E&P

Despite admitting that 2015 could be one of the toughest years yet for oil and gas prices, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. management on Friday reaffirmed the company’s plans to grow annual production by 20-30%, with a drilling program that could eventually lean more heavily on the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. said Wednesday that it had finally completed test results at the Stewart Winland well pad in Tyler County, WV, releasing flow rates from the other three wells nearly a month after an initial well tested at 46.5 MMcf/d (see Shale Daily, Sept. 25).

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined a Regency Energy Partners LP unit $306,570 for multiple violations related to the construction of two natural gas pipelines by an affiliate of PVR Energy Partners LP.

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (PTEN) expects to have an estimated 27% more in onshore horsepower capacity for its pressure pumping fleet services by the middle of 2015 as customers push for more intense hydraulic fracturing (frack) services, executives said Thursday.

Reporting lower year-over-year 3Q2014 profits tied to lower oil prices and higher costs, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) senior executives expressed bullishness Thursday about their slimmed down company’s future, emphasizing the huge growth potential they see in unconventional plays in the revitalized Permian Basin.

The issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) came up during the only debate scheduled among the candidates running for governor in New York, in a race that two polls predict should be an easy win for the incumbent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

The road to energy independence has two lanes: produce more and consume less. Thanks to growing output from shale plays and increasing energy efficiency, the United States is driving in both lanes and is estimated to reach energy independence by 2025, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

With carbon emissions and well stimulation now regulated by the state, and with new water rules and energy taxes possible next year, oil and natural gas industry representatives expressed mixed feelings Tuesday about the future of their business at Oil and Gas Awards’ West Coast Energy Summit in Bakersfield, CA.

Clayton Williams Energy Inc. (CWEI) is tweaking its Eagle Ford Shale fracking operations and experimenting with downspacing. In the Delaware Basin, three of its recent wells ran into trouble, and the Midland, TX-based independent said it is monitoring the pullback in oil prices as it considers plans for next year.