By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Crude prices were trading a few cents above $80 a barrel by lunchtime Monday, after dipping below that mark earlier. That's nearly sixty cents below the settlement price on Thursday ($80.69). The markets were closed for Good Friday.
Kansas Common crude at CHS starts the week at $71 per barrel, the highest price in McPherson since January 20.
Just days after leading the way on the output cut announced by its allies, the world’s largest crude exporter is raising prices to its biggest customers. Bloomberg reports that Saudi Aramco bumped up prices 30 cents a barrel in Asia.
The government reported average US crude production last week was unchanged from the week before, at 12.232 million barrels per day. We came close to "unchanged" twice in the last year or so, but those totals were rounded to the nearest 100,000 barrels. Actual published totals haven't matched in recent memory.
US crude inventories dipped by nearly four million barrels last week to 470 million barrels. That's about four percent above the five-year average for this time of year according to the Energy Information Administration. EIA said US crude imports in the week through March 31st rose by 1.8 million barrels from the week before. The four-week average is about 2.3% less than the same period a year ago.
Diesel fuel stockpiles as of March 31st were down 3.6 million barrels from the week before. EIA said gasoline stockpiles dropped by more than four million barrels. The auto club AAA says Monday's average US gasoline price is a dime higher than a week ago and 13 cents higher than a month ago at just over $3.60 per gallon. Diesel is down slightly at $4.19.
Oklahoma regulators placed limits on water disposal in the oil patch after a series of earthquakes beginning Thursday northeast of Oklahoma City near the town of Carney. One magnitude 4.0 quake was among a half-dozen tremors, some felt as far away as Fayetteville, Arkansas early Thursday morning.
The weekly Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes was down two oil and two gas rigs, for a total of 751 active rigs. The number of horizontal drilling rigs at work Thursday was down five from a week earlier. Oklahoma and New Mexico were each down one, while Texas was up one rig for the week.
Drilling was underway Friday on leases in Barton, Russell and Stafford counties. The Kansas Rig Count showed 13 active rigs in eastern Kansas, which is down one from last week. The count west of Wichita was unchanged at 25 rigs. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 310 wells spudded so far this year, down 39 wells from the tally a year ago.
The Kansas Corporation Commission Web site notes 96 new intent-to-drill notices statewide last month. that’s 344 for January-through-March, up from 213 at the end of the quarter last year. Barton County notched four new intents in March, 13 for the first quarter of 2023. There were no new intents last month in Ellis County, with 13 so far this year. Russell County added one intent, three so far this year. In Stafford County, the first-quarter tally is 11, with three filed in March.
Kansas regulators okayed 39 new drilling permits, including one in Barton County and one in Ellis County among 17 in Western Kansas. That's 353 new drilling locations statewide so far this year, compared to 407 a year ago.
Operators completed 26 new wells across Kansas last week, according to Independent Oil & Gas Service. That's 519 so far this year, compared to 433 a year ago. There are 20 in Western Kansas, including one each in Ellis and Barton counties.
Total rail traffic was down 7.6% last month, but oil-by-rail posted gains over 9%. The Association of American Railroads reports oil-by-rail for the month increased 4,280 tanker carloads over the same month last year. Weekly traffic was up 18% across the US.