** For two months, the Malta-flagged oil tanker Alkimos has been quietly floating off the Gulf Coast of Texas, undisturbed by the high-stakes legal fight playing out in a federal courtroom as a result of American sanctions on Venezuela. ** Houston oil company Sanchez Energy has exited from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a new CEO and as …
July 2020 archive
Kansas decides to hold its State Fair
While the Oklahoma State Fair has been canceled because of concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson will go on but with restrictions. Among the public health changes will be a requirement to wear face masks while indoors. Masks will be recommended but not required at all other times according …
Texas moves ahead on discharging oil wastewater, even as EPA balks
SCRIBESign In Oil drilling produces up to 10 gallons of water for every barrel of oil. While the Environmental Protection Agency has balked at allowing oil companies to treat drilling wastewater and discharge it into streams, oil rich states, including Texas, are moving forward with plans to permit it. Environmental officials in Texas and other …
More layoffs and bankruptcies hit Oklahoma
More bankruptcies and layoffs are hitting Oklahoma although it is not directly in the state’s energy field. Still, it has an impact. NPC, owner of Pizza Huts in Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy. The filing, according to Bill Hancock, the Business Services and Rapid Response Coordinator at the Oklahoma …
Satellites used to track pollution in New Mexico’s Permian Basin
New Mexico State Land officials have already used satellite imagery to track pollution in the Permian Basin and now want to employ it to crack down on trespassing and mineral theft from the State Trust land. The office recently began a pilot program with commercial aerospace company Planet, to design and use Earth-imaging satellites …
STACK produces big for Devon Energy
Oklahoma’s STACK play yields a three-well project with production of more than 2,200 barrels of oil a day for Oklahoma City’s Devon Energy. Devon filed completion reports this week on the three McCarthy 10_3-1n-9w wells drilled on a single pad at 10 15N 9W, a site 13 miles southwest of the city of Kingfisher. …
Senator blocks EPA nomination over biofuels mandates
The fight over biofuels waivers given to small refineries such as the Wynnewood refinery in southern Oklahoma has prompted Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley to block the nomination of an official at the Environmental Protection Agency. Grassley came out Tuesday saying he supporting a plan by a Senate colleague to block the nomination until …
