Previously

Generally rising crude oil prices pumped up the drilling rig count (53) in California to a 22-year high in July, and a lot of the action is in “urban plays,” previously dormant or downplayed fields from the state’s rich history of oil and natural gas production that are suddenly stirring new drilling.

Tropical Storm Isaac altered its course on Friday and could move closer to the central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by Monday and Tuesday than previously expected — and have grown to hurricane status by then — prompting some companies to suspend drilling operations and evacuate workers from some platforms.

Houston midstream operator Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP on Friday agreed to pay BP America Production Co. $227.5 million in cash for the BP Panhandle System, which includes two natural gas processing plants and a 2,500-mile gas gathering pipeline system. Eagle Rock also would take over BP’s gas processing in the area under a 20-year agreement.

Houston-based Rosetta Resources Inc. grew net income and revenues during the second quarter, thanks to more production that was more heavily weighted to liquids. Where one goes to get that in Texas — as everyone knows — is the Eagle Ford Shale. As it continues to develop its core Gates Ranch area there, Rosetta is stepping out as well.

More named storms than previously forecast are likely to form in the Atlantic Basin this year, according to Weather Services International (WSI), despite nearly a month passing since Tropical Storm Debby’s brief trek through the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) (see Daily GPI, June 26).

Despite previously announced intentions to find a partner to help develop its Eagle Ford Shale acreage, Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. said it has identified a “go-it-alone plan that is attractive to the company.”

Despite previously announced intentions to find a partner to help develop its Eagle Ford Shale acreage, Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. said it has identified a “go-it-alone plan that is attractive to the company.”

During a year in which producers shifted their spending away from natural gas and toward oil and away from amassing acreage to developing what was previously acquired, “everything was up,” Ernst & Young LLP’s Charles Swanson, Houston managing partner, told reporters in Houston last week at a briefing on the company’s latest U.S. exploration and production (E&P) benchmark study.

During a year in which producers shifted their spending away from natural gas and toward oil and away from amassing acreage to developing what was previously acquired, “everything was up,” Ernst & Young LLP’s Charles Swanson, Houston managing partner, told reporters in Houston Tuesday at a briefing on the company’s latest U.S. exploration and production (E&P) benchmark study.