Joe Fisher

ZaZa Energy Corp. recently struck a joint venture (JV) deal with Sabine Oil & Gas LLC unit Sabine South Texas LLC to jointly develop its Sweet Home prospect in the Eagle Ford Shale.

Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. and the U.S.-based Gas Technology Institute (GTI) have formed an alliance intended to help Japanese companies participate in unconventional gas-related businesses.

With a checkbook fattened by a recent Permian Basin asset sale, Comstock Resources is on the hunt for acreage in two emerging oil plays somewhere in its historic stomping grounds of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi. CEO Jay Allison is prepared to spend $120 million in two basins, but he’s not saying exactly where.

In the soft drink world, Coke’s nemesis is Pepsi. But in the steel industry coke risks being undone by low-cost natural gas.

A new multi-horizon oil play it has discovered in the Anadarko Basin offers wells with estimated ultimate recoveries (EUR) of 800,000-1 million boe, said Newfield Exploration Co., which has named the Oklahoma play STACK.

EnerVest Ltd. is the buyer of SM Energy Co.’s Anadarko Basin properties, including its Granite Wash interests. The sale resulted in cash proceeds of $343 million for Denver-based SM Energy and adds to Granite Wash holdings EnerVest acquired earlier this year.

Texans have voted overwhelmingly for a constitutional amendment to allocate $2 billion from the state’s “rainy day” fund to programs intended to secure water supplies in the frequently drought-stricken state. The measure had the support of the oil and gas industry, whose use of water for hydraulic fracturing is often scrutinized.

The Texas Petro Index (TPI), a barometer of oil and gas activity in the Lone Star State, set another record in September, mainly on the back of robust oil production. But while natural gas production declines, stronger prices more than compensate.

Crosstex Energy LPhas completed phase one of the Cajun-Sibon natural gas liquids (NGL) expansion project, which connects the partnership’s Eunice fractionator in South Louisiana to Mont Belvieu, TX, supply pipelines in East Texas. Commercial deliveries of NGL product to the Eunice, Riverside and Plaquemine fractionators began in early October. The Eunice fractionator began operations on Nov. 6 at a rate of 15,000 b/d of NGLs. The pipeline is currently delivering 25,000-30,000 b/d of product into various Louisiana delivery points and is expected to be moving its full volume of 70,000 b/d by the end of 2013. The second phase of the expansion is scheduled for completion in the second-half of 2014 and includes expanding the Cajun-Sibon pipeline capacity by an additional 50,000 b/d to a total of 120,000 b/d; the installation of a 100,000 b/d fractionator adjacent to the partnership’s existing Plaquemine gas processing complex; the modification of the Riverside fractionator facility; and the construction of several natural gas and NGL pipelines to expand the partnership’s capabilities and market connectivity.