Carolyn Davis

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., which scooped up two significant U.S.-based oil and natural gas operators earlier this year, now is looking at a range of options to reduce some of the debt that came with the buys, including asset sales, joint ventures or even a master limited partnership (MLP), CEO Richard C. Adkerson said Tuesday.

Devon Energy Corp. has agreed to throw in an estimated $4.8 billion of U.S. midstream assets in Texas and Oklahoma and 800,000 net acres to form a partnership with Crosstex Energy Inc.’s assets in the Marcellus, Utica, Barnett, Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales, Permian Basin and the Gulf Coast, to create a fee-based service that initially would extend 7,300 miles and offer 3.3 Bcf/d net capacity.

Halliburton Co., the largest pressure pumper in North America, is, like its competitors, seeing better drilling efficiencies in the onshore. But even with old equipment going out and new equipment coming in, there likely will be an oversupplied market until late 2014 and possibly into 2015, CEO Dave Lesar said Monday.

Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP) reached record peak production during the third quarter, with newly acquired Raton and Black Warrior Basin assets representing almost half of the output, the Philadelphia partnership said Wednesday. However, “outside phenomena” could have a negative impact on hitting guidance, the CEO warned.

North America proved a winner for Schlumberger Ltd. in the third quarter, with revenue rising 7% sequentially, an all-time high, and margins expanding 57 basis points (bps), or 0.57%, to reach 20.3% on a year/year basis. New shale technology tested in several basins helped to lower drilling costs, and it’s now being given a look in other areas.

The average U.S. rig count in the final three months of this year should decline by about 2.5% from 2Q2013, a typical seasonal slowdown around the holidays, and above the pronounced drop in the same period of 2012, when the rig and well count fell by more than 5%, Baker Hughes Inc.’s CFO said Friday.

Offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp. late Wednesday reported its third consecutive quarter of higher-than-expected profits on higher dayrates and lower downtime for its rigs.

The U.S. market for land proppant that is used to hydraulically fracturing (frack) natural gas and oil wells should grow at a rate of 8% a year for the next two years, led by the Appalachian Basin, according to PacWest Consulting Partners.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the power to require greenhouse gas (GHG) permits for big stationary pollution sources, including power plants, factories and refineries.