Oil

Crude oil production by Mexican state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has stabilized after years of steady decline and will begin to rise again this year, CEO Octavio Romero Oropeza said Monday.

Alberta’s oil production quota will increase by 25,000 b/d in May and another 25,000 b/d in June, the provincial government announced.

The Colorado Senate on a 19-15 vote Wednesday passed and sent to the lower House a fast-track omnibus bill to extensively reform the oil and natural gas industry, empowering local governments to the exclusion of regulators.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is poised to transform its production profile to seize the momentum it gained in 2018 to continue boosting oil volumes, with this year’s capital expenditures mainly being directed to the Powder River Basin (PRB) and the Eagle Ford Shale to drive that growth.

The Alberta government announced a C$3.7 billion ($2.8 billion) commitment Tuesday to lease 4,400 railway tank cars as a three-year substitute for delayed oil pipeline projects.

With prices fetched by Alberta heavy oil on the rise, the provincial government Wednesday reduced mandatory production cuts to 250,000 b/d from the 325,000 b/d ordered on Dec. 2.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 are set to plunge through the final third of January, but it was the U.S. rig count that dropped sharply for the week ended Friday (Jan. 18), according to data from Baker Hughes, a GE Company.

Wyoming’s new Gov. Mark Gordon indicated in a state of the state address earlier this month that his administration would continue ongoing efforts to keep energy — oil, natural gas and coal — at the forefront of the economy.

Representatives from the oil and gas industry are beginning to worry that the partial shutdown of the federal government, now the longest in U.S. history, could impact drilling on federal lands and blunt permitting for infrastructure, including pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities.