After being idled in April, oil and gas producers working in Argentina got back to work in May, according to press reports based on information from services company NCS Multistage.

There were 28 hydraulic fracturing (fracking) stages completed in Argentina in May, compared to zero in April, when the country reported no active drilling rigs. Argentina has had one of the strictest lockdowns globally in response to the coronavirus, which has led to a drastic slowing in its economy.

In 2019, the country, led by its Vaca Muerta shale formation in Western Argentina, saw an average of 700 frack stages per month.

In response to the demand destruction, the government has instituted a $45/bbl price floor for producers to try to motivate new exploration and production. It’s expected that new laws on gas pricing will ensue.

In an online interview in May,  the head of state-owned YPF, Guillermo Nielsen, said the principal problem in Argentina...

Nineteen North American exploration and production (E&P) operators have filed for bankruptcy protection since the start of the year, and it is “reasonable to expect” more companies will seek protection from creditors in the months to come, according to Haynes and Boone LLP.

The law firm has monitored North American oil and gas producer bankruptcies since 2015. It issued its latest report on Wednesday, noting that five filed for Chapter 11 in 1Q2020 and 14 more have sought protection to date in the second quarter.

“Following a steep drop in oil prices in the fourth quarter of 2018, the number of filings started trending up in 2019,” the firm said. “At the end of last year, we were predicting that this trend would continue into 2020 based on expectations that oil prices would remain in the $55-60/bbl range. Since January, however, oil prices have fallen from $63/bbl to a one-day drop into negative territory closing at minus $36/bbl on April...

Senior Editor, LNG | Pittsburgh, PA Jamison Cocklin joined the staff of NGI in November 2013. Prior to that he worked as business and energy reporter at the Youngstown Vindicator, covering the regional economy and the Utica Shale play. He also served as a city reporter at the Bangor Daily News and did freelance work for the Associated Press. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from the University of Maine.

Although there are “significant challenges” in the current oil environment, NGL Energy Partners LP management struck an optimistic tone for the second half of the year as customers are “ready to ramp up production” in the coming months.

“We have witnessed one of the greatest collapses in oil prices and a subsequent recovery in a matter of weeks,” CEO Michael Krimbill said Monday on the fiscal year 2020 earnings call. However, “this is an extremely challenging market to predict. There are a range of outcomes depending on market development.”

[Want to see more earnings? See the full list of NGI's 1Q2020 earnings season coverage.]

Tulsa-based NGL is maintaining its fiscal year 2021 earnings guidance of $600 million as it has taken several measures to navigate the oil market downturn, including reducing growth capital to $50 million and exiting its gas blending business to reduce debt. The company also has reduced its headcount nearly 15%, and...

The Covid-19 pandemic only inflicts a temporary setback on overseas propane shipments as byproduct growth for the Canadian natural gas industry, according to AltaGas Ltd.

A year after starting tanker loadings, AltaGas is seeking a second export license for 40,000 b/d of liquids to double traffic allowed at its Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal (RIPET) on the northern Pacific coast of British Columbia (BC).

“Market fundamentals will prevail,” AltaGas said in a filing with the Canada Energy Regulator (CER). “There are no material changes to the outlook at this time.”

Unlike oil suppliers, the Canadian gas industry is not struggling to manage prolonged surpluses and price lows, the Calgary-based processing, storage and delivery firm said.

“Canadian natural gas and propane inventories are at relatively low levels. The need to fill storage ahead of the 2020-21 winter season will likely keep natural gas production and processing for NGL...

Appalachian pure-play Montage Resources Corp. said rising oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) prices have prompted it to bring back production curtailed earlier in the year, which has led to an increase in full-year guidance.

Like other operators across the country, Montage shut in production in April after oil prices fell precipitously and Covid-19 destroyed energy demand. The company primarily curtailed liquids-rich volumes from Ohio’s Utica Shale. However, as of Monday (June 1), all of the shut-in volumes had been returned to sales.

The company is now guiding for 565-585 MMcfe/d of production this year, or 2% above the midpoint before the Covid-19 lockdowns began in March. Montage now expects 2Q2020 production to be 535-555 MMcfe/d.

“Upon realizing an accelerated rebound in oil pricing and cash margins, the company moved very quickly to return its previously curtailed condensate production back to sales,” CEO John Reinhart said.

Brent...

North American pressure pumper ProPetro Holding Corp., whose primary focus is the Permian Basin, has seen activity continue to decline through May and now expects reduced onshore completions activity through the rest of the year because of the oversupply in oil.

As economic activity recovers and U.S. crude is consumed, the Midland, TX-based operator is expected to be absorbed, CEO Phillip Gobe said during a conference call to discuss first quarter results and the outlook. He took the helm in March.

Through the first 10 weeks of the first quarter, ProPetro saw strong financial results, Gobe said. However, the sharp decline in oil prices during the second week of March “resulted in an extremely swift curtailment of well completions activity in all U.S. basins.

“As activity declined, we acted quickly to reduce our costs while continuing to provide safe and efficient service to our customers. We believe our early-year success is a positive...

Even given the many unknowns related to the market impact of the coronavirus pandemic on both sides of the border, Mexico will remain a key destination for U.S. natural gas producers for years to come, according to analysts.

Overall gas exports, which encompass supplies to Canada and Mexico, and via worldwide liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments, are struggling this year, Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts said Monday.

“With that said, we continue to forecast a year/year uptick in Mexican gas exports as pipeline volumes displace LNG imports as well as crude.”

Pipeline natural gas exports from the United States to Mexico are coming in lower year/year, but the slow reopening of the Mexican economy starting this week may increase transported volumes heading south of the border.

Genscape Inc. said pipeline exports from the Lower 48 to Mexico averaged an estimated 4.5 Bcf/d during the first half of May, which is down from 4.95...

Gulfport Energy Corp. said Tuesday it would cut this year's oil and gas production guidance slightly to reflect shut-ins and deferred completions in anticipation of better commodity prices later this year and next.

The company withdrew its previous production guidance after the first quarter and said Tuesday it is targeting 1-1.1 Bcfe/d for the year, down from 1.1-1.5 Bcfe. Gulfport produces the bulk of its oil and gas volumes in Ohio’s Utica Shale and has shut in a minimal amount of output, including a large number of vertical wells in its other operating area, the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province, or SCOOP. Some non-operated production has been curtailed as well.

The company also said Tuesday it would complete another three gross Utica wells later in the year to help add incremental production into early 2021. It is still guiding for $285-300 million of capital expenditures (capex).

“The savings we are seeing in drilling and completion...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final rule on Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) that it said would increase the transparency and efficiency of the Section 401 certification process and to promote the timely review of infrastructure projects.

The final rule comes a year after EPA issued guidance on Section 401 that provided recommendations to clarify and streamline the oil and natural gas infrastructure permitting process. The CWA’s Section 401 Certification Guidance for Federal Agencies, States, and Authorized Tribes covered statutory and regulatory timelines for review and action on Section 401 certification, the appropriate scope of Section 401 certification conditions, and information within the scope of state or authorized tribe's Section 401 review.

The guidance stemmed from executive order 13868, which was signed by President Trump in April 2019 in an effort to accelerate approvals for natural gas infrastructure....

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Mexico’s Petróleos Mexicanos’ (Pemex) difficult year has been made harder as workers struggle with a coronavirus outbreak that has hit the state oil company particularly hard.

On Wednesday, the company said 77 employees had died of the coronavirus. A total of 228 Pemex employees and family members, including retirees, have so far lost their lives to the pandemic, whose epicenter has now moved to Latin America.

Outbreaks have reportedly been acute on some offshore oil and gas platforms, which have remained manned through the pandemic, even as much of the rest of the economy, including mining and construction, was shut down to the virus.

Indeed, despite coronavirus restrictions, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration...

Anadarko Basin independent Templar Energy LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, joining a growing list of distressed operators amid the sharpest oil market downturn in recent memory.

Templar on Monday said it is seeking to address “substantial challenges” amid “declining commodity prices, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The Oklahoma City-based firm plans to liquidate all or substantially all of its assets through Chapter 11 and to eliminate an aggregate principal debt load of $426 million, plus about $20 million in annual interest expense.

The company has secured $25 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, which it will use to fund its operations during the Chapter 11 cases.

Templar’s exploration and production (E&P) portfolio targets liquids-rich natural gas and oil formations in the Greater Anadarko Basin in Western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.

The Templar news follows a Chapter 11 filing...

At least nine environmental groups are seeking to defend a set of rules enacted in December by Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to reduce methane emissions and air pollution from oil and gas operations.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Healthy Air & Water Colorado (HAWC) last Thursday filed motions to intervene in two lawsuits filed in March that seek to roll back the regulations.

The lawsuits were filed against AQCC in Colorado’s Second Judicial District. One was filed by a group of counties in Colorado’s Western Slope region, and the other was filed by Weld County, which accounts for 88% of the state’s oil production and 40% of its natural gas output, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

EDF and HAWC are seeking to join AQCC as co-defendants in the lawsuits. The AQCC regulations were enacted under the larger framework of Colorado’s landmark Senate Bill 181, which Gov. Jared Polis signed...

Taproot Energy Partners LLC said Monday it has expanded the acreage dedicated to its crude oil and water pipelines in Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in a deal with Mallard Exploration.

Denver-based Taproot said subsidiary Taproot Rockies Midstream LLC would provide crude oil and produced water gathering and transportation services for Mallard in the basin’s northeast extension in exchange for a long-term dedication of 60,000 acres.

Taproot’s existing Baja system and an extension it announced last year to serve Bonanza Creek Energy Inc.’s crude oil production include more than 110 miles of crude oil, produced water and freshwater pipelines. The company said Mallard’s position is near acreage held by Bison Oil & Gas, Verdad Resources LLC and Bonanza that is already dedicated, making it a “natural bolt-on” for the midstream system.

The agreement increases Taproot’s total dedicated acreage to more than 200,000 gross acres.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to settle claims with thousands of landowners in Oklahoma that it failed to pay interest on overdue royalty payments.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma granted preliminary approval to a $6.1 million settlement fund to resolve the claims against subsidiaries Chesapeake Operating LLC and Chesapeake Energy Marketing LLC. Royalty owner CEOG LLC was named class representative.

The court said the settlement class consists of royalty owners that had interest in oil and gas wells in the state during the claim period from November 2009 to March 2018. CEOG filed the lawsuit in a state court in 2014, and it was transferred to federal court two years later.

The complaint alleged that the Chesapeake subsidiaries repeatedly delayed making royalty payments and had failed to pay interest, in violation of the state’s Production Revenue Standards Act, which provides for interest on overdue...

The U.S. rig count fell another 17 rigs to drop to 301 during the week ended Friday (May 29), another sharp weekly decline that nonetheless suggests a flattening of the recent downward trajectory in onshore activity.

According to data from Baker Hughes Co. (BKR), the United States saw 15 oil-directed rigs and two natural gas-directed rigs exit the patch during the week, putting the overall domestic tally nearly 700 units behind the 984 rigs running at this time last year. U.S. operators have now laid down nearly 500 rigs since mid-March, one of many signs of the economic shocks delivered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two directional units and one vertical unit joined 14 horizontal rigs in exiting the patch for the most recent week. Gulf of Mexico activity held steady at 12, according to BKR.

In Canada, one oil-directed rig packed up shop, dropping the Canadian count to 20, down from 85 in the year-ago period.

The combined North American...

Proponents of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline on Thursday lost their second attempt to revive a crucial water-crossing permit for the project, in a case with implications for pipeline projects across the country.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a motion filed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and an affiliate of project sponsor TC Energy Corp. to lift an injunction imposed in April by the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.

The April ruling not only vacated Keystone XL’s water crossing permit issued by the Corps, it prohibited the Corps from issuing the same permit, known as Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12, for other pipeline projects.

If completed, the 1,210-mile pipeline would transport 830,000 b/d of Western Canadian crude to Steel City, NE, where it would connect with existing infrastructure to reach Gulf Coast refining markets.

The Corps and TC Energy appealed the April ruling and sought...

U.S. oil prices were tracking on Friday toward a 76% gain for the month of May as shut-in wells and a pullback in activity pushed prices higher, but a rebound for the energy sector is expected to be neither swift nor even.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices were strengthening as May came to an end, with front month prices early Friday tracking above $33/bbl. The WTI price was still about half of the January high of $65.65.

The Federal Reserve Bank keeps a sharp eye on all activity across the country. In the latest Beige Book issued Wednesday, which summarizes nationwide economic conditions in each of the 12 districts, there were paltry indications that things were getting better.

The energy-rich Eleventh District based in Dallas, aka the Dallas Fed, usually draws the most oil and gas interest as executives are surveyed in Texas, northern Louisiana and most of New Mexico, home of the Permian Basin, as well as the Eagle Ford and...

To advance cybersecurity in energy-efficient manufacturing, the Department of Energy (DOE) said the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII) is going to be led by the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).

The National Security Collaboration Center at UTSA is to serve as the new base for CyManII.

“Our electricity and oil and natural gas partners across the energy sector provide the services that underpin the national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastructure, economy, and way of life for the American people,” said DOE senior adviser Alexander Gates, who handles Cybersecurity. “This Institute will rebuild the U.S. position as a global leader in clean manufacturing at a time when foreign adversaries continue to threaten the security of our country.”

Created by the DOE in February 2019, CyManII is a public-private association with more than 15 major leading universities. Funded mainly by the DOE Office of...

Mexico’s Jaguar Exploración y Producción CEO Warren Levy believes natural gas is a promising investment opportunity in Mexico, even given current demand and regulatory uncertainty.

Speaking last week at the Institute of the Americas’ La Jolla Conference, which this year was held virtually, Levy said executives at his exploration and production (E&P) firm see “significant upside” for natural gas in Mexico, with prices set to benefit as a result of the ongoing crisis.

In the United States, onshore activity has plunged due to pricing conditions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, with recent rig count declines putting the Baker Hughes Co. rig tally at its lowest level since the company began publishing rig count data back in 1987.

Even as Mexico’s oil production is seen remaining essentially steady through this year at around 1.8 million b/d, U.S. oil production is predicted to plunge to a two-year low and bottom in June at around 10.7...

The dislocations from Covid-19 to global energy demand have led to shut-ins and production cutbacks in the United States, and operators are responding by increasing oil and natural gas hedging into 2021.

Using information from exploration and production (E&P) operators covered by Goldman Sachs, analysts estimated that through March, 47% of 2020 natural gas production was hedged, along with 66% of oil.

“Our update on covered producer hedging on the back of 1Q2020 results suggests an increase in 2020 oil hedging to recent highs, while 2021 liquids/natural gas hedging is above historical averages,” analysts said. “Relative to last quarter, we saw an 18% increase in 2020 oil production hedged,” with 60% of the increase resulting from increased hedges and 40% from lower production because of shut-ins and reduced activity.

For 2020, Goldman’s Henry Hub gas price base case is $2.14/MMBtu, and the base case for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil...