Year

WPX Energy Inc. is hauling its rigs and equipment out West and will keep the drillbit going in only three states — North Dakota, New Mexico and Colorado — with the balance of the portfolio, including Appalachia, on the sales block, the Tulsa-based operator said.

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (Oxy) board of directors on Thursday approved the spin-off of the company’s substantial California oil and natural gas business into an independent, separately traded unit, California Resources Corp. (CRC).

North Dakota’s state lawmakers continue to scramble to maintain and expand infrastructure impacted by the oil/natural gas boom in the state that spills over from the Bakken/Three Forks shale plays into the western counties and local communities.

An oil production tax break for Alaska producers that was adopted last year withstood an attempt by opponents to overturn it at the polls, with voters narrowly favoring keeping Senate Bill 21 (SB 21) provisions in place.

September natural gas is set to open 6 cents lower Wednesday morning at $3.91 as traders discount forecasts of warmer temperatures and focus on a government report suggesting sub-$4 prices. Overnight oil markets fell.

Natural gas production growth and mild weather are allowing storage injections to continue on pace for a record refill of 2.6 Tcf by the end of October, according to the Energy Information Administration, which significantly lowered its gas price outlooks for both 2014 and 2015.

The oil and gas industry continues to narrow its focus on development this year, heeding the call of investors who expect maximum returns from existing portfolios and taking advantage of higher commodity prices, especially in North America, according to the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions.

Even with some robust quarter-over-quarter production growth, particularly in crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp.’s oil/natural gas operations continued to operate in the red, reporting small losses Wednesday for both the 2Q2014 and first half of the year.

Demand for new onshore rigs in the U.S. Lower 48, combined with a big rebound in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) services, lifted Nabors Industries Ltd. to better-than-expected improvement in all of the U.S. operations during the second quarter.