Management

BG Group strategy going forward will be to run with a simplified organization while improving operations and portfolio management. Exploration is at the “heart” of what BG Group does, Group Chief Executive Chris Finlayson said Tuesday. But global liquefied natural gas (LNG) also is crucial to growth, he said.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has postponed a lease sale in California that was scheduled for May 22 due to budget constraints, a shift in priorities to inspection and enforcement of existing leases, and processing of new applications for permits to drill. This was the only lease sale that the agency had proposed in the state for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Energen Corp. management said the first quarter of 2013 was “both encouraging and challenging” as test wells in the Third Bone Spring and Wolfberry formations of the Permian Basin performed well, but cold weather and interference issues worked against the company as profits fell slightly.

Around the middle of the year, SM Energy Co. management will have a clearer picture of how to allocate spending among a number of opportunities as it targets annual production growth of 15-20% over the next three years, executives said during a conference call Wednesday.

In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton Wednesday proposed that the agency be allowed to impose a targeted fee on transactions in the derivatives markets.

Energen Corp. management said the first quarter of 2013 was “both encouraging and challenging” as test wells in the Third Bone Spring and Wolfberry formations of the Permian Basin performed well, but cold weather and interference issues worked against the company as profits fell slightly.

Around the middle of the year, SM Energy Co. management will have a clearer picture of how it will allocate its spending among a number of opportunities as it targets annual production growth of 15-20% over the next three years, executives said during a conference call Wednesday.

Double Eagle Energy Holdings and private equity firm Apollo Global Management have formed a partnership to invest in oil and natural gas properties in Oklahoma, focusing primarily on the Anadarko and Ardmore basins. Fort Worth, TX-based Double Eagle already has more than 500,000 acres across Texas and the Midcontinent, according to Co-CEO Cody Campbell. The partnership with Apollo “will provide a great opportunity to expand and continue our land-centered approach to oil and gas asset acquisition, which has proven successful over the last several years,” he said. Last year, Apollo led a consortium of private equity investors in a $7.15 billion leveraged buyout of El Paso Corp.’s exploration and production business, which included an array of liquids-rich U.S. unconventional property extending across Texas, Louisiana, the Raton Basin and the Rocky Mountains (see Shale Daily, Feb. 28, 2012).

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) set a record U.S. production at 478,000 boe/d in 1Q2013, its 10th consecutive record quarter, the management team said last week.