Upstream

A major oil and natural gas project expansion in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has ramped up four months ahead of schedule and 15% under budget, BP plc said Thursday.

Following repeated pledges by President-Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) after he takes office, some of the most prominent stakeholders in Mexico’s hydrocarbons sector – including oil companies, policymakers, and regulators – have launched a public relations campaign on behalf of unconventional exploration and production (E&P).

EQT Corp.’s five-month search for a new CEO has come to an end in-house, with the company tapping current CFO Robert J. McNally to lead the company.

A phalanx of environmental and community organizations last Thursday asked FERC to reconsider approvals of enhancement work on the Dominion Energy Transmission Inc.’s New Market natural gas pipeline project in New York.

The biggest of the big publicly traded oil majors, ExxonMobil Corp., failed to impress investors with its first quarter performance, with production falling below 4 million boe/d for the first time in nearly 20 years.

EQT Corp. on Thursday announced a pair of multi-billion dollar deals aimed at increasing shareholder value and streamlining the operations that have turned it into the nation’s largest natural gas producer.

Appalachian pure-play Antero Resources Corp. said Monday that it has taken another step to address its stock discount by forming a special board committee to evaluate ways that would better reflect the company’s overall worth and enhance value for shareholders.

Bending to the war chest it has accumulated in a series of acquisitions across the Appalachian Basin and the will of shareholders that expect more value from it, EQT Corp. on Wednesday highlighted a plan to dump all of its midstream assets into a separate publicly traded company.

Houston-based independent Linn Energy Inc., which began to gain traction this year after being laid low during the industry collapse, is setting its sights on creating three standalone companies by mid-2018, all designed to boost the value of the enterprise.