Texas Business reports:  Development of oil and natural gas in the Eagle Ford Shale contributed $25 billion in total economic output to the region in 2011, according to a study released by the Center for Community and Business Research at The University of Texas at San Antonio Institute for Economic Development.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Apache Corporation  completed its previously announced acquisition of Cordillera Energy Partners III LLC, a privately held company with operations and acreage across the prolific Granite Wash, Tonkawa, Cleveland and Marmaton plays in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Apache Corporation completed its previously announced acquisition of Cordillera Energy Partners III  LLC, a privately held company with operations and acreage across the Granite Wash, Tonkawa, Cleveland and Marmaton plays in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. 

Texas Business reports: FRISCO, Texas—Comstock Resources Inc. completed the previously announced divestiture of certain oil and gas properties located in Tyler and Polk counties in South Texas and Lincoln Parish in North Louisiana.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—An Atwood Oceanics Inc.’s subsidiary won a drilling services contract by a subsidiary of Noble Energy Inc. for the Atwood Hunter for three firm wells with a minimum total duration of 150 days plus one option well.

 Texas Business reports:  A Texas region containing four of the world's largest wind farms showed an increase in land surface temperature over nine years that researchers have connected to local meteorological effects of the turbines.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—FMC Technologies Inc. acquired the remaining 55% of the outstanding shares of Schilling Robotics LLC.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Aztec Oil & Gas Inc. announced that Aztec Drilling & Operating LLC, the turnkey operator for all Aztec partnerships, signed a contract for the drilling of more than 100 additional wells with working interest partner and field contract sub-operator, Texas Secondary Oil Company (TSOC).

Waste Control Specialists employees dispose of low-level radioactive waste at a facility in Fernalt, Ohio. A new low-level radiation landfill run by WCS will soon open in Andrews County. WCS Photo.

In a sparsely populated corner of West Texas near the New Mexico border, a private company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build the nation’s newest radioactive waste disposal facility. 

 The Environmental Protection Agency issued the first-ever national air pollution regulations for fracking on Wednesday. First proposed in July 2011, the final rules have been welcomed by environmental groups as a much-needed initial move in reducing pollution and protecting public health from the toxic chemicals involved in the oil and natural gas drilling process. But many cautioned it was just a first step.

Texas Business reports:  An estimated $60 million in early restoration projects soon will begin along the Gulf Coast following the nation’s largest oil spill, the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustee Council announced.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON and KEMAH, Texas—Delta Seaboard International Inc. and American International Industries Inc. sold Delta's wholly-owned subsidiary, Delta Seaboard Well Service, Inc. to Delta Seaboard LLC, ( Delta LLC) an entity controlled by Delta president Robert Derrick, Jr. and Delta vice president Ron Burleigh.

Texas Business reports:  A San Antonio firm won a $36.3 million military aviation fuel contract, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Bureau Veritas signed an agreement to acquire TH Hill, a worldwide leader in oil & gas drilling failure prevention and analysis services. The transaction is expected to be completed in April, upon clearance by the relevant authorities.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN - Nearly 1,200 loaded trucks are needed to bring just one gas well into production— the traffic equivalent to roughly 8 million cars.

Texas Business reports:  THE WOODLANDS, Texas—Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP will expand the Natural Gas Liquids  Fractionator Complex at its Sweeny Plant in Old Ocean, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—The UTSA College of Architecture and UTSA Institute for Economic Development (IED) will jointly release to the public in April the full version of a long-anticipated Eagle Ford Shale housing study.

Texas Business reports: THE WOODLANDS—TETRA Technologies Inc.’s subsidiary, TETRA Investments Company U.K. Limited, acquired Optima Solutions Holdings Limited ( Optima ) for GBP 40 million (approximately $62.7 million equivalent) plus contingent consideration to be paid in the future depending on profitability.

 Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—American Electric Technologies Inc., a supplier of power delivery solutions for traditional and renewable energy industries, acquired the technology of Amnor TechnologiesInc. of Shepherd, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Insight is leading a $165 million equity investment in Drilling Info, the Austin-based data intelligence provider to the oil and gas industries.  

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—LINN Energy LLC, signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire properties located in East Texas for a contract price of $175 million, subject to closing conditions.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation will undertake a joint venture with Williams Partners LP to develop and construct a large diameter pipeline, specifically designed to transport Cabot's Marcellus production to both the New England and New York markets.

Texas Business reports:  Global information and analytics provider IHS has granted a software license worth an estimated $4.4 million over three years to UT Arlington’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, giving students and professors access to the latest in petroleum industry technology.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Blue Dolphin Energy Company, an independent oil and gas company,  closed its acquisition of Lazarus Energy LLC. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Copano Energy LLC will extend its wholly-owned 96-mile, 24-inch DK Pipeline in the Eagle Ford Shale play by adding approximately 65 miles of 24-inch pipeline southwest into McMullen County, Texas, which will allow Copano to access significant new Eagle Ford volumes. 

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—A subsidiary of Atwood Oceanics Inc. won a drilling services contract by Shemen Oil and Gas Resources Ltd., an Israel-based oil and gas company, for the Atwood Beacon.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN, Texas — A systematic analysis of power usage in microprocessors could help lower the energy consumption of both small cellphones and giant data centers, report computer science professors from The University of Texas at Austin and the Australian National University.

Texas Business reports:  CORPUS CHRISTI—Uranium Energy Corp completed a second uranium sale which will be reflected in the company's upcoming fiscal 2012 Q2 report. 

Texas Business reports: IRVING—Pinnacle Propane LLC, a provider of propane and refined fuels in the southwestern United States, acquired Bill Smith Butane of Marble Falls, Texas. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Global NuTech  Inc. acquired 100% of the stock of Houston-based Texas Gulf Oil & Gas Inc.

Texas Business reports:  2011 continued the upward trend in oil prices, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Texas Business reports:  CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas & VANCOUVER, BC—Uranium Energy Corp. and Cue Resources Ltd reached an agreement in which UEC will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of CUE.

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm won a $65.9 million contract for aviation fuel, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  AMARILLO—enXco, an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company, and Cielo Wind Power LP announced that enXco signed a purchase agreement to acquire from a Cielo affiliate the development assets for the Spinning Spur Wind Project.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Global NuTech Inc. signed a letter of intent to acquire Texas Gulf Oil & Gas Inc, located in Houston. 

Texas Business reports:  BORGER—Mercuria Energy Trading Inc., based in Chicago, has developed a terminal to ship crude oil on the Panhandle Northern Railway (PNR), which operates on 31 miles of track between the towns of Panhandle and Borger, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Energy Transfer Partners LP closed its previously announced agreement with AmeriGas Partners LP to sell its propane operations, consisting of Heritage Operating LP and Titan Energy Partners LP in exchange for approximately $2.85 billion.

Texas Business reports:  FORT WORTH—VHGI Holdings Inc.’s wholly-owned subsidiary, VHGI Coal Inc. agreed to buy all of the capital stock of Lily Group Inc.  from Paul R. Risinger, the sole shareholder of Lily Group. 

Texas Business reports:  OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—Ferrellgas Partners LP, a propane retailers, acquired Rio Grande Valley Gas Inc. of Edinburg, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Costar Midstream LLC acquired more than 500 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, three cryogenic gas processing plants and associated compression and treating assets located in East Texas in a four county area near Longview.

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—Pioneer Drilling Company acquired Go-Coil LLC, a Louisiana limited liability company for approximately $110 million in cash.  

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Oceaneering International Inc. won a three-year Field Support Vessel Services contract from BP PLC.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Glori Energy signed a field implementation contract with Brazil's Petrobras. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Oilfield Instrumentation (OI), which provides real-time drilling instrumentation and engineering laboratories, and sister company Advanced Building Services (ABS), a provider of custom well-site accommodations, will open its second service center in the Eagle Ford shale fields January 15. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON and TULSA, Oklahoma—Copano Energy LLC and Magellan Midstream Partners LP formed a joint venture to deliver Eagle Ford Shale condensate to Corpus Christi.

Texas Business reports: EL PASO—Western Refining Inc. closed on the sale of its Yorktown, Virginia facilities and a segment of its crude oil pipeline in southeast New Mexico to Plains Marketing LP and Plains Pipeline LP, both subsidiaries of Plains All American Pipeline LP, for approximately $220 million.

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—EnerJex Resources Inc., a domestic onshore oil company,   formed a general partnership named "Rantoul Partners" in order to develop the company's Rantoul Project assets located in Eastern Kansas. 

Texas Business reports:  Sugar Land—CVR Energy Inc completed its acquisition of Gary-Williams Energy Corporation and its Wynnewood, Okla., refinery and related assets.

Texas Business reports:  A New Braunfels firm won a $1 billion federal aviation fuel contract, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm won a $99.8 million contract for military fuel, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

 Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Starting in February 2012, the Petroleum Extension Service, a component of the Division of Continuing and Innovative Education at The University of Texas at Austin, expands its Professional Land Management Certificate Program to Oklahoma City.

Texas Business reports:  HYDERABAD, India—Houston-based Energy Solutions International (ESI) announced that Gujarat State Petronet Limited (GSPL) decided to expand its deployment of PipelineStudio. 

Texas Business reports:  Graphene's star is rising as a material that could become essential to efficient, environmentally sound oil production. Rice University researchers are taking advantage of graphene's outstanding strength, light weight and solubility to enhance fluids used to drill oil wells. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—ATWOOD OCEANICS INC., announced one of its subsidiaries won a drilling services contract by a subsidiary of Bowleven PLC for the Atwood Aurora. 

Texas Business reports:  FORT WORTH—VHGI Holdings Inc.’s wholly-owned operating company, VGHI Coal Inc., extended its binding letter of intent until January 30, 2012, to purchase, an Indiana-based company whose sole operations consists of operating a coal mine in Indiana. 

Texas Business reports: ALICE—Forbes Energy Services Ltd.  and certain of the company's subsidiaries entered into a purchase agreement with Dirivera Investments LLC and RGV Holding S.A. de C.V. covering the sale of substantially all of Forbes Energy's assets currently located in Mexico as well as the company's equity interests in Forbes Energy Services Mexico Servicios de Personal, S. de R.L. de C.V. for aggregate cash consideration of $30 million.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Hunt Global Resources Inc. plans to build a 1-Million ton per year frac-sand mining and processing facility on its 350-acre site, located in Conroe Texas.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Regency Energy Partners will build a processing facility in Ward County, Texas, to process natural gas delivered from the liquids-rich Bone Spring and Avalon Shale formations.

Texas Business reports:  GRAPEVINE—GreenHunter Water, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of GreenHunter Energy Inc. completed the purchase of new equipment assets to be used to service a new long term contract to haul and dispose produced water for several major oil companies that control significant mineral leasehold acreage positions in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Texas American Resources Company completed its first operated Eagle Ford well, the Haug-Kieschnick 33-102H, with a 30-day average initial production rate of 599 Boepd (barrels of oil equivalent per day).

Texas Business reports:  THE WOODLANDS—Newfield Exploration Company signed a crude oil supply agreement with Tesoro Corporation to provide 18,000 barrels per day of supply capacity at Tesoro's refinery in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC (DKRW) of Houston, announced its wholly owned subsidiary, Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC (MBFP), entered into a contract with Vitol Inc.,whereby Vitol would purchase 100 percent of the gasoline produced from MBFP's industrial gasification and liquefaction facility located near Medicine Bow, Wyoming. 

Texas Business reports:  THE WOODLANDS— Excelerate Energy LP. completed its 200th commercial  Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer of LNG in Escobar, Argentina at the GNL Escobar LNG import facility. 

Texas Business reports:  Despite aggressive demand-management policies announced in recent years, China’s oil use could easily reach levels comparable to today’s U.S. levels by 2040, according to a new energy study by the Baker Institute.

Texas Business reports:  Kansas-based Ferrellgas Partners LP acquired Welch Propane, a retail propane company based in northeast Texas.

Texas Business reports: American Standard Energy Corp.  agreed to acquire oil and gas operator Cross Border Resources Inc. which provides that American Standard Energy Corp. has the right to enter into such a transaction with Cross Border Resources Inc., between November 22, 2011 and January 31, 2012. 

Tad Patzek

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Not one error but a series of miscommunications and mismanagement from all parties at all levels caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster, aggravated by the world’s relentless demand for energy, according to a new book released by Tad Patzek, chair of the department of petroleum and geosystems Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, and co-author Joseph A. Tainter, a professor in the department of environment and society at Utah State University. 

Texas Business reports:  CALGARY, ALBERTA and HOUSTON—Enbridge Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. ( Enterprise)  agreed to reverse the direction of crude oil flows on the Seaway pipeline to enable it to transport oil from Cushing, Oklahoma to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Calvin Tillman used to be mayor of Dish, Texas, a place so commerce-friendly that it renamed itself in exchange for free satellite television service for its 200 residents. Before his term ended, he moved to another town, Aubrey, because his children were getting nosebleeds. Tillman thinks the culprit is the growing presence of natural gas industry in Dish, and now he’s crusading against the industry that is the financial backbone of Dish.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Mogul Energy International Inc. announced the completion of the Stafford Well #2 as a new Frio aged discovery sand in the La Ward NE Field area in Jackson County, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  STOCKTON, England—Houston’s Energy Solutions International, (ESI) announced that Hong Kong Electric (HEC) has selected ESI’s PipelineManager for deployment as part of its extension to the Lamma Island natural gas system.

Texas Business reports:  Seattle’s GeoBio Energy Inc. bought Houston-based El Gas North America  LLC. 

Construction begins on a new solar array field that will be built on a four-acre lot in Liberty Village on Fort Hood, Texas. Photo by Christine Luciano, Fort Hood

FORT HOOD, Texas - Fort Hood and Universal Services Fort Hood Inc., officials broke ground on a solar field that will provide one million kilowatt-hours, approximately 20 percent of renewable energy annually for 300 single-family homes. 

Texas Business reports: FORT WORTH, Texas — Preliminary findings from a study on the use of hydraulic fracturing in shale gas development suggest no direct link to reports of groundwater contamination, according to the project leader at The University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.

Texas Business reports:  SIERRA BLANCA, Texas—Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp. a heavy rare earths exploration and development company, announced that its supplementary operating plan to expand exploration activities at the Round Top project has been approved by the Texas General Land Office (GLO).

Texas Business reports:  IRVING—Fluor Corporation acquired Goar, Allison & Associates, a unit of Air Products.

A federal energy panel issued a blunt warning to shale gas drillers and their regulators today, saying they need to step up efforts to protect public health and the environment or risk a backlash that stifles further development.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first Texas Greenhouse Gas (GHG) permit for the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) Thomas C. Ferguson Power Plant in Llano County, Texas. 

Texas Business reports:  GRAPEVINE—GreenHunter Water LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of GreenHunter Energy  Inc.   secured a significant new order to provide equipment rental and services which include 30 new frac storage tanks to an independent oil and gas operator active in the Eagle Ford Shale drilling region of South Texas.

Texas Business reports:  CORPUS CHRISTI—Uranium Energy Corp. entered into a property purchase agreement with three Paraguayan companies  in which the company's Paraguayan subsidiary proposes to acquire, subject to a gross overriding royalty, a 100 percent legal and beneficial interest in and to a total of six unencumbered prospecting permits covering approximately 740,000 acres which are located in the area of Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay.  

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Aztec Oil & Gas Inc. reached an agreement, through its associate, Resaca Resources LLC with GulfMark Energy Inc. as the new oil gatherer for wells in Liberty County, Texas. 

Texas Business reports:  SACUL—Southern Company received its first fuel load delivery at the Nacogdoches Generating Facility owned by its subsidiary Southern Power in eastern Texas. 

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Direct Energy, one of North America's largest competitive energy and energy-related services providers, has finalized its acquisition of residential and commercial energy retailer First Choice Power for $270 million in cash, plus additional working capital.

Texas Business reports:  Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. is expanding further its crude oil pipeline distribution capabilities in the Houston area to deliver domestic crude oil and condensate transported via third-party pipeline systems from the Eagle Ford Shale production area directly to local refineries.

Texas Business reports: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved penalties totaling $934,026 against 66 regulated entities for violations of state environmental regulations.

Texas Business reports: EL PASO—SolFocus and its solar developer partner Solar Smart Living, completed a 53 kW concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) installation which will be owned by El Paso Electric.

Texas Business reports: San Antonio—Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) recently acquired an extended range electric vehicle to include its batteries in the Energy Storage System Evaluation and Safety (EssEs) Consortium. Information obtained through evaluation of the batteries will be included in the EssEs database that is available to all members.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Aztec Oil & Gas, Inc  reached an agreement with Texas Secondary Oil Company ("TSOC") to install a cooperative waterflood in Medina County, Texas, involving hundreds of jointly and separately owned wells.

Texas Business reports:  GAINESVILLE—Wind Energy Services Company (WES), a provider of composite repair and maintenance services for wind farm operations,  established partnering agreements with three turbine component manufacturing facilities, all entities of the Molded Fiber Glass Companies.

Texas Business reports:  Duke Energy announced agreements with Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to provide wind turbines for the two phases of Duke Energy's Los Vientos Windpower Project in Willacy County, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  LEWISVILLE—Uranium Resources Inc.  announced the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reactivated its Source Materials License to conduct in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium mining in McKinley County, New Mexico.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Atwood Oceanics Inc. announced that earlier this month,  Alpha Eagle Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atwood Oceanics Inc.,  entered into a turnkey construction contract with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co.  Ltd., (DSME) to construct an ultra-deepwater drillship, to be named the Atwood Achiever, at the DSME yard in South Korea. 

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Brigham Exploration Company and Norway’s  Statoil ASA   entered into a definitive merger agreement for Statoil ASA to acquire Brigham Exploration Company for US$36.50 per share by means of an all-cash tender offer for all of the issued and outstanding shares of Brigham Exploration Company.

Texas Business reports:  IRVING— Fluor Corporation committed to making an investment exceeding $30 million in NuScale Power LLC., an Oregon-based small modular reactor   technology company.

Texas Business reports:  MIDLAND—STW Resources Holding Corp., a water reclamation services company,   executed a joint venture agreement with CK Investments Energy Company, a Texas corporation to commission a proprietary brackish/produced water processing facility in the Permian and Delaware Basins of West Texas.

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Milagro Oil & Gas Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Milagro Producing, LLC, completed the purchase of certain South Texas producing assets.

Texas Business reports: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Record of Decision (ROD) that – along with a signed cooperative agreement – will allow federal funding to be used to help build one of the world’s most advanced and environmentally clean coal-based power plants.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—International energy company Statoil and the University of Texas at Austin signed an agreement providing the university with an annual funding of $1 million for 5 years.

Texas Business reports:  A San Antonio firm won a $37 million contract change to supply aviation fuel, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia 

Texas Business reports: AUSTIN, Texas — Shell and The University of Texas at Austin signed a five-year agreement to invest $7.5 million to address short- and long-term challenges facing the growing worldwide unconventional oil and gas industry.

Texas Business reports:  SOCHI, Russia—Rosneft and ExxonMobil reached an agreement under which the companies plan to undertake joint exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources in Russia, the United States and other countries throughout the world, and commence technology and expertise sharing activities.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Vitol Midstream LLC, a member of the Vitol Group ("Vitol") and Blueknight Energy Partners LP entered into agreements for the construction and operation of a new crude oil terminal in Midland, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  In a biotechnological tour de force, Rice University engineering researchers this week unveiled a new method for rapidly converting simple glucose into biofuels and petrochemical substitutes.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Baker Hughes and Intertek are expanding the global reach of an alliance established to provide chemical additives and treatment services for fuels, petroleum products and crude oil cargos.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Glenn W. Reed, Jarvis Moore and TPH Partners, L.P. announced they jointly formed Clearfork Resources LLC (Clearfork), an independent oil and natural gas company headquartered in Fort Worth.

A 24-year-old EPA report uncovered this week adds to a list of examples of how water supplies are polluted in natural gas drilling areas. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)

For years the drilling industry has steadfastly insisted that there has never been a proven case in which fracking has led to contamination of drinking water. Now Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization engaged in the debate over the safety of fracking, has unearthed a 24-year-old case study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that unequivocally says such contamination has occurred. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Plains All American Pipeline LP recently increased the available throughput capacity of the 80-mile Mesa Pipeline System by approximately 100,000 barrels per day to approximately 420,000 barrels per day.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Baker Baker Hughes  completed its first unconventional hydrocarbon shale hydraulic fracturing and stimulation project in Argentina for YPF in the Neuquén basin.

 Texas Business reports:  ARLINGTON - The University of Texas at Arlington will make going green a little easier for motorists with the addition of a free public charging station for electric vehicles.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Blue Dolphin Energy Company signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Nixon Crude Processing Facility from a privately-held company in an all stock transaction.

Texas Business reports:  Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia’s ability to wield an “energy weapon” over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades, according to a new Baker Institute study.

Texas Business reports:  Seattle’s GeoBio Energy Inc. signed an agreement to buy Lary Archer & Associates Inc. of Weatherford.

After millions of gallons of crude gushed into the Gulf during last year’s oil spill, the disaster triggered a continuing blame gamebetween BP and its many contractors. It also got regulators pondering the need for expanding oversight to such contractors. Currently, operators of off-shore rigs are subject to safety regulations, but regulators don't have direct oversight of the contractors that work for those operators. 

 Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—The University of Texas at Austin reached an agreement with Canada-based Hydro-Quebec for lithium-ion material technology invented and patented by John Goodenough, a scientist at the university.

 Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—As the energy boom continues, Geokinetics Inc. secured work valued at approximately $165 million for several new projects and extensions to current projects in the Latin America, Asia-Pacific, EAME and North America regions.

Killifish

Texas Business reports:  Texas Tech researchers received a $115,000 grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative in a joint research project with Tulane University to collect samples of a common bait fish a year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Deep Down Inc., an oilfield services company specializing in complex deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil production distribution system support services, completed the assembly and test running of a 3,200 MT carousel located at Core Industries near Mobile, Alabama, and has recently been awarded two more large carousel contracts in excess of $8 million. 

 Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—Pioneer Drilling Company Inc entered into an amendment and restatement of its existing credit agreement.  The amended and restated credit agreement provides the company with a $250 million, five-year, senior secured revolving credit facility.

Texas Business reports:  BEAUMONT—Coastal Caverns Inc. (CCI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vitol Group, today announced plans to develop a new propane export facility in conjunction with its LPG storage facility that is currently under development on the historic Spindletop dome in Beaumont.

Texas Business reports:  LEWISVILLE—Uranium Resources Inc began exploratory drilling on the 54,847 acres in Kenedy County, Texas, known as Los Finados Project.  

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm wins a $43.9 million defense contract to provide natural gas.

Energy companies have spent the last couple of years fighting off added government regulation, saying red tape is slowing development.

But recent data show that the pace of drilling is just short of the 20-year high it reached before the recession. Gas drilling has dropped off as the price of natural gas has stayed low, but high oil prices (and the widening price gap between oil and gas) have spurred enough oil drilling to more than make up the difference.

Texas Business reports:  New Jersey-based PSEG Power LLC, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group today announced that it has agreed to the sale of its remaining Texas generating asset.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Energy Transfer Partners  LP and Regency Energy Partners LP  announced that Lone Star NGL LLC will construct an approximately 530-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that extends from Winkler County in west Texas to the Jackson County processing plant in Jackson County, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  San Antonio—Summit Power Group’s Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) will enter into a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the country’s largest municipally owned natural gas and electric utility, CPS Energy. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Oil States International, announced its Oil States Industries subsidiary has been awarded a contract from Subsea 7 to supply 27 FlexJoint  Steel Catenary Riser (SCR) terminations and 40 receptacle assemblies for the Guara and Lula NE oilfields in Brazil.

Texas Business reports:  Over the past year, five states have begun requiring energy companies to disclose some of the chemicals they pump into the ground to extract oil and gas using the process of hydraulic fracturing.

 Texas Business reports:  Oklahoma’s Laredo Petroleum, LLC ("Laredo") and Dallas-based Broad Oak Energy  Inc. entered into definitive agreements whereby Broad Oak will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Laredo in exchange for aggregate consideration of approximately $1 billion.

Texas Business reports:  IRVING—Breitling Oil and Gas Corporation, an independent exploration and production company based in Irving, announced that it has spud the Breitling-Sandy Run #1 prospect in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Goodrich Petroleum Corporation purchased leases totaling approximately 74,000 net acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale oil trend in Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Texas Business:  Houston—Harvest Natural Resources  Inc. discovered oil in the wildcat well Dussafu Ruche Marin-1 (DRM-1) drilled in the Dussafu Marin PSC, in the offshore waters of Gabon, West Africa. 

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Chevron U.S.A. Inc. awarded Baker Hughes  a contract to supply electrical submersible pumping (ESP) systems and production packers for seven producing wells, plus mud line packers for three injection wells for their Gulf of Mexico deepwater Big Foot Project.

 Texas Business reports:  Houston—VAALCO Enegy Inc. announced a purchase from a privately held company of a 70% working interest in 5,214 acres in Sheridan County, Montana.  The acreage directly adjoins the Flat Lake Field which successfully produces from the Middle Bakken formation.

Texas Business reports:  Arlington—The University of Texas at Arlington announced a licensing agreement with 1st Resource Group Inc. of Fort Worth to commercialize a new, efficient process for converting natural gas to clean, synthetic fuel at a cost lower than current market rates.

Texas Business reports:  Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire 100 percent of StarTex Power, a Houston retail electric provider with approximately 170,000 customers.

Texas Business reports:  McDermott International Inc. announced that one of its subsidiaries was won a contract by PEMEX Exploración y Producción for procurement, construction and installation of three oil and gas pipelines ranging from 8 to 20 inches in diameter, in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche. 

From an Exxon Mobil ad that ran in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

ExxonMobil has been running a series of ads aimed at assuring people that shale gas drilling is safe. One of those ads, a full-page spread in Monday's New York Times and Washington Post, shows what a well looks like as it extends more than a mile and a half beneath the surface. It includes a close-up of the layers of steel and cement that are supposed to protect the surrounding earth from the gas and fluids inside the well pipe.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Harvest Natural Resources Inc. completed the previously announced sale of HNR's oil and gas assets in Utah's Uinta Basin to an affiliate of Newfield Exploration Company  for $215.0 million in cash.  

Texas Business reports:  San Antonio—Pioneer Drilling Company Inc. announced that it has executed three multi-year term contracts for new-build rigs, in addition to the new-build contract announced on May 5.

Photo by Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica

For years the natural gas drilling industry has decried the lack of data that could prove—or disprove—that drilling can cause drinking water contamination. Only baseline data, they said, could show without a doubt that water was clean before drilling began.

Texas Business reports:  Tenaris S.A., a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Luxembourg, has agreed to pay a $3.5 million penalty for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and has entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

An old well pump sits idle off Hwy 287 in East Texas. Photo by Ray Bodden.

There appear to be sweeping changes on the way for the Railroad Commission of Texas.

Texas Business reports:  San Antonio—Here Enterprises Inc., a developer of wind energy, is moving forward with its objective of generating profitable and clean wind energy at its Cycle Ranch project in Floresville, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  A Tyler firm won a $24 million defense fuel contract, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  A Dallas firm won a $35.6 million aviation fuel contract, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  The Woodlands—Huntsman Corporation and Wilmar International Limited reached an agreement for Wilmar to build a state-of-the-art natural alcohol plant at Huntsman's chemical site in Rozenburg (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), and to supply natural alcohols to Huntsman. 

Texas Business reports:  Humble—CDI Seals, an oil and gas technology maker, bought Multiseals Pte Ltd located in Singapore in a strategic move to expand its markets.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 817 this week, up one from last week, and up 174 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

University of Texas at Austin collaborators Meryl Stoller, Yanwu Zhu and Rodney Ruoff stand with a 3-D model of the new carbon material they have created.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering have created a new porous, three-dimensional carbon that can be used as a greatly enhanced supercapacitor, holding promise for energy storage in everything from energy grids and electric cars to consumer electronics.

Texas Business reports:  Rice University engineering students have constructed a portable disaster-relief shelter on campus, and their adviser was so confident in their work that he moved in.

Texas Business reports:  Dallas—Energy Transfer Partners L.P. and Regency Energy Partners LP  announced that Lone Star NGL LLC, the joint venture that acquired the midstream assets of Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy, will construct a 100,000-barrel per day natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation facility at Mont Belvieu, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Former Houston gas trader Stephanie Roqumore has been sentenced by United States District Judge Lynn N. Hughes six years in federal prison without parole for defrauding numerous natural gas trading companies of nearly $8 million, United States José Angel Moreno announced. 

 Texas Business reports:  A San Antonio firm won a $109 million contract to supply aviation fuel, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  The Chinese are moving into West Texas wind power.

 Texas Business reports:  Next Generation Energy Corp. acquired a royalty interest in an existing, producing natural gas and oil property located in the Permian Basin, Tri-Rue (Reef) Field, in Scurry County, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—A research team at The University of Texas at Austin will conduct a comprehensive review of the science, policy and environmental issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing of shale gas. 

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) of India awarded Baker Hughes a five-year contract to provide drilling and evaluation services and to manage third-party services for the Platinum Explorer drillship.

Texas Business reports:  As the controversy over the environmental impact of “fracing” continues, a Houston firm introduces a fracturing fluid system with what it calls “environmentally responsible chemistry.

Texas Business reports:  Irving—Breitling Oil and Gas Corporation, an independent exploration and production company based in Irving , has spud the Breitling-Salsa #1 in San Patricio County, Texas as it continues to develop its "Gulf Coast Onshore Initiative" that began in May 2010. 

 Texas Business reports:  Houston—Harvest Natural Resources commended   commenced drilling operations on the Ruche Marin-A exploration well located in the offshore waters of Gabon, West Africa. 

Largest solar photovoltaic system near Austin to be operational by year end.

Texas Business reports: Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV)  closed financing and began construction on the 30 megawatt (MW) Webberville Solar project just outside of Austin.

Texas Business reports:  Carrollton—Universal Power Group Inc., a Texas-based distributor and supplier of batteries and related power accessories, acquired for $3.3 million the assets and business of Progressive Technologies Inc. (PTI), a North Carolina-based battery pack manufacturer specializing in lithium-ion battery packs.

 Texas Business reports: Houston—W&T Offshore Inc. (entered into a purchase and sale agreement with private sellers to acquire approximately 21,900 gross leasehold acres (21,500 net acres) in the West Texas Permian Basin for a purchase price of $366 million, subject to adjustments and an effective date of January 1, 2011. 

Texas Business reports:  Carrollton’s Varel International and NewTech Services (NTS) announce the creation of a 50-50 joint venture company focused on manufacturing, assembling, servicing and sales of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) oil and gas drill bits for the Russian CIS market and beyond.

Texas Business reports:  Houston’s KBR won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by KiOR Inc. (KiOR) to build what is claimed to be first-of-its-kind biomass-to-renewable crude facility to be located in Columbus, Mississippi.

Copano Energy

 Texas Business reports:  Houston—Copano Energy LLC, plans to expand processing facilities at its Houston Central complex, located in Colorado County, Texas, in response to producer demand in the rapidly developing Eagle Ford Shale play. 

Treaty Energy

Texas Business reports: Treaty Energy Corporation, an oil and gas company, announced it acquired two additional leases in Texas, the Shotwell WF and the Shotwell C leases.

U.S. Patent 7,874,381: Pneumatic line deicing system

Texas Business reports:  A Longview man recently received a patent for a method to deice pneumatic lines on drilling rigs.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Bionic Products Inc. plans to buy Texas Oil and Minerals Inc., an oil and minerals exploration and drilling company operational in the Southwest and active in operations in acquiring oil and gas leases.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Nuevo Midstream, LLC secured a $65 million equity commitment to support formation of the company.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—R360 Environmental Solutions Inc. bought a fresh water and caliche sales depot near Stanton, Texas where it will begin the development of a new Total Recycling Center situated to serve the Permian Basin's Wolfberry trend.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—The Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) announced that Statoil has joined as a member.

Texas Business reports:  Denton—A Dallas firm is designing what is claimed to be the first alternative energy system for a college football stadium. 

Texas Business: Houston—Genesis Energy L.P. entered into several agreements and commenced work to expand its crude oil pipeline and terminaling capabilities in the upper Texas coast and to expand its refinery services operating footprint with a new sour gas processing facility.

Texas Business reports:  TXU Energy plans to install 70 electric vehicle charging locations  in Dallas/Fort Worth and 50 in Houston by the end of 2012 with half in place in the eVgo Network by this summer, officials announced.

 Texas Business reports:  Houston—As China continues to clamp down on the world’s supply of rare earth minerals, a Texas firm is searching for more sources in the Trans-Pecos region of  West Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Dubai’s LMKR, a global geoscience technology and consulting services provider focused on resolving the challenges associated with unconventional oil and gas exploration and production, formed a strategic partnership with Houston’s Object Reservoir, a provider of reservoir analysis services and technology to the exploration and production industry.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—Competition for oil and gas leases on Permanent School Fund lands in West Texas earned more than $108 million for the Permanent School Fund, a total that’s more than twice the previous record set in 1979.

Texas Business reports:  DeWind Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd  acquired the rights for the 20 MW Frisco wind project, located in the northern-most portion of Hansford County, Texas, from  developer Distributed Wind Systems LLC, of Guymon, Oklahoma.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Ontility plans to open one of the largest solar products distribution centers in the solar industry next month.

Texas Business reports:  Koch Pipeline Company L.P. plans to build a crude oil pipeline from Pettus, Texas to Corpus Christi to move more Eagle Ford production.

Texas Business reports:  Houston and Kemah—American International Industries  Inc. announced that it received an offer of $15 million to purchase the 287 acres owned by the company located in Galveston County.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. reported that for the month of March 2011, the company had an average of 208 drilling rigs operating, including 195 rigs in the United States and 13 rigs in Canada. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 791 this week, up 21 from last week, and up 163 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—Littlefield Corporation signed a mineral lease which allows for the exploration and production of oil and gas on its Ambler Bingo property in Abilene.

Texas Business reports:  San Antonio—NuStar Logistics L.P. and TexStar Midstream Services  LP today announced that they have signed a letter of intent to develop a new pipeline system to transport Eagle Ford Shale crude and condensate to Corpus Christi.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 770 this week, up four from last week, and up 147 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which initiated controversial rolling blackouts in early February, released the final list of forced outages during last month’s severe weather event.

Texas Business reports:  Amarillo—Exterra Energy Inc. gave an update on its intent to merge with a qualified merger candidate.

M. Karen Newell Rogers

Texas Business reports:  Cancer research leads to new fuel?

That's what an energy company claims.  A surgical research professor with Texas A&M and Scott  and White Hospital in Temple discovered a process that will be used in commercial biofuels production.

Texas Business reports:  Exterran Holdings Inc. and Exterran Partners L.P. announced that the underwriters of the previously announced secondary offering by Exterran Holdings of 5,250,000 common units representing limited partner interests in Exterran Partners at $28.65 per common unit, which closed on March 4, 2011, partially exercised their over-allotment option and purchased an additional 664,466 common units.

Texas Business reports:  Midland—A Midland firm has contracted with an Oklahoma company to increase its stake in the Deleware Basin mineral interests of Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Aztec Oil & Gas Inc. announced  a completion in the Upper Gulf Coast, located in southern Karnes County.

Texas Business reports:  Midland—Dawson Geophysical Company and TGC Industries Inc.  entered into a merger agreement dated March 20, 2011 whereby Dawson will acquire TGC in a tax-free stock-for-stock transaction.  

Texas Business reports:  A Midland firm won an $11 million federal fuel contract.

Texas Business reports:  A Plano firm won two contracts tototing a $53 million contract to supply fuel to federal government agencies and military.

Texas Business reports: Houston—A Houston firm will buy carbon dioxide captured from a gasification and liquefaction firm in Wyoming.

South Texas Project

Texas Business reports:  Nuclear Innovation North America LLC (NINA), the nuclear development company jointly owned by NRG Energy Inc. and Toshiba Corporation is reducing the scope of development units 3 and 4 at the South Texas Project   expansion to allow time for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and other nuclear stakeholders to assess the lessons that can be learned from the events in Japan.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Mainland Resources Inc. received data that supports both higher adsorbed and free gas in place relative to previously reported volumes of gas in place on its Burkley Phillips No. 1 Well in Jefferson County, Mississippi.

Ward County

Texas Business reports: An Arizona firm bought several energy properties in Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Valero Energy Corporation will buy Chevron’s Pembroke refinery in Wales, U.K., as well as extensive marketing and logistics assets throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, for $730 million, excluding working capital. 

Texas Business reports:  Swift Energy Company entered into a long term agreement for natural gas gathering, processing and transportation services in South Texas with Southcross Energy GP LLC and its affiliates.

Texas Business reports:  Newpark Resources Inc. entered into a definitive agreement with Rheochem PLC to acquire its drilling fluids and engineering services unit. 

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm won a $38 million fuel contract, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports: Legend Natural Gas IV LP signed two definitive purchase agreements to acquire oil and gas producing properties for a total combined price of approximately $1 billion subject to customary closing conditions and purchase price adjustments.  

Texas Business reports:  A Waco company won an $8 million contract to provide fuel to the federal government, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  Kerrville—Quest Oil Corp. has initiated the acquisition of a 540-acre oil, gas and mineral lease located in Coleman County.

Texas Business reports:  A Fort Worth firm won a $19 million contract to supply fuel, the U.S. Department of Defense.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Enterprise Products Partners L.P. bought a 39-mile carbon dioxide pipeline which will be converted to crude oil service in connection with the partnership’s strategy to expand its gathering system in the Permian Basin of West Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Midland’s Concho Resources Inc.  signed a definitive agreement with Linn Energy to sell its North Dakota Bakken assets for $196 million.

Texas Business reports:  West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices edged up 0.2 percent to $89.58 per barrel in February, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas Attorney General’s office charged Gulf Chemical & Metallurgical Corporation (GCMC) with violating Texas environmental protection laws.

Texas Business reports: Huntsville—Mitcham Industries Inc. plans to buy 3,000 channels of Sercel's UNITE cable-free land acquisition system. 

Texas Business reports: A Houston firm won approval the first deepwater drilling permit since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. 

Texas Business reports:  A Houston and Dallas companies have merged to create a $7 billion refining company to be based in Dallas.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Kirby Corporation reached an agreement to buy United Holdings LLC, a distributor and service provider of engine and transmission related products for the oil and gas services, power generation and transportation industries, and manufacturer of oilfield service equipment.

Texas Business reports: Texas Allied Petroleum announced that sustained commercial production of crude oil was achieved in October of 2010 from the Main Pass 35 platform in Plaquemines Parrish, Louisiana. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 738 this week, down nine from last week, but up 173 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  An Arlington firm won a $12.6 million contract to build a fuel distribution system for the military, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  An Amarillo firm won a $14.8 million contract to provide fuel to the U.S. Military, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  An Austin firm entered into a joint venture to build what it calls the first blended energy power plant in Texas. 

Texas Business reports: Lewisville-based Uranium Resources Inc. announced that a third-party laboratory analysis of the approximately 70 feet of cores recovered from its Ambrosia Lake property showed low organic carbons, which, in URI’s opinion, indicates that some of the 860,000 pounds of in-place mineralized material at this property may be amenable to in situ recovery (ISR) mining.

Texas Business reports:  Irving-based Exxon Mobil’s subsidiary recently drilled what is called the world’s longest “extended reach well” at 7.67 miles. 

Texas Business reports:  Here Enterprises Inc. is conducting site selection at its fully owned subsidiary and national motocross track Cycle Ranch near San Antonio. 

Texas Business reports:  A West Texas energy company bought 10,900 acres in an important oil shale play. 

Texas Business reports: Pasadena, Texas-based KiOR Inc. received a term sheet for a loan guarantee supporting an over $1 billion biofuels project from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program.

Texas Business reports:  Mainland Resources Inc. provides an update on the merger agreement between Mainland and American Exploration:

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 740 this week,  down one from last week, and up 202 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  Endicott Biofuels LLC (EBF) has signed an agreement with KMTEX Ltd. (KMTEX) to construct a 30-million gallon-per-year biorefinery in Port Arthur that will employ EBF's proprietary technology for the production of high-purity G2 Clear™ biodiesel. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 741 this week, up 10 from last week and up 213 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  A multinational energy company bought a Beaumont energy plant, officials announced.

Texas Business reports:  A New York firm upped its investment in an Austin energy company and acquired more properties in the Permian Basin.

Texas Business reports:  PSEG Power, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group is selling its Texas generating plants. 

 Texas Business reports:  A Plano-based seismic field acquisition firm expands substantially during the end of 2010.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 733 this week, up two from last week, and up 235 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business notes this story by Brett Clanton of the Houston Chronicle:  Though still facing uncertainty on many fronts as 2011 begins, the oil and gas industry knows one thing: It likes what it sees in South Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Doral Energy Corp. and Pure Energy Group completed a merger, forming Cross Border Resources Inc. of San Antonio.

Texas Business reports:  An Illinois firm bought a Texas oil & gas service provider for more than $400 million. 

Texas Business reports: An El Paso firm won a $111 million aviation fuel contract, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  A San Antonio firm won a $249 million aviation fuel contract for the Defense Logistics Agency.

Texas Business reports:  A Las Vegas-based company bought a Texas wind firm, officials announced.

Texas Business reports:  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) certified the first industrial plants in the country under the Superior Energy Performance program—a new, market-based industrial energy efficiency program. 

 Texas Business reports:  Shell is selling its South Texas gas fields group  to OXY USA Inc., a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., for approximately $1.8 billion. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 753 this week, up four from last week and up 295from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

 Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 749 this week, up four from last week and up 298 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm signed an agreement with a Manhattan-based coal technology company. 

Texas Business reports:  Macquarie Energy, the North American energy marketing and trading arm of Macquarie Group, and Freeport LNG Expansion LP reached an agreement to jointly develop and market liquefaction capacity at Freeport LNG's existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal near Freeport.   

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 739 this week,  up seven from last week, and up 298 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm won an $8 million contract to supply energy to several federal civilian agencies, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  Koch Pipeline Company LP is seeking corporate approval to further expand its South Texas Crude oil system.

Texas Business reports: Eagle Ford Gathering LLC, a 50/50 joint venture  between Kinder Morgan Energy Partners  LP and Copano Energy LLC reached an agreement to provide services to Chesapeake Energy Marketing Inc., an affiliate of Chesapeake Energy Corporation in the Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas. 

Twentynine Palms Ground Array.

Texas Business reports:  An Austin firm won a $37.8 million order for design and construction of a solar power center for U.S. Marines, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 732 this week, up 12 from last week, and up 300 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  A Lewisville mining firm plans to prospect on a Texas ranch property for uranium. 

Texas Business reports:   A California firm bought  Carthage oilfield wastewater company. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas rotary rig count sits at 720 this week,  up four from last week, and up 313 from a year ago, according to Baker Hughes.

Texas Business reports:  A Texas firm won a $29 million contract an offshore energy platform near Brazil. 

Texas Business reports:  An Oklahoma firm is selling its North Texas energy properties to a private firm. 

Texas Business reports:  A Houston-area company won contracts totaling more than $50 million to work on an Australian liquefaction and regasification terminal.  Liquefied natural gas is used to transport natural gas over long distances, often by sea. 

Texas Business reports:  Berry Petroleum Company plans to buy $175 million in the Wolfberry trend of West Texas in the Permian Basin, it announced in a press release. 

Texas Business reports:  After Hurricane Rita destroyed a competitor’s deepwater oil rig four years ago, a Houston firm was able to buy it and rebuild the well for profit. 

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Gateway Energy Corporation acquired natural gas pipeline assets from Laser Pipeline Company LP for $1.1 million, company officials announced. 

Texas Business reports:  CORPUS CHRISTI—A Texas oil company has identified several potential oil fields in Illinois by studying old Illinois geological surveys of coal. 

Texas Business reports:  Uranium Resources Inc. announced today the company completed drilling at its Section 13 property in Ambrosia Lake in McKinley County, New Mexico, approximately 10 miles northeast of Grants.

Texas Business reports:  A Houston firm won a $39.6 million contract to supply natural gas to the military and certain federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Defense announced. 

Texas Business reports:  Midland—Morgan Stanley has invested in a Midland oilfield supply company. 

Texas Business reports:  A Houston energy firm snapped up a San Angelo firm operating 11 wells, company executives announced. 

Texas Business reports:  Midland—Doral Energy Corp. announced t has entered into a Letter of Intent to combine with Pure Gas Partners II  L.P of San Antonio. 

Texas Business reports:  Irving-based Breitling Oil and Gas Corporation, an independent producer, plans to drill an exploratory well near Victoria. 

Concho County

Texas Business reports:  Kerrville—Quest Oil Corporation, which has been rapidly expanding its mineral interests, is negotiating to buy an oil lease in Concho County. 

Texas Business notes this story by Sam Fletcher of  Oil & Gas Journal:  HOUSTON--Front-month crude prices continued to fall Sept. 7 while natural gas gave up a large segment of its gain from the previous session in the New York market.

Texas Business reports:  Houston-based Blast Energy Services announced today it was acquiring Sun Resources Texas Inc.’s oil and gas interests of Sun Resources Texas Inc in Matagorda County.