CIR Research Desk

The Forgotten Region's Quiet Comeback The Rocky Mountain region doesn't get the attention its oil and gas production warrants. No single basin in the Rockies commands the headlines that the Permian, Eagle Ford, or Appalachian basins generate daily. But collectively — across the Uinta Basin in Utah,

The Consolidation Arithmetic The numbers are stark: since 2022, the U.S. upstream sector has seen over $250 billion in merger and acquisition activity, dominated by mega-deals that have concentrated production capacity among a shrinking number of large operators. ExxonMobil's $64.5 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural

The Hidden Constraint on Permian Growth Everyone talks about oil takeaway and gas flaring as the Permian Basin's growth limiters. Water is the quieter crisis. For every barrel of oil produced in the Delaware Basin, operators bring 6–10 barrels of produced water to surface. In some mature

A Rebrand With Real Substance When Chesapeake Energy emerged from bankruptcy in 2021 and later rebranded to Expand Energy, skeptics wondered if the name change was cosmetic. Two years in, the answer is increasingly: no. Expand Energy has executed a disciplined repositioning that makes it arguably the most important pure-

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of U.S. driving season. Every year, the industry watches gasoline demand data from the EIA's weekly petroleum status report with something approaching ritual significance. The numbers that come in through late May and June are treated as the leading edge