By JOHN P. TRETBAR
The Kansas Corporation Commission reports 140 new intent-to-drill notices filed across the state in September. The year-to-date and third-quarter total is 1,177. That’s still higher than the 838 intents filed through the third quarter of last year, but well below previous years. Through September of 2015, operators had filed 1,862 intents. Barton County lists three new intent-to-drill notices filed last month, while Ellis County had six. There was one new intent filed in Russell County and six in Stafford County.
Baker Hughes reports 939 active drilling rigs across the US over the last week, down two oil rigs and two gas rigs. In Canada there were 209 active drilling rigs, down four. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports fourteen active rigs in eastern Kansas, up four, and 25 west of Wichita, up one. They report drilling ahead at one site in Russell County and one in Stafford County, along with another site in Stafford County where they’re moving in completion tools.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 38 new well-completions over the last week, bringing the year-to-date total to 990. There were 16 completions in eastern Kansas and 22 west of Wichita, including three in Ellis County and four in Stafford County.
Operators filed 40 permits for drilling in new locations last week. That’s 1,093 so far this year. There were 21 east of Wichita and 19 in western Kansas, including one in Ellis County and one in Russell County.
Oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico began returning to service Monday after Hurricane Nate forced the shutdown of more than 90 percent of the crude output in the area.
The spread between WTI and London Brent is credited with a huge increase in domestic crude exports, 1.98 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration. Rising U.S. production has held down WTI prices, while Brent’s price is heavily influenced by policy directions from OPEC.
OPEC is due to meet in Vienna on Nov. 30, when it will discuss its pact to reduce output in order to prop up the market. The Secretary-General says consultations are underway for an extension of their production agreement beyond March, saying more producers may join that pact in November.
A Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data on Monday found that OPEC as a whole added 120,000 barrels a day in September, led by increases from the Saudi kingdom, Kuwait, Libya and Nigeria. Meanwhile, higher prices spurred new US exploration, which generated some downward pressure.
Alaska residents won’t get as much as expected, but each of them woke up $1,100 richer Thursday, thanks to the state’s oil wealth investment fund. Alaskans have gotten used to receiving double that amount, but for the second straight year, the payout was reduced to help the state pay its bills amid a recession due to continued low oil prices.
The company building the Keystone Pipeline system has scrapped plans for another system to move oil and gas from Alberta, Canada to the east coast. TransCanada noted what it called “changed circumstances” and said they would no longer proceed with the $15.7 billion Energy East pipeline and another natural gas pipe. The projects faced regulatory hurdles in Canada and stiff opposition from environmentalists. Bloomberg reports the move will force TransCanada to record an $801 million after tax charge in the fourth quarter.
An energy company is seeking federal approval to build a pipeline in eastern Montana that would transport carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil production along the North Dakota border. Denbury Resources, based in Plano, Texas, specializes in using carbon dioxide for oil recovery with projects completed or pending in Texas, Alabama, Wyoming, Mississippi and Louisiana. The company has not released a construction timeline or specifics on the volume of carbon dioxide that would be transported.
A North Dakota jury last week returned guilty verdicts against an environmental activist who targeted an oil pipeline a year ago. The panel found Michael Foster of Seattle guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, criminal mischief and trespass. Foster was acquitted of reckless endangerment. Foster did not deny using a bolt cutter to get through a chain link fence so he could turn the pipeline’s shut-off valve. He contended his law-breaking was in the public’s interest. A co-defendant who filmed the protest was found guilty of conspiracy. Both are scheduled for sentencing in January.
Canada’s minister of natural resources tells The Canadian Press that transporting oil by pipeline is a better choice than rail cars. The federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline is under a legal microscope as opponents argue the process was incomplete and failed to take into account the impact the pipeline could have on everything from killer whales to waterways. Minister Jim Carr said getting more oil to the West Coast so it can be loaded on tankers and sold to China will be better for the country and getting it there on pipelines rather than rail cars is better for everyone.