Dallas-based Texas Pacific Land Corp. said last week it reached agreement with Bolt Data & Energy to develop and enable large-scale data center campuses and supporting infrastructure on TPL land.  Eric Schmidt, co-founder and chairman of Manhattan, Kansas-based Bolt, said Dec. 17, “Our goal is to create the largest and most efficient data center company […]

Texas governor’s office last week called the state “America’s jobs leader” with the largest 12-month jobs gain in the nation based on September employment data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Texas Workforce Commission.  Texas gained 168,000 jobs from September 2024 to September 2025 to lead all states and outpace the national annual job […]

A public auction of oil and gas mineral rights in Howard County by U.S. General Services Administration is scheduled to end next week.  GSA said disposition of surplus federal property of 133.6 total net mineral acres “underscores GSA’s commitment to optimizing the federal footprint and ensuring the efficient stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”  The auction started […]

Houston-based LandBridge said last week it reached agreements with subsidiaries of Samsung C&T Renewables for the option to lease acreage for BESS (battery energy storage systems) projects in Loving and Pecos counties in west Texas.  The BESS projects will have aggregate capacity of 350 megawatts. The agreements grant SCTR exclusive rights at each location to […]

Houston-based Phillips 66 said Monday its 2026 capital budget of $2.4 billion includes Iron Mesa gas processing plant at Goldsmith in Ector County in the Permian Basin.  This budget includes $1.1 billion for sustaining capital and $1.3 billion for growth capital.  Iron Mesa, with capacity of 300 million cfd, is expected to start in first […]

Texas added 2 drilling rigs last week to halt a streak of 10 consecutive weeks of declining or flat rig counts, according to the latest weekly report from Baker Hughes.  The Houston services firm said as of Dec. 12 there were 228 rigs in Texas – up 2 in the past week from 226, but […]

U.S. Energy Information Administration said last week it expects U.S. crude oil production to decline next year to 13.5 million barrels per day.  That’s about 100,000 barrels per day less than in 2025.  This forecast follows four years of rising crude oil output to 13.6 million b/d this year.  Production increased by 0.3 million b/d […]

Fort Worth-based Total Sand Solutions recently acquired Midland’s Sand Revolution, which provides trucking, logistics and delivery solutions in Permian Basin in west Texas and Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas.  Total Sand said it now becomes “the largest independent logistics provider in the country with the capacity to deliver over 25 million tons of proppant […]

U.S. Energy Information Administration said the U.S. average retail price of regular gasoline fell below $3 per gallon Dec. 1.  According to data from its Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, EIA said the average price fell to $2.98 per gallon – the lowest since February 2021 adjusted for inflation. EIA said the falling price of […]

According to a recent report in OilPrice.com, 12 projects for new or expanded natural gas pipelines are scheduled to be completed in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma in 2026.  The projects will boost capacity to transport natural gas in the Gulf Coast region by 13 percent.  The report issued Nov. 23 said, “U.S. natural gas supply […]