Backlog

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV), one of the leading high technology manufacturers for the upstream, is seeing some “green shoots” of growth in North America’s onshore, in part because drilling equipment is wearing out, and because customers are demanding the best components available, CEO Pete Miller said Friday.

The way that production has been climbing in Marcellus-Utica Shale country, there could be enough to support two pipeline projects to carry natural gas liquids (NGL) from the region to the Gulf Coast, a Kinder Morgan executive allowed during an earnings conference call Wednesday. And the company is weighing other projects to move the region’s output into the Northeast.

Demand between now and 2015 will prop up natural gas prices, even with a backlog of drilled wells awaiting connection, and from 2016 to 2018 a “dramatic structural increase” in demand could outpace supply additions and send gas prices to as high as $6.00/MMBtu, BNP Paribas’ Teri Viswanath, director of commodity strategy, said Friday.

Demand between now and 2015 will prop up natural gas prices, even with a backlog of drilled wells awaiting connection, and from 2016 to 2018 a “dramatic structural increase” in demand could outpace supply additions and send gas prices to as high as $6.00/MMBtu, BNP Paribas’ Teri Viswanath, director of commodity strategy, said Friday.

The U.S. onshore rig count currently is “trendless,” but there’s hope for some direction in first quarter reports by three of the top domestic oilfield services providers, Schlumberger Ltd., Baker Hughes Inc. and Halliburton Co., according to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc. (TPH).

More than half of the natural gas pipeline projects that entered service were in the Northeast during 2012, a year in which overall U.S. capacity investment slowed.

Oneok Partners LP plans to invest $1.5-1.8 billion to build a 1,300-mile crude oil pipeline with capacity to transport 200,000 b/d of light sweet crude from the Bakken Shale in the Williston Basin in North Dakota to the Cushing, OK, crude oil market hub, the partnership said Monday.

Apache Corp. is pouring more money into its upstream projects this year to advance a backlog of North American and overseas opportunities, CEO Steve Farris said last week.

Apache Corp. is pouring more money into its upstream projects this year to advance a backlog of North American and overseas opportunities, CEO Steve Farris said Tuesday.