Houston

Houston independent Occidental Petroleum Corp., working to improve shareholder confidence after sharply increasing its debt load with the Anadarko Petroleum Corp. takeover, has executed several agreements to enable Western Midstream Partners LP (WES) to operate as an independent company.

TimkenSteel Corp., which provides steel products and services for the oilfield, is closing a major location in Houston early next year because of reduced activity in an “evolving energy market,” a top executive said.

With new leadership at the top, MPLX LP on Thursday outlined plans to continue pursuing its integrated crude oil and natural gas conduit from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast, bankrolled with a proposed $2 billion capital expenditure (capex) program next year.

Plans by Houston American Energy Corp. to build a portfolio of prospects in an overshadowed area of the Permian Basin are advancing with funding by the CEO and a principal shareholder.

Saudi-owned Motiva Enterprises, which owns North America’s largest refinery, plans to add to its portfolio east of Houston with the purchase of Flint Hills Resources’ ethylene cracker.

Wink-to-Webster, a pipeline joint venture that would move more than 1 million b/d of Permian Basin oil to the Houston area has MPLX LP, Delek US and Rattler Midstream LP as sponsors, joining ExxonMobil, Plains All American Pipeline and Lotus Midstream.

FERC will create a division focused on liquefied natural gas (LNG), with staff based in both Washington, DC, and Houston, Chairman Neil Chatterjee said Tuesday.

Enterprise Products Partners LP late Monday launched a big expansion of its oil export facilities on the Texas coast, which it is linking to continued Permian Basin growth.

Drilling some Permian Basin wells from the confines of air-conditioned control rooms in Houston nearly 500 miles away is becoming a reality for Chevron Corp. as it integrates cloud computing into its operations.