Mexico

While drilling, prices and permitting all declined in North Dakota, natural gas and oil production set new monthly records, according to the most recent statistics compiled at the end of October in a Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) report released Monday.

The fate of the northern portion of the multi-billion-dollar Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the hands of the Obama administration will be the bellwether this coming year, determining if the U.S. technology-driven abundance of hydrocarbons is going to be cashed in as part of a North American-wide energy transformation, according to a former private equity energy star and now senior think tank fellow.

The fate of the northern portion of the multi-billion-dollar Keystone XL oil pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the hands of the Obama administration will be the bellwether this coming year, determining if the U.S. technology-driven abundance of hydrocarbons is going to be cashed in as part of a North American-wide energy transformation, according to a former private equity energy star and now senior think tank fellow.

Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. reported Friday that it has completed the separate acquisitions of Gulf of Mexico (GOM) properties owned by BP Exploration & Production Inc., BP America Production Co. and Shell Offshore Inc. for a combined total of $6.1 billion.

The Mancos Shale plays in the Piceance and San Juan basins in Colorado and New Mexico are a potential gold mine of low-cost natural gas supplies, according to an executive from Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp., who spoke Wednesday to Wall Street analysts at the J.P. Morgan SMid Cap Conference.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp.’s Bakken Hunter LLC is buying existing wells and about 20,000 net Williston Basin lease acres in Divide County, ND, from Samson Resources Co. for $30 million in cash.

Chimera Energy Corp., which had seen its stock price increase substantially this summer based on its claims of a deal with Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company, has since lost both its CEO and almost all of its stock value in the wake of concerns about the accuracy of many of the company’s statements.

The United States will become the top producer of oil globally within five years, a net exporter of natural gas by 2020 and an oil exporter by close to 2030, all thanks to its massive unconventional resources, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Monday in its annual flagship publication, the World Energy Outlook (WEO).

In Montana in a “forgotten corner of the Williston Basin,” a Texas company is gathering up acreage with the expectation that it can turn what some call the False Bakken into a true gem. And if that doesn’t work, northeast Montana has more to offer in and near the Bakken Petroleum System.