Records

Domestic merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the upstream oil and gas industry set records last year, both from a deal value and a deal count perspective, and there are no signs that it will slow anytime soon, according to Houston’s PLS Inc.

It was still cold along the East Coast Wednesday, with some cities in Florida having established date-specific records for low temperatures the day before. But forecasts of widespread warming trends either already getting under way or starting Thursday caused prices to plummet by triple digits at quite a few Northeast trading points. Outside the Northeast, the market was close to evenly divided between small gains and small losses.

North Dakota continues to set all-time records for oil and gas production based on the most recent statistics available as of the end of October, according to Lynn Helms, director of the state Industrial Commission’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). He noted that the oil and gas industry still plans to invest more than $3 billion in the state through 2013.

North Dakota continues to set all-time records for oil and gas production based on the most recent statistics available as of the end of October, according to Lynn Helms, director of the state Industrial Commission’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). He noted that the oil and gas industry still plans to invest more than $3 billion in the state through 2013.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, in affirming a lower court’s ruling, put its seal of approval on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2008 and 2000 records of decision (ROD) allowing more drilling in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA) of western Wyoming.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, in affirming a lower court’s ruling, put its seal of approval on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2008 and 2000 records of decision (ROD) allowing more drilling in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA) of western Wyoming.

The current debate over the impact of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) on water supplies got stirred up Wednesday by decades-old documents touted by both proponents and critics of the process.

Even with high-temperature records being set from New York City through the Washington, DC, area Friday, forecasts of continuing hot weather no longer seemed to matter in the gas market. Instead, steep plunges at some Northeast citygates led an overall price downturn that seemed to be responding more to recent futures weakness, high storage inventories and the usual weekend loss of industrial load.

Natural gas supply and demand set new records in 2010, while regional changes in production — including that from the nation’s fast-growing shale plays — altered the industry landscape, according to a state of the markets report issued Thursday by FERC’s Office of Enforcement.