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The role of US independent exploration and production companies continues to evolve along with the changing industry environment.

GMX Resources Inc. will base its future growth on maintaining a focus on exploration and development of natural gas in its core areas of operation, according to Ken Kenworthy Jr., chairman, president, and CEO.

Aspen Exploration Corp., Denver, maintains low overhead costs and emphasizes natural gas in its exploration and development drilling, with a focus on the Sacramento Valley of California.

A pledge by Ottawa to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change by yearend is the No. 1 issue facing Canadian independents.

North Coast Energy Inc. (NCE), Twinsburg, Ohio, began oil and gas operations in 1981, but Pres. and CEO Omer Yonel claims it had not turned a profit for its first 18 years?not until NUON Corp., the largest energy and water utility in the Netherlands, with $7 billion in assets, acquired the small energy firm as its entree into US markets.

Pogo Producing Co. reached some company milestones during 2001—its 32nd year in business. The company last year produced 31,707 b/d of oil and 238 MMcfd of natural gas, both record highs for the Houston-based independent.

Westport Resources Corp., Denver, engages in oil and natural gas exploitation, acquisition and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, Rocky Mountains, West Texas, Gulf Coast, and US Midcontinent.

Houston-based Plains Resources Inc. plans a spin-off of its upstream subsidiary, Plains Exploration & Production Co., possibly in the first quarter of 2003.

Houston independent GulfWest Energy Inc.'s core areas of operations—in West Texas and on the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana—will be seedbeds for the company's future growth.

Basic Earth Science Systems Inc. has refocused its strategy towards exploration and development drilling and is emphasizing a joint venture in Saskatchewan, in the Williston basin north of Montana and North Dakota where Basic has been active since 1983.

XTO Energy Inc., Fort Worth, Tex., is an acquisition and development firm that decided in the late 1990s that its best chance for success was exploitation of natural gas properties, primarily in the Lower 48.

Mexco Energy Corp., Midland, Tex., is focused on increasing profit margins by obtaining underdeveloped natural gas properties with low-cost, low-risk operations and long-lived production potential.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America's plate is a full one of late, according to IPAA Chairman Diemer True. The association, under True's guidance, is watching keenly the actions of the US House and Senate as those bodies debate an omnibus bill setting the country's energy policy.

Faced with "economic realities of need and opportunity," today's pipeline industry can rely on one thing to meet and adapt to change: technology.

Despite the current dearth of pipe- line construction activity worldwide, coming years promise more work as nations and companies come to grips with new economic, social, and political realities that have emerged in the year since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The royalty-relief incentives for new leases that the US Minerals Management Service has implemented for Gulf of Mexico deep drilling have successfully spurred exploration and development drilling, as evidenced by lease sales in the outer deep water.

The impending possibility that the US may strike Iraq has direct implications for international oil markets.

Turkmenistan's ambitious production targets are getting a boost from four projects under production sharing agreements.

Shell Exploration & Production Co. (Sepco), Houston, announced last month the successful completion of the world's first application of the expandable tubular technology the company calls MonoDiameter.

Economic analysis shows the effectiveness of polymer flooding in Daqing's Lamadian oil field, in northern China.

We developed a computer simulation to determine the distribution of mercaptans in liquid petroleum products. We then applied this simulation to the NGL fractionation (NF) unit in the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex, Iran.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), International Standards Organization (ISO), and Institute of Petroleum (IP) are taking steps to "harmonize" petroleum measurement standards.

Allegro Development
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