williston

Alliance Pipeline Ltd. has completed its 80-mile Tioga Lateral Pipeline in western North Dakota, connecting a Hess Corp. natural gas processing facility near Tioga, ND, with ties to the Alliance mainline near Sherwood, ND.

As part of a strategic review aimed at forming a smaller, more profitable company, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (Oxy) board of directors on Friday authorized pursuit of selected asset sales, including potentially some overseas and Midcontinent assets, along with a portion of a general partner interest in Plains All American Pipeline (PAAP).

Continued drilling efficiency improvements are driving record production growth in the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale and helping to push down costs, according to top Oasis Petroleum executive.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. is acquiring 161,000 net acres in the Williston Basin for nearly $1.52 billion in four separate transactions, which will grow its Williston position to 492,000 net acres with 43,000 boe/d of production and 215.6 million boe of proved reserves.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. is building its presence in the Williston Basin by purchasing some acreage in North Dakota and Montana, the Denver-based operator said Tuesday.

At a torch-passing of sorts Wednesday, both outgoing and incoming CEOs for Marathon Oil Corp. had plenty to say about the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays, but new CEO Lee Tillman spoke more loudly about future opportunities during a second quarter earnings conference call in which results were said to be up sharply.

The U.S. Geologic Survey’s (USGS) assessment of the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale and Three Forks formation in North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota, which combined was estimated at 7.4 billion bbl of technically recoverable oil, is “very conservative,” according to North Dakota’s chief oil and gas regulator.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. said Friday it has dropped a drillbit into its first Utica Shale horizontal target in Ohio’s northern Washington County.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. is in talks with three parties for the potential sale of Eagle Ford Shale assets as part of plans this year to sell $400-500 million of assets. An announcement is expected soon, according to the company. During a recent conference call, CEO Gary Evans said all three Eagle Ford bidders have made offers in the same price range. Two are offering all cash and one is offering cash and equity, he said. “So from our perspective, it doesn’t really matter who ends up with it. But we do feel like we will have an announcement on that in short order,” he said.The company also is considering selling assets in the Pearsall Shale as well, and assets in the Williston Basin and potentially in Kentucky, Evans said.