Thomas

Analysts are all expecting continued growth in natural gas exported to Mexico, but how Mexico chooses to deregulate will have a big influence on the opportunities created by this emerging market, according to Michael Thomas, COO of natural gas for BP Energy Co.

Analysts are all expecting continued growth in natural gas exported to Mexico, but how Mexico chooses to deregulate will have a big influence on the opportunities created by this emerging market, according to Michael Thomas, COO of natural gas for BP Energy Co.

About $60/bbl is the right price to bring producers back to the unconventional oil patch. But it will have to be a solid $60 that sticks around for a while before the smart money gets excited, EOG Resources Inc. CEO Bill Thomas told a Houston audience Wednesday.

EOG Resources is sitting on a 15-year inventory of potential drilling sites in the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Delaware Basin plays and has plans to acquire more prime drilling locations, EOG CEO Bill Thomas said at the Credit Suisse annual Energy Summit in Vail, CO.

Reporting U.S. and overall production growth of 33% and 17%, respectively, EOG Resources senior executives talked bullishly on a 2Q2014 conference call Tuesday about new and existing shale plays with an emphasis on liquids-rich crude oil. They expressed no interest in new dry natural gas plays, citing current low domestic prices.

EOG Resources Inc. CEO William Thomas said Wednesday the unconventional natural gas drilling pioneer plans to keep its onshore oil and liquids drilling strong but would “grow gas again” beginning in 2014. Plans to sell more of the company’s dry gas inventory also have been postponed.

Thomas F. Darden has retired from the Quicksilver Resources Inc. board chairmanship and from his officer position effective Wednesday, the company said. He will remain on the board as a director and chairman emeritus and will continue to work for Quicksilver through the end of the year. He will be focused on pursuing a joint venture in British Columbia’s Horn River Basin, something that the Fort Worth, TX-based company has sought for some time (see Shale Daily, May 8). Darden is to retire from Quicksilver on Dec. 31 but will continue to advise the company on the Horn River development and other projects, the company said. W. Yandell Rogers was elected chairman Wednesday. He has served as an independent director since March 1999.

If New York regulators don’t meet a Nov. 29 deadline to finalize the rulemaking process for natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing (fracking), it may force more producers and service companies to move out of state, a spokesman for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA-NY) said Monday.

State of New York Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, who manages the New York State Common Retirement Fund, joined other large investor groups on Tuesday and urged Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders to not support the reelection of board members Richard Davidson and V. Burns Hargis, the only two up for reelection.