Exploration-and-production companies, buffeted by low oil and gas commodity prices brought on by robust production from shale plays, are using a variety of strategies to survive the current industry downturn, speakers at an oil and gas conference said Monday in San Francisco. Representatives of upstream companies presenting at the Independent Petroleum Association of American Oil and Gas Investment Symposium said their firms are depending on a combination of belt-tightening efforts, hedging strategies and technology to deal with the economic doldrums. J. Russell Porter, president and CEO of Gastar Exploration, said his company is well-positioned to continue to thrive because it operations are diversified between two significant core assets — the Marcellus/Utica natural gas-centric play of Appalachia and the oilier play in the Midcontinent. Gastar’s acreage position in the Appalachian Basin is about 60,000 net acres in West Virginia and to a lesser extent Pennsylvania. Although the bulk of the […]