Game

Exco Resources Inc. is back in the acquisition game after having struck a $1 billion deal with Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week, CEO Douglas Miller said Monday. There are plenty of deals, and financing is available, he told analysts following the company.

Over the next three years capital expenditures (capex) in the Eagle Ford Shale could top the projected spending for the Kashagan project in Kazakhstan, now the world’s most expensive standalone energy project, according to an analysis by Wood Mackenzie.

Integrated oil and natural gas producers have stepped up their game in recent years to deal with “large-scale operational lapses,” but there still are sources of concern, especially oil spills, according to a risk analysis by MSCI ESG Research.

Talisman Energy Inc.’s North American production from ongoing operations experienced a healthy increase in 3Q2012, but weak natural gas prices have the company and its new CEO, Hal N. Kvisle, trimming capital expenses (capex) as part of a plan to run a more streamlined operation in 2013.

It’s too early in the game to know if the productivity power of the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale in Ohio and western Pennsylvania will match other U.S. unconventional plays, but initial natural gas well data is encouraging, and if the oil-prone window is successfully derisked, the play could prove to be a triple-play hydrocarbon monster, according to IHS Inc. researchers.

Sidewinder Drilling Inc., a privately held upstart that’s been in the unconventional drilling game for a little more than a year, on Tuesday said it had a $242 million definitive offer on the table for Fort Worth, TX-based Union Drilling Inc., which operates across the U.S. onshore.

Whether the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale turns out to be the kind of prospect that ranks among energy industry biggies is still a waiting game, one of the trend’s followers said last week.

Whether the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale turns out to be the kind of prospect that ranks among energy industry biggies is still a waiting game, one of the trend’s followers said Tuesday.

Hawk Field Services LLC (HFS), a subsidiary of Petrohawk Energy Corp., on Tuesday was fined $350,000, ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution and placed on probation for three years for damaging endangered species habitat in the Fayetteville Shale in Van Buren County, AR.