By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
Weekly government production reports have only recently reached 13.8 million barrels per day, but the latest government reporting shows we got there months ago. The monthly production reached an average of 13,844,000 barrels per day in September. August totals were revised upward to 13.8 million. Late and updated reporting are no stranger to the oil and gas industry. For example, in Texas there is no deadline for updating production reports, and some updates can take years. According to the Energy Information Administration, Texas production has been down in at least the last two monthly reports, but both Texas reports, and the national average, are significantly higher than the earlier averages reported through June. Kansas production held steady at 70-thousand barrels a day in August and September, placing us 12th in the state rankings. EIA reports output in Alaska jumped eight percent to surpass Oklahoma and take the #5 slot.
Crude prices rise on Monday but remain below $60 a barrel for an eighth consecutive trading session. Near-month NYMEX crude settled a dime lower on Friday to close at what amounts to a half-dollar weekly gain of $58.55 per barrel. WTI was trading over $59 by midday Monday. London Brent was also slightly higher, surpassing $63 a barrel by lunchtime on Monday.
Weekly crude production drops slightly but remained above 13.8 million barrels a day. US output over the last four weeks averages just under 13.4 million barrels a day, in a statistic we expect to jump next week, after three consecutive weekly reports over 13.8 million. The cumulative production average so far this year is slightly more than 13.4 million
The government reports commercial inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels to just under 427 million as of November 21. EIA reports stockpiles are about four percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
EIA reports another half million barrel addition to the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, now up more than 21 million barrels from a year ago.
After dropping 1.5 million daily barrels two weeks ago, crude exports rose 1.3 million last week. This week's report from EIA is down 1.5 million barrels a day to just under 3.6 million barrels a day. Crude imports are up nearly half a million barrels at 6.4 million barrels per day.
Baker Hughes reports a big swing in rig counts going into the holiday weekend. The total Rotary Rig Count is down ten rigs from a week ago and 38 rigs from last year at this time. The breakout for oil exploration is down 12 rigs, and horizontal drilling activity is down by six rigs. Texas is down eight rigs; Oklahoma and Louisiana are each down one.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil and Gas Service is down 23 percent from last week. The report drops by one rig in eastern Kansas to six, and dips by three rigs west of Wichita at seven active rigs. The tally is eight percent higher than a month ago but 56 percent lower than a year ago. Drilling activity in Kansas is down by an average of 38 percent compared to the same period last year.
Kansas regulators okayed two new drilling permits this week, both in Western Kansas, including one in Stafford County. That's 609 new drilling locations this year, compared to over a thousand last year at this time.
Operators in The Sunflower State completed 17 wells this week, with eight in Western Kansas including two in Barton County and one in Finney County. Independent Oil and Gas Service reports 1,027 new well-completions so far this year. That lags behind last year by nearly two hundred wells.
Crude production in North Dakota dropped by about half a percent or five thousand barrels a day from August to September. The latest numbers from the state's Department of Mineral Resources show average output of just over 1.1 million barrels a day. Natural gas production dropped, but officials say that on a per-day basis, natural gas output rose to its highest level ever. The volume of flared gas increased, dropping North Dakota's gas-capture rate to 95.3%. The number of producing wells set an all-time record of 19,607 in August, but drops by 49 wells in September.
The United Arab Emirates announced possible investments of up to $50 BILLION in Canada, notably in energy and artificial intelligence, following a visit by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Abu Dhabi. Canadian media noted that the UAE is using its abundant oil and gas resources to fuel a data center boom, benefiting from cheap energy, and that Carney’s government wanted to replicate the scheme with Alberta’s oil sands as a source of affordable energy to power data centers.