Timing

BreitBurn Energy Partners LP is adding to its Permian Basin portfolio after agreeing to pay about $860 million for stakes in Whiting Petroleum Corp.’s Postle and North East Hardesty oilfields in Oklahoma.

Rex Energy Corp. said it is “pleased” with the results so far from a well targeting Ohio’s Utica Shale, but it is disappointed with a third-party well completion technique at a second well and blamed bad weather for delays in putting other wells into sales.

A U.S. natural gas storage surplus of 463 Bcf on Feb. 15 had tumbled to a 32 Bcf deficit by May 24, a 495 Bcf decline that “ranks among the strongest we have seen, and oddly, the timing was in the late winter and early spring,” analysts at Stephen Smith Energy Associates said in their most recent Monthly Energy Outlook.

North American oilfield services activity in the first three months of this year has been less promising than expected, according to Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Paal Kibsgaard.

SM Energy said Wednesday that next year it will spend 90% of its planned drilling and completions budget of $1.2 billion on its Eagle Ford, Bakken/Three Forks and Permian Basin programs.

A bet to procure a big reserve of guar gum, an additive used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluid, proved to be a costly mistake in the second quarter, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar told energy analysts on Monday.

Because of the timing of the decrease in natural gas prices, and a “timely hedge book,” exploration and production (E&P) companies mostly have “coasted” through 1Q2012’s borrowing base season, but there may come a point when commercial banks may not continue to use a lending gas price deck well above strip prices, the energy team at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said last week.

Because of the timing of the decrease in natural gas prices, and a “timely hedge book,” exploration and production (E&P) companies mostly have “coasted” through 1Q2012’s borrowing base season, according to energy analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. However, commercial banks may not continue to use a lending gas price deck well above strip prices, wrote Kevin Smith, John Freeman and Justin Albert in a note to clients.

California lawmakers are rekindling an effort that died last year to place chemical disclosure requirements on oil and natural gas producers that use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well stimulation.