Zodiac Exploration Inc., Calgary, has completed a 10-stage stimulation in the Upper Kreyenhagen formation in its 1-10 horizontal well in Kings County, Calif., followed by a flowback period.

Red Mountain Resources Inc., Dallas, said it initiated oil production from the Delaware Brushy Canyon reservoir at its Madera 24-2H horizontal well in Lea County, NM.

Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., Calgary, reported completion of Montney and Nordegg multistage fractured horizontal wells at Kaybob in the Deep Basin of Alberta.

The governments of Canada and Alberta, stung by the recent US decision to postpone development of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project, have agreed to step up their monitoring of the environmental effects of oil sands developments.

PetroChina, a unit of China National Petroleum Corp., has signed a binding agreement to purchase a 20% stake in Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Groundbirch assets in northeastern British Columbia.

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co. has award the first license for a patented steam injection system in use in the Cold Lake oil sands project in Alberta to Baker Hughes.

MEG Energy, Calgary, said an independent analysis boosted its proved reserves of bitumen in the Christina Lake area of Alberta’s southern Athabasca region by 17% last year to 708 million bbl.

Grizzly Oil Sands UIC has agreed to buy Petrobank Energy & Resources Ltd.’s May River oil sands acreage in northern Alberta and plans to develop it with modular steam-assisted gravity drainage technology.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP, Denver, will add more than 600 MMcfd of processing capacity for the Marcellus and Utica shales, as well as 140,000 b/d of fractionation, the company reported.

Higher crude oil prices, breakthroughs in technology, and more access to prospective acreage are creating a US oil production revival that is a major break from nearly 40 years of declining production, two experts told the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Jan. 31.

Porto Energy Corp., The Woodlands, Tex., expects to receive interpreted results in 3 months from a 240 sq km 3D seismic program over the Montejunto anticline on its Torres Vedras concession onshore Portugal.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers on Jan. 30 announced a set of hydraulic fracturing operating practices that it has adopted to improve water management and water and fluids reporting for shale gas and tight gas development across Canada.

A rig is expected to arrive in February to drill development wells in Lagia oil field on the Sinai Peninsula side of Egypt’s Gulf of Suez in preparation for a cyclic steamflood pilot.