Doubling

Unit Petroleum Co. is doubling its Granite Wash core area acreage with a deal to pay $617 million to Noble Energy Inc. for oil and natural gas properties in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.

Demand for drilling equipment in North America’s onshore continues to be strong, with the backlog of capital equipment orders in rig technology doubling in the final quarter of 2011 from a year ago, National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) reported Thursday.

Idaho Power Co. has filed an integrated resource plan (IRP) with Idaho and Oregon regulators calling for a near-doubling of its natural gas-fired generation with the completion next year of a third plant. The utility’s 300 MW combined-cycle gas-fired Langley Gulch generation plant is set to open in June 2012. The plant was identified as needed in Idaho Power’s 2009 IRP. Two existing gas-fired plants provide 345 MW of nameplate capacity collectively. Part of the new plant’s development includes construction of a connecting gas transmission pipeline and a 230-kV electric transmission line and substation. Idaho Power said in addition to boosting its power supply portfolio, Langley Gulch is expected to help the utility integrate ever-larger amounts of wind-powered generation into its system. The gas-fired generation is expected to be increased and decreased quickly in response to the intermittent wind supplies.

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.

With production more than doubling in less than a year, Marcellus Shale gas already is displacing pipeline flows from the west, an energy analyst said last week.

McMoRan Exploration Co. is nearly doubling the size of its portfolio in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by taking on the stakes held by partner Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) in a transaction estimated to be worth more than $800 million.

McMoRan Exploration Co. is nearly doubling the size of its portfolio in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in a transaction with Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) estimated to be worth more than $800 million.

Texas regulators are nearly doubling the number of ambient air quality monitors in the Barnett Shale region of North Texas to 15 from eight, officials said last week.

BP plc on Tuesday beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations in 1Q2010 by more than doubling adjusted profits from a year ago, but the positive news was overwhelmed by the company’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which threatens to cut into future operational performance for months to come.