The Daily Digger

From Rigzone: When Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met at the Group of 20 summit in Mexico in 2012, Europe was reeling from the Greek debt crisis and the Arab world was aflame from Libya to Syria.  So U.S. officials were stunned when the first thing Putin wanted to talk about was the love affair his oil giant Rosneft was having with Rex Tillerson’s Exxon Mobil, according to a person in the room. Just two months earlier, Putin had personally presided over their latest deal, which gave Rosneft access to cutting-edge drilling technologies and Exxon a share of potentially tens of billions of barrels of oil in the Arctic and in the Black Sea.  Tillerson has been cultivating Putin since they first met on the Far East island of Sakhalin in 1999, after the retired KGB colonel suddenly became prime minister. President-elect Donald Trump hailed Tillerson’s oversight of a company active across the globe in nominating him to be secretary of state last week. But the lifelong oilman ...

Rex Energy Corporation (Nasdaq:REXX) ("Rex Energy") today announced that it entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Antero Resources Corporation ("Antero") pursuant to which Antero will acquire the company's Ohio Utica assets in the Warrior South Area. Rex Energy is selling its entire interest in the assets and expects to receive net proceeds at closing of approximately $30.0 million (subject to customary closing and post-closing adjustments). The assets that are being divested are non-core and were not included in the company's future development plans. Included in the sale are 14 gross wells and approximately 4,100 net acres in Guernsey, Noble and Belmont Counties in Ohio; the assets are currently producing approximately 9.0 Mmcfe/d. Rex Energy expects to use the proceeds from the sale to pay down the revolving line of credit and for general corporate purposes. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary ...

From The Daily Caller: Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, provides the average local household with enormous economic benefits, according to a new study published Thursday by economists at the University of Chicago.  Driven by rises in wages and royalty payments, researchers found that fracking added a total of $1,200 to $1,900 per year for the average nearby household, causing a 6 percent increase in average income. The researchers also found that communities with fracking had a 10 percent increase in employment and a 6 percent increase in housing prices.  “This study makes it clear that on net there are benefits to local economies — which we believe is useful information for leaders in the United States and abroad who are deciding whether to allow fracking in their communities,” Chris Knittel, an economist who co-authored the study, said in a press statement .  Other research shown that fracking for oil and natural gas is most popular when locals see the econo...

According to the weekly report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the week of December 18 to December 24 shows that 12 permits were issued for drilling in the Utica shale.  That was three more than on the previous week's report. Five permits were issued for wells in both Belmont and Monroe counties, while the remaining two were for Harrison County sites. That brought the totals in Ohio to 2,341 permits issued, 1,879 wells drilled, and 1,472 wells producing.  For the second straight report, the Utica rig count stayed at 22. View the report below or by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From Bloomberg: It's only fair to warn you that this column concerns tax policy, so maybe grab a coffee first. It's also about oil (if that helps.)  One of the incoming Trump administration's priorities is tax reform. And one proposal outlined in Speaker Paul Ryan's "Tax Reform Task Force Blueprint" with big implications for oil involves a so-called border adjustment tax. This would effectively tax U.S. businesses on their imports while offering a break on domestically produced goods for export. In other words, it is designed to encourage making stuff in the U.S. rather than buying it from overseas.  This matters for global oil markets because, even though the U.S. is less dependent on foreign barrels than it was a decade ago, it is still a big part of global oil trading. Continue reading this article by clicking here. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog

From The Daily Caller: Hydraulic fracturing generated $3.5 trillion in new wealth between 2012 and 2014 in spite of falling oil prices, according to a new study, but today’s rising prices could be even better for the U.S. economy.  From 2012 to 2014, the shale oil industry generated 4.6 million new jobs due to an energy boom and the resulting low gas prices, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) . Expensive energy could be a huge net positive for the U.S. fracking economy because rising oil prices mean more drilling.  Oil prices fell to a record low of $30 a barrel during the previous year, sharply reducing the industry’s profit margins, which are now rising again . Researchers estimate that new economic activity from fracking technology created around 4.6 million net new jobs, but only about 1.6 million of these new jobs were directly linked to the oil industry, while many of the rest were due to lower gas prices and the pos...

From News9.com in Oklahoma: News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports | Since 2015, 88 oil and gas companies in the U.S. have declared bankruptcy, according to industry analysts.  Many of those analysts figured Chesapeake Energy would be on that list, but it hasn't happened. The company's top executive says it won't -- Chesapeake has the energy to survive and thrive.  "This is a stable company, this is a strong company, it's a growth company," said Doug Lawler, Chesapeake president and CEO.  Lawler is bullish on Chesapeake, and he's pushing his message of optimism to employees, shareholders, analysts and local media. Lawler sat down with News 9 for a rare on-camera interview last week. Read more by clicking here.  Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! Follow @EnergyNewsBlog