Oil and Gas Investor Magazine - July 2011

Cover Story

Poland

Developing shale gas in Poland is in the early innings. Test wells and seismic surveys are under way, but meaningful production could be years away.

Feature

Eagle Ford Data Points

Operators in this South Texas shale play provide incremental updates.

Going The Distance

Telling retail investors the story in person, while keeping analysts and institutions happy, is no small feat when you represent the biggest exploration and production MLP.

Hill's Focus At Hess

Hess Corp.’s Greg Hill balances conventional and unconventional assets as he seeks growth and returns around the world.

Pioneering Water Management

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is the largest oil and gas operator in Colorado's Raton Basin, where it has been producing coalbed methane (CBM) for years.

Utica Shale

The Utica shale is mighty alluring, and the land rush and early drilling are under way. Will it prove to be the next big play?

At Closing

The Ethane Prize

Royal Dutch Shell Plc fraced half of the Marcellus wet-gas conundrum at press time, announcing it will build a 60,000- to 80,000-barrel-a-day ethane cracker. And, no big transportation deal is necessary: It will build it right there in Appalachia, in the midst of hundreds, and soon to be thousands, of 1,400-plus Btu wells.

Bright Spots

Meet Price Moncrief

Price Moncrief first met up with the Concho Resources Inc. management team when he was an investment banker at JP Morgan. One of his early assignments involved Concho's IPO, which was executed in the summer of 2007.

Capital Markets

The LNG Effect

On May 20, the Department of Energy authorized Cheniere Energy Inc. to export U.S.-produced natural gas from its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana to any country with import capacity.

Company Briefs

Company Briefs

Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) plans to double its position in the South Texas Eagle Ford shale with the acquisition of assets from Hilcorp Resources Holdings LP for $3.5 billion in cash.

Completions

Not So Fast, Shale Gas

Over his 55-year career, Henry Groppe has a reputation for being ahead of the curve, and for being right more often than wrong.

E&P Momentum

Argentina's Neuquen Basin Shales

Argentina's Neuquén Basin is fast becoming a world hotspot for shale exploration, and it is already well known as an area that is rich in tight-gas potential.

Eastern

Eastern U.S. Highlights

1 Crows Point Exploration Ltd., based in Chicago, has scheduled three Silurian wildcats in Cass County, Ill. The #1 Fulton and #1 Votsmeier will be in Section 21-17n-8w and are each permitted to a total depth of 1,300 ft.

From the Editor-in-Chief

Help Wanted

Help wanted. If you're against natural gas drilling, you need not apply.

Gulf Coast

Gulf Coast Highlights

1 Two horizontal Briscoe Ranch-Eagle Ford wells were completed in Webb County (RRC Dist. 4), Texas, by SM Energy Co. The new wells are on a 64,828-acre lease in Section 2182, Joaquin Galan Survey, A-65.

International Highlights

International Highlights

The lower house of the French National Assembly voted in May to ban drilling for shale gas and drilling using hydraulic fracturing.

Legends

Chatting With Charlie Stephenson

Charles C. Stephenson graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1959 with a petroleum engineering degree, and set out to build E&P companies. His latest is Tulsa-based Premier Natural Resources LLC, founded in 2006.

MidContinent & Permian Basin

Midcontinent & Permian Basin

1 Cimarex Energy of Denver reported two Abo-Wolfcamp producers in Section 30-15s-31e, Chaves County, N.M. The #2 Saratoga 30 State Com had an initial daily potential of 150 bbl. of 40.4-degree oil, 284,000 cu. ft. of gas and 98 bbl. of water from an acid- and fracture-treated interval at 8,950-13,193 ft.

NewsWell

Newswell

Development spending in the U.S. by the 50 largest E&P companies, as measured by year-end 2010 reserves, rose 36% in 2010, and exploration spending rose as well.

Trends & Analysis

Oil Vs. Gas Transaction Metrics

Never have natural gas and oil commodity prices been so dramatically decoupled. The 6:1 heating-value relationship has been replaced by roughly a 24:1 thousand cubic foot (Mcf) of gas to barrel of oil ratio.

Western US

Western U.S.

1 V.F. Neuhaus Properties Inc. of Mission, Texas, scheduled a 2,200-ft. wildcat in Railroad Valley, Nev.