Programs

Boosted by exceptional performance from horizontal drilling programs in the U.S. onshore, and in particular the Wattenberg Field in Colorado, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. broke records for liquids sales volumes in the third quarter. The Wattenberg’s production profile is “essentially straight up,” said an executive.

Halliburton Co. reported Wednesday that its profits fell in 3Q2012 from a year earlier in part because of inflated raw materials, but the company also took a sharp hit from the decline in U.S. onshore drilling, which likely won’t accelerate until next year, company executives said Wednesday.

As Canadian producers line up to export liquefied natural gas (LNG), an effort has formed to answer safety questions about hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which is built into industry plans to make British Columbia (BC) shale deposits the prime supply source for LNG exports.

Oil prices above $75/bbl and increased need for carbon capture programs are quietly converging as a possible long-term boost for the increased use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR), according to industry sources working to drive commercial-scale projects with the help of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and selected state initiatives.

Houston-based Crimson Exploration Inc. said its Woodbine and Eagle Ford shale programs continue to enjoy success, contribution to second quarter production that was in the upper range of the company’s guidance.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders were urged in a letter sent Thursday by the New York City comptroller to vote against the only two board members up for reelection in June. Meanwhile, the board on Friday adopted a compensation arrangement for outside directors that reduces compensation by 20% and eliminates personal travel on aircraft in which the company has a stake.

Dry natural gas drilling in North America’s onshore, once a big calling for Houston-based Apache Corp., is off the to-do list until pricing improves, but with 60 rigs running in the U.S. onshore today — 58 targeting liquids targets — “we’ve got a very active drilling program going on right now, the most active we’ve been in some time in North America,” said CEO G. Steven Farris.

Although its profits fell while production grew, Southwestern Energy Co. said its drilling programs in both the Fayetteville and Marcellus shales remain profitable. But the Houston-based company also plans to divert $50 million in midstream capital toward ventures in the Brown Dense formation and the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin.

A two-phase approach to the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries should result in a new line from Oklahoma to the Gulf being in place sometime next year, with the XL phase from Canada to Nebraska following by early 2015, the CEO of the project’s sponsor, TransCanada Corp., said Friday. The latter is the only part of the project now requiring a federal Presidential Permit from the U.S. State Department.