Core

SM Energy Co. said its three-year growth plan was ramping up quickly, with new wells performing stronger than expected, while completing an $800 million sale of noncore assets in the Eagle Ford Shale helped to reduce net debt by more than 20%.

Tulsa-based Unit Corp.’s exploration unit has agreed to trade cash and some acreage for more property in a core operating area of Western Oklahoma.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), working with the Gas Technology Institute, Laredo Petroleum Inc. and other industry partners, has collected what may be the world’s most comprehensive hydraulic fracturing research dataset in unconventional shale at a test site in the Permian Basin.

Calgary’s top natural gas producer Encana Corp. has curtailed capital spending even more than it had anticipated for 2016 and is laying off 20% more of its workforce as it “relentlessly” pursues cost cutting to remain competitive, CEO Doug Suttles said Wednesday.

The Marcellus Shale holds about $90 billion of remaining value, and the top 20 operators working in the play are expected to drill 25,000 wells there through 2035 at a cost of nearly $110 billion, according to research by the energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

Onshore explorers that boast about holding and developing the “core of the core” won’t find a fan in Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Doug Lawler. He doesn’t think there’s any such thing.

Production of oil, natural gas and condensate continues trending upward in the Eagle Ford Shale, according to Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) data. During the first four months of this year, daily oil production surpassed that seen in 2012 and daily production of natural gas nearly met the 2012 level.

To support rapidly expanding drilling programs in the Utica Shale’s southern core, MarkWest Utica EMG LLC on Friday agreed to construct a third 200 MMcf/d cryogenic natural gas processor at the Seneca complex in Noble County, OH.

To support rapidly expanding drilling programs in the Utica Shale’s southern core, MarkWest Utica EMG LLC on Friday agreed to construct a third 200 MMcf/d cryogenic natural gas processor at the Seneca complex in Noble County, OH.