U.S. Department of Interior last week released a report from U.S. Geological Survey that shows significant increases in undiscovered crude oil and natural gas under federally managed U.S. public lands.  Doug Burgum, interior secretary, said June 18, “American energy dominance is more important than ever, and this report underscores the critical role science plays in […]

New Mexico reversed its streak of rig count declines, but the counts in Permian Basin, Texas and U.S. continued to fall.  Baker Hughes said as of June 20 there were 271 active rigs in Permian Basin (down 2 from 273 last week, down 37 from 308 year ago), 258 in Texas (down 4 from 262 […]

Houston-based EON Resources, independent upstream energy company with properties in Permian Basin, said last week that subsidiary EON Energy agreed with WPP NM and Northwest Central to acquire all their interests in South Justis field in Lea County, N.M.  EON will exchange one million Class A common shares of the company (without cash consideration or […]

Houston-based Post Oak Energy Capital said last week it closed Fund V of Post Oak Energy Partners in May with capital investments of $600 million.  Consistent with Post Oak’s four earlier funds, Fund V will focus on the lower middle market of North American upstream oil and gas industry.  The fund partners with experienced management […]

Railroad Commission of Texas said this week the 89th session of the Texas legislature that ended June 2 provided historic funding of more than $593 million for the next two fiscal years beginning Sept. 1, 2025.  The appropriations include $100 million for oil and gas well plugging to be used in the commission’s state-managed plugging […]

Underground working natural gas storage capacity in the lower 48 states increased last year, according to the latest data from U.S. Energy Information Administration.  EIA calculates natural gas storage capacity in two ways: demonstrated peak capacity and working gas design capacity.  Both increased in 2024. Demonstrated peak capacity, the sum of the largest volume of […]

A new jobs report released last week by Houston-based Energy Workforce and Technology Council noted the “continued resilience in the energy services sector amid signs of a broader national labor market slowdown.”  The report cites data from the Bureau of Land Management and analysis by the council. Total jobs in the energy services sector reached […]

Jim Wright, commissioner of the Railroad Commission of Texas, was elected chair at the commission’s meeting Wednesday in Austin.  He succeeds Midland’s Christi Craddick as chair.  A resident of Orange Grove, Wright was elected to the commission in November 2020.  A graduate of Midland High School and University of Texas, Craddick said in March she […]

According to Houston Chronicle, data from Electric Reliability Council of Texas show that renewable energy and battery storage companies are canceling projects in Texas at a rate not seen since the global pandemic.  The Chronicle said tariffs initiated by President Trump in April “are the most pressing challenge to the clean energy industry… These tariffs […]

Counts of active drilling rigs declined for the seventh consecutive week in U.S. and Permian Basin, according to June 13 report from Baker Hughes.  There were 273 rigs in Permian (down 2 from 275 week ago, down 36 or 12 percent from 309 year ago) and 555 in U.S. (down 4 from 559 week ago, […]