By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports a 13% increase in the Kansas drilling rig count over the last week. There were 15 active rigs east of Wichita, up four, and 28 in western Kansas, up three. The total is 38% higher than a month ago and 126% higher than a year ago during the peak of the price bust. The total number of inactive rigs, those that are stacked or shutdown awaiting contracts, dropped by three to 159 inactive rigs statewide. Baker Hughes pegged the national rig count at 933, up six oil rigs and one exploring for natural gas.
There were 28 permits filed for oil and gas drilling at new locations across Kansas last week, 676 so far this year. There were 13 permits filed east of Wichita and 15 inwestern Kansas, including one new drilling permit in Barton County.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 598 newly completed wells so far this year, including ten completed last week. There were five in eastern Kansas, And all five completions west of Wichita were dry holes, including one in Russell County and one in Stafford County.
The Texas nonprofit Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas is taking that state’s largest industry to task, saying oil and gas drilling in Texas shale pollutes the air, erodes soil and contaminates water, and that the disposal of wastewater causes earthquakes. The Houston Chronicle reports no one, including the scientists who conducted the study, expect oil and gas companies to slow production. But they suggest the report prompt producers to change production methods. One member of the team is an Exxon Mobil consultant, who said they’re hoping to keep the debate on fracking honest, “with real data, hard facts, hard information.”
Oil traders are resorting to storing more and more oil at sea amid swelling output. Bloomberg reported the amount of oil stored in tankers reached a 2017 high of 111.9 million barrels earlier this month, citing Paris-based tracking company Kpler SAS.
During the first four months of 2017, the U.S. exported three times more crude oil than during the same timeframe in 2016. Including shipments to Canada, over 1.0 million barrels per day (bpd) in February and April, according to The Hill Dot Com. Platts Analytics forecasts US exports to rise, and become an increasingly important outlet to balance the US market.
Saudi Arabia says it has disrupted an attack on a major offshore oilfield, repelling three boats flying red and white flags racing toward the Marjan offshore field. The military said sailors fired warning shots and captured one of the boats while two others escaped in the assault Friday. The captured boat “was loaded with weapons for subversive purpose,” according to the announcement.
Oil company payrolls rose by 3,800 jobs across the United States in April. The Houston Chronicle reports nearly all of that expansion came in Texas. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 3.500 of those jobs were in the Lone Star State. Texas had about 214,100 oil industry jobs in April, up from around 200,000 during the worst of the oil bust at this time last year.
Preliminary figures from the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources show state produced 1.05 million barrels per day in April, which represents an increase of nearly 25,000 barrels per day over March. The State’s oil chief Lynn Helms says operators have shifted from running the minimum number of rigs to “incremental increases and decreases throughout 2017,” as the benchmark crude price moves above and below $50/barrel. If WTI drops below $45/barrel for more than 30 days, Helms says he expects the rig count to drop.