By JOHN P. TRETBAR
Independent Oil and Gas Service reported 83 total active rigs in Kansas for the week, two higher than last week. There are 33 rigs drilling, moving in or rigging up to drill in the western half of the state, which is up two. They’re about to spud two wells in Ellis County and two in Stafford County. Operators are moving in completion tools at one site in Barton County, four in Ellis County and one in Stafford County. In its weekly drilling rig count Baker Hughes reported 1,048 active oil and gas rigs across the U.S. on Friday, up two gas rigs but down two rigs drilling for oil. Wyoming added two rigs to its active list, while both New Mexico and Oklahoma were down two.
Operators in Kansas filed 28 new drilling permits, 11 east of Wichita, 17 in Western Kansas, including two for new locations in Ellis County.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reported 31 well completions across the state for a year-to-date total of 1,064, compared to just 486 a year ago. Of the 18 newly-completed wells west of Wichita, 11 were dry holes, including both of the completions in Ellis County and one of two in Barton County.
Kansas Corporation Commission show just two new intent-to-drill notices filed in Barton County last month, five in Ellis County, and four in Stafford County. The official total spiked in August to 236 intents, up 54 from the month before, and up 83 from a year earlier.
The Kansas Corporation Commission has rejected environmentalists demand that 2,100 permits for disposal wells be revoked because the notices reported the wrong deadline for public response. The commission ruling said no one has been denied due process, and less than three percent of the applications were granted before the newer, longer public-comment period had elapsed. The KCC agreed with arguments put forward in legal briefs from the operators and oil and gas associations, and called it “harmless error.”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said domestic production dropped 100,000 barrels per day last week to 11,046,000 barrels per day. The government said U.S. crude inventories dropped another 4.3 million barrels last week. Gasoline stockpiles were up again, and are now about seven percent above the five year average. Imports were up by 229,000 barrels per day, but remain about half a percent lower than last year at this time.
Oil by rail traffic continues to grow, prompted in part by dramatic increases in production and some key limitations on pipeline capacity. According to the Association of American Railroads, U.S. traders moved 12,222 oil tanker cars last week, an increase of 60% over the same week a year ago. The cumulative total this year is up nearly 12% over a year ago. The cumulative total in Canada is up more than 16% year on year.
The government of Venezuela has reported raising $3.3 billion through sales of the “petro,” the crypto-coin it claims is backed by reserves in a specific oil field. But Reuters quoted a cabinet minister saying no one has been able to make use of the petro, and that no goods had changed hands. A visit to the specified oil field showed no sign of any oil production either.
We’re seeing renewed interest in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Reuters reports a series of largely undisclosed Wyoming land deals, which are together worth a quarter of a billion dollars, are fueling interest in the basin’s conventional and shale formations.
Russia’s crude and condensate production averaged another near post-Soviet record 11.21 million barrels per day in August, down slightly from July’s near-record output. The US is producing about 11 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia reports nearly 10.5 million barrels per day.