By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
Since the Administration's tariff announcements in April, US crude prices are six dollars below the average for the year. For the last week, prices are holding there within a two dollar range. By midday Tuesday, the expiring June contract on the NYMEX was fetching a few cents over $62 a barrel. Offers for July crude dipped below $62. London Brent was fetching $65 a barrel late Tuesday.
Domestic crude production has gone down about 200,000 barrels a day since the first of April. Output rose slightly last week, but remains below 13.4 million barrels a day for a second straight week. The four-week average and year-to-date total are both over 13.4 million. Both are up more than two percent from a year ago.
The rig counts in New Mexico and Texas were each down two according to the weekly tally from Baker Hughes. Losses were offset somewhat by gains in Wyoming and Ohio. The total of 576 active rigs is down one oil rig and one gas rig. The active list of the horizontal rigs is down two.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil and Gas Service is down three rigs or 13% from a week ago, nine percent lower than a month ago, and more than 35% lower than a year ago. Operators were moving in rotary tools Friday on a lease in Barton County.
Kansas Regulators approve just five new drilling permits, the smallest weekly tally in more than a decade. The Kansas Corporation Commission gave its okay to one new drilling location in Barton County among three in Western Kansas last week. That's 263 new drilling permits this year, down from 337 a year ago.
At 468 wells, this week's Completions report from Independent Oil and Gas Service is down 18 wells from a year ago. Out of 24 new completions this week, eleven are in the western half of the state, including two in Barton County.
Crude output in the number-three producing state increased in March, after dropping in each of the three preceding months. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources reports production of nearly 1.2 million barrels a day, up nearly 30-thousand daily barrels from the month before. Permits and completions are both rising according to DMR's monthly oil-and-gas report.
US Crude imports averaged 5.8 million barrels a day last week, down nearly a quarter million daily barrels. The four week average is down nearly 15% from a year ago. Crude exports are down 16% from a week ago to 3.3 million barrels a day.
The Energy Department took delivery on another half million barrels of crude for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The raises the total to just shy of 400 million barrels, down more than 200-million from the peak, but up 32 million barrels from a year ago.
Commercial inventories increased by four million barrels to just under 442 million. Stockpiles are six percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Oil-by-rail in the US declined in April, amid otherwise broad gains on the nation's railroads. Of the 20 freight categories tracked by the Association of American Railroads, coal shipments led the way rising 23% compared to last April. Petroleum and Petroleum Products were among the seven categories that saw declines, dropping more than 3,000 carloads or 7.5% year-over-year.
The U.S. last week imposed sanctions on a shipping network sending millions of barrels of crude oil to China on behalf of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and a front company. According to the State Department, the sale of the oil reaped billions to fund attacks by the Houthi militant group on shipping.