U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday it will resume purchases of crude oil for the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR).  After pausing purchases for about a month and canceling solicitations for August and September, DOE will buy up to 3.3 million barrels of oil for delivery in October to the Big Hill SPR storage site […]

Houston-based APA Corp. said last week continued strength in its Permian Basin operations drove its U.S. oil volumes above guidance in first quarter – marking the fifth straight quarter of meeting or exceeding guidance. U.S. oil production increased in Q1 by 16 percent over 2023Q1.  First quarter reported production was 389,000 boed. John J. Christmann […]

Midland-based Permian Resources said Tuesday it is raising 2024 production guidance by 2 percent.  And two bolt-on acquisitions of $270 million recently signed and completed in Eddy County are adding another 1 percent to production.  “The acquired acreage is analogous to our high-quality Parkway position,” co-CEO Will Hickey said.  “This area represents one of the […]

Kinetik Holdings said Thursday it agreed to acquire Permian Basin natural gas producer Durango Permian for $765 million in cash ($315 million) and stock.  The agreement includes $75 million of contingent consideration for the Kings Landing complex under construction (capacity 200 million cfd).  The Durango deal expands Kinetik’s operations in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties […]

Houston-based Baker Hughes said the count of U.S. drilling rigs dropped by 8 units last week – its biggest one-week drop since September 2023.  The count has declined by 14 the past two weeks to 605 – lowest total since January 2022.  Also as of May 3, there were 316 rigs in Permian Basin (317 […]

Denver-based Civitas Resources said last week it divested two non-core asset packages covering 82,400 acres in DJ Basin for $215 million and acquired Vencer Energy in Midland Basin for $2 billion.  Oil & Gas Journal said the acquisition “completed a trio of deals that has taken Civitas into the Permian Basin at scale.”  Earlier Civitas […]

San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp. said recently its U.S. net oil-equivalent production in first quarter was 35 percent higher than the first quarter last year “primarily due to the acquisition of PDC Energy and sustained strong execution in the Permian and Denver-Julesburg basins.”  Mike Wirth, chairman and CEO, said April 26, “We had another quarter […]

Enverus Intelligence Research said Tuesday it expects power demand in far west Texas to more than double by 2040 because of electrification trends, including potential electrification in the oil and gas industry, and cryptocurrency mining growth.  “We believe the far west zone in ERCOT will see enough load growth to support significantly more renewable development […]

Federal Trade Commission on Thursday approved ExxonMobil’s $64.5 billion purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources, but FTC issued a consent agreement that prevents Pioneer founder and former CEO Scott Sheffield from serving on the Exxon board of directors or serving as an advisor based on allegations he attempted to collude with OPEC to raise oil prices.  […]

Texas Workforce Commission recently said employment in the upstream sector of the Texas oil and gas industry grew by 4,500 jobs in March.  It’s the largest single month of growth in upstream jobs since June 2011.  Since a low point in September 2020 during a global pandemic, the months of increase in upstream oil and […]