U.S. energy strategies are coalescing around the Permian shale basin in Texas and New Mexico where drilling is on the rise, a federal brief said. A daily briefing from the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that, through Nov. 10, more spending through mergers and acquisitions came during the second half of the year than during the first as crude oil prices start to recover. Only about 20 percent of all the deals announced in late 2016 involve the Permian shale basin, but that’s where more than half of the value of all the agreements is focused. “The Permian now holds nearly as many active oil rigs as the rest of the United States combined, including both onshore and offshore rigs, and it […]