By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Eagle Media
Crude prices are dropping from six-month lows.
Friday's (8/2) settlement price for light sweet near-month NYMEX crude was $73.52 per barrel, marking a weekly loss of more than four dollars a barrel. Prices are down ten dollars from the first of July. By midday Monday the benchmark contract in New York was down another half dollar, dipping below $73 for the first time since February.
Kansas Common crude dropped nearly three dollars Friday (8/2), and will start the week at $63.75 per barrel at CHS in McPherson. That's down ten dollars from the first of July and more than seven dollars below the average price last month.
Commercial crude inventories last week dropped by 3.4 million barrels to 433 million according to a report from the Energy Information Administration. Industry reports showed an even larger draw on stockpiles. The weekly inventory report from the government also shows another 700-thousand barrels of crude added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Total U.S. crude-oil production averaged 13,295,000 barrels per day, down slightly from a week earlier. Output in Alaska dropped by 19-thousand barrels a day, while the lower-48 states remained unchanged for a third week in a row.
U.S. crude imports outpaced exports last week by more than two million barrels a day. But we exported more petroleum products than we imported, by more than four million barrels a day. Crude imports averaged seven million barrels per day last week, up 82,000 daily barrels from a week earlier. The four-week average is nearly six percent higher than a year ago. Crude exports jumped by nearly 800,000 barrels a day from a week ago, to 4.9 million. Four week average exports are up nearly eight percent or 309,000 daily barrels from a year ago.
The Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes was down three gas rigs for a total of 586 rigs. The count in Texas is down two, while Colorado, Louisiana and Pennsylvania were each down one.
The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil and Gas Service rose by two rigs in western Kansas for a statewide total of 29 active rigs. The tally is up seven percent from a month ago, but down 26% from last year at this time. In Ellis County last week, operators reached total depth on one lease and drilling continued on Friday on another.
Operators in the Sunflower State completed 18 wells last week, with nine east of Wichita and nine in the western half of the state. Independent Oil and Gas Service reports 745 new well completions so far this year, compared to 994 by this time last year.
Kansas regulators approved 21 new drilling locations last week, with 12 in western Kansas, including one in Stafford County. So far this year there are 591 permits for drilling at new locations, compared to 744 a year ago at this time.
The Kansas Geological Society recognized and named five new fields in Kansas. The operator American Warrior, based in Garden City, hit newly-named pay dirt once in Graham County and twice in Thomas County.
The Kansas Corporation Commission reports 139 new intent-to-drill notices in July, 655 so far this year, compared to 817 through July last year.
The KCC web site shows Barton County with four new intents, 18 thus far this year. Ellis County notches two for the month and seven year-to-date. Russell County adds one for a 2024 total of seven. Stafford County adds one more for a total of nine intents through July.
The question of earthquake prevention returns to the Texas oil patch, with a cluster of felt earthquakes in just the last couple of weeks. Bloomberg reports the state's top oil and gas regulator is investigating wastewater disposal operations northeast of Midland, the unofficial Permian capital.
This comes after at least five temblors rumbled through the region with a magnitude of four or greater since July 23. The U.S. Geological Survey confirms hundreds of quakes in the area centered around Hermleigh and Camp Springs, Texas, including one of a magnitude 5.1 on the Richter scale.
This marks a step back for the Lone Star State, where the frequency of earthquakes dropped last year for the first time in five years after the Commission cracked down on wastewater disposal.