permian

A stream of oil and natural gas producers, as well as their oilfield services brethren, are proactively responding to the downturn in oil prices and the slump in demand by reducing spending, activity and in some cases, agreeing to take salary cuts.

Targa Resources Corp.’s gathering and processing (G&P) volumes exceeded expectations in 2019, with expected continued growth underpinned largely by Permian Basin producers that, before Monday’s oil market collapse, were forecasting continued volume growth in 2020.

The continued slump in Henry Hub prices has led ExxonMobil to pull back on dry natural gas production in North America, a revamped strategy likely to reduce output from its key onshore projects in the Permian Basin.

Environmental and societal stewardship have been trending the last couple of months across the oil and natural gas industry, but Chevron Corp.’s executive team made clear Tuesday that those concepts already are deeply ingrained throughout the 45,000-member workforce.

The Alpine High in West Texas, where Apache Corp. threw its chips into making the No. 1 prospect in its portfolio, has crashed on low natural gas and liquids prices, forcing the Houston independent to walk away.

The management team of Denver-based Cimarex Energy Co., whose operations are concentrated in the Permian Basin and Midcontinent, wants to be an active participant in how national policies are set for environmental stewardship, but first it has to walk the walk, CEO Tom Jorden said last week.

For the first time in three years, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is predicting a month-to-month decline in total natural gas production from seven of the most prolific onshore U.S. unconventional plays in March, and oil production is expected to remain virtually flat.

One of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s proposed natural gas conduits from the Permian Basin to the Texas coast is facing more legal attacks from cities and landowners in the iconic Hill Country, which now claim the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) is in violation of federal environmental mandates.

Record production from the Permian Basin and a bevy of oil and natural gas projects worldwide was not enough to stanch the decline in commodity prices during the final quarter, as Chevron Corp. recorded a $10.4 billion impairment for assets that included the Appalachia portfolio, a natural gas export facility planned for British Columbia and a deepwater Gulf of Mexico project.