A combination of well-hedged E&P companies, replenished balance sheets and cold weather has led to better-than-expected drilling activity. Will this trend continue?

Wells Fargo Securities E&P analysts report oil-industry players are uncharacteristically chatty following a late-2009 discovery well in the oil-prone Niobrara play in the Denver-Julesburg Basin

The current recession’s effect on commodity prices could influence production costs to be lower during a five-year period, suggest Deutsche Bank analysts Michael Lewis and Adam Sieminski.

Bernstein Research analysts believe the U.S. rig count could hit 1,400 this year and expects performance trends to be beneficial for oilfield-service company stocks.

The latest Texas Petro Index reports the contraction in the Texas energy economy has finally began to loosen its grip largely due to a rally of oil prices.

Natural gas consumption will remain flat for the next couple of years, held in check by erosion in power-generation demand while LNG output climbs to an estimated 36 Bcf, says Deutsche Bank research analyst Adam Sieminski.

Bernstein Research analyst Neil McMahon questions whether recent E&P joint-ventures and acquisition targets by integrated oil and gas producers might not have less upside for the buyers than the E&P targets.

Major new pipeline projects will break ground this spring, according to a fourth-quarter 2009 update by Tudor Pickering analyst Becca Followill.

Jefferies has launched an exchange-traded fund that seeks investment results of globally traded equities of companies engaged in the production and distribution of commodities the energy and other sectors.

Global economic growth has turned positive by remains slow and fragile, and more companies are making strategic acquisitions in North American unconventional gas plays.

Five E&P companies have voluntarily relinquished MT acreage near Glacier National Park to be used as a wildlife preserve.