17 Years Bringing You News from the Energy Capital of the Planet
 
Author: <span>Shiloh</span>

Super Tuesday Update 11:36 pm

With nearly half of state precincts reporting, Railroad Commission challenger James “Jim” Wright is leading incumbent Ryan Sitton 55% to 45%

Texas Democratic Primary has Joe Biden with 28.4% slightly leading Bernie Sanders with 27.6%

It’s likely Democrat Mary “M. J.’ Hegar will take on Republican incumbent John Cornyn for US Senate — State Sen. Royce West so far garnering fewer than half of Hegar’s number

Mike Bloomberg to reassess campaign after winning only American Samoa caucus: AP
 

Texas Oil and Gas Production Statistics for December 2019: RRC

March 3, 2020

Crude oil and natural gas production as reported to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) for December 2019 came from 174,016 oil wells and 87,595 gas wells.

The RRC reports that from January 2019 to December 2019, total Texas reported production was 1.455 billion barrels of crude oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of total gas. Crude oil production reported by the RRC is limited to oil produced from oil leases and does not include condensate, which is reported separately by the RRC…..
 

Occidental Posts Nearly $1 Billion 2019 Loss, Goes “Skinny-Dipping in a Tsunami:” Denning

Occidental Petroleum said on Friday it lost $965 million (1.22 a share) after amassing $1.3 billion in costs from $38 billion Anadarko acquistion

 

February 28, 2020

Warren Buffett is credited with that old saying about receding tides and embarrassed skinny-dippers. In Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s case, the lack of swimwear is one problem, but so is the anchor tied around its ankle. Part of that anchor is the old sage himself.

Oxy, as it is known, just reported results for its first full quarter since acquiring Anadarko Petroleum Corp. In that bruising takeover battle against Chevron Corp., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. provided a crucial $10 billion check allowing Oxy to avoid a shareholder vote. It came at a steep cost of, among other goodies, an 8% preferred dividend. As it turns out, that was more than enough to swallow Oxy’s adjusted net income for the second half of 2019 before any of it could trickle down to the commoners.

Buffett didn’t get rich by giving stuff away, so the fact Oxy went to him in the first place signaled just how far it was stretching. Back then, things looked dicey already on the trade-war front. But in early 2020, Oxy finds that not only has the tide gone out, it has gone way out, similar to what happens just before a tsunami floods back in. The tsunami is the coronavirus crisis, swamping an already fragile oil and gas market.

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Oil company executives challenge candidates’ energy policy

Oil company executives challenge candidates’ energy policy

 

By Alex Mills

February 27, 2020

Tuesday is Super Tuesday. It is the day when voters in 14 states, including Texas, will go to the ballot box and elect their party’s nominations for public office.

The Democrat Party in each state will select delegates in support of their candidate for President to challenge President Donald Trump in November. With 1,617 delegates at stake on Tuesday, it is the largest allocation during the primary season.

The leading candidates for the Democratic nomination – Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden – have been very critical of the oil and gas industry. Their comments include limiting drilling, banning hydraulic fracturing, and even criminal prosecution of oil company executives for release of greenhouse gases.

Their comments have caught the attention of the oil industry, and 54 oil and gas company executives cosigned an open letter that appeared as an advertisement in The New York Times on Feb. 24…..
 

Pacific Northwest To Pioneer Excess Regional Clean Energy Sale to California

By Ralph Cavanaugh

 

February 26, 2020

Can a utility in one region buy some of the pollution-free electricity that a utility in another region saves when its customers improve their energy efficiency? We’re about to find out. And if this effort succeeds, it will be a groundbreaking clean energy transaction between the Pacific Northwest and California, benefitting all involved.

There is now a proposal to send to California electricity produced in the Pacific Northwest but not needed there because its customers exceeded energy savings targets established by regional planners to ensure adequate Northwest power supplies. This would be the nation’s first interregional transfer of carbon-free electricity made available as a result of savings from energy efficiency measures such as building and appliance upgrades. Electricity flows across transmission lines between states and regions all the time, but this will be the first long-term sale derived exclusively from verified energy efficiency gains…..