Carolyn Davis

Sasol Ltd. on Monday pulled the trigger on an $8.1 billion ethane cracker and derivatives complex at its Lake Charles, LA, facility, an expansion that should triple the South African company’s chemical production capacity in the United States.

Midcontinent oil operator Continental Resources Inc. has worked out a joint development agreement (JDA) with a subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group — its first in the United States — to drill for natural gas in the legacy Cana-Woodford Shale holdings in Western Oklahoma.

Global oil prices will need to decline over the coming year for U.S. shale oil production to slow down, Goldman Sachs analysts said Monday in cutting forecasts for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent prices through 2015.

U.S. energy CEOs are optimistic about the industry and their growth for the next three years, with nearly two-thirds expecting their best profits in 2016 and 2017, a survey by KPMG LLP has found.

The Fayetteville Shale delivered its highest quarterly production results ever for Southwestern Energy Co. in the third quarter, but double-digit growth from the expanding Marcellus Shale portfolio clearly grabbed the spotlight.

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (PTEN) expects to have an estimated 27% more in onshore horsepower capacity for its pressure pumping fleet services by the middle of 2015 as customers push for more intense hydraulic fracturing (frack) services, executives said Thursday.

The Lower Tertiary Trend in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has yielded another discovery in Keathley Canyon (KC), the Guadalupe well, which was drilled in almost 4,000 feet of water to a depth of 30,173 feet. The prospect, in KC Block 10, is about 180 miles off the Louisiana coast. The initial well encountered “significant” oil pay in the Wilcox Sands, according to 42.5% stakeholder and operator Chevron Corp. Co-owners are BP Exploration & Production Inc. (42.5%) and Venari Resources LLC (15%). Drilling began in June. More tests are being conducted, with additional appraisal wells planned to determine the extent of the resource.

A bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers urged U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell this week to sign off on an agreement that would end a decade-long dispute over natural gas leasing on the Roan Plateau, a settlement worked out between the energy industry and conservation groups.

Patrick Pouyanne has been elected CEO and president of Total SA following the death of chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie (see Daily GPI,Oct. 21). Pouyanne was president of the refining and chemicals unit. Former chairman and CEO Thierry Desmarest, who since his retirement has been honorary chairman, will assume the chairmanship until the end of 2015. Pouyanne joined Total in 1997 after working for several years for the French government. “The exceptional human and professional qualities that Christophe de Margerie exhibited during his time at Total were largely responsible for the success of the group,” the board stated.