• Petro Resources Corp., Houston, (Amex: PRC) has changed its name to Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. and now trades on Amex as MHR.

Magnum Hunter will remain in Houston and maintain its executive officers, board members, operating base and properties.

The company will also pursue certain unconventional hydrocarbon regions that offer meaningful levels of current production and substantial upside opportunities from the development of low-risk drilling.

Magnum Hunter chairman Gary C. Evans says, “In June 2005, Cimarex Inc. acquired the old Magnum Hunter Resources in a $2.2-billion merger transaction. The Magnum Hunter name carried significant institutional recognition on Wall Street. After the sale of the company, I was able to secure the rights to use the name Magnum Hunter Resources again and have now chosen Petro Resources as the corporate entity to use this brand.”

Evans was founder, chairman and chief executive of the original Magnum Hunter prior to its sale to Cimarex and then formed renewable energy company GreenHunter Energy Inc.,where he is chairman and CEO. He is also chairman and CEO of privately held oil and gas operating company Gruy Petroleum Management LLC Inc.

Evans adds that changing the name of Petro Resources to Magnum Hunter was one of the issues he felt was very important when he joined the company in May, due to the previous 20-year run at the old Magnum Hunter in creating sequentially appreciating shareholder value.

Magnum Hunter has oil and gas assets in the U.S.

People news

• New York-based Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group has named PLS’ Jason P. Reimbold VP, A&D services of The Rodman Energy Group in its Houston office.

• J.P. Morgan’s David Smith has joined Banc of America Securities’ Doug Becker at SMH Capital Markets in Houston covering oilfield services and equipment. They have released their inaugural research reports, covering 26 companies.

Becker, a managing director, joined the firm this spring.

• Houston-based SMH Capital Markets, a broker-dealer and a subsidiary of Sanders Morris Harris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: SMHG) has named David C. Smith vice president and will support institutional equity research coverage of the oil services and equipment sector. He was a research analyst at J.P. Morgan covering oilfield services. Smith was named “Best on the Street” for 2009 in the Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution category by The Wall Street Journal.

He joins managing director Doug Becker in the coverage of the oil services and equipment sector.

The Triad Energy Corp., an Ohio-based company referred to in Company Briefs in the May issue as selling assets as part of Chapter 11 proceedings, is unrelated to Triad Energy Corp. of Houston.

In the July cover story about Wattenberg Field, due to an editing error the number for the decline in the average rig count in the Rockies was omitted. At the time it was about 65%.