Strong

The U.S. government and private energy analysts appear to have come to a foregone conclusion that the domestic natural gas drilling rig count will take a dive in 2013, but if any are “blindly assuming” that the U.S. oil rig count will “continue to move up and to the right,” they may be wrong, said the team at Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Apache Corp. saw its net income jump 75% in 4Q2011 from a year earlier, lifted by higher output and strong crude prices. The producer plans to drill up to 30% more wells this year than in 2011, when it drilled 1,100 gross wells; more than half are to be in the Permian and Anadarko basins. In 4Q2011 total gas output rose 3.2%; oil output climbed 4.3%. North American gas volumes increased to 1.494 Bcf/d in 4Q2011 from 1.432 Bcf/d in 4Q2010, and from 1.478 Bcf/d in 3Q2011. Net profits totaled $1.17 billion ($2.98/share) in 4Q2011, compared with $670 million ($1.77) in 4Q2010. Revenue rose 25% to $4.3 billion.

Demand for drilling equipment in North America’s onshore continues to be strong, with the backlog of capital equipment orders in rig technology doubling in the final quarter of 2011 from a year ago, National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) reported Thursday.

Demand for drilling equipment in North America’s onshore continues to be strong, with the backlog of capital equipment orders in rig technology in the final three months of 2011 double year-ago levels, National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) reported Thursday.

President Obama in his annual State of the Union speech for the first time issued a strong call for development of domestic natural gas and oil as part of “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

President Obama in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, for the first time issued a strong call for development of domestic natural gas and oil as part of “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

President Obama, in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, for the first time issued a strong call for development of domestic natural gas and oil as part of “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

California regulators reiterated on Thursday their strong reliance on energy efficiency programs and the need to provide utility shareholder incentives to expand the efforts. In doing so they ignored calls from consumer advocates to end the rewards to shareholders.

The large manufacturing sector is expressing strong opposition to a proposal released earlier this month in the U.S. Senate (S 1863) to expand tax credits for natural gas transportation infrastructure and vehicles (see NGI, Nov. 21). At the same time, industrial users struck back against potential widespread U.S. exports of gas.