Cimarex

The energy market downturn has played havoc with the bottom line for the oil and gas industry, but it has had a silver lining, weeding out the bottom feeders, the “brilliant jerks,” who may have been doing their jobs but who were unconcerned about a company’s success, energy executives said Wednesday.

The pursuit of more efficient drilling and the use of longer laterals continued to be the name of the game for Cimarex Energy Co. during the third quarter, as it cut from 16 to 12 the number of rigs it plans to deploy in the Permian Basin and the Midcontinent next year. But the company blew past its production guidance, and impairments on the value of its oil and gas portfolio trimmed quarterly earnings by more than $750 million.

Permian Basin and Midcontinent operator Cimarex Energy Co. reported record quarterly production for 4Q2014, as it cut its capital expenditures by half for 2015 and unveiled a plan to reduce its operated rig count to six during 2Q2015.

GE Energy Financial Services (GEFS) and Casillas Petroleum Corp. have partnered to purchase oil and gas reserves in southwest Kansas from Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co., they said Tuesday.

Cimarex Energy Co. has completed its acquisition of some land in the Cana-Woodford Shale in Western Oklahoma and announced plans to sell producing properties in neighboring Kansas to an undisclosed buyer.

Cimarex Energy Co. plans to grow production this year to an average 760-800 MMcfe/d, spending most of the $1.8 billion earmarked for capital expenditures (capex) in the Delaware Basin, a subbasin of the Permian Basin, and opportunities in the Wolfcamp Shale.

Mexco Energy Corp. and Concho Resources Inc. have struck an agreement to develop the Bone Spring formation with horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Oneok Partners LP said it will invest $340-360 million by the first quarter of 2014 to construct a gas gathering and processing plant and related infrastructure in the Cana-Woodford Shale in Oklahoma.

Denbury Resources Inc. has agreed to pay Cimarex Energy Co. $191 million for the 57.5% working interest it does not already own in the 9,700-acre Riley Ridge Federal Unit in southwestern Wyoming and a 33% working interest in an additional 28,000 acres of mineral leases adjoining the unit, the company said Tuesday. The deal, which is expected to close in late July with an effective date of April 1, 2011, would make Denbury the operator of both projects.