A recent air permit transfer from Devon Energy to Formentera Operations LLC in Parker County, Texas marks an important step in Formentera’s continued expansion across north-central Texas, a region adjacent to the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) metro area and long associated with legacy Barnett Shale development.
Jetta Operating Company, Inc. is making a deliberate and increasingly visible move in the Southern Delaware Basin, signaling long-term operational commitment rather than short-cycle development. A combination of recent air permit transfers and sustained drilling activity in Ward County, Texas highlights how Jetta is expanding both its surface infrastructure and subsurface footprint in this mature but highly strategic part of the Permian Basin.
Ascent, a privately held operator focused 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale, is the largest natural gas producer in Ohio and the 8th largest gas producer in the United States. Over the past week, reports have surfaced of a competitive sale process, culminating in the first concrete valuation to hit the market: a $6 billion offer from Kimmeridge Energy, a private investment firm known for taking active, and sometimes activist, positions in energy assets.
The Bakken is no longer a growth-at-all-costs shale play. For disciplined operators like Devon Energy, it has become a proving ground for how to extract more value from mature inventory using technology, operational rigor, and capital restraint.
ConocoPhillips has been clear in recent earnings calls: flexibility, not volume growth, is now the defining feature of its Lower 48 strategy. By pairing management commentary with actual well-level data from North Dakota, a clear picture emerges of how ConocoPhillips is applying its “flexible inventory” philosophy in practice—and why the Bakken has shifted into a steady, cash-generating role rather than a growth engine.
Chevron’s first full quarter managing the Bakken following the Hess acquisition offered an unusually clear look at how the supermajor views North Dakota shale in a mature U.S. portfolio. Management’s comments on the Q3 2025 earnings call were consistent, deliberate, and—importantly—validated by actual drilling data from North Dakota.
For years, the Bakken has been labeled “mature.” But Chord Energy’s latest commentary — backed by hard drilling data — tells a very different story. Far from winding down, the Bakken is evolving into a capital-efficient, free-cash-flow machine, driven by longer laterals, operational scale, and disciplined consolidation.
Chord’s Q3 2025 earnings call made one thing clear: the Bakken remains the core of the company’s strategy, and the next phase of development looks structurally stronger than earlier cycles.
Baytex Energy’s decision to sell its U.S. Eagle Ford assets, with an expected closing date of December 19, 2025, is not happening in a vacuum. The timing lines up precisely with a concentrated burst of drilling and facility-level activity that has quietly reshaped the value of the asset over the past two years.
Vital Energy shareholders approved Crescent Energy’s $3.1 billion acquisition on December 14, clearing the final hurdle for a transaction that will close on December 15, 2025. With the vote complete and Vital shares set to be suspended from NYSE trading, the deal marks a defining moment—not just for the two companies, but for how independent oil and gas operators are positioning themselves for the next phase of the U.S. shale cycle.
Helmerich & Payne (H&P) remains one of the most important barometers of U.S. onshore drilling activity. As a leading provider of high-spec land rigs, H&P’s well count offers a real-time lens into where capital is flowing, which operators are most active, and which basins continue to anchor U.S. oil and…
