Nine (9) New Permits -- Permits Are Much A Better Barometer Than Number Of Active Rigs -- April 27, 2016

Active rigs:

	4/27/2016	04/27/2015	04/27/2014	04/27/2013	04/27/2012
Active Rigs	27	85	182	187	209

No wells are scheduled to come off the confidential list Thursday.

Nine (9) new permits:

• Operators: WPX (5), Statoil (4)
• Fields: Spotted Horn (McKenzie), Banks (McKenzie)
• Comments: see note below from an earlier post (it doesn't hurt that Statoil reported great profits)

Attention to detail: the following wells had a name change:

• New name: Knutson-Werr 34 2; old name: Knutson-Werre  34  2
• New name: Bear Creek Unit 3-1; old name: Bear Creek Unit  3-1

Rigzone is reporting that Europe's energy giants (Statoil and Total) reported profits in 1Q16:

Norway’s Statoil ASA and France-based Total S.A. both posted profits in the first quarter of this year.

Statoil’s adjusted earnings after tax amounted to $122 million in 1Q 2016, beating an average forecast which predicted a $125 million loss for the period. The Norwegian energy firm posted a loss of $1.5 billion in the previous quarter and a profit of $902 million in the first quarter of 2015.

Statoil delivered equity production of 2.05 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 1Q 2016, which was roughly two percent higher compared to the first quarter last year. Higher production than expected in Norway helped Statoil’s profit beat expectations.

The company’s equity production for 2016 is estimated to be lower than the 2015 level due to Statoil’s “value over volume-approach”.

Scheduled maintenance activity is estimated to reduce quarterly production by approximately 55,000 boepd in the second quarter of 2016. In total, maintenance is estimated to reduce equity production by around 60,000 boepd for the full fiscal year 2016, which is higher than the 2015 impact.

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