Excellence Awards Honor Continental & Whiting

April 1, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

Every year, the Oil and Gas Investor honors the companies, deals and individuals who excelled in the North American energy industry for the prior year.

Honorees for 2014 OGI Excellence Awards will be acknowledged April 6th at Hart’s Energy Capital Conference in Austin. The event draws hundreds of executives from E&P companies, midstream operators, financial institutions and private-equity firms.

Best Discovery: Harold Hamm Harold Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources, will be honored for the year's Best Discovery for development of the Springer Shale oil play in south-central Oklahoma. Results released in September indicate that the play will yield top-notch initial output rates and economic returns.

More on Continental: Harold Hamm Gains More Bakken Acreage

M&A Deal of the Year Jim Volker, chairman, CEO and president of Whiting PetroleumCorp., wins the award for M&A Deal of the Year for purchasing Kodiak Oil & Gas in a $6 billion all-stock deal. This deal propelled Whiting to the top-tier position in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota.

Excellence Award Recipients:

Executive of the Year: Chuck Davidson, Noble Energy executive chairman
Financing of the Year: Eclipse Resources Corp.
Best Field Rejuvenation: Shell Oil Co.
Corporate Citizen of the Year: ConocoPhillips

Fore more go to oilandgasinvestor.com

Crude by Rail Up 1700%

March 31, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the latest data today for crude by rail (CBR) across the country that shows a significant increase over the last five years.

Total CBR movement in the United States and between the United States and Canada was more than 1 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2014, up from 55,000 bbl/d in 2010. The regional distribution of these movements has also changed over this period.

Crude by rail continues to be highly controversial as people question the safety for individuals and the environment. With production at an all time high, the CBR numbers will continue to escalate as producers must find a way to move their product.

The EIA developed a new tracking system that will gather data across all regions of the country and parts of Canada from January 2010 through the current month. CBR activity is tracked between pairs of Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) regions (inter-PADD), within each region (intra-PADD), and across the U.S.-Canada border.

“EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski says that “EIA expects that the new data it has developed using information provided by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) along with data from other third-party sources and our own survey data, will provide key insights into oil-by-rail movements, including shipments to and from Canada.”

Oil Export Ban May Hurt Economy

March 30, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

U.S. crude production reached record levels in 2014 and the growing surplus has many questioning why a 40 year-old oil export ban is still on the books.

The export ban on all petroleum products was imposed during the 1970s as a way for the government to control prices during a time of scarcity. But times have changed and since 2008, U.S. crude oil output has increase by 81%. This record production is beginning to overtake the industry's ability to economically process these growing volumes and producers and analysts are raising their voices to advocate for a repeal on the anachronistic law.

“Reporting to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, IHS Vice President, Ambassador Carlos Pascual testified “The conditions that justified the crude oil export ban in 1973 no longer apply. More importantly, continuation of this ban hurts American consumers, causes an unnecessary drag on American productivity, and does not let the United States exploit fully the national security benefits from our energy resurgence.”

Earlier this month, IHS issued a report on the implications of the current ban and concluded that lifting the export ban could create hundreds of thousands of additional U.S. jobs and add billions to the U.S. economy.

The report goes on to say that eliminating the ban will have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. economy including:

Further increases in domestic oil production
Lower gasoline prices
964,000 additional jobs
Benefits to manufacturing and service-related sectors in every state
Strengthening national security and America’s position in the world

Read more at ihs.comPhoto: © Hramovnick

Halliburton Closing Minot Facility

March 26, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

Beginning April 1st, Halliburton will no longer have a presence in Minot, North Dakota. A spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that the company will suspend operations and close the facility, transferring employees to their Williston and Dickinson locations.

This is the latest in a string of announcements from Halliburton about their efforts to streamline operations in the face of the current crude pricing downturn. Earlier this year the company reported worldwide layoffs of 6,500 people followed by an announcement that they would close their facility in Regina, Saskatchewan in March.

Related: Energy Giants Announce Layoffs

“Spokesperson Susie McMichae said that “The company continue to make adjustments to its workforce based on current business conditions. We value every employee we have, but unfortunately we are faced with the difficult reality that reductions are necessary to worth through this challenging market environment.”

Harold Hamm Gains More Bakken Acreage

March 25, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

Continental Resources strengthened its position in North Dakota by winning the right to drill on an additional 160 acres located near the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Continental’s Harold Hamm spent 2.3 million for the privilege at a state land auction last Friday, beating out the competition in the last 30 seconds of bidding. The funds from this sale are earmarked for educational uses around the state.

Low oil prices have caused companies to reduce spending for 2015 and order to wait out the pricing situation including EOG, Occidental Petroleum and ConocoPhillips.

Even as Continental announced it would slash its budget by 48%, CEO Harold Hamm remained publicly optimistic about his company's ability to navigate the rough waters.

“Hamm commented that “We concluded 2014 with a strong fourth quarter performance, capping off another year of exceptional production and proved reserves growth (...) We believe that our momentum coming out of 2014 will allow us to grow our production 16% to 20% this year.”

The Bakken continues to be the backbone of Continental’s operations. The company is the largest acreage holder in the Bakken and the second largest oil producer in the region. In February, Continental announced that Bakken production was up 30% over last year and overall output was expected to jump 20% for 2015.