State Land Office of New Mexico is turning to courts to help plug and remediate abandoned oil and gas wells in the state.  Santa Fe New Mexican recently reported that the agency filed three lawsuits against four operators to date this year.  They allege that the wells in Permian Basin in southeast New Mexico are […]

An analysis by S&P Global Commodity Insights reveals that methane intensity of oil and gas production in Permian Basin declined by more than 50 percent during 2022-24.  The firm said, “Improved operations, better equipment and the utilization of AI and other advanced technologies led to reductions across all observable plume rates.” The data for 2024 […]

Calgary-based Enverus Intelligence Research said Wednesday the value of M&A activity (mergers and acquisitions) in the first half of 2025 was down 60 percent from the value in first half of last year.  2025 first half value was $30.5 billion.  Principal analyst Andrew Dittmar said, “Volatility in commodity and equity markets raised a major yellow […]

After reporting record 2Q production of 209,013 boed (including 122,875 b/d of oil), Dallas-based Matador Resources said Tuesday it anticipates record annual production for 2025 without increasing budget.  Matador increased 2025 guidance to 200,000-to-205,000 boed from 198,000-to-202,000 boed.  Joseph Wm. Foran, chairman and CEO, said, “Matador achieves this balanced growth through our integrated team approach […]

New legislation in Texas that requires Railroad Commission of Texas to inspect oilfield utility poles was supported by Texas Oil and Gas Association and Permian Basin Petroleum Association.  Ben Shepperd, president of PBAA, told Midland Reporter Telegram, “The Permian Basin Petroleum Association supported HB 143 to address the catastrophic Panhandle fires last year.  This bill […]

A bill co-authored by five members of the Texas House of Representatives, including three from west Texas, was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott to require the Railroad Commission of Texas to determine if utility poles meet the national electrical code as it conducts oil and gas field inspections.  HB 143 was written by […]

U.S. reported additional drilling rigs as of July 18 for the first time in 12 weeks.  The 11-week decline dropped the count from 587 as of April 25 to 537 as of July 11 before growing by 7 to 544 in Baker Hughes’ latest report.  Still the count is down 7.2 percent from 586 a […]

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy said last week it will build 17 new power projects in Texas and New Mexico to add 5,168 megawatts of new capacity to Xcel’s generation fleet by 2030.  That includes 3,200 megawatts of dispatchable generation and energy storage and 1,968 megawatts of wind and solar facilities.  The region’s electricity demand is expected […]

Corpus Christi’s recent ship channel improvement project deepened the channel to 54 feet from 47 feet and widened it to 530 feet in most places.  That enables more efficient transport of crude oil, LNG and other commodities, including ship traffic by very large crude carriers.  And it attracted three major pipelines from Permian Basin so […]

Newly expanded Port of Corpus Christi, third largest U.S. port in total waterborne tonnage, said last week 2025 is a record year for the ship channel.  In the first six months, port customers moved 102.4 million tons of commodities (previous record 99.5 million in 2024), and that included record second quarter of 51.1 million tons […]