Mancos

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. is staying “very focused” on its oil/natural gas assets, despite reporting more red ink in that sector.

With strategic objectives to keep oil and natural gas exploration/production (E&P) as no more than a quarter of its utility-dominated overall business, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. is content to take a slow, steady approach to developing its shale and other gas resources, its executives told Wall Street analysts Thursday.

Continuing its strategy of increasing its acreage in the liquids-rich Bakken Shale and Three Forks Formation, a QEP Resources Inc. subsidiary has entered into two deals with multiple sellers to acquire “significant crude oil development properties” in the Williston Basin for an aggregate purchase price of close to $1.38 billion.