On the way down: Plunging oil prices sparked a drop of almost 40% in new well permits issued across the United States in November, in a sudden pause in the growth of the U.S. shale oil and gas boom that started around 2007. Data provided exclusively to Reuters on Tuesday by industry data firm Drilling Info Inc. showed 4,520 new well permits were approved last month, down from 7,227 in October. The pullback was a “very quick response” to U.S. crude prices, which settled on Tuesday at $66.88 per barrel, says Allen Gilmer, chief executive officer of Drilling Info. Read the full story.
Ready to ride it out: ExxonMobil can weather the continued downturn in oil prices even if prices sink to $40 per barrel, CEO and Chairman Rex Tillerson told CNBC today. The oil giant’s massive projects in areas such as liquefied natural gas and deepwater drilling are decade-long investments that have been tested to perform across a broad range of price ranges, from $40 to $120 per barrel, he says. Still, Tillerson says, the low-price market will force oil companies at all levels to refocus on the basics. “It really means a return to fundamentals for us,” he says. “It’s important about watching your cash, watching your investment decisions, being very disciplined about everything, and then looking for opportunities that may present themselves in an environment like this.” Read the full story.
The president’s new suit: Texas is leading a 17-state coalition suing over President Barack Obama’s recently announced executive actions on immigration, arguing in a lawsuit filed today that the move “tramples” key portions of the U.S. Constitution. Many top Republicans, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, have denounced Obama’s unilateral move, which was designed to spare as many as 5 million people living illegally in the United States from deportation. But Texas Gov.-elect Greg Abbott took it a step further, filing a formal legal challenge in federal court in the Southern District of Texas. His state is joined by 16 other mostly conservative states, including Louisiana. The states aren’t seeking monetary damages, but instead want the courts to block Obama’s actions. The Associated Press has the full story.
