Energy In-Depth: Will The Exxon Tiger Strike?

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WILL THE EXXON TIGER STRIKE?
Daniel Gilbert of The Wall Street Journal explores the question if ExxonMobil will seek a blockbuster deal now that oil prices have taken a nosedive and a number of potential takeover targets are struggling with cash flow.

“Five years ago, an energy rout even worse than the current crude-oil plunge sent natural-gas prices down 70% in a year. That is when ExxonMobil Corp. snapped up XTO Energy Inc., one of the biggest U.S. gas producers, for $25 billion in stock,” Gilbert writes.

Read more on what might be happening next at this link.

SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY SLASHES FAYETTEVILLE SHALE BUDGET
A top Wall Street analyst said the Fayetteville Shale and other aging dry gas shale plays have had a good run over the past several years, but added “they can’t compete” with shale plays that produce both crude oil and wet natural gas.

Oppenheimer Managing Director Fadel Gheit provided his analysis of the Fayetteville Shale as Southwestern Energy Corp. and BHP Billiton have drastically cut their investments in the Arkansas shale play.

Read this deep analysis on Arkansas’ natural gas sector at this link.

ARKANSAS PUMP PRICES UP NEARLY 30 CENTS SINCE LATE JANUARY
All that it took to change the direction of pump prices and tighten the gasoline market across the U.S. was an earthquake-like explosion and fire at ExxonMobil’s sprawling refinery complex in southern California, the U.S. Energy Department said in its monthly refinery outage report on Feb. 27.

In the Gulf Coast region, which includes Arkansas and other states, pump prices for regular unleaded have risen 28 cents in the past two weeks after bottoming out at $1.98 per gallon in mid-January, according to AAA’s fuel gauge. Read more here.