Interesting. News. This week, we’re all focused on news about industry reaction to declining US crude prices, and are pretty caught up on Halliburton and Baker Hughes’ merger, Kinder Morgan’s restructuring, Harold Hamm’s divorce, and Aubrey McClendon’s continuing good fortune.
But as 2014 comes to a close, I thought it would be neat to take a look back at all the top 10 emails I have sent out this year (you can sign up for the newsletter in the little box in the right sidebar), pull the most popular link from each email (ie, the most interesting link to you the readers), compile a list, and take a look back.
So, here they are, The 45 Most Interesting Oil and Gas News Stories of 2014.
The First Quarter
During Q1 2014 we all seemed to ping-pong around Eagle Ford, Permian and Oklahoma Activity, with the occasional foray into how our peers were operating, and how the other half was living. Good times.
- January 3, 2014 Get the SCOOP on the Next Big Shale Play Investor place had a nice analysis on SCOOP results.
- January 10, 2014 Oil & Gas Boom 2014: A Great Time To Be A Texan David Blackmon at Forbes pulled together some encouraging numbers.
- January 17, 2014 Where Are the U.S.’s Millionaires? We all want to know how the Jones’s are doing – the Wall Street journal helped us out.
- January 24, 2014 Devon exploring new Oklahoma oil play Devon’s work in the Mississippian Lime caught our attention (from the Oklahoman).
- January 31, 2014 ExxonMobil adds rigs in large North American unconventional plays: official Platts reported on Exxons Wolfcamp focus from an quarterly earnings call.
- February 7, 2014 We were at NAPE in Houston that week, but you all watched this fine video — Drillinginfo | The Future of Oil & Gas
- February 14, 2014 Exxon: More ‘Major’ Moves In The Permian Basin Shale Oil Play SeekingAlpha talked about Exxon, XTO, AEP and the Cline shale.
- February 21, 2014 Halcón Resources: Latest Eagle Ford Well Results Again the fine folks at SeekingAlpha, this time about some good old East Texas activity.
- February 28, 2014 New Frontiers: Eagle Ford vs. Permian, the great Texas oil showdown Platts put some numbers together for us.
- March 7, 2014 The Eagle Ford billionaires Jennifer Hiller at SA Express-News reported on our friends and neighbors.
- March 14, 2014 Why This Is the Next Giant Shale Play Matt Badiali talked about the Permian Basin.
- March 21, 2014 ZaZa Energy closes development deal for Eagle Ford East formation East Texas activity the San Antonio Business Journal.
- March 28, 2014 Devon Energy Turnaround Spared by Activists The Street talked about how Devon was redistributing it’s empire after “over-expanding.”
The Second Quarter
Q2 2014 had our attention on South, East and West Texas, but with a keen eye for some of the emerging activity like the Buda, the Cline, the TMS and SCOOP
- April 4, 2014 Apache Emerges As The Most Active Driller In East Texas Eagle Ford Seeking Alpha’s East Texas analysis of an exceptional operator. (only for SA subscribers now).
- April 11, 2014 This Texas Oil Play Keeps Getting Bigger Motley Fool does some work on the Eagle Ford.
- April 18, 2014 Is This The Oil Play Of The Century? NASDAQ unpacks the Cline.
- April 25, 2014 This New Oil Patch Might Have Just Become One of the Best in America Motley Fool starts some conversation around the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale.
- May 2, 2014 Heyco will build $91 million plant to convert Eagle Ford gas to alternative fuel San Antonio Business Journal turned our attention to harnessing some resources and channeling them back into the play.
- May 9, 2014 Diamondback hits in Permian This link has now expired, but it’s fairly clear what we were interested in from the headline.
- May 16, 2014 U.S. Energy Is The Way To Play The Buda Oil Discovery SeekingAlpha liked the way these operators were working around the Eagle Ford.
- May 23, 2014 What Core Labs Tells Us About The ‘Second Wave’ Shale Plays Again a (recently gated) SeekingAlpha piece on emerging SCOOP, TMS and Wolfcamp results.
- May 30, 2014 Permian Basin leads nation in horizontal drilling growth Midland Reporter-Telegram pulling some info together from EIA etc.
- June 6, 2014 Maybe BHP Billiton’s $20B Fracking Bet Wasn’t A Blunder After All Christopher Hillman at Forbes on BHP’s $4 million dollar EF wells.
- June 13, 2014 Wolfcamp Shale layers could put play among most profitable Collin Eaton at fuelfix on the potential of the West Texas stacked plays.
- June 20, 2014 Permian Oil: Bonanza Or Hype SeekingAlpha looked at some of the big West Texas operators for us.
- June 27, 2014 The $150bn blunder: how to cash in on a surprise shale story Citywire on Exxon Mobil and Spraberry/Wolfcamp.
The Third Quarter
Q3 started off with The Nations Birthday and a lot of attention on the Eagle Ford and ended with a well-deserved recognition of our CEO, Allen Gilmer.
- July 4, 2014 It was a holiday. We all watched the video of Things world cup goalie Tim Howard could save next.
- July 11, 2014 Overview: Eagle Ford reserve estimate revision—ConocoPhillips Market Realist on how COP is positioned in the EF.
- July 18, 2014 Why This Promising Shale Play’s Best Days Are Still Ahead Motley Fool on some more plays around the EF, like the Austin Chalk and the Catarina.
- July 25, 2014 Eagle Ford remains a powerhouse Oil and Gas Financial Journal explores some of the bigger EF players.
- August 1, 2014 Sanchez Energy: Critical Mass In The Eagle Ford This article is now locked for non-pro Seekers of Alpha, but it’s pretty clear what we were interested in.
- August 8, 2014 The 10 most oil-rich states The fun we had guessing! Remember? From USA Today.
- August 15, 2014 Eagle Ford Shale Is Getting ‘Thicker’ – Upper Eagle Ford Emerging As A Viable Second Development Zone Again, locked now by SeekingAlpha, but we continued to explore around the Eagle Ford.
- August 22, 2014 Refracking brings ‘vintage’ oil and gas wells to life Reuters on $1 million dollar refracks by Encana in the Haynesville.
- August 29, 2014 Midland Basin: Buy The Dip SeekingAlpha’s advice when the WTI was mid 90s. But still – the Midland Basin is full of oil for sure.
- September 5, 2014 Tech: Permian Basin oil impact more than $137 billion Midland Reporter-Telegram reported on some encouraging figures from Texas Tech.
- September 12, 2014 Four Bakken-like plays emerging across the nation’s midsection The Bismarck Tribune reported on The New Albany, The Antrium Shale, The Arkoma, and The Woodford.
- September 19, 2014 Fracking Gives U.S. Energy Boom Plenty of Room to Run Russell Gold at The Wall Street Journal marveled with us on the advances in drilling technology.
- September 26, 2014 I was on vacation, but Austin Business Journal let everyone know what we here at Drillinginfo have known all along: 2014 Best CEO Awards – Large companies – Allen Gilmer
The Fourth Quarter
The 4th Quarter is, well, up and down for sure. We’re certainly worried about the price of oil, and the cost of regulation, but if there is significant activity in a play, we want to know.
- October 3, 2014 Eagle Ford continues to gush despite rapid well declines Fuelfix reported on how better wells and technology are keeping producers ahead of the curve in the Eagle Ford.
- October 10, 2014 Shale boom tested as plummeting prices threaten U.S. drillers Also from fuelfix, though this is more about the scary aspect of boom/bust cycles.
- October 17, 2014 WTI Rebound Above $80 Holds as Goldman Sees No Oil Glut The bankers weighing in on where the dip is caught our attention.
- October 24, 2014 Cheaper oil – Winners and losers The Economist on the advantages of cheaper energy.
- October 31, 2014 Texas Railroad Commission adopts tighter rules for disposal wells Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the state of Texas’ response to increased seismic activity.
- November 7, 2014 Saudi Flexing Met With Crickets by U.S. Shale Frackers US Operators keeping calm and carrying on.
- November 14, 2014 Sanchez Energy: Excellent Early Results From Catarina Hey – emerging Eagle Ford activity and analysis! From SeekingAlpha.
- November 21, 2014 Shale output unchecked by rig cutback as top fields become focus Chicago Tribune took a look at some of the biggest players.
- November 28 was a holiday, but that OPEC Report ……
So there it is: the year that was 2014. What other big story should we look back on? Leave a comment below.
Eric Roach
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