Moncrief

Three weeks after voluntarily dropping its opposition to reinstating two oil and gas leases in northwestern Montana, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has asked a federal appeals court to dismiss a case for lack of jurisdiction.

The Trump administration has voluntarily dropped its appeal of a federal district court’s decision to reinstate two oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine region of the Lewis and Clark National Forest in northwestern Montana.

Tulsa-based WPX Energy Inc., which has turned its focus to the Permian Basin in the past couple of years, remains committed to the Bakken Shale, executives said Thursday during a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings.

A billionaire Texas independent oilman from Fort Worth is suing the federal government over the cancellation of a long-term oil/natural gas lease in the Badger-Two Medicine region in Montana, where the Obama administration in its final days bowed to concerns of the Blackfeet Nation.

While the world has gone through one of its worst oil price slumps ever, U.S. oil and natural gas producers that have been able to withstand the shock are in a stronger global position, and the prospect for longer-term growth in the Williston and Permian basins has never been better, speakers said Thursday at the last day of the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference (WBPC) in Bismarck, ND.