Permian Basin

Denver-based Gary Petroleum Partners LP has partnered with investment manager Old Ironsides Energy LLC to hunt for upstream properties in the Permian Basin.

San Antonio, TX-based Abraxas Petroleum Corp. said it plans to sell acreage in West Texas to help pay down its debt and that it expects to cut its borrowing base by one-fifth at the end of the month.

Looking to hold onto its acreage and maintain liquidity as it waits out a depressed commodity market, Clayton Williams Energy Inc. announced this week that it has reached a credit agreement with lender Ares Management LP.

Chevron Corp. is shifting more of its capital spending to “shorter cycle” investments, specifically shale and tight oil resources, with the Permian Basin to be the No. 1 benefactor, management said Tuesday.

The Texas oil and natural gas boom might have turned to a bust for now, but that hasn’t slackened work at the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC). Staff has shifted attention from permitting new wells to the need to plug nearly 10,000 abandoned wells. Meanwhile, revenues have dropped because of permitting fee and production tax declines.

April is likely to be another in a series of sluggish natural gas and oil production months for the nation’s seven largest unconventional plays, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The Texas Petro Index (TPI), a barometer that measures the health of the state’s oil and natural gas industry, in January surpassed its low point set during the industry’s previous cycle, and there is more pain ahead, according to the economist who compiles the index. But on the bright side, state crude oil production declined from year-ago levels.

With its cash operating costs at less than $10/bbl, ExxonMobil Corp.’s Permian Basin and Bakken Shale developments “remain attractive and competitive, even in the current environment,” ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson said Wednesday.

With no relief expected from oil or natural gas prices through this year, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. plans to direct its onshore might to only two basins, the Denver-Julesburg and the Permian, management said Tuesday. No rigs are planned in any other onshore play.