OGFJ recently contacted senior executives with Fort Worth, Texas-based Range Resources to discuss the company’s evolution over the years, including its pioneering role in the Marcellus shale play. Jeffrey Ventura, president and CEO; Roger Manny, EVP and CFO; and Ray Walker Jr., EVP and COO, brought us up to date.

ZaZa Energy Corp. received a letter from the NASDAQ Stock Market on Sept. 5, advising that the company has regained compliance with Listing Rule 5550(a)(2), which requires the company to maintain a minimum closing bid price of $1.00 per share.

The number of Texans on the payrolls of oil and gas exploration and production companies surpassed 300,000 for the first time in the history of the Texas Petro Index, highlighting a record-setting expansion during which the upstream oil and gas economy in Texas has increased 19 of the past 20 months. 

Bakken Energy Corp., formerly Orofino Gold Corp., reports that approval has been received for its new name, Bakken Energy Corp., and that it has been assigned a new stock symbol: BKEN. The new stock symbol took effect on Sept. 3.

According to a new market research report by Allied Market Research titled, "Global Shale Gas Market (Technology, Application and Geography) – Industry Analysis, Trends, Share, Opportunities and Forecast, 2013–2020," the global shale gas market is forecast to reach $104.1 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 9.3% during the forecast period (2014–2020).

As a result of the challenges of growing a non-operated exploration portfolio in the US Gulf of Mexico, Maersk Oil is downsizing its Houston workforce by more than 25% as the company focuses on other parts of the world, according to a report in the Houston Business Journal.

Pemex has begun a corporate restructuring following the approval earlier this month of a historic energy overhaul that ended Pemex's decades-long monopoly, according to a Reuters report.

Libya's acting oil minister Omar Shakmak will resign and will be replaced by the chairman of the state oil firm National Oil Corp. (NOC), Mustafa Sanallah, according to a Reuters report.

Lucas Energy Inc. reports that the NYSE MKT notified the company that it has been granted an extension until Oct. 31 to regain compliance with the NYSE MKT continued listing standards.