-A new study by USA Today shows the energy business employs some of America’s most efficient workers. Of the top eight companies ranked by revenue generated per employee, seven are in the energy sector. Those firms — all of which generate at least $1 million per employee — are Valero Energy, Phillips 66, ONEOK, EOG Resources, Tesoro, ExxonMobil and Marathon Oil.
-Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm on Thursday warned the industry that future safety incidents could hamstring burgeoning production in the Bakken shale. Via FuelFix, Hamm said at an energy expo in North Dakota production would double to 2 million barrels per day by 2020, but cautioned that one safety incident could bring that momentum to a halt. A recent rash of oil train derailments involving Bakken crude has brought a heightened level of scrutiny to the industry from lawmakers and regulators.
-Meanwhile, industry experts are not surprised nor in a panic over this week’s announcement by the EIA that California’s Monterey Shale has 96% less recoverable oil than previous estimates indicated. Via CNBC, analysts have known for some time that the Monterey’s terrain would make productive drilling a challenge. API Director of Upstream Operations Erik Milito, however, points out in the story that technological advances have enabled much greater production than was expected from the Bakken and Eagle Ford plays 10 or 15 years ago.
-Gulf LNG Liquefaction will begin a pre-filing review process with federal regulators, a key step in its quest to export LNG to non-free-trade-agreement countries. The firm is planning to install natural gas processing, liquefaction and export facilities to an existing terminal in Pascagoula, Miss. Gulf LNG is partly owned by a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan.
-Southern Co. and Turner Renewable Energy acquired New Mexico’s largest solar power plant — the 50-megawatt Macho Springs facility in Luna County. Construction began last July and the plant is set to begin commercial operation last week.
