Attributable

Like many, but not all, producers, Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. has shifted to oil because that’s where the profits are.

Penn Virginia Corp. CEO H. Baird Whitehead admitted to financial analysts Thursday that the company is “essentially a one-trick pony at this moment” due to its heavy focus on the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas. However, he said, “we think it’s a pretty good-looking pony.”

Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources Inc. reported 2010 net income of $435.1 million ($2.45/share) compared to a net loss of $557.5 million (minus $3.30 share) for 2009. The 2009 net loss was primarily attributable to a $656 million after-tax impairment charge on oil and gas properties. For 2010 production averaged 355.2 MMcfe/d, up 9% from 2009, primarily driven by higher volumes from the Barnett Shale. The 2010 production volumes were 79% natural gas, 20% natural gas liquids (NGL) and 1% crude oil and condensate. Sales of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil totaled $856.3 million, up about 7% from 2009, mainly due to a 9% increase in production coupled with increased realized prices for NGLs and crude oil, which were offset in part by lower gas prices. The company is active in the Barnett Shale of North Texas, The greater Green River Basin in Colorado and Wyoming and the Wind River Formation in Oklahoma, as well as in northwestern Montana, Alberta coalbed methane and the Horn River Basin in British Columbia.

Major joint ventures (JV) in North American unconventional resource plays were a driving force in pushing worldwide merger and acquisition (M&A) activity to a record high in 2010, preliminary data indicate.

Citing low linepack, Transwestern issued an Alert Day for the West of Thoreau area for Tuesday’s gas day. Transwestern said it was utilizing an Alert Day rather than an OFO because the low linepack is not attributable to performance of particular receipt or delivery points. Transwestern said it hopes that the lowpack conditions will subside enough to allow the Alert Day to be canceled, but meanwhile operators should plan for this operating provision to be in effect for the entire gas day.

In a somewhat surprising move attributable chiefly to the screen’s Thursday afternoon turnaround into positive territory (and aided by some colder weekend weather in parts of the Midwest, Northeast and South), cash prices saw hefty increases at all points Friday.

The increase in prices is primarily attributable to increased demand for electric generation and storage injections.