By JOHN P. TRETBAR
October 6th, 2014
Oil prices continued their free fall in early Monday trading. Mymex contracts lost another 74 cents per barrel at $89.00. London Brent was down 85 cents at $91.46/bbl. Friday’s closing price for Kansas Common at NCRA was $79.50 per barrel. The last time that price closed below $80 was on April 23rd of last year.
Saudi Aramco cut prices last week by about a dollar per barrel to Asia, and by 40 cents a barrel to the United States. That sends a strong signal that Saudi Arabia is more interested in maintaining market share than in defending prices.
Baker Hughes reported 1,922 active drilling rigs nationwide, which was down two from last Friday. Canada had 430, down one. The count in Kansas was 24, down one from last week. Independent Oil & Gas reported 125 active rigs in Kansas, 31 pending their next location assignment and 78 stacked or idle. There were 40 active rigs reported in eastern Kansas, up three, and 85 west of Wichita, down one.
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The Kansas Corporation Commission reported 622 new intent to drill notices during the month of September. That’s up from 588 in August and 574 in September of last year. There were ten intents filed in Barton County last month, 14 in Ellis County, 12 in Russell County and three in Stafford County.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 66 well completions last week, for a year-to-date total of 4,464 across Kansas. Last week there were 45 completions noted in eastern Kansas, and 21 west of Wichita.
There were 141 drilling permits issued for new locations in Kansas last week, bringing the total this year to 5,640. There were 89 new permits east of Wichita and 52 in western Kansas, including four in Ellis County and two in Russell County.
The president of Turkey insists that the fight against the Islamic State is his country’s top priority but there is growing evidence Turkey is helping Islamic State smuggle it’s oil. The Turkish Energy Minister says his country wouled never partake in any illegal transactions. There are no firm numbers for oil being smuggled from Syria, but in the first six months of this year, the Turks have seized more than 486,000 barrels of illicit crude.
AP and ABC are reporting on a big crackdown on oil smuggling along Turkey’s border with Syria. What used to be a lucrative sideline for the locals has become big business for Islamic State. authorities, smugglers and vendors say business was booming until about six months ago. when Turkish authorities ramped up a multi-layered crackdown to disrupt the illicit trade. According to the AP report, the Turks have beefed up border controls and arrested dozens of smugglers. They’re also reportedly going after consumers with an extensive stop-and-search operation on Turkish highways were fueld tanks are tested for smuggled oil.
The AP reports on a company called Energy Intelligence, whose president wants to expand the use of drone aircraft to monitor oil pipelines in North Dakota. Currently, pipelines are checked for problems by occasional manned aircraft flyovers, on-the-ground observations by foot or vehicle, and production loss reports…some use fiber-optic early warning systems. But experts say those methods still “pretty archaic,” and often leave underground spills undiscovered for days. The firm hopes to begin test flights this fall.
The state task force looking at Kansas earthquakes has submitted its action plan to Governor Brownback. The Seismic Action Plan consists of two major components – a plan for enhanced seismic monitoring and a response plan. The group recommends installation of a strategically-located permanent monitoring network, and a portable seismic array to provide a closer look at localized earthquakes. The report from Te Kansas Geological Survey, Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Corporation Commission provides background from national studies linking seismic activity to fluid injection, but the task force says it has no conclusive evidence linking fluid injection to specific seismic events in Kansas. Thus far in 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center has recorded 58 earthquakes, ranging from magnitude 1.3 to 3.8, nearly all in Sumner, Harper, and Barber counties.
BP is challenging a federal judge’s finding of gross negligence in the Gulf Oil Spill, saying he based the ruling on expert testimony he said he wouldn’t consider. The ruling exposes the oil company to as much as $18 billion in fines. In court documents filed Thursday, the oil company asked the judge to change his finding or grant a new trial.