US Drillers Add No Oil Rigs as Harvey Slows Production
U.S. energy firms did not add any oil rigs this week as Hurricane Harvey barrelled into the nation's energy heartland, forcing drillers to halt production and refiners to shut plants. The total oil rig count for the week ended Friday stayed at 759, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its report on Friday. That compares with 407 active oil rigs during the same week a year ago. Drillers have added rigs in 56 of the past 67 weeks since the start of June 2016. The rig count is an early indicator of future output.
New US Pipelines to Drive Natural Gas Boom as Exports Surge
U.S. energy firms are scrambling to finish a slew of pipelines that will unleash rich reserves of shale gas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio as the nation prepares to become one of the world’s top natural gas exporters. The pipelines are expected to boost output from shale fields in the three states by giving producers access to new domestic and international markets. Those states could supply about a third of all U.S. natural gas once the pipeline expansion is complete, up from about 25 percent now, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
US Oil Drillers Add Rigs for 6th Week in a Row
U.S. drillers this week added oil rigs for a sixth consecutive week, according to a closely followed report on Friday, despite crude prices falling to April lows below $40 a barrel this week. Some producers are still boosting spending on expectations for higher prices in the future. Drillers added seven oil rigs in the week to Aug. 5, bringing the total rig count up to 381, compared with 670 a year ago, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc said. They have added a total of 51 rigs since the week to July 1, the longest streak of weekly additions since July-August 2015, when 37 rigs were added over six weeks. Energy firms continued to add most rigs in the Permian shale in west Texas and eastern New Mexico.
Upstream O&G Companies Face Interest Payments Friday
At least 10 upstream oil and gas companies, cramped for cash in the oil downturn, must make coupon payments Friday, April 15, according to Thomson Reuters data. Among them are oil and gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corp , which completed a debt swap last year, and Linn Energy LLC. Linn skipped interest payments due last month. (Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
'Frack now, pay later,' - Top Companies Amid Oil Crash
Business is so tough for oilfield giants Schlumberger NV and Halliburton Co that they have come up with a new sales pitch for crude producers halting work in the worst downturn in years. The moves by the world's No. 1 and No. 2 oil services companies show how they are scrambling to book sales of new technologies to customers short of cash after a 60 percent slide in crude to $45 a barrel. In some cases, they are willing to take on the role of traditional lenders, like banks, which have grown reluctant to lend since the price drop that began last summer, or act like producers by taking what are essentially stakes in wells. When its second-quarter net profit tumbled by more than half a billion dollars to just $54 million…
Oil Drillers Group to Fight U.S. Export Ban
More than a dozen U.S. oil producers have joined to lobby the federal government to reverse the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports, a move that supporters hope would create jobs and boost national security, a spokesman for one of the companies and a lobbyist for another one said on Friday. Producers for American Crude Oil Exports, or PACE, is the first lobbying group to form on reversing the ban. "The end game here is legislative repeal of the ban," said a lobbyist for one of the member producers, who did not want to be named because the group was only recently formed. Congress passed the trade restriction in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo caused fears of domestic oil shortages.
Statoil to Become U.S. Shale Operator by 2013
Statoil ASA (STO, STL.OS), which built its oil and gas expertise in Norway's offshore waters, is stretching its land legs in the U.S., where it seeks to partake of the shale bounty. Like many international oil and gas companies, Norway's Statoil has poured billions into joint ventures with some of the North American independents that in the last decade figured out how to profitably unlock the oil and gas trapped in shale, bankrolling their drilling while hoping to learn some of their techniques. But peering over its partners' shoulders is not enough: Statoil plans to run its own U.S. shale operation in South Texas's Eagle Ford Shale by early 2013, said the company's executive vice president for North America, Bill Maloney.
CNOOC Searches for Oil in U.S.
According to a report from the Associated Press, China's state-owned offshore oil and gas company is intensifying its search for oil in the western United States. CNOOC Ltd. announced it will pay $570m for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s drilling project in an emerging oil field in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming. (Source: AP)
