By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
The Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association, KIOGA, holds its annual convention and Expo August 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency and Century Two in downtown Wichita. The yearly get-together features a trade show, industry seminars and all manner of social gatherings, including golf, sporting clays, and bingo.
Find out more online at www.kioga.org.
After a week of slow gains, crude prices spiked on Monday.
The NYMEX settlement price for WTI (Sep'24) on Friday, Aug. 9 was $76.84 per barrel, up $3.32 on the week. Prices were four percent higher Monday afternoon at $79.71 per barrel, topping $79 for the first time since mid July.
U.S. crude production increased to 13,415,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the week through August 2. That's the highest weekly production average ever reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Four-week average production is up more than eight percent from last year. Cumulative production so far this year is up more than seven percent.
Crude production through May of this year averaged 13.18 million bpd nationwide.
The latest numbers from the Energy Information Administration show Kansas pumping 75,480 bpd in May, placing the Sunflower State 12th in the state rankings.
The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes is up three oil rigs but down one seeking natural gas for a total of 588 rigs. The count in Texas was up two. New Mexico was down one rig. Colorado was up one and Wyoming was up two rigs from a week ago.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil & Gas Service is unchanged east of Wichita at 12 rigs, and up one at 18 rigs in western Kansas. The statewide tally is down 29% from a year ago. Drilling was underway or about to start on a lease in Stafford County. Operators reached total depth on the second Ellis County well in as many weeks.
Operators completed 46 wells across Kansas last week. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 13 in eastern Kansas and 33 west of Wichita, including one in Butler County, one in Ellis County and two in Russell County. That's 791 new well-completions so far this year, compared to 1,063 a year ago at this time.
Kansas regulators okayed 13 permits for drilling at new locations statewide in the week through August 8, with six in western Kansas. That's 604 new drilling locations so far this year, compared to 762 by this time last year.
The U.S. imported more crude oil than we exported last week by 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd).
Petroleum product exports outpaced imports by 4.7 million bpd. U.S. crude imports averaged 6.2 million bpd, dropping 729,000 daily barrels from a week ago. Four week average imports are up 49,000 daily barrels to just under 6.8 million. Domestic exports are down 1.3 million barrels from a week ago at 3.6 million bpd. The four-week average is up 165,000 bpd from a year ago.
Commercial crude oil inventories dropped by 3.7 million barrels (bbl) from the previous week to just over 429 million bbl. This is the sixth consecutive weekly decline in crude stockpiles, which are down more than 31 million bbl since June. Stockpiles are about six percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
The weekly government dip-stick at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve shows 375.8 million bbl of crude. That's 28 million bbl in refills in the last year and 700,000 bbl in the last week.
At recent prices, the government is, by selling high and buying low, reaping a net profit of more than $20 per barrel. That's more than $14 million for the week, and more than $200 million since April.
The Association of American Railroads reports an eight percent spike in U.S. oil-by-rail shipments in July, despite a two percent drop in total carload originations. AAR reports 12 of the 20 commodity categories they track saw carload gains compared with last year. That includes petroleum and petroleum products, which rose by more than 4,000 carloads for an increase of eight-and-a-half percent over a year ago. Weekly U.S. oil-by-rail traffic is up more than 17% from a year ago.