Permian Basin

Midstream companies are working hard to keep up with the red-hot Permian Basin. A pair of open seasons for crude oil pipelines servicing the Permian’s Midland sub-basin were announced this week, which together could add a combined 410,000 b/d of capacity out of the play.

Denver-based Resolute Energy Corp. has closed a previously announced $160 million purchase of 4,600 net acres within the Permian Basin from CP Exploration (CPX).

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. said it expects production to increase dramatically later this year once six wells are completed in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the company is in negotiations for bolt-on acquisitions in the plays were it is active — the Delaware sub-basin, Williston Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale.

Denver-based independents Jagged Peak Energy Inc. and Centennial Resource Development Inc., each working the Permian Basin in West Texas, credited better completion techniques in helping them to increase oil and natural gas production from a year ago.

Compared with one year ago, the U.S. land-based rig count is up 125% as drillers continue returning to their favorite shale patches. Over the same period, the U.S. offshore rig count has languished, up two units during the week ending Friday but still down by one rig from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes Inc.

Cimarex Energy Co., exclusively focused on the Permian Basin and the Midcontinent, said a pair of test wells targeting the Upper and Lower Wolfcamp formations in New Mexico and Texas showed enough promising results to increase full-year production guidance.

Natural gas liquids (NGL) margins dinged the first quarter results of Plains All American Pipeline LP, but increasing producer activity, particularly in the Permian Basin, bodes well for growing transportation volumes later this year, the partnership said.

After adding to its Eagle Ford Shale assets last year and growing company-wide production by 10% during the first quarter, Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. is pondering the sale of its Appalachian assets, CEO Chip Johnson said Tuesday.

With a large rig addition and a move into the Permian Basin as a fourth U.S. onshore play in its portfolio, Marathon Oil Corp. is obviously eyeing growth unconventionals, but it may choose to expand using shorter hydraulic fracturing (fracking) laterals, company executives said on an earnings conference call Friday.