** Reuters reported that in a last-minute change, the Trump administration cut about 30 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge territory that it plans to auction off for oil exploration. The decision was announced late Friday by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency managing the oil lease sale. ** Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Sunday …
Tribal chief’s COVID exposed Corporation Commission staffers
The day before Muscogee (Creek) Nation Principal Chief David Hill tested positive for COVID-19, he had been in a select meeting with Oklahoma Corporation Commission staffers and Commission chairman Todd Hiett to discuss the tribe’s possible control over oil and gas issues. The resulting medical issue for Hill and others revealed that the tribe …
Republicans promise grilling of Biden climate team nominees
If Democratic New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland is going to become Interior Secretary in a Biden administration, she will have to get by North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer. And other Republican senators. Her past support of a federal fracking ban and the green new deal has already attracted criticism from supporters of the …
Wyoming to get its first new coal mine in decades
Wyoming is about to get its first new coal mine in decades after an independent regulatory council supported a decision by environmental regulators to grant a mining permit to a coal technology company. The Casper Star-Tribune reported the decision was made after an agriculture and conservation group had challenged the Wyoming Department of Environmental …
Blueknight unloads some oil and gas operations in $162 million deals
Tulsa’s Blueknight Energy Partners, L.P. announced Monday the nearly $162 million sale of its crude oil terminalling, pipeline and trucking business segments to two separate buyers. It was a move by Blueknight to no longer be focused on traditional oil and gas operations and instead lean more toward downstream activities. Blueknight’s terminalling segment was …
NGL cuts deal with bankrupt XOG Energy
NGL Energy Partners LP and Grand Mesa Pipeline, LLC , a wholly-owned subsidiary of NGL , announced Monday that Grand Mesa has entered into a settlement agreement with Colorado’s Extraction Oil and Gas, Inc. as it relates to XOG’s bankruptcy proceedings. XOG, considered to be one of Colorado’s major producers filed Chapter …
Diamondback Energy announces $2.2 billion acquisition
The oil and gas industry’s latest consolidation amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is Monday’s announced $2.2 billion all-stock acquisition of QEP Resources by the Midland, Texas based Permian operator Diamondback Energy, Inc. Under the deal, Diamondback will also take over QEP’s net debt of $1.6 billion. But it also gets nearly 49,000 net acres in …
Oilman among leaders backing Oklahoma over drug maker’s appeal of opioid ruling
Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm joined two other business leaders on Friday in siding with the state in its fight against drug maker Johnson and Johnson’s appeal of being blamed for the state’s opioid crisis. Hamm, founder and owner of Continental Resources joined Oklahoma business leaders Bob Howard and Gene Rainbolt in a friend-of-the court …
Seven Saturday earthquakes shook Wichita
Residents of Wichita are still talking about the weekend earthquakes that rumbled across their city—six or seven in one day. At least six were recorded and the largest measured 3.7 magnitude with an epicenter near the suburb of Bel Aire. It was the strongest to rattle the city in several years. Five other quakes …
What one oilman thinks of the Seminole Tribe’s energy tax effort
The recent efforts of the Seminole Nation to take advantage of a U.S. Supreme Court decision to tax the oil and gas industry within its sovereign confines has angered some in the industry. Not to mention Attorney General Mike Hunter who in essence sent a “cease and desist” letter to tribal leaders to …