Oil and Gas company Whitecap Resources (WCP:TSX) announced recently that it has increased its bank line 31 percent to $190 million. Investment bank Dundee Securities interpreted this news as evidence of the company's success in drilling and production, and reiterated its BUY rating and target share price of C$9.25 on October 13. Whitecap is involved in both the Pembina Property and Valhalla North Property in Alberta, Canada.

Dundee expressed its view that Whitecap's stock traded at a valuation that made it appealing to its peers. The investment bank uses a EV/DACF methodology to obtain the valuation for Whitecap, based on the oil and gas company's current production levels of 7,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

The company has utilized hedging to place 45 percent of forecasted production under contract to sell at an average WTI floor price of C$97.71 and an average AECO of C$4.13 per million cubic feet. The C$9.25 target share price is obtained using the investment bank's Roll Up Valuation

Whitecap Resources closed at C$6.62 on October 14 and hit a 52-week high/low of C$7.60 and C$4.65, respectively.  

Although oil production is not new to Ohio, it is gaining more of a presence in the production that is stemming from the Utica shale.

The Utica shale play has been garnering significant attention from industry observers, and a lot of media focus has been placed on Ohio's role in the development of the play, Rigzone reports.

Estimates of the total resources contained in the play have varied. At a recent energy summit, Chesapeake Energy Corporation chief executive Aubrey McClendon told an audience his estimate that the play could worth as much as $500 billion, according to a statement.

"I prefer to say half a trillion," McClendon said at Kasich's conference, according to the statement. He stated that his estimate is "reasonable" even though fluctuating commodity prices make predictions difficult.

An Economic Impact report done by Kleinhenz and Associates for the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Association predicted that exploration and production companies are expected to spend a total of $34 billion on royalty payments to landowners, pipelines and other costs associated with leasing. 

The retirement of many baby boomers will soon leave the oil industry with a wealth of inexperienced employees.

The oil industry is currently undergoing a hiring spree in response to the retiring of many employees who are baby boomers, Rigzone reports. Data provided by recruiting firm Working Smart indicates that professionals aged 55 and over planned on retiring at 65 on average, and less than a quarter of respondents planned to work past retirement age.

This aging workforce will increase the fraction of oil workers who have less than five years of experience, which will drive up the risk of accidents and critical mistakes, J. Ford Brett, managing director of PetroSkills, told the media outlet.

Mentoring programs involving senior project managers and other highly experienced professionals have proliferated in response to this need for training, the media outlet reports. Mentorship programs are currently offered by the Society for Petroleum Engineers and ConocoPhillips' Legends. Oilfield services provider Schlumberger has an annual internship program where every student is assigned to an engineer or field specialist, according to AME Info FZ.  

While North Dakota may be known for having the country's largest production of sunflowers, the director of the state's Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) predicts that it will soon become the nation's second-largest oil producer.

According to Lynn Helms, Director of DMR, the northern state will soon surpass both Alaska and California to reach a level of production exceeded only by that of Texas, according to The Associated Press. The northern state is producing 95,000 barrels per day less than California, and 110,000 per day fewer than Alaska.

Current daily production in the state averages 440,000 barrels, which represents a gain of 118,000 barrels from the last year, the media outlet reports. Helms estimates that his state will become the third-largest producer by Q3 2012.

The Bakken formation, which largely resides in North Dakota, contains between 3 billion and 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to estimates made by the United States Geological Survey. A report released by North Dakota's DMR indicates that the Three Forks play – also partially located in the state – could hold 2 billion barrels of oil, according to HeatingOil.com. 

Brokerage firm Wunderlich Securities announced on October 13 that it has initiated coverage of Master Limited Partnership (MLP) Tesoro Logistics LP (TLLP:NYSE) with a BUY rating and target share price of C$27.50.

The target share price for the MLP was derived using an evaluation of dividends. Dividends are generally what attract investors to these partnerships. The C$27.50 price is based on an estimated minimum 8.5 percent return and a long-term growth rate of 2 percent.

The MLP asset's include a facility utilized for storing refined products and crude oil along with five related pipelines that exist in Utah, a system used for gathering crude oil in the Bakken Shale/Williston Basin area and almost 10 refined products terminals residing in the Midwestern and Western United States.

The brokerage firm's target price represents an 18 percent premium to the MLP's current price. Wunderlich predicts that the company's distributions will grow 10.4 percent in 2013.

Tesoro Logistics LP closed at C$24.00 on October 13 and hit a 52-week high/low of C$25.67 and C$21.07, respectively. 

Although hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activity may require substantial amounts of water, the impact on the water resources in Texas may not be as bad as some market observers think.

Darrel Brownlow, who currently works as a principal at consulting firm Intercoastal Inland Services, attempted to alleviated the concerns of attendees at Hart Energy's Developing Unconventional Gas Eagle Ford Conference & Exhibition by stating that the amount of water being used could be far greater, according to Bizmology. Brownlow also served on the state's Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District between 2002 and 2010

Brownlow stated that although it is reasonable for people to be concerned about water used by industry in a drought, he estimated that the amount of water required for fracking the 83 wells drilled every year per county would produce no more than 625 acres worth of corn.

"We have people coming into South Texas voicing gloom and doom," he stated to an audience on the first day of the conference, the Houston Chronicle reports. "But let's put our water use in perspective. Look at the ratios."