By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Ellis County continues to lead the state with 645,000 barrels of crude produced in the first quarter of 2017. Kansas operators produced just 8.9 million barrels of crude oil during the first three months of this year, according to new numbers released June 23 by the Kansas Geological Survey. At that rate, by the end of the year the state will see a lower production total than last year, which was the lowest level in ten years. Barton County was third, with 423,000 barrels. Russell County produced 392,000 barrels, and operators in Stafford County produced 259,000 barrels. Here are the top ten oil producers for the first three months of 2017, according to the KGS:
Ellis County 645,000 bbl
Haskell County 569,000 bbl
Barton County 423,000 bbl
Finney County 406,000 bbl
Russell County 392,000 bbl
Rooks County 389,000 bbl
Ness County 373,000 bbl
Harper County 287,000 bbl
Stafford County 259,000 bbl
Barber County 257,000 bbl
Baker Hughes reported an increase of 11 rigs actively drilling for oil across the US last week up eight from the week before. There were three fewer rigs targeting natural gas. The total was 941 active rigs nationwide. Canada reported 170 active drilling rigs, up 11. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports a 14% drop in the Kansas rig count. There were 13 active rigs in eastern Kansas, down two, and 24 in western Kansas, down four. Drilling continues at one site in Stafford County. Producers report drilling ahead at one site in Barton County, and they’re moving in completion tools at two sites in Barton County, moving in rotary tools at one lease in Ellis County, and moving in completion tools at one site each in Ellis, Russell and Stafford counties.
There were 21 permits filed last week for drilling in new locations across Kansas, which brings the year-to-date total to 697. There were ten permits filed in eastern Kansas and 11 west of Wichita, including one each in Barton and Russell counties.
Independent Oil and Gas Service reported 17 new well completions last week, 615 so far this year. There were four completions east of Wichita, and 13 in western Kansas, including one in Barton County, one in Ellis County, two in Russell County and two in Stafford County.
Oil companies are applying new hydraulic fracturing techniques to early wells in North Dakota’s Bakken shale, a process industry leaders say has the potential to recover more oil without increasing the footprint on the land. Operators are targeting wells drilled between 2008 and 2010, the early years of Bakken development before fracking technology advanced to where it is today. Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, tells the Bismarck Tribune they’re getting promising results. Of more than 140 refractured Bakken wells, most saw an increase of between 200,000 and 250,000 barrels, according to Kringstad.
The Railroad Commission of Texas received a substantial increase in funding from the Legislature, boosting the oil and gas regulator’s well-plugging, pipeline and well inspection programs. The agency has been chronically underfunded in recent years as the oil bust reduced the fees it collects and increased the number of abandoned well sites to clean up. The agency cut its budget by $1.3 million a month, froze hiring, cut back plans to update technology and focused on funding its two core functions: permitting wells and inspecting them. But the Houston Chronicle says the agency’s biennial budget was increased by 46 percent in the recently ended legislative session. The commission now expects to fill its staff roster and continue the years-long process of updating its computers and digitizing decades of oil and gas records.
The Eagle Ford Shale oil field had an estimated economic impact of $123 billion in South Texas in the heyday of the oil boom. But, that number got sliced by more than half by the oil bust. A boom-bust report from the University of Texas at San Antonio tracks the swings of the oil business. The San Antonio Express-News reports the first Eagle Ford well was drilled in 2008, and by 2014 the total economic impact of the 400-mile field hit the $123 billion high point. The study shows that impact fell to $80 billion in 2015 as oil prices crashed, and dipped to $50 billion last year.
President Donald Trump will not be added as a defendant in a lawsuit over the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline that he pushed to completion. Part of a deal with a federal judge to allow a group of Sioux tribal members to intervene in the case as individuals. A group of 13 Sioux tribal members asked to join the lawsuit filed by their tribes, arguing they’re personally affected by the project. Boasberg last week said he would allow the individuals to intervene if they kept their arguments to those being argued by the full tribes and agreed to drop the request to add Trump to the case.
Russian investor Mikhail Fridman and his business partners have pulled out of a U.S. energy investment to avoid resistance from the Trump administration. The company LetterOne recently walked away from a deal to buy Texas oil producer ExL Petroleum Management for about $700 million over concerns the plan could be rebuffed by the government panel that reviews deals for national security risks.
When Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall along the Gulf Coast Thursday the storm brought the energy industry in the Gulf of Mexico to a halt. Bloomberg reports it forced producers across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to suspend shipping and production. About 1/6 of Gulf production was shut down, and at least one major oil-import terminal halted vessel unloadings.
Iran has finally started exporting natural gas to its neighbor Iraq, after a four-year delay due to the challenging security situation in the region. The exports started at a daily rate of 7 million cu m, but should reach 35 million cu m at an unspecified point in the future, according to Reuters.
An oil tanker carrying Kurdish crude appears to be on its way to the U.S., reviving a trade from three years ago that became a symbol of a dispute between the semi-autonomous region in Iraq and the federal government in Baghdad. The Aframax tanker Neverland normally hauls about 650,000 barrels. The vessel exited the Mediterranean Sea two days ago according to tracking from Bloomberg.