By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
NYMEX crude prices jumped three percent on Monday, pushing prices over $63 a barrel. London Brent was rising toward $66 a barrel by midday Monday.
Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson started the week at $51.25 per barrel, after rising a dollar on Friday.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve continues to prove its usefulness as both price tamer and profit center. The government took delivery on another 600,000 barrels at the SPR last week. Refills since April of last year total more than 35 million barrels, at prices dramatically cheaper than the sale price in 2022.
The Energy Information Administration said the average price they received was around $95 a barrel. Current prices are below $59. Commercial crude inventories dropped by two million barrels. The Energy Information Administration reports stockpiles as of May 2 stand at 438.4 million barrels. That's about seven percent below the five-year seasonal average.
Domestic crude production dips below 13.4 million barrels a day for only the second week this year. EIA reports cumulative production and the four-week average continue to drop. Each surpasses the last year by about two percent at just over 13.4 million barrels a day.
The weekly Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes drops to 578 nationwide. The tally has been this low only once in more than three years. New Mexico drops by four rigs while Texas gains two. Louisiana is down three rigs, Wyoming is down one, and Utah is up one. The report notes a drop of five directional rigs and one horizontal rig.
The Kansas Rig Count is up two in eastern Kansas and one higher west of Wichita. Independent Oil and Gas Service pegs the total at 23 active drilling rigs, up 15% from last week, unchanged from last month, and down 23% from last year.
Up until last week, well-completions were the only oil patch barometer that outpaced the same tallies a year ago. The 17 new well completions for the week through May 8th bring the total for the year to 444 statewide, compared to 452 a year ago. There are two new completions in Russell County and two in Finney County, out of nine in western Kansas.
Kansas regulators okayed 18 new drilling locations. Out of ten in western Kansas, there are two in Barton County and one in Ellis County. That's 258 permits for drilling at new locations this year, down from 331 a year ago.
The world's largest crude-oil exporter announced a billion-dollar-plus drop in profits for the first quarter of the year, blamed largely on sagging crude prices. Saudi Aramco announced earnings of $26 billion, down from $27.3 billion a year ago.
U.S. crude imports outpace exports by more than two million barrels a day. Crude-oil exports are down slightly but remain above four thousand barrels a day. Crude imports average just over six million barrels a day, up half a million from last week but down nearly a million daily barrels from last year at this time.
The Justice Department follows up on an executive order to challenge state environmental laws, and block states from filing climate-change lawsuits against energy companies. The government filed its own lawsuits to block such laws in Hawaii, Michigan, New York and Vermont, claiming such they are preempted by the federal Clean Air Act.