By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Operators of the Keystone Pipeline continue cleanup and recovery efforts after a huge oil spill along Mill Creek in Washington County. TC Energy says they have contained an estimated 14,000 barrels spilled from the pipeline Wednesday. No cause for the spill has been announced, nor has the company announced any plans to restart the pipeline, which was shut down on Wednesday.
The company said Sunday the oil remained contained, with 250 people working on recovery and repairs over the weekend with vacuum trucks, booms and berms. The spill is upstream from the Tuttle Creek Reservoir and Kansas River, the drinking water source for over 800,000 Kansans.
A Kansas River conservation group called Friends of the Kaw said Friday that no public water systems had then been impacted by the spill. TC Energy announced that continuous air quality monitoring has been deployed and said there's no indication of adverse health or public concerns.
Crude oil prices have dropped about ten dollars since the first of the month, but recovered some of that on Monday. The near-month Nymex contract for light sweet crude on Friday settled a few pennies above seventy-one dollars a barrel after nearly dropping below seventy dollars earlier in the day. Lunchtime prices Monday were up more than three percent, topping $73 a barrel. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $61.25 per barrel after dropping half a dollar on Friday. That's down more than ten dollars from the first of the month.
Regular gasoline prices dropped another 14 cents last week to a national average of $3.32 per gallon by Thursday. The auto club Triple-A says average prices were below $3 in 12 states, including Kansas at $2.96 per gallon. Diesel pump prices average $5 per gallon coast-to-coast, and $4.43 per gallon in Kansas. The Energy Information Administration reports US diesel inventories increased by 6.2 million barrels last week, but remain about three percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Deliveries were off nearly ten percent from a year earlier.
Kansas regulators last week OK'd 34 new drilling permits, with 16 in eastern Kansas and 18 west of Wichita including one in Ellis County and one in Stafford County. The 261 active operators in Kansas have, so far this year, spudded 1,506 new wells, up 455 wells from last year. Total footage drilled grew 33% year over year to 4.2 million feet. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 46 newly completed wells for the week through December 8th, with one in Barton County, two in Ellis County, two in Russell county and one in Stafford County. The Rig Count in Kansas was unchanged last week at 21 rigs east of Wichita and 28 in Western Kansas. Operators were about to spud a new well in Ellis County. Drilling was underway on a new well in Stafford County.
The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes drops to 780 active rigs, down two oil rigs and two seeking natural gas. The count in New Mexico was up two, Oklahoma was down two and Texas was down one.
The Energy Information Administration's tally shows a fourth consecutive weekly drop in US inventories. Stockpiles as of December 2nd were down more than five million barrels from a week earlier to 413.9 million barrels. Crude inventories are currently about nine percent below the five-year average for this time of year. EIA said weekly crude imports averaged six million barrels per day, down 24,000 barrels per day from a week earlier and more than four percent lower than a year ago.
The government reported a slight increase in US crude-oil production last week. EIA reported output of 12,150,000 barrels per day, up about 6,000 barrels per day from the week before and 610,000 barrels per day higher than a year ago.
Corrected 1:15 p.m. Dec. 14 to clarify production increase.
Oil-by-rail traffic in the US rebounded last week, after dropping during the Thanksgiving lull the week before. Operators originated 10,595 tanker carloads, a little over one percent higher than the same week last year, and an increase of of nearly 2,000 carloads week over week. Canadian traffic increased 288 carloads for the week and 4.1% over a year ago.
The OPEC-Plus crude exporters on Sunday decided not to add further cuts to world supplies, despite drooping oil prices. The group announced dramatic output cuts at their last meeting in October. They now say those cuts were vindicated by current prices.