In West Texas, the king of the U.S. oilfields is proving to be the safest investment for explorers. The Permian Basin added the most drilling rigs of the four major U.S. oil plays last week. Output from the region, which stretches into southeastern New Mexico, will rise by 5,000 barrels a day in August, the Energy Information Administration estimates. The Eagle Ford in south Texas, the Bakken region of North Dakota and the Niobrara of Colorado and Wyoming will all drop by at least 20,000 barrels. WPX Energy Inc. entered the region with Tuesday’s $2.35 billion deal to buy RKI Exploration & Production LLC. WPX and other explorers are turning to the Permian to drill into the large number of oil-soaked underground rock deposits stacked like pancakes. “What the Permian shows is the opportunity, and the opportunity is driven by the stacked reservoirs,” Rick Muncrief, chief executive officer at […]