By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
US crude production set a monthly record in August, and a government forecast predicts the year-end average will also be an all-time high. The Energy Information Administration confirms U.S. crude-oil production in the month of August averaged 13,401,000 barrels per day, the best monthly average ever. The previous record was set last December at 13.3 million barrels per day. A government forecast suggests we'll see record annual production of 13.2 million barrels per day by the end of this year. That would beat the record set last year by 300-thousand barrels a day. The United States became the world’s top crude oil producer in 2018, a position it has maintained each year since.
US weekly crude production has exceeded 13.5 million barrels a day just four times, all of them in the last two months. Operators almost did it again last week. The Energy Information Administration reports weekly production averaging 13,493,000 barrels a day, the fifth best tally ever. Cumulative production so far this year continues to set a record pace, rising nearly six percent over a year ago at just over 13.2 million barrels per day.
Drilling activity in The Sunflower State is down 13% from last year. But that stat is improving. Ongoing assessments from Independent Oil & Gas Service showed activity down 24% for all of last year. A month ago activity was down 17% year over year. Total well-bore footage drilled so far this year is down 21% statewide from the same period a year ago.
Adjusted totals from the Kansas Corporation Commission show 1,153 intent to drill notices through November of this year. That's down 135 from the tally at this time last year. The 110 Intents filed in November include two in Barton County, three in Ellis County, one in Russell County.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil & Gas Service is up seven percent from a week ago, but down nearly 12 percent from last month and 23% lower than last year at this time. This week's tally shows 11 active rigs east of Wichita, up one, and 19 in Western Kansas, also up one. Drilling was underway or about to begin Wednesday on leases in Barton and Russell counties.
Kansas regulators okayed 15 new drilling locations with nine west of Wichita and six in eastern Kansas. That's 1,071 new drilling permits so far this year, compared to 1,205 a year ago.
Independent Oil and Gas reports 31 well-completions for the week, 1,210 so far this year compared to over 15-hundred a year ago. There were 22 completions in eastern Kansas and nine west of Wichita.
The government reports commercial crude inventories dropped 1.8 million barrels to 428.4 million as of November 22nd. US stockpiles are about five percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Refill efforts at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve save another $18 million for the US Treasury. The Energy Department reports an additional 1.2 million barrels added in the last week, at prices $15 cheaper than the sales prices two years ago. The total at the SPR is just over 390 million barrels, up 11% from a year ago.
Domestic petroleum product exports top imports by nearly five million barrels a day. But crude imports outpace exports by nearly 1.5 million. US refiners imported more than six million barrels of crude per day last week, down 1.6 million barrels from the previous week, but 200-thousand barrels a day more than a year ago. Four-week average crude imports are up 5.5 percent from a year ago. We exported 4.6 million barrels of crude per day, up nearly 300-thousand from last week but down slightly from a year ago. The four week average is down nearly a million barrels or 19 percent from last year.
Crude production in the number-three producing state rose by more than 20-thousand barrels a day from August to September. The latest report released by the North Dakota Department of Natural Resources shows output of just under 1.2 million barrels a day. Rig counts, completion tallies and permits were all slightly higher.
The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes last week was largely unchanged but did reflect a drop of two oil rigs and a gain of one seeking natural gas. The only state variance shown was in Wyoming which was down one rig.