Reserves

ExxonMobil Corp.’s top gun on Wednesday took a shot at BP plc CEO Bob Dudley’s assertion that the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico last April resulted from industry-wide safety lapses.

A moratorium on Marcellus Shale permits could be back on the table in Maryland.

Domestic exploration and production (E&P) companies often spend too much money and in turn deplete company value by chasing growth, acreage and reserves when they instead should focus on efficiency, returns and margins, the energy team at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc. (TPH) said Tuesday.

Mainland Resources Inc. is poking around in a portion of the Haynesville Shale in Mississippi that has been largely unexplored. The Houston-based independent said Thursday its Burkley-Phillips No. 1 well on the Buena Vista prospect in Jefferson County has penetrated the top of the target Haynesville at a depth of 19,980 feet.

South Korean producer STX Energy Co. has paid Encana Corp. C$152 million (US$144 million) to acquire the Maxhamish natural gas field in northwestern Canada. Estimated reserves in the Canadian gas field are about 120 Bcf. Current output from the field is 20.5 MMcf/d. STX said it plans to raise output to around 27 MMcf/d in the near term. Annual sales are expected to be C$40 million for at least 30 years, the producer said. South Korea imports nearly all of its energy, and STX said it plans to look for more investments overseas in the near term.

Robust growth in Lower 48 natural gas reserves and an increasing focus on reducing emissions are painting a bleak outlook for coal-fired power plants. Coal skeptics say the fuel can’t be “clean,” at least not economically, and that gas is the future. While a study released last week said a wholesale switching to gas for power is not doable, gas interests claimed a steady migration is completely realistic and already under way.

Robust growth in Lower 48 natural gas reserves and an increasing focus on reducing emissions are painting a bleak outlook for coal-fired power plants. Coal skeptics say the fuel can’t be “clean,” at least not economically, and that gas is the future. But others say gas is unable to claim the huge segment of the generation stack that some of the cleaner fuel’s advocates claim is its right.

As BP plc was expected to cut its dividend, shares in the company continued their downward slide Wednesday. While BP continued to cite its large cash reserves and viability, some analysts were speculating that the company would declare bankruptcy.

Looking to replicate the numerous North American successes in recovering natural gas reserves from unconventional shale plays, a number of oil and gas majors are eager to take the new drilling technology across the pond to Europe, but Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov warns that while the resource potential is “definitely there,” the process “will be a marathon and not a sprint.”