Houston-based Breakwater Energy Partners said last week it started construction on Morita, a commercial recycling facility in Howard County that Breakwater said will be “one of the largest produced water recycling facilities in the Permian Basin with throughput capacity in excess of 200,000 barrels per day.”  Morita will be commercially permitted for receipt, storage, handling, […]

U.S. Department of Interior said Monday its Bureau of Land Management will publish a notice soon to begin a two-year moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in a 10-mile radius of Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico in the gas-rich San Juan Basin.  The bureau will study whether and how to institute a 20-year […]

Permian Basin added another rig last week according to Baker Hughes’ report for Nov. 12 for a count of 272 active drilling rigs in the nation’s most active basin.  Lea County, N.M., leads with 53 rigs, but Midland County (30) has surpassed Eddy County (26), N.M., for runner-up followed by Reeves County (25). Texas added […]

Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy continues to focus on Delaware Basin, where it gets 67 percent of production and exited 2021Q3 running 16 operated drilling rigs and 5 completion crews.  Devon’s total production averaged 608,000 boed in 2021Q3 to exceed guidance by 5 percent (409,000 boed in Delaware Basin for an increase since 2020Q3 of 39 […]

Fort Worth-based Kimbell Royalty Partners said Nov. 9 it agreed to purchase mineral and royalty interests across multiple basins for $57 million.  The assets will provide an estimated net production of 700 boed (34 percent oil) from more than 26,000 gross wells (39 percent in Permian Basin, 31 percent in Mid-Continent and 14 percent in […]

Houston-based Targa Resources said Nov. 4 it gathered and processed record volumes in Permian Basin in 2021Q3 driven by producer activity and the September startup of its relocated Heim cryogenic gas plant (200 million cfd).  Permian field gas inlet volumes were 2.95 billion cfd in 2021Q3 – up 15 percent from 2020Q3. The Heim plant […]

Crude oil production in Permian Basin is forecast by U.S. Energy Information Administration to increase to a record 4.95 million barrels per day in December, according to Monday’s drilling productivity report.  EIA said Permian oil production in December is expected to be 4,953,000 b/d – up from 4,886,000 b/d in November – to surpass the […]

Midland-based Colgate Energy said this week it is continuing expansion in Delaware Basin by agreeing to purchase from an undisclosed seller about 22,000 net acres in Eddy and Lea counties in New Mexico for $190 million.  The majority of the assets directly offset Colgate’s legacy Parkway operating area with current average net daily production of […]

Rusty Smith, graduate of Texas A&M and Texas Tech universities, has been named the first program director of Texas Produced Water Consortium.  The consortium was created in the 2021 session of the Texas legislature to consider new methods for beneficial reuse of produced water.  Smith previously was director of the committee on agriculture, water and […]

Industrial facilities in Texas released more than 46 million pounds of illegal air pollution in 2020 – a decrease of 54 percent from 2019 and significantly below the average of 72 million pounds over the last five years.  The analysis of the unauthorized, unpermitted emissions self-reported to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was conducted by […]