By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
The government's latest state-by-state assessment shows Kansas crude oil production in March rising nearly four percent from February, but dropping nearly eight percent from a year earlier, to 69,000 barrels per day. Production in March of last year averaged 79,000 barrels per day.
The Energy Information Administration says total domestic output rose two percent to average 13.48 million barrels per day in March. Texas accounted for 5.7 million barrels per day. Output in New Mexico jumped nearly five percent to 2.25 million barrels a day, an all time high for the state.
U.S. crude production inched upward in the week through May 30. At just over 13.4 million barrels a day, output is up 7,000 daily barrels from the week before, and up from a year ago by 308,000 barrels a day. The four-week average is up two percent from a year ago. Cumulative production so far this year is up three percent over last year at this time.
Commercial crude inventories dropped by more than one million barrels. At just over 436 million, crude stockpiles are about seven percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
The government added half a million barrels to the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. So far this year refills total 7.7 million barrels, topping off the SPR at just under 402 million barrels.
Crude imports outpace exports by 2.4 million barrels a day. At 6.3 million barrels a day, U.S. crude imports are down slightly from last week, and ten percent lower than a year ago. The four-week average is down nearly ten percent from last year.
Crude exports averaged 3.9 million barrels a day, down 400,000 from the week before. Four-week average exports are down more than 600,000 daily barrels from a year ago.
Crude exports in May were the highest since January. Exports topped 3.8 million barrels a day for the month for only the third time in the last year. For the third week in a row, Baker Hughes reports a new four-year low.
The weekly count of active oil drilling rigs drops by nine, while the gas tally was up five rigs, for a total of 559 rigs. The oil rig counts are down for a sixth consecutive week dropping 33 rigs since the beginning of April. Texas and Oklahoma were each down two rigs; Utah was down one.
Kansas regulators report 58 new intent-to-drill permits statewide last month, or 307 through May this year. That's down by 13 permits from a year ago. Barton County adds four new drilling locations, for a year-to-date total of eight. Ellis County has six so far this year after adding three last month.
Out of 32 new well-completions reported by Independent Oil and Gas Service, 14 are dry holes, including two in Ellis County and two in Finney County. That's 44%. The percentage so far this year is just over 17%, with 93 dry holes among the 538 wells completed across the state this year.
Regulators in Kansas report nine new drilling permit locations this week, with just one in western Kansas. That's 292 permits so far this year, compared to 420 a year ago.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil and Gas Service is unchanged in eastern Kansas at five rigs, and down three at eight rigs west of Wichita. The weekly tally is down 19% from a week ago, down 35% from a month ago, and down 59% from a year ago.
Oil prices are low; fuel stockpiles are rising, but fuel demand, and prices, are dropping. The government reports increasing inventories of diesel and regular gasoline, but both remain well below the five-year average for this time of year. Prices for both are down two cents a gallon across the U.S., across the Midwest, and across Kansas. The statewide average pump price for regular is $2.87 per gallon, down two cents from last week and four cents from last month. Diesel averages $3.25 per gallon across Kansas. That's down about a penny from last month, and is 25 cents per gallon cheaper than a year ago.
A promising oil-patch technology hits a roadblock in New Mexico. "Produced water" from oil and gas wells will not be reused commercially in New Mexico anytime soon. A state board says more scrutiny and regulation is needed to ensure it's safe. The state produces 84 billion gallons of toxic wastewater each year. Boosters hoped to clean that produced water and reuse it for irrigation or manufacturing.
But the new rule from the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission bans any use other than injection back into disposal wells or new fracking operations. The rule allows continued study of the purification technology to see if it can be viable, and safe, on a large scale.