Don L. Sparks of Midland, founder and chairman of the board for Discovery Operating, will receive the 2022 Top Hand award from Permian Basin Petroleum Association Jan. 18 at Petroleum Club of Midland.  After beginning his career with Shell, Sparks founded Discovery in 1973.  He is a Navy veteran and graduate of University of Texas […]

Christi Craddick, chair of the Railroad Commission of Texas, said Jan. 6 that the commission will not accept $300 million in federal funding to plug abandoned wells until it learns conditions of the funding.  “We’re going to wait to see what their rules are before we decide,” she said in Houston at a meeting of […]

Houston-based Targa Resources said this week it completed the previously announced acquisition of the 25 percent interest in Grand Prix NGL pipeline held by Blackstone Energy Partners for $1.05 billion cash.  Targa said Monday it now owns 100 percent of Grand Prix, which transports up to 1 million b/d of NGLs to Mont Belvieu.  The […]

Irving-based Pioneer Natural Resources lowered its long-term forecast for production in the Permian Basin, according to a report by Bloomberg.  Scott D. Sheffield, president and CEO, said Jan. 5 at a conference in Miami that Pioneer now forecasts about 7 million barrels a day by 2030 – down from a previous estimate of 8 million […]

In its latest report on domestic reserves, U.S. Energy Information Administration said Texas still held more proved reserves of crude oil and lease condensate than any other state at the end of 2021 (up 12 percent or 1.9 billion barrels).  Proved reserves of U.S. crude oil and lease condensate increased by 16 percent to 44.4 […]

Permian Basin and Texas each finished the year with a high count of active oil and gas drilling rigs for the year, according to Dec. 30 report from industry services firm Baker Hughes.  There were 353 rigs in Permian Basin (352 week ago, up 20.4 percent from 293 a year ago) and 376 rigs in […]

Oil production in Permian Basin and other major producing regions of U.S. continues to rise in monthly drilling productivity reports from U.S. Energy Information Administration.  EIA said in its Dec. 12 report that production for January in Permian Basin is expected to increase to 5.579 million barrels per day from 5.542 million b/d last month […]

Arlington-based U.S. Energy Development said Dec. 20 it completed its Rio Hondo three-well pad in western Ward County.  Each of the three Wolfcamp B horizontal wells had about 9,900 feet of completed lateral.  “We are very pleased with our drilling performance,” Kevin Duncan, vice president, said.  “Completing frac stages as designed is no easy feat […]

The first stratospheric balloon equipped with methane-detection sensors is scheduled to launch this month by San Francisco-based Scepter for ExxonMobil on the Texas side of the Permian Basin.  Philip Father, CEO of Scepter, said balloons carrying hyperspectral sensors operating in short-wave infrared never have been commercially deployed to get this detailed level of data.  Balloons […]

Austin-based Texans for Natural Gas, a project of Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, said Dec. 21 the rate of methane emissions intensity in Permian Basin fell by 76 percent in 10 years from 2011 to 2021.  In its fourth annual report, TNG said in those 10 years production increased by 345 percent.  In […]