By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Baker Hughes reports a big drop in the active drilling rig count for this week. Nationwide, the total is 1,045 active rigs, that’s up one rig drilling for natural gas, but down 15 oil rigs. Oklahoma and Alaska were each down four rigs. Texas was down three. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported just two active drilling rigs in eastern Kansas last week, down one from the week before. The count west of Wichita was 29 active rigs, down two.
Regulators approved ten permits last week for drilling at new locations across Kansas, one east of Wichita, and nine in Western Kansas, including one new permit in Russell County.
Independent Oil & Gas Service last week reported 26 newly completed wells in the Sunflower State, including one development well in Ellis County. There were nine wells completed in the western half of the state, of which four were dry holes.
Operators filed just 72 new intent-to-drill notices across Kansas in January. There are four new intents on file in Barton County, one in Ellis county, two in Russell County and three in Stafford County.
Kansas operators produced more 2.8 million barrels of crude oil in October of last year, according to the latest totals from the Kansas Geological Survey. That brings the total for the first ten months of 2017 to 29.1 million barrels. The state is on track for smallest annual production total since 2006. Barton County pumped 140-thousand barrels in October, Ellis County added 209-thousand. In Russell County, operators produced 129-thousand barrels, and Stafford County kicked in nearly 86-thousand.
Crude futures prices were three percent lower in morning trading Monday. The Nymex benchmark contract was down $1.53 at $53.73/bbl. London Brent was down $1.09 to $61.66.
Triple-A reported a slight uptick in the average price across America for a gallon of regular gasoline to $2.26. That’s still about a cent and a half lower than last week, a penny less than last month, and nearly 30 cents less than last year at this time. The average across Kansas is$1.963. Prices are below $1.90 a gallon at several locations in Hays and Great Bend. Your 15-gallon fill up will cost you about two dollars less than last month, and 11 dollars cheaper than six months ago.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported another increase in domestic crude-oil stockpiles last week, 445.9 million barrels, down 900-thousand barrels. That’s still about seven percent above the five-year average.
U.S. crude production has declined slightly from the all-time high reported in mid-January, but at 11.89 million barrels per day we’re still producing more oil than anyone on the planet. That’s down two thousand barrels from last week, but 1.97 million barrels per day more than last year.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.1 million barrels per day last week, down by 1.1 million barrels per day from the previous week. Current import totals are about 4.5% less than the same four-week period last year.
The Supreme Court of Colorado reaffirmed its ruling that oil and gas regulators there are not required to make health and environmental protection their top priority. The original lawsuit argued that state law requires the oil and gas commission to ensure energy development does not harm people’s health or the environment. The commission refused, saying the law required it to balance health and environmental concerns with other factors including economic ones. The Supreme Court agreed with the commission.
The shortage of pipeline capacity in some areas of the U.S. and Canada continues to send business to the railroad industry. According to the Association of American Railroads, U.S. oil-by-rail shipments increased 18.4% to more than 13-thousand rail tanker cars for the week ending January 26. Canada oil-by-rail was up 21%.
The government said gasoline demand has jumped to levels more typically seen in the summer driving season. Demand reached 9.6 million barrels per day last week, up 700-thousand barrels from the week before, and half a million barrels per day more than the estimates from a year ago. Inventories were down 2.2 million barrels on the week, but EIA said that’s still about five percent above the five-year seasonal average.