Onshore

Norway’s Equinor SA and Royal Dutch Shell plc have have jointly purchased a 49% interest held by Schlumberger Ltd. in the Bandurria Sur onshore block in Argentina’s Neuquén province.

U.S. crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) hit a record annual level of 1.8 million b/d in 2018, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which projects that volumes will continue rising this year and next.

Houston super independent Noble Energy Inc. is bringing costs down and production up in the Lower 48, with output from its main basins, the Permian Delaware and Denver-Julesburg (DJ), each hitting record output during the second quarter.

Second quarter results for the oilfield services industry have basically been play, rewind, repeat, and Nabors Industries Ltd.’s management team mirrored some of the same things as its peers, including a more cautious approach by Lower 48 customers and stronger activity overseas.

Superior Energy Services Inc.’s U.S. land revenue fell sharply in the second quarter after the Houston company elected to operate fewer Permian Basin pressure pumping fleets in West Texas.

Higher commodity prices will not dissuade Noble Energy Inc. from its pledge to hold capital spending down this year, even as it prepares for starting up the massive natural gas project offshore Israel and for more U.S. onshore opportunities.

Rystad Energy is forecasting oil and gas drillers to reach for the moon and beyond in the next five years, at least in terms of drilling depths, with North America’s shale and tight resources propelling it into a “league of its own.”

Domestic oil and natural gas producers dropped six land rigs as of Wednesday (Nov. 21) from a week earlier, but gains in Canada and the Gulf of Mexico lifted the overall North American count by four, according to data compiled by Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE).

QEP Resources Inc., which is inching toward Permian Basin pure-play status, agreed Monday to cast off its Haynesville Shale/Cotton Valley assets in northwestern Louisiana to Aethon Energy for $735 million.