Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts the week at $32.25 per barrel after dropping 25 cents on Friday. That's 75 cents a barrel more than a week earlier, and a dollar seventy-five higher than at the beginning of the month, but about 13 dollars a barrel less than a year ago.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports the statewide rig count in Kansas is unchanged from a week ago, up 25% from a month ago, but down 71% from last year at this time. Operators reached total depth on a well in Stafford County with evaluation to follow, and completion activity is underway at a pair of leases in Ellis County.
Baker Hughes reports 244 active drilling rigs across the U.S., showing four fewer oil rigs that last week's report. The count in Texas was down four rigs.
Exploration in the U.S. oil patch has reached a 15-year low, but Bloomberg says the number of active oil rigs last week reached its lowest level since 1940. Weekly Baker Hughes rig counts have consistently dropped for the last four and a half months.
Regulators approved just two new drilling permits in Kansas last week, one in eastern Kansas, and one in the western half of the state.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports ten newly-completed wells across Kansas last week, three of them east of Wichita, and seven in Western Kansas including one dry hole in Russell County. Operators have completed 597 wells in the Sunflower State so far this year, compared to 924 at this time last year.
Triple A says weekly gasoline prices were slightly cheaper in some places, but steady in most parts of the country, with a national average Thursday of $2.17 per gallon. The average across the Sunflower State was just over $1.96. We spotted $1.95 across Hays Thursday and $1.94 in Great Bend. Your 15-gallon fill-up will cost you about the same as last week, half a dollar less than last month, and five dollars less than last year at this time.
The government says U.S. crude-oil inventories dropped by nearly five million barrels last week. At just over 514 million barrels, domestic stockpiles are about 15% above the five-year seasonal average.
The Energy Information Administration reported a big drop in U.S. crude production last week, but says much of that is due to benchmarking adjustments made as the agency compares its surveys to other data each month. Domestic crude output totaled just over 10.7 million barrels per day, down nearly 300,000 barrels per day from the week before. This month's re-benchmarking reduced that figure by three percent of the total.
Over the last four weeks, U.S. crude-oil imports averaged 20% less than the same period last year. For the week ending August 7, we imported 5.6 million barrels per day, down 389,000 barrels per day from the week before.
Oil by rail shipments increased last week by 11% over the week before, but remain about 16% behind the totals at this time last year, according to weekly numbers from the Association of American Railroads. The broader rail freight industry remains about six percent behind last year's totals.
An industry group says total oilfield service job-losses caused by the pandemic are approaching 100,000. The Petroleum Equipment and Services Association says total pink slips jumped 43% from June to July. According to the report, oilfield service employment is down more than 118,000 jobs since July of last year, and has reached its lowest level since March 2017.
The Energy Information Administration says exports of Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG, fell to less than half of the record levels reached in January. Industry press reports note the recent cancellation of at least 75 LNG shipping cargoes originally scheduled for export in August and September.
Global oil demand won’t return to 2019 levels until at least 2022 and the gap may be getting wider than it seemed a month ago. All three of the world’s main oil forecasting agencies—the International Energy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- published new quarterly forecasts last week and none project oil demand back at 2019 levels by the end of next year.
In it's Monthly Oil Market Report, The OPEC cartel again revised downward its forecast for global economic growth this year, citing additional impact from the pandemic. The closely watched report predicts continuing weak demand for transportation fuels for the rest of this year. The report said international crude futures prices and spot prices rose in July for the third month in a row.
The U.S. government now predicts rising oil prices for the rest of this year, with the average throughout the third and fourth quarters reaching $43 a barrel. In its monthly Short Term Energy Outlook, the Energy Information Administration predicts prices will average $50 a barrel next year. EIA estimates that liquid fuels consumption in the second quarter of this year dropped 20% from the same figure a year ago.
June crude-oil output increased in North Dakota, the second-biggest producer in the U.S. The Department of Mineral Resources reports production in June increased about 60,000 barrels over May's total. Operators in North Dakota pumped more than 890,000 barrels per day in June. That's a little over half of the all-time high posted last November.
International watchdogs are worried about a new high-tech tactic designed to evade sanctions against Iran. Authorities say more than a dozen supertanker operators are now manipulating Automatic Identification Systems data, so that it shows a vessel in one place when it is actually in another. Lloyd's List reports authorities have de-flagged at least four ships after satellite images showed them taking on crude oil from Iran, while the tracking system showed them a hundred miles away.