Oil prices

A pair of prominent oil and gas companies active in the Denver-Julesburg Basin (DJ) are keeping capital expenditures (capex) in check while posting modest upticks in sales volumes. Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. and Highpoint Resources Corp., both based in Denver, reported substantial second-quarter losses, however, dinged by lower sales prices in the wake of the…

Bankruptcies in the North American oil patch “have substantially picked up pace” so far in 2020, due largely to the impact of Covid-19 on prices and demand, according to a new report published Tuesday by Haynes and Boone LLP. The Dallas-based international corporate law firm has been tracking bankruptcy filings in the exploration and production…

Marathon Oil Corp. said stabilization in commodity prices enabled the company to raise its full-year oil production outlook even as it keeps costs in check and further lowers its capital expenditure (capex) plans. Houston-based Marathon — which works in Oklahoma, the Delaware Basin and the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales — raised slightly its 2020…

Permian Basin heavyweight Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is raising its 2020 oil production guidance by 2.5%, but it is keeping most of the oil volumes curtailed during the second quarter offline until commodity prices improve, management said Wednesday. The Irving, TX-based independent curtailed about 7,000 b/d of net oil production during 2Q2020 and said it…

The Lower 48 oil and natural gas business that BP plc carved out under a separate umbrella took a tumble in the second quarter, with the rig count falling from 13 working during the first three months of the year to only one at the end of June. The primary production focus of Denver-based BPX…

Natural gas production in Argentina decreased by 10% year/year in June to 126 million cubic meters/day (MMm3/d), or 4.45 Bcf/d, according to the latest report by the IAE Argentine Energy Institute. Analysts attributed the drop to restrictions in place because of the coronavirus pandemic and “a level of demand notably different from the same month…

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has adopted a mill levy rate increase in order to balance its budget amid revenue shortfalls caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent downturn in commodity pricing. Mill levies, the regulator’s main source of revenue, are property taxes whose rates are expressed in mills, which are equal…

Permian Basin pure-play Diamondback Energy Inc. has brought all of its curtailed production back online and expects to generate free cash flow in the second half of the year, management said Tuesday. The company curtailed 5% of its oil output during the second quarter in response to a pandemic-induced global supply glut, “with zero wells…

Editor’s Note: NGI’s Mexico Gas Price Index, a leader tracking Mexico natural gas market reform, is offering the following column by Eduardo Prud’homme as part of a regular series on understanding this process. Prud’homme was central to the development of Cenagas, the nation’s natural gas pipeline operator, an entity formed in 2015 as part of…