By JOHN P. TRETBAR
The Kansas Corporation Commission reports operators in Kansas filed 141 new intent-to-drill notices last month. That’s down from 163 the month before. The year-to-date total of 563 marks an improvement over totals through April of the last two years, but it’s still well short of the 873 intents filed through April of 2015. Initial reports show five new intents in Barton County, and three in Ellis County.
Drilling rig counts are up across the US and across the state of Kansas. Baker Hughes reports 1,032 active rigs, an increase of nine oil rigs. The count in Canada was up one to 86 rigs. Independent Oil & Gas Service’s weekly report notes 15 active rigs in eastern Kansas, up two, and 28 west of Wichita, which is up one. Drilling is underway on one lease in Ellis County. Operators are moving in completion tools at two sites in Barton County and five in Ellis County.
Operators filed 32 permits for drilling at new locations across Kansas last week, 16 east of Wichita and 16 in the western half of the state, for a year-to-date total of 535 new permits. There’s one new permit each in Barton, Ellis, Russell and Stafford counties.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 37 new well completions for the week, 530 so far this year. There were 23 east of Wichita and 14 in western Kansas, including one newly completed well in Ellis County and two in Stafford County.
Federal regulators have removed pressure restrictions on the Keystone oil pipeline that were put in place in November after a large spill in South Dakota. Reduced flows on the pipeline helped draw down inventories at Cushing, and created a bottleneck in Alberta, where increased output has run up against a shortage of pipeline and rail capacity. Since that time, US prices have gone up, as Canadian prices dropped.
The Army Corps of Engineers will meet June 1 with the four Native American tribes suing to shut down the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The environmental study ordered by a federal judge last summer is likely to continue into this summer, as each side complained about input from the other. U.S. Judge James Boasberg has given the Corps until June 8 to set a date for completion of the work that initially was expected to wrap up in early April.
A new pipeline project in North Dakota should help that state reduce flaring of natural gas in the oil patch. The Bismarck Tribune reports ONEOK Rockies Midstream plans to convert existing gathering pipelines into a single transmission line, to transfer up to 50,000 barrels of natural gas liquids to the existing Bakken Pipeline. Utility regulators signed off on the Cherry Creek Pipeline project last week.
Texas oil production jumped to it’s highest level in nearly four decades in February, 4.01 million barrels a day. That’s nearly 21 percent higher than a year earlier, and roughly 40% of the nation’s output, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Total U.S. crude production in February set a new record, up 2.6 percent to 10.3 million barrels per day. The weekly numbers are even better. The government reported production of 10.62 million barrels per day for the week ending April 27. Only Russia produces more crude.
In West Texas, rising oil prices are fueling a sharp economic upswing. Reuters reports the boom is reducing unemployment and raising payroll dollar amounts to record highs. The downside of that is that it’s making it harder for anyone to find qualified workers. It’s also driving up spending at hotels, restaurants, and car dealerships, and raising the cost of housing and other essentials.
ConocoPhillips has frozen some of the Venezuela’s Caribbean assets to enforce a $2 billion arbitration award over the nationalization of assets ten years ago. Reuters reports the U.S. firm is targeting facilities on the islands of Curacao, Bonaire and St. Eustatius that account for about a quarter of Venezuela’s oil exports. Unnamed sources said the company could move to sell those facilities.