Bakken Shale

Continental Resources Inc. is betting that the sell-off in crude oil has hit bottom and has monetized nearly all of its hedge positions through 2016, while keeping about one-third of its natural gas hedged in 2015 at an average price of $4.34/Mcf.

Calgary-based Aux Sable Liquid Products LP plans to spend $130 million to increase processing capabilities at its facilities in Channahon, IL.

Marathon Oil Corp.’s U.S. resource plays can hold their own in a low-price environment, and the company’s U.S. drilling program is expected to proceed essentially unchanged from plan, executives said Tuesday.

The three owners of the Capline crude oil pipeline system said they will conduct a study to determine potential future operations, as well as a possible connection to the proposed Diamond Pipeline.

ConocoPhillips, the largest independent in the United States, was the first on Thursday to announce plans to reduce capital spending to cope with the recent downturn in oil prices. Some drilling cutbacks will be made, but not within two of its best rate-of-return plays, the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales.

Lower prices for crude oil aren’t doing any favors for Enterprise Products Partners LP’s proposed crude pipeline from North Dakota to the Cushing, OK, hub, executives admitted Thursday. But U.S. producers have staying power even at lower oil prices because the country “…is in the middle of a production revolution,” they said.

Northern Border Pipeline Co. is testing the shipper interest in a proposed 16-inch diameter, 295 MMcf/d capacity pipeline lateral from the newly expanded Hess Corp. Tioga natural gas processing plant in northwest North Dakota. It is conducting an open season through Nov. 26.

On average, North Dakota oil production, which surged past the 1 million b/d mark earlier this year, will continue to grow steadily at a rate of about 18,000 b/d each month through 2019, according to a study completed in September for the state legislature.

Talk about natural gas oversupply may not be the big story when the domestic exploration and production (E&P) sector unveils quarterly earnings reports over the next few weeks. Instead, conversations may center around the impact lower crude oil prices had on the third quarter, and how they may impact drilling plans into 2015, energy analysts said this week.