BY JOHN P. TRETBAR
An ugly legal battle comes to a head for SandRidge Energy this week, but Bloomberg reports the company is probably bound for the auction block. Once the leading oil producer and wastewater disposer in Kansas, SandRidge is trying to reverse a 40% slide in its stock price while it fights off efforts by activist investor Carl Icahn to replace the board of directors. Both sides want to sell the company, whose market value cascaded from $11 billion in 2008 to about $550 million last week. SandRidge has drilling rights on more than a half-million acres across Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
Kansas operators filed 29 new drilling permits last week, 16 east of Wichita, 13 out west including one new permit in Ellis County. 726 permits for drilling at new locations have been filed so far this year.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports ten newly-completed wells for the week, 654 so far this year. Operators completed one well in eastern Kansas, and nine west of Wichita, including two in Barton County and one in Stafford County.
Baker Hughes reported 1,059 active drilling rigs Friday, up one oil rig but down four seeking natural gas. The count in Texas dropped by four rigs. Both New Mexico and North Dakota saw increases of three rigs. Canada reported 139 active rigs, up 27 for the week. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported a 20% increase in the active rig counts across Kansas: 13 east of Wichita, up two, and 28 in the western half of the state, up five for the week. Operators report drilling underway on one Barton County lease. They’re moving in completion tools at five sites in Barton County and five in Ellis County.
Operators filed 138 new drilling permits across Kansas during the month of May, including three in Barton County, six in Ellis County, one in Russell County and four in Stafford County. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports Kansas operators completed 130 wells last month, four of them in Barton County, four in Ellis County and four in Stafford County. Out of 74 completed wells west of Wichita last month, 31 were dry holes.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court will decide if a petition drive aimed at repealing recent tax increases can move forward. Petitioners hope to repeal the measure, part of a package passed in March that raises taxes on some oil and gas production, motor fuels and tobacco, to pay for teacher pay raises.
The fracking-sand boom continues across Texas, with new sand plants selling out soon after they’re announced and months before they begin production. The Houston Chronicle reports Alpine Silica plans to break ground soon, hoping to produce another three million tons of sand per year.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported another big jump in production last week to 10.9 million barrels of crude per day, another weekly record. That’s an increase of 100,000 barrels per day.
North Dakota came just a few hundred barrels short of an all time production record in April, and shattered the record for production of natural gas. But Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms says natural gas flaring has returned to historic highs not seen since 2014, and some oil wells may need to restrict production. The state produced more than 1.2 million barrels of crude per day in April, an increase of 5.4%. Current policy requires operators to burn off no more than 15 percent of the natural gas produced at oil wells. Operators flared 16 percent statewide.
After a three-month review of more than 10,000 public comments, regulators in North Dakota have given final approval to Meridian energy Group to build a new refinery. The company may still need air-quality permits to operate once construction is done on the project near Roosevelt National Park. Company officials say they will now proceed detailed design, engineering, procurement, and construction.