281 million b/d […]

Dallas-based Lucid Energy Group said this week it commissioned its Red Hills V cryogenic processing plant in Delaware Basin. Red Hills V has the capacity to process 230 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and brings the total capacity of Lucid’s natural gas processing in northern Delaware Basin to 1.2 billion cubic feet […]

U.S. Rep. Debra Haaland (D-NM) was confirmed Monday as secretary of the Department of the Interior in the administration of incoming President Joe Biden. The vote was 51-40 with several senators – including all four from Colorado and Wyoming – prevented from returning to Washington, D.C., to vote because of winter storms in Rocky Mountains […]

Irving-based Pioneer Natural Resources said last month in its quarterly report that it plans to operate an average of 18-to-20 horizontal drilling rigs in Permian Basin during 2021. The 2021 program is expected to place 385 to 415 wells on production, primarily in Midland Basin. Pioneer said its 2021 budget for drilling, completions and facilities […]

U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said March 4 that because of two market conditions – slow recovery from the global pandemic and federal restrictions on new drilling – Permian Basin will produce between 230,000 and 490,000 fewer barrels per day by 2025 than if drilling continued at its current pace. The report said, “Production […]