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The Weekly USA Oil & Gas Update: 18 February 2014

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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

Select states

This Week

Change from last week

3 months ago

One year ago

Alaska

11

0

9

8

Arkansas

12

0

12

15

California onshore

34

+3

40

33

Colorado

60

-2

69

56

Kansas

33

+1

27

25

Montana

8

0

13

12

N. Louisiana

23

-2

23

23

New Mexico

83

+3

81

76

North Dakota

168

0

165

177

Ohio

40

+1

34

27

Oklahoma

182

-3

176

194

Pennsylvania

53

-1

57

66

Texas

840

-5

825

838

Utah

26

0

28

29

West Virginia

30

+1

32

22

Wyoming

51

-1

55

47

Total US

1764

-7

1762

1762

Total Canada land

624

+5

399

650

Oil & Gas Prices - Bloomberg/EIA

This Morning

12 weeks ago

1 year ago

Crude Oil - USD/bbl

WTI

100.79

93.86

96.69

Brent

109.01

110.83

117.04

Natural Gas-USD/mmbtu

NYMEX

5.40

3.85

3.23

General News

Oxy to spin off its California division into a separate company

In an effort to create shareholder value, Occidental Petroleum will move its California assets into a separate business. The move should be completed by the end of the year. Oxy's California assets will be a significant entity on their own. The company has 2.3 million net acres in the state and generated pre-tax profit of $1.5 billion last year. Going forward into 2014, Oxy will spend $2.1 billion in capex developing its California assets. Article here

Unconventional Oil & Gas News

Where the rigs are:

The latest Baker Hughes rig count shows that the West Texas Permian Basin has by far the most active drilling rigs in the US, With 483. Trailing in second is Texas' Eagle Ford play, with 216. The prolific Bakken in North Dakota is third with 177 rigs actively drilling. As far as the most active states, Texas leads with 845 rigs, and Oklahoma was second with 185. Article here

Environment and Safety News

Study shows methane gas emissions may exceed EPA estimates

The study was funded by a foundation founded by hydraulic fracturing pioneer George Mitchell, and found that methane leaks could push actual emissions fro 25% to 75% higher than the EPA's current estimates. The 16 scientists involved with the research reviewed studies that used towers or airplanes to measure methane in the air. Previous studies just looked a sites, such as compressor plants, and measured leaks there. Article here

Train carrying heavy Canadian crude oil derails in Pennsylvania

No one was injured after 21 cars derailed, 19 of which were carrying oil. The train crashed into building on a bend by the Kiskiminietas River in the town of Vandergrift, and leaked 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of oil, according the the carrier, Norfolk Southern. There was no fire associated with the spill. Article here

Mergers and Acquisitions News

Oxy sells Hugoton assets for $1.4 billion

The natural gas producing field lies in southwest Kansas and consists of more than 1.4 million acres. Oxy plans to use the proceeds for share repurchases. The buyer as undisclosed. Article here


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