Railroad Commission of Texas said it will suspend permits to inject wastewater deep underground by oil and gas operators in an area of west Texas where there was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake.  The new rule will take effect Friday after the quake south of Mentone Nov. 8.  Commission staff said deep injection “is likely contributing […]

Texas Seismological Network recently reported that earthquakes in the Texas section of Permian Basin declined 10 percent in 2023 from 2022’s record high.  Bloomberg said the frequency of earthquakes declined “after regulators cracked down on the practice of burying toxic wastewater from oil drilling.”  There were 194 quakes last year of at least 3.0 magnitude […]

Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources said Richard P. Dealy started his new role as CEO, and Scott D. Sheffield is now special advisor to the CEO as of Jan. 1.  Sheffield retired Dec. 31, 2023.  Both will continue to serve on Pioneer’s Board of Directors.  Dealy previously was president and COO since January 2021 in a […]

Dallas-based BP Energy Partners said recently it closed on acquisition of Odessa’s American Industrial Machine.  AIM is a regional provider of repair and maintenance services for natural gas compressors in west Texas and New Mexico.  The company specializes in repair, fabrication and parts supply for compressor infrastructure used in transportation of natural gas.  AIM also […]

Houston-based APA Corp. said Thursday it will acquire Callon Petroleum in an all-stock transaction valued at about $4.5 billion, including Callon’s $1.9 billion in debt.  Callon’s assets provide additional scale to APA across the Permian Basin, most notably in Delaware Basin, where Callon has about 120,000 acres primarily in Reeves, Ward and Winkler counties.  “This […]

Exus North American Holdings, the North American subsidiary of Madrid-based private equity firm Exus Management Partners, last week agreed to acquire a solar joint venture, New Mexico Renewable Development, for $230 million.  American Electric Power and PNM Resources each owns 50 percent interest in the solar JV and reportedly will equally divide the $230 million […]

Dallas-based Ellipsis U.S. Onshore Holdings said recently is acquired non-operated assets in three basins, including Permian.  Ellipsis is an affiliate of Houston-based investment firm Westlawn Group.  Purchase price was not disclosed for assets with current production of more than 6,000 boed with “significant operational upside associated with approximately 550 gross remaining locations.” The Permian assets […]

U.S., Texas and Permian Basin each posted small gains in rig count in the final week of 2023, but the counts for all three were down for the year.  Baker Hughes said as of Dec. 29 there were 622 rigs in U.S. (620 previous week, 779 year ago), 309 in Texas (306 previous week, 376 […]

U.S. Department of Energy said this week it has awarded contracts to three companies for a total of 2,993,692 barrels of U.S.-produced crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at an average cost of $77.31 per barrel.  DOE has now purchased 13.83 million barrels of oil this year for the SPR at an average price […]

C. Richard (Dick) Sivalls, president and CEO of Odessa-based Sivalls, Inc., has been named winner of the 2023 Top Hand Award from the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. The award will be presented Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, at the Petroleum Club of Midland. The Top Hand award is presented each year to “an energy professional who […]