Texas

Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc. and Marathon Oil Co. have agreed to pay the United States $2,219,974.98 and $4,697,476.57, respectively, to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

Apache Corp. has completed the acquisition of BP plc’s oil and gas operations, acreage and infrastructure in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico (see Daily GPI, July 21). The Houston-based producer paid $3.1 billion to acquire 10 Permian field areas with estimated proved reserves of 141 million boe, first-half 2010 net production of 15,110 b/d of liquids and 81 MMcf/d of gas, and two operated gas processing plants. The transaction also included 1.7 million gross acres in prospective areas of the basin. BP will continue to operate the properties on Apache’s behalf through Nov. 30. Completion of Apache’s acquisition of BP assets in Canada and Egypt is awaiting approvals.

Successful drilling results in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas will lead to more spending in the play through the rest of the year, ConocoPhillips executives said last week.

Successful drilling results in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas led ConocoPhillips to increase its spending in the play through the rest of the year, the Houston-based major said Wednesday.

Apache Corp. on Tuesday agreed to pay BP plc $7 billion for a set of assets that includes acreage and infrastructure in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, “substantially all” of the upstream natural gas business in western Alberta and British Columbia, and property in Egypt’s Western Desert.

Northern Natural Gas, the operator of offshore Texas Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), said it was requiring the shut-in of all MOPS platforms by Tuesday afternoon due to potential hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Northern said it was beginning allocation of all scheduled MOPS volumes starting with the Intraday 1 nominations cycle for Tuesday’s gas day but anticipates a return to service Friday for those points based on forecasts of the storm’s path.

BP plc officials confirmed Tuesday that the company has acquired a stake in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The news came during a BP strategy meeting with top management and financial analysts (see related story).

BP plc officials confirmed Tuesday that the company has acquired a stake in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The news came during a BP strategy meeting with top management and financial analysts (see related story).

Affiliated pipelines Texas Eastern, Algonquin and Maritimes & Northeast said Friday they were lifting restrictions on creation of due-pipe imbalances and payback of due-shipper imbalances.