Crude oil prices have fallen to four-year lows, potentially impacting the North American energy renaissance. But how did this low-price environment impact merger and acquisition (M&A) activity for oil and gas companies in 2014, and what will low oil and gas prices in 2015 mean for the future?

Deloitte presents a free on-demand webinar discussing:

• M&A deals by subsector, including upstream, midstream, downstream, and oilfield services, domestically and globally.
• Key issues and risks that buyers focus on when considering transactions.
• Insights into what recent deals reveal about future M&A activity in the oil and gas sector.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

A free on-demand webinar posted by Steptoe & Johnson provides an overview of Division Order Title Opinions (DOTOs) and how they can be utilized, with a focus on the differences from basin to basin and customization to individual producer needs.

Presenters are Kevin W. DeHart and Kacie M. Bevers.

This webcast also covers:

• An overview of the mechanics of a DOTO
• Differences in DOTOs among different basins and producers
• Benefits of DOTOs among different basins and producers
• The role of DOTOs in reducing the risk of a given producer

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Warm Thoughts Communications presents a free on-demand webinar designed to help marketers make ends meet amid falling oil prices.

The presenter is senior consultant Ed Cardell.

The webinar addresses customer questions about how fast prices fall, higher fixed prices, and developing plans to adjust budgets, as well as helping customer service reps deal with unhappy customers asking questions about their prices.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Oil & Gas Journal presents a free on-demand webcast looking at how global LNG trade will be affected over the next 12-24 months by falling crude oil prices and changing patterns and pressures of demand.

The Journal says the webinar discusses: Will US LNG production play a role in balancing markets? Or will it add to a growing global oversupply of LNG for markets remote from easier natural gas supply? Will new buyers with marginal credit, smaller requirements, or great need for flexibility begin to look attractive to suppliers? How will high-cost, mega-projects in Australia respond to new construction cost trends?

Presenters are James T. Jensen President of Jensen Associates, and James F. Bowe, Jr., Partner in King & Spalding’s Global Energy Practice.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Penn State Extension has posted online a recorded webinar about the current state of knowledge of methane emissions from the production of shale gas and the importance of learning more about the effects of those emissions.

The webinar covers why we care about methane emissions into the atmosphere, including a primer on methane’s role in the earth’s climate, the current state of knowledge of these emissions, methods used to measure methane emissions from gas production, and the current research to improve our knowledge of methane emissions from gas production activities.

The presenter is Kenneth J. Davis, Professor in the Department of Meteorology and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University.

Watch the on-demand webinar or download the slides.

Bracewell & Giuliani has posted a white paper taking a look at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Office of Enforcement and what market participants should expect in 2015.

The current pending cases and these developments shed more light on what to expect in 2015 than the statistics FERC released concerning 2014, the authors say.

“In 2014, market participants, for the first time, showed a willingness to challenge Enforcement actions instead of settling. Five companies have refused to pay assessed civil penalties and settle thereby causing Enforcement to go to Federal court or to an administrative law judge to enforce the penalty and manipulation claims,” according to the report. “We should expect more challenges in 2015 because another company has publicly vowed to challenge FERC should FERC proceed with a charge of manipulation. However, unless and until the courts narrow Enforcement’s reach, we should expect that Enforcement will continue to be aggressive in its prosecutions.”

Read the white paper.

Courtesy of BP Public Affairs Staff, via BOEM.gov

Oil & Gas IQ has posted a white paper on how enterprise asset management software can play a role in software project ROI for drilling contractors as well as specific, discrete steps to take during implementation.

The offshore industry is struggling right now to deal with growth and an increased focus on asset integrity management (AIM) and risk management, the white paper says. That is why more rig owners and operators are reassessing their investments in enterprise asset management (EAM) software to ensure they have applications in place that are properly implemented and functional, help them ensure compliance with regulations and adopt AIM best practices.

Download the white paper.

Sirius Solutions presents a free white paper exploring several key issues commonly faced in the valuation and financial reporting of oil and gas property acquisitions.

The paper is written by Sirius Solutions’ John Lehman, Financial Advisory Services Director.

“The complexity of oil and gas property acquisitions has increased due to constantly changing positions on appropriate valuation techniques, methodologies and regulatory requirements,” the company says on its website. “Sirius Solutions knows financial executives like yourself in the oil and gas industry are under pressure to complete the preliminary financial reporting of property acquisitions as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Download the white paper.

Platts and Bentek Energy have posted a free on-demand webinar that takes a look at the outlook for natural gas supply, concluding that this could be the summer of oversupply.

Presenters discuss such issues as: where natural gas storage will be this spring and summer, how regional gas prices will respond to the insurgent Northeast natural gas, how the summer price strip is responding to market conditions, what the expectations are for coal-to-gas switching, what key prices and fundamentals should be watched as the summer approaches, and more.

Leading the discussion are Patrick Badgley, Associate Editor of Platts, and Anne Swedberg, Manager of Quantitative Analysis at Bentek Energy.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

McGinnis Lochridge has announced that Jeffrey Beck, Austin Brister and Ian McNeill have been named to the firm’s oil and gas transactional team.

Beck joins the firm from Jones Gill LLP in Houston where he was a partner.  He is an experienced energy transactional lawyer, focusing on oil and gas mergers, acquisitions and divestitures including negotiations, document preparation and associated due diligence  Jeff graduated from South Texas College of Law and is licensed in Texas. Before Law school, he worked as a pipeline engineer in the energy industry.

Brister joins as an associate from Jones Gill where he worked with Beck on oil and gas transactions, due diligence and title opinions for the last several years. He has also written a number of papers and served as a speaker at numerous conferences. Austin graduated from the Wyoming College of Law and is licensed in Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota and Texas.

McNeill comes from the Kilburn Law Firm, and previously served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office where his experience has provided him with a unique perspective that aids him in his general litigation practice.  He received his JD in 2003 from the South Texas College of Law and his B.A. from Trinity University. He is also licensed in Ohio.

Read more about the firm.

BP has posted a free on-demand webinar mark the publication of the BP Energy Outlook 2035 (2015 edition).

The webinar features Bob Dudley, group chief executive, and Spencer Dale, group chief economist.

The study conducted by BP found that continuous change is the norm for energy markets, particularly in a changing energy mix, changing energy trade patterns, and possible changes to the carbon emissions path.

The on-demand presentation includes a recorded question and answer session.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

King & Spalding has posted a white paper exploring the response to a request from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) attempt to obtain information that might support a controversial proposed rulemaking that would change the ways in which the natural gas and electric power industries interact.

FERC recently employed the somewhat unusual device of issuing data requests to electric power industry participants in an attempt to obtain information, wrote Willaim E. Rice.  Not only did the responses fail to provide objective support for FERC’s proposal, they suggest that significant portions of the United States might not realize any benefit from the changes FERC has proposed.

“In March 2014, FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NOPR”) in which it proposed to change the start of the “Gas Day” – the 24-hour period during which natural gas transportation through pipelines is nominated and scheduled – from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Central Clock Time (CCT), and to make other changes to the natural gas transportation nominations schedule, to better coordinate the scheduling of natural gas and electricity markets (Docket No. RM14-2-000).  The NOPR is part of FERC’s ongoing effort to promote electric supply reliability by encouraging improved coordination between the natural gas and electric power industries.” Rice wrote.

Read the story.

The Society of Petroleum Engineers will present a free webinar that will address some of the challenging questions about industrial safety that have arisen in the years since a chemical release in India killed thousands in 1983.

The 90-minute webinar will be Wednesday, March 11, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.

A lax safety culture contributed to the accident and to the extreme consequences of the accident, said the SPE on it website.

“It is generally accepted that safety culture is much different (much better) now.  But categorizing and measuring culture is difficult, so it is hard to say how much different safety culture is today.  Further culture varies with place, industry, company, plant, task, etc. Bhopal certainly had an impact, but so did other things.  This webinar will tackle some challenging questions such as – ‘How is safety culture different today?’ and ‘What impact did Bhopal have?’  ‘Did it have more impact on design or on operations?’ ”

Register for the webinar.

An analysis by June DeHart, published in Environmental Leader, discusses the prospects of Congress lifting the ban on crude oil exports.

The industry itself is divided into two camps and specific regional and environmental interests are fully engaged in the debate, she writes.

“Fracking, horizontal drilling and the shale oil revolution have the U.S. on track to overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia as the leading crude oil producer in the world,” the report says. “The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently reported that it expects US crude production in 2016 to be close to the record level of 9.6 million barrels per day set in 1970. As a result, the policy battles have begun in the Congress and the groundwork is being laid by both proponents and opponents.”

Read the story.

In a 60-minute webinar, Latham & Watkins presents an overview of merger and acquisition transactions in the energy industry during 2014 and emerging themes for 2015.

Latham & Watkins Houston partners Sean Wheeler and Ryan Maierson are the presenters.

The event covers the market overview and energy’s role within the M&A space, energy M&A transaction trends, and case studies of select energy M&A transactions

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Penn State Extension presents a free on-demand webinar aimed at answering the question: What happens to the water after the fracking process?

Some flows back to the surface and some of this flowback is treated locally and some is transported for injection into deep disposal wells. The program will describe the procedure and explain the physics of the movement of the liquids involved.

Lead presenter is Dr. Terry Engelder, Professor of Geosciences at Penn State University.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. filed suit Tuesday alleging that its founder and former chief executive, Aubrey K. McClendon, stole confidential company data during his last months on the job in order to launch his new oil and gas empire, Reuters reports.

The suit says McClendon “misappropriated highly sensitive trade secrets from Chesapeake” and “subsequently used these trade secrets for the benefit of” a company he founded in 2013, American Energy Partners LP. Chesapeake filed the civil complaint in Oklahoma County District Court.

“In the suit, Chesapeake claims McClendon asked his assistant to print maps and data about unleased acreage and that McClendon also sent himself blind copies of the same documents at a personal email address during his last months at the company,” the report says. “The company says it discovered McClendon’s actions through a forensic analysis of his Chesapeake email account.”

Read the story.

U.S. oil rigs continued to get hammered this week despite still-rising levels of production, reports BloombergBusiness.

A report from Baker Hughes shows that the international rig count for January 2015 was 1,258, down 55 from the 1,313 counted in December 2014, and down 67 from the 1,325 counted in January 2014. The international offshore rig count for January 2015 was 314, down 24 from the 338 counted in December 2014, and up 12 from the 302 counted in January 2014.

The collapse in oil prices has wiped out more than 100,000 oil jobs worldwide.

Read the story.

PwC presents a complimentary on-demand webinar looking at deal activity in the oil and gas sector and asking what this means for 2015 M&A activity.

2014 was a significant year for U.S. deal activity in the oil and gas sector, PwC says on its website. The U.S. oil and gas deals market experienced unprecedented growth resulting in total deal value increasing by 133% relative to the preceding four year average with 2014 total deal value reaching $322 billion. Additionally, 2014 was an active year in the U.S. capital markets for oil and gas companies. However after an active deals year, recent oil and gas price declines have reintroduced volatility to the oil and gas sector at levels not seen since the financial crisis. The question now is what does this mean for 2015 M&A activity?

This webcast focuses on key themes found in the PwC quarterly M&A analysis along with our insights on deals done in the past year and what the deal market for 2015 may hold.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Environment & Energy Publishing tells the story of a Texas-based law firm has spent the past year rounding up potential clients in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania for mass litigation against Chesapeake for shorting royalty owners on payments.

The Oklahoma City-based natural gas producer has generally maintained that its royalty calculations are perfectly legal and that royalty owners have just misunderstood how their contracts work, E&E Publishing says. Nevertheless, royalty owners have sued the company in every state it has operations, resulting in a mixed bag of wins, losses and settlements.

“The royalty owners and their attorneys are adamant that Chesapeake is shortchanging them. In a recent Pennsylvania lawsuit, attorneys even accuse the company of racketeering — raising much-needed cash by selling assets to Access Midstream Partners LP and agreeing to pay the company high prices to move natural gas, then passing those costs to the royalty owners,” E&E Publishing reports.

Read the story.