E&P

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.

Shippers stepped up for 3.25 Bcf/d of pipeline capacity from the Marcellus and Utica shales to markets in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Gulf Coast on Energy Transfer Partners LP’s (ETP) ET Rover project. The binding commitments are for 15- and 20-year fee-based contracts.

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.

Polls show Pennsylvania’s Republican Gov.Tom Corbett narrowing the double-digit lead that Democratic challenger Tom Wolf has enjoyed for much of the campaign. The election has high stakes for the oil and gas industry as Wolf has pushed a severance tax and made energy reform a mainstay of his campaign.

ExxonMobil Corp.’s U.S. onshore targets have proven to be a liquids-rich generator, and the company is continuing to prowl for attractive acquisitions, particularly in the Permian Basin, a top executive said Friday.

Seeking the cause of an increased number of small earthquakes, Oklahoma officials temporarily shut a disposal well that had been drilled too deep near the Cushing, OK, oil pipeline and storage hub (see Shale Daily, Oct. 15). While not assigning blame, they said the depth of the disposal well could have contributed to the outbreak of seismic activity.

Eclipse Resources Corp. said Monday that it slightly exceeded its third quarter guidance by producing 85.8 MMcfe/d in its core operating area of southeast Ohio in another update that shows the company has gained some momentum heading into the end of the year.

The West Virginia Department of Commerce has selected winning bids from three operators that want to develop valuable mineral rights below the Ohio River in Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler counties.