Above

ConocoPhillips on Thursday reported that lower natural gas and oil prices dampened 3Q2012 results, but U.S. production helped lift the independent above analyst expectations.

Mixed with the solid reviews about all-time record highs for monthly natural gas and oil production in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale and Williston Basin region, the director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) sounded words of caution that the drilling boom is showing signs of easing, but not because production has slowed much.

Domestic natural gas production will be at an all-time high this year and is expected to break that record for a third consecutive year in 2013, thanks in large part to the nation’s booming shale plays, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Short Term Energy Outlook for September.

While President Obama repeated his pledge for an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that mingles support for both fossil and renewable resources at the Democratic National Convention last week, the emphasis was on renewables. He also continued his attack on Big Oil, warning he “would not let oil companies write this nation’s energy policy.”

As part of the Obama administration’s “all-of-the-above energy strategy,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week said the agency will offer more than 20 million acres offshore Texas for oil and natural gas exploration and development in a year-end lease sale that will include all of the available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Planning Area.

As part of the Obama administration’s “all-of-the-above energy strategy,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday that the agency will offer more than 20 million acres offshore Texas for oil and natural gas exploration and development in a year-end lease sale that will include all of the available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Planning Area.

Oil prices above $75/bbl and increased need for carbon capture programs are quietly converging as a possible long-term boost for the increased use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), according to industry sources working to drive commercial-scale projects with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and selected state initiatives.

Cabot Oil & Gas has struck an agreement with a U.S. unit of Osaka Gas Co. Ltd. for the sale of a 35% nonoperated working interest in the Pearsall Shale in 50,000 net acres leased by the company in Atascosa, Frio, La Salle and Zavala counties in Texas for $250 million.

Poking around in the Anadarko Basin in the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma above its Granite Wash holdings, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Friday it made “a significant new discovery” of oil in the Hogshooter play.