-Hess Corp. expects to get more bang for its buck in the Bakken this year. It will operate three more rigs in the Bakken Shale than it did last year despite flat spending in the region, the company’s president said in a statement on Thursday. President and COO Greg Hill said lower well costs and less spending on infrastructure would enable the company to operate 17 rigs versus 14 in 2013. Hess also plans to bring online 57 more wells in the Bakken than it did in 2013. The company plans to spend 49% of its overall capital budget on unconventional shale resources in 2014, up from 40% last year.
-Via Fox Business, Phillips 66’s crude and international supply chief Glenn Simpson said Wednesday said his company supports lifting the U.S. ban on crude oil exports. Speaking at the Argus Americas Crude Summit in Houston, Simpson said lifting the ban would give domestic refiners greater flexibility. Some independent refiners have argued against lifting the ban, most notably Valero. Unlike Phillips 66, however, nearly all of Valero’s refining capacity is in North America.
-Arizona firm First Solar broke ground on a 22-MW solar power project in West Texas. The Barilla Solar Project, which is being built in Pecos County west of Fort Stockton, is expected to be operational in mid-2014. First Solar will operate the plant but will eventually consider selling it to a long-term owner, company officials said in a statement.
-Via The Hill, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity released a new study showing the benefits of carbon are as much as 500 times greater than the Obama Administration’s “social cost of carbon.” The administration uses said metric to evaluate the impact of carbon emissions on society. It revised the estimated social cost per ton of carbon from $22 to $36 last May.
-The Mississippi biodiesel plant that exploded and caught fire in the wee hours of Wednesday morning has been “reduced to rubble,” the plant’s manager told Reuters. Authorities said two workers were able to escape unharmed and that all workers were accounted for. The JNS Biodiesel facility produces eight million gallons of biofuels per year out of poultry fat.
