Built

Shale patch heavyweight Chesapeake Energy Corp. has reached its debt reduction goal, built an internal oilfield services unit to counter cost inflation and grew first quarter production 20% as it increasingly emphasized higher-value oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), CEO Aubrey McClendon enthused during an earnings conference call Tuesday. But Wall Street was not impressed.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has reached its debt reduction goal, built an internal oilfield services unit to counter cost inflation and grew first quarter production 20% as it increasingly emphasized higher-value oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), CEO Aubrey McClendon enthused during an earnings conference call Tuesday. But Wall Street was not impressed.

Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Andrew Gould repeated an old adage and added something new to it on Monday, telling an industry audience in New Orleans, “if you want to find oil, you have to drill. And if you want to produce unconventional gases or oils, it is even truer.”

Western Gas Partners LP, which until now has built its portfolio by acquiring assets from parent Anadarko Petroleum Corp., agreed last week to pay $303.3 million to buy some U.S. midstream properties from Encana Corp.

Western Gas Partners LP, which until now has built its portfolio by acquiring assets from parent Anadarko Petroleum Corp., said Tuesday it would pay $303.3 million to buy some midstream properties from Encana Corp.’s U.S. subsidiary.

The first well drilled by Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. into the northwestern West Virginia portion of the Marcellus Shale tested at an initial production (IP) rate of 7.0 MMcfe/d and was producing as of Dec. 22 into the recently completed Eureka Hunter Pipeline system, the company said.

McMoRan Exploration Co., which has built a sizable natural gas-weighted portfolio in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico — and with it sizable drilling costs — saw its share price fall by double digits early last week after reporting a net loss in 3Q2010 of $25.3 million (minus 26 cents/share). Revenue in the latest quarter fell almost 13% from a year ago to $94.8 million.

McMoRan Exploration Co., which has built a sizable natural gas-weighted portfolio in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico — and with it sizable drilling costs — saw its share price fall by double digits on Monday after reporting a net loss in 3Q2010 of $25.3 million (minus 26 cents/share). Revenue in the latest quarter fell almost 13% from a year ago to $94.8 million.

Southwestern Energy Co., which has built fortunes and natural gas reserves from success in the Fayetteville Shale, saw its production jump by almost a third in 2Q2010 from the same period a year ago.