Category: Oil & Gas

Rig Counts Slide in Oklahoma and across the Nation

      Both the U.S. and Oklahoma rig counts suffered losses in the past week, according to the latest data released by Baker Hughes Company of Houston. Oklahoma suffered a loss of three more rigs, reaching a total count of 60 working oil and gas rigs. Nationally, the count dropped by eleven, reaching a …

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Small Earthquakes Spark Fracking Probe in Pennsylvania

  While it’s become routine in Oklahoma to wonder about the connection between earthquakes and fracking sites, Pennsylvania has launched an investigation into a recent similar occurrence. The quakes that occurred around a fracking site in western Pennsylvania measured only 1.9 magnitude. But now the Pennsylvania Department of environmental Protection has started an investigation to …

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Producers Seek Dismissal of Sierra Club Earthquake Suit in Federal Court

Oklahoma producers on Monday fired back at environmental groups in a legal tussle in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, asking for dismissal of a lawsuit over alleged oil and natural gas injection well-induced earthquakes in the state. At issue is a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club (Sierra Club v. …

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Energy Sector Woes Hit Hard in Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming

The slump in crude prices is starting to show up as missed payments by consumers in the oil patch, according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal. In states from Oklahoma and Texas to North Dakota and Wyoming, rising unemployment in the energy sector is pushing up loan delinquencies and raising the risk …

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Oil Hits $46 a Barrel for First Time Since November

Oil futures settled above $46 a barrel Thursday, as seven straight weeks of declines in U.S. crude production as well as weakness in the dollar helped lift prices to their best level in nearly six months, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch. Some analysts questioned whether crude will continue its positive momentum given a lack of significant …

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T. Boone Pickens: America’s Oil Industry is ‘Dead in the Water’

Billionaire energy investor T. Boone Pickens said earlier this week that he believes the U.S. oil industry is “dead in the water” as OPEC members continue to pump more crude and U.S. companies curb drilling. Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, Pickens that he doesn’t expect U.S. drilling operations to pick up again any time …

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ETE Announces Quarterly Cash Distribution

Energy Transfer Equity, L.P., the company involved in a messy merger with Tulsa-based Williams Cos. has announced a quarterly cash distribution of $0.285 per common unit. That figures to be $1.14 per unit on an annualized basis or a 16-cent a unit increase. It is also a 16% increase compared to the first quarter of …

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Oil and Gas Employment Holds Steady in Oklahoma…..Government Employment Continues to Grow

While the state’s oil and gas industry held its own in March, the latest employment report from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission indicates there was still a loss of at least 600 jobs from March 2015 to this year. The reported indicated the oil and gas sector, defined in the Commission’s Mining and Logging division …

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ConocoPhillips Reports $1.5 billion in First-Quarter Losses

  ConocoPhillips says it lost nearly $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2016 so it has reduced its 2016 capital spending as a result of the impact of the industry’s low energy prices. The Company, with major operations in Ponca City and Bartlesville reported a first quarter loss of $1.47 billion or $1.18 a …

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New Leader Named to Head Merged Companies

Longtime Questar Corp. executive Craig C. Wagstaff has been chosen to lead the western U.S. natural gas operations once Questar completes its merger with Dominion  He’s the current president of Questar Gas and will become president of Dominion Questar. the new firm will be based in Salt Lake City. The merger will also create an …

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