The Weekly USA Oil & Gas Update: 10th August 2015
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The Oil & Gas Weekly is compiled by Todd Erickson. Todd is a veteran executive manager in the North American E&P market.
He has management experience in high-growth oil & gas service organizations performing a leadership role in operations, strategy, and corporate development with a track record of identifying opportunities and best-practices, creating execution plans, then developing effective teams and leaders to execute them.
Learn more about Todd here
Rig Counts - select states with key plays |
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Oil & Gas Prices - Bloomberg/EIA |
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General News |
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Moody's revises its 2015 crude oil price estimates down $5 per barrel With the recent slump in crude oil prices, Moody's now expects an average price for crude in 2015 of $55 per barrel for Brent and $50 per barrel for WTI crude. To make that average, Moody's believes the remainder of the year will run around $47 for WTI and $52 for Brent. Looking to 2016, Moody's expects Brent to average $57 and WTI to average $52. Past 2016, what Moody's calls the medium-term, the ratings agency expects $75 per barrel for Brent and $70 for WTI. Moody's price expectations for natural gas remain unchanged. Article here
Pioneer ramps up drilling program in Permian Despite a second quarter loss of $218 million, the Texas company announced that its aggressive cost reductions have put it into a position enabling it to expand activities. The company will expand its drilling budget to $2.2 billion and add an average of two rigs per month in the Permian's Spraberry and Wolfcamp formations the second half of this year. A pretty aggressive strategy with current trends. Article here |
Unconventional Oil & Gas News |
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Fitch Ratings forecasts 7% decline in shale production for second half of 2015 The ratings agency believes that production will drop 7% from June's numbers, making 2015 overall 3% lower than 2014. The drop comes from the nearly 55% fall in rig counts from last year. Going forward, Fitch believes the pricing environment will create a "new-normal" total US rig count of between 1,200 and 1,300 rigs, down significantly from last year's high of nearly 1,900. Article here |
Environment and Safety News |
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Oklahoma regulators limit waste water disposal in effort to curb seismic activity Since 2010, parts of Oklahoma have seen a tremendous increase in tremors, which coincides with a relative increase of oil production-related waste water injection. So far, regulators have just focused on specific wells in areas of high seismic activity, but continued tremors have prompted regulators to take a bolder step; as of Monday of last week, regulators have issued instructions to reduce waste water disposal volumes by 38% in 23 wells northeast of Oklahoma City. Dana Murphy, member of the commission that issued the instructions, said "[t]here was a time when the scientific, legal, policy and other concerns related to this issue had to first be carefully researched and debated in order to provide a valid framework for such action. That time is over. We must continue to take progressive steps, and do so as quickly as possible." Article here |
Mergers and Acquisitions News |
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Exxonmobil purchase in the Permian may signal deal market ready to pick up |
