BY JOHN P. TRETBAR
Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $48 per barrel after dropping 75 cents on Friday.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports a 13% increase in its weekly statewide Kansas Rig Count. There are nine active rigs in eastern Kansas, which is up one for the week, and 25 west of Wichita, which is up three from last week. Drilling is underway on one well in Ellis County and one in Russell County. Operators are about to spud a new well in Ellis County and another in Stafford County.
Baker Hughes reported a drop of three oil rigs in the company's weekly rig count summary Friday. There are 803 active rigs in the U.S. Texas was down two rigs. The count in Canada was 137, up three.
Regulators approved 25 permits for drilling at new locations across Kansas last week. That's 976 so far this year. There are six new drilling permits east of Wichita, and 19 in Western Kansas, including three in Barton County, one in Ellis County and one in Russell County.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 23 newly-completed wells statewide last week, four in eastern Kansas and 19 west of Wichita. There were two completed wells in Barton County, but both turned out to be dry holes. There was one producing well completed in Russell County. So far this year, operators have completed 1,268 new wells.
The annual membership meeting of the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association is December 11 at the Petroleum Club in Wichita. For more information, contact Kelly Rains at (316) 263-7297 , or go to their Web site at https://www.kioga.org.
KIOGA is joining state regulators in support of three measures to facilitate the plugging of abandoned oil and gas wells. The Topeka Capital Journal reports KIOGA and the KCC support three bills expected during the upcoming legislative session. One measure would combine two existing funds, for plugging old and new wells, into one account. Another bill would define who is responsible for plugging wells. A third bill would allow the KCC to reimburse farmers and others for capping wells for which they have not been deemed responsible.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 1.4 million barrel increase in U.S. crude inventories, which rose to 450.4 million barrels. That's about three percent above the five-year average for this time of year. That's a smaller build than what was reported by the America Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, which sent prices down more than two percent. Traders reversed that course on Wednesday with a two percent increase in prices.
U.S. oil producers continued record-pace output last week. The latest weekly total from the EIA showed domestic production of 12.782 million [["twelve point seven eight two million"]] barrels per day for the week ending November 15. That's just nine thousand barrels per day less than the all-time record set the week before.
The government said U.S. crude-oil imports were up 222,000 barrels per day last week to six million barrels per day. The four-week average for U.S. imports was 6.1 million barrels per day, which is down 18% from the same period a year ago.
The Bureau of Land Management is taking public comment on its next lease sale in the heart of the hottest oil-production regions in the world. BLM is accepting public input through December 9 on the sale next May of fossil-fuel leases in and around the Permian Basin. A total of 112 tracts of federally-owned land are nominated for lease in New Mexico and Texas.
Officials say ConocoPhillips hopes to sell parts of its Alaska projects to offset risks and share the expenses of investments planned in the state. Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Thursday that the sale package includes old, new and unbuilt projects representing most of Conoco’s Alaska holdings.
The government expects record output in December from the nation's major shale regions, but predicts continuing declines in the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas. The Energy Information Administration's latest Drilling Productivity Report predicts total U.S. crude oil output from seven shale formations will rise to a record high of 9.13 million barrels per day in December. But EIA said production in the Eagle Ford will drop by 14-thousand barrels per day in December to an average of 1.36 million barrels per day. That would be the fourth such decline in a row, and the lowest production since May in the Eagle Ford.
Crude-oil production in North Dakota, the number-two producer in the nation, dropped by more than 40-thousand barrels per day in September. Regulators say wet weather was largely to blame. The Department of Mineral Resources reported preliminary production total of nearly 43.3 million barrels for the month, or more than 1.4 million barrels per day. That's down nearly 40-thousand barrels per day from the revised August total. DMR Director Lynn Helms said the best way to describe the month of September is "soggy." The National Weather Service reported eight inches of rain in Williston, marking that city's wettest September ever. The Bismarck Tribune reports that some heavy rainfall prompts some counties to place restrictions on gravel roads, which closes them to the heavy trucks used to service the oil patch.
The United States is taking advantage, and market share, as Saudi Arabia raises its prices to India. OPEC's share of India's oil imports fell to 73% in October. Reuters reports that's down from the average of about 80%. Among those cutting into OPEC's share are the U.S., Iraq, and Nigeria.
OPEC marked its steepest month-on-month production drop in more than fifteen years. Saudi exports decreased by 211,000 barrels per day in September, a month in which the kingdom's oil infrastructure was hit by military attacks. Total OPEC production dropped more than a million barrels per day from August to September to just shy of 29 million barrels per day.