Permian Basin

Oil and natural gas production from the nation’s seven most prolific shale and tight oil plays, which has been on the march for months, is expected to decline in May, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Some of the biggest U.S. operators have plans to defer 800-plus onshore wells, which account for close to 400,000 b/d of oil and 528 MMcf/d of natural gas production, but as oil prices slowly have inched up, there’s a real possibility even more production could ramp up this summer, according to Genscape Inc.

“Lower for longer” is a phrase applied quite a bit of late to oil prices, but it applies to drilling rigs, too. In a Thursday note on oilfield services companies, analysts at Cowen and Company called an early third quarter bottom of about 900 to the Lower 48 U.S. rig count. But don’t expect there to be a bounce from there as much has changed in the industry.

Low oil prices have forced ConocoPhillips to extend cuts to its capital expenditures (capex) budget through 2017, but that doesn’t mean an end to production growth, according to CEO Ryan Lance.

Pennsylvania was second only to Texas in the amount of water used for gross oil and gas production from 2011 to 2013, according to a recently released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis of tens of thousands of FracFocus disclosures by operators in 20 states.

Now that an increasing amount of crude oil moves by rail — and as these shipments have attracted safety concerns in communities and in Washington, DC — the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has added crude-by-rail data to its monthly petroleum supply reports.

A compromise bill intended to block municipal anti-drilling/hydraulic fracturing (fracking) ordinances was passed by a Texas House committee Monday and is on its way to the full House. It includes some concessions to the legislation’s critics, namely Texas cities and their residents upset by drilling activities.

Following several derailments involving trains carrying crude oil, BNSF Railway Co. said it would voluntarily enact several measures designed to improve safety.

Resolute Energy Corp. (REN) has agreed to sell noncore assets in the Midland Basin in West Texas to a private party for $42 million and use the proceeds to pay down debt. The Midland is a sub-basin of the Permian Basin.