Clear Fork Royalty, LLC, an Oil & Gas acquisition company that focuses on the acquisition of oil and gas royalties, mineral rights, and overriding royalty interests, acquired a number of properties in the 3rd Quarter of 2011, including interest in the Barnett Shale in North Texas. The properties are located throughout the "core" of the play and spread in the the "combo" portion that contains an increased amount of liquids and oil. Read more »

The number of U.S. drilling rigs fell by 15 this week, to 2,001, according to Houston-based oil field services firm Baker Hughes.

Oil rigs declined by eight, to 1,125, and natural gas rigs dropped by six, to 871. Miscellaneous rigs shrank by one, to five.

The Texas rig count fell by two, to 914.

In North Texas' natural gas-rich Barnett Shale, there were 59 rigs drilling on Friday, up seven from a week earlier, according to RigData. The leading counties were Tarrant, 21; Wise, 8; and Johnson, Denton and Montague, 5 each.

The Barnett Shale, one of the largest gas fields in the country, is slowly but surely being developed to provide an abundant supply of natural gas.

If you own property in the field, in most circumstances you also own the mineral rights. If, however, a previous landowner reserved the minerals rights -- or even a portion of them -- your share is diminished or nonexistent. Read more »

The economic difference between drilling and automobile manufacturing is enormous: 100,268 drilling jobs vs. 2,633 direct and 14,500 indirect jobs from auto manufacturing; $11.1 billion delivered to North Texas annually by drilling versus $790 million to the annual gross state product by General Motors. Yet since Norman's admonishment against chasing dollars at the expense of quality of life and possible environmental toxicity is prudent, let's examine a couple of his concerns. Read more »