By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
Between tariff uncertainty and a big Saudi price cut, the crude oil market takes a beating. NYMEX futures prices shed five dollars a barrel on Friday to settle a penny below $62. Prices were down another three percent Monday morning. WTI was fetching a few cents over $60 a barrel after dipping below $59 earlier in the session. Kansas Crude prices dropped five dollars Friday. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at 52.25 per barrel.
Saudi Arabia slashed its prices by more than two dollars a barrel, dropping prices for Asia customers to a four-year low. Reuters reports the second monthly price cut in a row marks the biggest decline in two years.
Eight key OPEC+ producers last week agreed to raise combined crude oil output by 411,000 barrels per day, what the cartel calls the equivalent of three monthly increments.
Kansas crude production has dropped from the worst ever to the new worst ever, again. The data crunchers at the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) have been busy with what a spokesman called "significant changes in their server architecture." This week they released the delayed and much-anticipated December and year-end crude oil production totals. The new report shows annual statewide production of 26.8 million barrels, the worst annual total in KGS records, for an average of 73,306 barrels per day. That's down from just under 76-thousand barrels a day the year before and 77-thousand-plus the year before that.
KGS reports Ellis County is still the top producing county in 2024, with 5,668 barrels per day. That's down 213 daily barrels from the year before. Finney County production jumps to the second spot with 4,405 barrels per day, up 605 daily barrels. After Haskell County at third comes Barton County at 3,847 barrels per day, down 233 barrels a day from the year before. At fifth, Russell County output dropped 87 daily barrels year-over-year, at 3,507. Stafford County drops 62 daily barrels to eighth place with 2,391 barrels per day.
Kansas regulators report 83 new intent-to-drill notices in March, or 202 so far this year. A search of the Kansas Corporation Commission Web site shows Barton County with two new intents, and four so far this year. Ellis County has a new one. That's makes two for the first three months of the year. Russell County notches its first of the year, and Stafford County adds one, for a year-to-date tally of seven. Haskell County reports five new intents or seven through the first quarter. Finney County has 17 so far this year, with five new ones in March.
The Kansas Corporation Commission okayed 26 new drilling sites, with 12 in Western Kansas including one in Stafford County. That's 199 new drilling permits this year, compared to 232 through the first quarter last year.
Independent Oil and Gas Service reports 47 new well completions in eastern Kansas last week. There were just six west of Wichita, including three in Haskell County and one in Stafford County. Completions for the first quarter total 347, compared to 301 last year at this time.
US crude production boasts its third-best weekly average, it's second-best four-week average, and all-time best cumulative average. US crude production through March 28th averaged 13.58 million barrels a day, up six thousand barrels from the week before and nearly half a million higher than the same tally a year ago.
The Energy Information Administration reports crude inventories rose 6.2 million barrels from last week to 439.8 million barrels. Stockpiles are down nearly three percent from a year ago, and are about four percent below the five-year seasonal average.
The Energy Department took delivery on another 300-thousand barrels of crude last week for the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. That's 32.8 million since full-scale refill operations began last April. SPR barrels were sold in 2022 for more than $95 a barrel. The average price we're paying remains below the ceiling established by the government. Paper savings now total over $490 million.
Crude imports from Canada rose for the second week in a row, but the tally for the month of March is the lowest since October. US refiners imported 4.4 million barrels of Canadian crude per day last week.
Total US imports averaged 6.5 million barrels per day, rising 271-thousand barrels from the previous week. EIA says crude exports averaged 3.8 million barrels a day, making the US is a net crude importer by two-and-a-half million barrels a day.
The Kansas Rig Count totals were unchanged from a week ago, with eight active rigs east of Wichita and 15 in Western Kansas. Independent Oil and Gas Service reports drilling underway or about to resume barring weather delays on a lease in Barton County, two in Finney County, one in Russell County and one in Stafford County.
Baker Hughes reports 590 active drilling rigs across the U.S. The number of oil rigs is up five. The tally of those seeking natural gas is down seven rigs. Texas is down three rigs for the week.