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The new well control rule is evidence that memories of the Macondo blowout remain a powerful force for caution. Despite the rhetoric on both sides of this hot-button issue suggesting big changes, the final changes were incremental.

After drilling the Dorado-2 appraisal well, operator Santos Energy now expects a big increase in gas resources from predrill estimates, adding to one of the largest oil resources ever found on Australia’s North West Shelf.

The round marked a continuation of a recent trend on the UKCS in which lesser-known firms and newcomers have gained stature, replacing more-familiar, bigger operators that have pared down their North Sea positions.

The evolution of hydraulic fracturing is a long and circuitous one that deserves examination. Engineering and completions leaders from Liberty Oilfield Services did just that, authoring a paper that encapsulates the high points in the development of the groundbreaking completions practice.

The Agidigbo find follows the Kalimba, Afoxé, Agogo, and Ndungu discoveries. The five discoveries combined hold an estimated 1.8 billion bbl of light oil in place.

The El Dorado, Arkansas-based Murphy has quickly found a home for some of the cash it will receive from the sale of its Malaysia business. The company has been rapidly expanding its US gulf footprint while simplifying its portfolio and targeting more oil.

The state-owned firm is looking within its home country, around Southeast Asia, and to the Americas—including shale—in an effort to maintain its forecast average yearly production of 1.7 million BOE/D over the next 5 years.

The three largest service companies are optimistic about the rest of 2019.

There is a new, big independent in the UK North Sea, Delek Group. Its UK North Sea arm, Ithaca, bought most of Chevron’s holdings in the sector in a $2 billion deal.

Devon Energy and its debt gets smaller, as Canadian Natural Resources adds to its huge, long-term bet on Canadian heavy and ultra-heavy crude.

If the benchmark oil price is $10/bbl higher than the breakeven price for production that means companies are making good money, right? Maybe, but it’s hard to know what goes into a breakeven price.

Appomattox begins production below cost and ahead of schedule in another optimistic sign of the offshore sector’s rebound.