By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Crude prices post their biggest rally in a year after the "OPEC-Plus" exporters announce output cuts. The near-month contract for light sweet crude on the Nymex settled Friday at $75.67 per barrel. On Sunday, the OPEC-Plus oil exporters announced plans to cut output by an additional 1.1 million barrels per day. By lunchtime Monday, prices were up more than six percent trading over $80 in New York, and over $84 in London. Kansas Common crude starts the week at $66 per barrel at CHS in McPherson, after gaining a dollar and a half on Friday.
Kansas regulators okayed 16 new drilling permits last week, 314 so far this year compared to 376 by this time last year. There are eight new permits in Western Kansas including two in Barton County.
Operators across Kansas completed 22 new wells, with 13 west of Wichita including one in Barton County, two in Ellis County and two in Russell County. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 493 newly-completed wells so far this year, compared to 413 a year ago.
Operators filed 96 intent-to-drill notices across the state last month, according to the Kansas Corporation Commission. That's 344 so far this year, compared to 213 by the end of March last year. Barton County notched four intents last month, Russell County had one and Stafford County had three.
Drilling was underway Friday on a lease in Barton County and two in Stafford County. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 14 active drilling rigs in eastern Kansas, up two for the week, and 26 in the western half of the state, which is down two.
The weekly Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes shows 755 active rigs for the week through March 31, down three rigs. The count in Texas was up four rigs, while New Mexico was down four. Oklahoma was down two.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports total crude production in the Sunflower State reached 28.3 million barrels for the year. That's over 77,000 barrels per day and the best year-end total since 2019.
EIA reported a large dip in US crude inventories, down 7.5 million barrels in the week trough March 24th to 473.7 million barrels. Stockpiles are about six percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
US crude production was down about 11,000 barrels per day from the week before, at just over 12.2 million barrels per day. That's nearly half a million barrels per day below US output a year ago. EIA said imports dropped to 5.3 million barrels per day last week. The four week average is down 5.8% from a year ago.
The Biden administration offered one of the biggest energy lease-auctions ever. The government offered 73-million acres for off-shore energy exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. That includes almost all of the unspoken-for tracts in the Western and Central Gulf. The sale was among the concessions negotiated to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. It generated more than $263 million in high bids.
California lawmakers took just one week to approve a measure intended to rein in price gouging at the gas pump. Lawmakers are giving regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from the type of gas price spikes that plagued the nation’s most populous state last summer. Governor Gavin Newsom was expected to sign the bill into law Tuesday. Eloy Garcia, lobbyist for the Western States Petroleum Association, said California’s high gas prices are the result of decades of public policy decisions that have made the state an island in the global petroleum market and driven many oil refiners out of the state. Garcia said the legislation sends a clear signal NOT to invest in California.