Explorer

Houston explorer Marathon Oil Corp. is reducing its rig count in the Eagle Ford Shale because of drilling efficiencies and dropped rigs in the Anadarko Woodford and Bakken plays in response to a “continued decline in natural gas liquids (NGL) and natural gas prices,” the company said Wednesday.

Denver-based explorer Voyager Oil & Gas Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy a unit of Australia’s Emerald Oil & Gas NL in a deal that would create a U.S.-based Rocky Mountains operator focused on established and emerging unconventional oil and natural gas plays.

Canadian natural gas explorer Compton Petroleum Corp. on Monday agreed to a C$33 million friendly takeover bid by New York-based MFC Industrial Ltd., a global commodities trader.

In a move to expand its natural gas position in Alberta’s Deep Basin, Canada’s Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. on Tuesday agreed to buy fellow explorer Open Range Energy Corp.

Warburg Pincus LLC is leading a group of investors to fund up to $1.125 billion in a new Gulf of Mexico (GOM) deepwater explorer helmed by a former Nexen Inc. executive.

Cequence Energy Ltd., a junior explorer based in Calgary, said low natural gas prices have forced it to curtail 1.8 MMcf/d of production in the Peace River Arch area of northwestern Alberta. The producer also has reduced its 2012 capital budget by almost two-thirds, to C$36 million from $100 million. Cequence now expects production through June to average 10,200 boe/d, down from a prior estimate of 12,000 boe/d. Five horizontal wells (gross) are to be drilled in the first six months of this year. “Maintaining our balance sheet while moderating our growth profile in the current low natural gas price environment will allow Cequence the flexibility to add to our existing asset base by capitalizing on new opportunities as they arise,” said CEO Paul Wanklyn. In addition to Peace River, Cequence also operates in the Deep Basin of Alberta, where it has a prospective gas leasehold in the Simonette-Kaybob formation. “The stacked, liquids‐rich targets at Simonette remain an excellent source of significant future production and reserves growth for Cequence, in an improved natural gas price environment,” said the CEO.

Former Petrohawk Energy Corp. CEO Floyd C. Wilson, under the banner of Halcon Resources LLC, is leading a charge to buy Tulsa-based Ram Energy Resources Inc., a small-cap explorer that operates primarily in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Former Petrohawk Energy Corp. CEO Floyd C. Wilson, who recently created Halcon Resources LLC, is leading a charge to buy Tulsa-based Ram Energy Resources Inc., a small-cap explorer that operates primarily in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

ConocoPhillips, which is readying a spinoff of its refinery operations to reemerge as the largest pure-play explorer in North America, is planning to spend $15.5 billion for its capital program in 2012 and repurchase up to $10 billion more of its common stock.