E&P

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.

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.

Top regulators from Oklahoma, North Dakota and Ohio all agreed on Tuesday that unconventional oil and gas development in their states shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

The elected Board of Supervisors in Kern County, CA, in the middle of the state’s oil patch in the lower San Joaquin Valley, was sued in California Superior Court last Thursday for allegedly ignoring environmental risks in approving a $100 million crude-by-rail project in Bakersfield. The Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and the Association of Irritated Residents, among others, filed the legal action.

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Monday that the agency plans to roll out a series of key peer-reviewed papers related to its long-awaited draft report on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on drinking water resources, setting the stage for its release early next year.