Bakken Shale

Houston-based Halcon Resources Corp. has raised estimated ultimate recoveries (EUR) in its Williston Basin and East Texas Eagle Ford plays through increase drilling and completion efficiencies, particularly slickwater fracks, executives said Thursday.

Executives at EOG Resources Inc. said 2013 was the company’s “best year on record,” with the Eagle Ford Shale driving a 40% year-over-year (y/y) increase in total crude oil and condensate production and overall production climbing more than 9%.

FERC on Thursday gave unanimous approval to an order upholding its denial of Enterprise Products Partners and Enbridge’s application for authority to charge market-based rates on its reversed Seaway crude oil pipeline.

The Eagle Ford and Bakken shales helped lift SM Energy Co.’s output to new heights last year even as it remained focused on producing liquids in East Texas and the Permian Basin.

Bitter cold, high winds and heavy snows have been gripping much of the country — and the economy — and the same is true in the North Dakota oil patch. Drilling and production statistics for December show that even heavy industrial activities like drilling and well completion have their limits when it comes to extreme weather.

A unit of San Antonio-based refiner/transporter Tesoro Corp. started an open season Tuesday for its proposed crude oil processing terminal and pipeline expansion in the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota. The first of the expansions is to be operable by July 1.

Marathon Oil Corp. has not been pursuing a swap or permit arrangement that would allow it to export domestic oil production, CEO Lee Tillman said Thursday. However, the leading Eagle Ford Shale producer is carrying the torch for the pro-export cause and watching attitudes toward crude exports evolve.

The growth of domestic U.S. oil production from places like the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Uinta Basin in Utah will continue to boost growth of West Coast refining and crude rail operations, according to San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp. CEO Greg Goff.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. plans to spend $1.43 billion on capital expenditures (capex) and ramp up production in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formation in 2014, but it will sell more than 8,000 net acres both in and adjacent to its Sanish operating area for $333 million by March.