-Independent E&P firm Sanchez Energy announced today it would spend nearly 90% of its 2014 capex budgeted for drilling and completion in the Eagle Ford Shale. Sanchez’s total capital budget for the year is between $650 million and $700 million. It expects to double its production rates year-over-year in 2014.
-The Chamber of Commerce called on the US government to allow companies to freely export domestically produced oil and gas to countries that are members of the WTO. The group is also lobbying for more oil and gas development on public lands and the postponement or cancellation of environmental regulations such as the proposed cap on sulfur emissions from gasoline.
-A group of former high-ranking military and government officials said in a report today that US foreign policy will continue to be constrained by energy dependence even as domestic production surges. The report came on the same day BP forecasted that the US would be energy self-sufficient by 2035.
-The American Chemistry Council on Tuesday applauded the startup of Enterprise Products Partners’ Appalachia-to-Texas ethane pipeline. The ATEX pipeline will deliver natural gas feedstocks from the Marcellus Shale to the Gulf Coast. ACC hailed the removal of a “significant bottleneck” in the delivery of ethane.
-BASF appointed Matthew Lepore senior vice president and general counsel. Lepore previously served as corporate secretary and chief governance counsel for Pfizer and also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as a trial attorney.
