Drastically

The costs of building and operating upstream oil and gas facilities fell drastically in Q1 2009 after a prolonged period of escalation. Since then they have hit bottom and were beginning to show signs of an upward trend at the end of Q1 2010, according to indexes developed by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA).

Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week began to drastically alter its natural gas-weighted operations in a bid to raise up to $5 billion to repay up to $3.5 billion of senior debt and to increase its investment in liquids-rich plays by up to $1.5 billion.

Natural gas explorer SandRidge Energy Inc. has drastically reduced its 2009 capital expenditure (capex) budget and plans to cut its U.S. onshore rig count to 12 by the end of the month, down from 47 rigs in September.

Oklahoma City-based GMX Resources Inc. Monday followed cross-town independent Chesapeake Energy Corp. in announcing plans to drastically reduce capital expenditures (capex) in 2009. The junior independent, considered a pure-play gas producer that has earned success in the emerging Haynesville Shale and Bossier Sands of Louisiana and East Texas, plans to cut its projected spending by 45%.

Energy companies’ share prices were on the rebound Monday, a welcome turn for the sector, after ending last week drastically down and on reports that the CEOs of Chesapeake Energy Corp. and XTO Energy Inc. had been forced to sell millions of shares of their companies’ stock.

Led by the sizable decline in natural gas and oil prices, Kerr-McGee Corp. reported drastically lower third quarter earnings when compared to the same period a year ago. Including charges for special items, the company posted net income of $26 million ($0.27 per share) for the quarter, compared with $265 million ($2.57 per share) during the same quarter in 2000.

The first bidweek under Pacific Gas & Electric’s Gas Accordtransportation framework was a rough ride for many doing businessin the drastically changed northern California market. WhilePG&E went ahead with its massive computer system upgrade onschedule, few shippers were prepared to handle it.