By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
The benchmark NYMEX futures contract settled at five week highs on Friday, rising to $74.38 per barrel at the close of trading. By midday Monday crude buyers pushed that up another two dollars and change, with WTI trading over $76 a barrel and London Brent topping $80.The average price for Kansas Common crude in McPherson last month was $59.87 per barrel. That's down nearly six dollars from the average n August, five dollars lower than January, and nearly twenty dollars cheaper than a year ago. Kansas Common at CHS starts the week at sixty-four seventy-five ($64.75) per barrel, after a 75 cent increase on Friday.
The weekly rig counts from Baker Hughes show a big drop in oil rigs last week, offset in part by an increase in rigs drilling for natural gas. New Mexico was down three rigs. Texas was up two. Louisiana and Oklahoma were each down one.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil & Gas Service shows 28 active rigs statewide. That's up two at eleven rigs in eastern Kansas and plus two west of Wichita at 17 rigs. This week's tally is up 12 percent from a month ago but down 24% from last year at this time. Operators were drilling on one lease in Barton County, and were about to spud new wells on leases in Ellis and Stafford counties.
Kansas regulators okayed 16 new drilling locations, including one in Ellis County out of nine in Western Kansas. That's 813 new drilling permits so far this year, down by 140 permits from a year ago.
Operators completed 33 new oil, gas and service wells across Kansas last week. Out of 15 in Western Kansas, there's one each in Ellis, Russell and Stafford counties. Independent Oil and Gas Service reports 1,025 completed wells statewide so far this year, compared to 1,314 last year at this time.
Kansas regulators report 137 new intent-to-drill notices in September. That's 878 so far this year compared to 991 by the end of September last year. The Kansas Corporation Commission reports two new intents in Barton County, one in Ellis County, and three in Stafford County.
Crude-oil production in Kansas through the first half of this year is down from last year, and is on track for another dubious achievement. The Kansas Geological Survey pegs total output statewide in the first six months of this year at 13.2 million barrels, or nearly 73-thousand barrels per day. That's down from a year ago by more than four thousand barrels a day. If this keeps up, this year will become the latest in a string of worst-ever years for crude production. Ellis County output slipped to 56-hundred barrels per day, down 334 daily barrels. Barton County production dropped 259 barrels per day to 39-hundred. Operators in Russell County pumped a little over 35-hundred barrels per day, down from 37-hundred last year. Stafford County production dropped 168 barrels a day to just over 23-hundred.U.S. crude imports average 6.6 million barrels per day, up 171-thousand daily barrels from a week ago. The four week average is down nearly five percent from the same four weeks last year. At 3.8 million barrels per day, crude exports are down slightly from a week ago. Four-week average exports are down from a year ago by more than 360-thousand barrels a day.
The U.S. is a net crude importer by 2.75 million barrels a day. That ratio is up nearly 200,000 barrels from a week ago, and up 1.5 million from a year ago.
The latest government crude production report shows domestic output of 13,335,000 barrels per day, up 115,000 barrels a day from a week ago. Cumulative production this year is up more than six percent from a year ago. The four week average is nearly three percent from last year.
The government reported an additional 700,000 barrels added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which now stands at 383 million barrels. That's an increase of more than 31 million barrels, almost nine percent, over a year ago, but down from about 600 million barrels just prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Excluding the SPR, commercial crude inventories are up 3.9 million barrels. The Energy Information Administration reports just under 417 million barrels as of September 29th. That's four percent below the five-year seasonal average. Commercial crude inventories are up 3.9 million barrels. The Energy Information Administration reports just under 17 million barrels as of September 29. That's four percent below the five year average for this time of year.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a Biden administration crackdown on methane emissions from oil wells, storage tanks and pipelines. The order is a setback for oil and gas producers who say the new mandates exceed the authority of the EPA. They were hoping to put new requirements on hold while their legal challenge continues.