Saudi Arabian Minister Of Energy Has Reason To Worry -- July 12, 2016

Updates

July 13, 2016: COP's break-even price is $45, over at SeekingAlpha --

The price of oil is expected to rise going forward on the back of a conducive demand-supply environment. This will help ConocoPhillips achieve positive cash flow since the company had forecasted neutral cash flow at a Brent price of $45/barrel on the back of its capital budget reduction and dividend cut. In comparison, Conoco's earlier cash flow neutrality point was at a Brent oil price of $60 a barrel.

July 13, 2016: Reuters is reporting Saudi Arabia starting to talk the talk to drive up prices; no evidence of any action however. 

OPEC delegates say comments from top exporter Saudi Arabia, which two years ago led the group to drop its historic role of supporting oil prices, are a change in tone and a sign the kingdom is looking - verbally for now - to prop up the market.

Khalid al-Falih, who took over this year from longserving Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi, told German newspaper Handelsblatt that an oil price higher than $50 is needed to achieve a balance in oil markets in the long term. 

There is certainly no sign yet of an actual policy shift by Saudi Arabia, or of the kingdom cutting supplies to support prices. Indeed, Riyadh told OPEC it raised its output in June to within a whisker of a record high reached a year ago. 

But OPEC insiders say Falih's comments, and a remark he made last month raising the possibility Saudi Arabia may return to its role of balancing oil supply and demand, contrasted with previous statements from Saudi oil officials. 

"This a change in the Saudi position," an OPEC delegate from a major Middle East producer said of Falih's remarks. "Before, they did not mention a range of prices they were looking for."

It seems Saudi Arabia's sense of "balance in the oil market" is different than my sense of "balance in the oil market."

Original Post

 

Earlier today there was a news report that suggested the Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy was "worried." He felt oil needed to be priced above $50, somewhere between $50 and $100. Good luck.

Three hours ago it was reported that WTI tumbled (in price) due to a smaller draw than expected:

The latest American Petroleum Institute (API) report on Tuesday showed crude oil supplies rose to their highest point in ten weeks despite expectations of a 3 million barrel draw.

The API said crude oil defied the anticipated draw, recording a 2.2 million barrel build instead. Gasoline and distillates also reported major builds of 1.5 million barrels and 2.6 million barrels, respectively.

Investors had expected a 900,000-barrel draw for supplies at the Cushing Oil Hub in Oklahoma. However the API said it was a much smaller figure at 166,000 barrels.

Yes, I would say the Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy has a lot to be worried about. It looks like American producers are making money on $40 oil.

Whiting With Three New Permits -- July 12, 2016

Updates

November 5, 2016: see note below regarding #20336. This well has been re-fracked and is updated here.

Original Post

Active rigs:

	7/12/2016	07/12/2015	07/12/2014	07/12/2013	07/12/2012
Active Rigs	28	73	190	186	212

Wells coming off confidential list Wednesday:

• 30918, SI/NC, WPX, North Segment 6-5-4HA, Van Hook, no production data,
• 32376, SI/NC, SM Energy, M Haugen 14B-24HN, Smoky Butte, no production data,

Three new permits:

• Operator: Whiting
• Field: Cow Creek (Williams)
• Comments:

Six permits renewed:

• CLR (4), two Charleston permits, two Olympia permits, all in Williams County
• HRC, a Fort Berthold permit, in Dunn County
• Hunt Oil, an Oakland permit in Mountrail County

************************************

One producing well completed:

• 20336, 1,162, BR, Sun Notch 43-32H-R, Sand Creek, t9/11; cum 41K 5/16; permit for Three Forks, 1280-acre spacing; to start on/about 2/15/11; spud 3/13/11; reached TD 4/24/11; stimulated 8/8/11 with 20 stages, 2.1 million lbs; IP of 1,162; sundry form received 10/9/15, a request to redrill the lateral of this well; and amend the name of the well to Sun Notch 43-32H-R; frack data for re-drilling not available; API: 33-053-03451; FracFocus shows only the 2011 frack;

Production profile of #20336:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	5-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	4-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	3-2016	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	2-2016	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	1-2016	1	44	0	20	0	0	0
BAKKEN	12-2015	16	1593	1920	612	1707	1707	0
BAKKEN	11-2015	20	1768	1539	432	1574	1574	0
BAKKEN	10-2015	9	311	467	285	356	356	0
BAKKEN	9-2015	20	508	480	362	509	187	322
BAKKEN	8-2015	19	574	422	540	706	463	243
BAKKEN	7-2015	22	687	951	657	880	663	217
BAKKEN	6-2015	25	576	432	645	967	538	429
BAKKEN	5-2015	31	884	964	876	1583	1130	453
BAKKEN	4-2015	20	673	564	567	740	549	191
BAKKEN	3-2015	26	877	814	854	1915	1562	353
BAKKEN	2-2015	28	1225	1477	1426	1109	986	124
BAKKEN	1-2015	14	418	455	682	407	0	407
BAKKEN	12-2014	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	11-2014	4	163	0	0	247	0	247
BAKKEN	10-2014	12	268	355	213	370	370	0
BAKKEN	9-2014	30	794	782	726	67	20	47
BAKKEN	8-2014	31	655	810	1017	51	51	0
BAKKEN	7-2014	31	1965	1713	1419	1553	1553	0
BAKKEN	6-2014	8	437	350	663	257	10	247
BAKKEN	5-2014	5	159	0	50	122	122	0
BAKKEN	4-2014	3	208	205	58	2291	1	2290
BAKKEN	3-2014	5	237	227	60	443	417	26
BAKKEN	2-2014	11	243	626	280	108	0	108
BAKKEN	1-2014	30	811	1230	634	192	0	192
BAKKEN	12-2013	31	827	779	491	264	0	264
BAKKEN	11-2013	30	345	594	602	275	0	275
BAKKEN	10-2013	31	1913	1262	484	443	0	443
BAKKEN	9-2013	30	1461	2117	203	412	0	412
BAKKEN	8-2013	9	1084	518	110	262	159	103
BAKKEN	7-2013	30	1768	1760	292	1928	274	1654
BAKKEN	6-2013	30	707	1074	20	1689	1212	477
BAKKEN	5-2013	1	392	392	0	73	73	0
BAKKEN	4-2013	30	0	0	0	87	87	0
BAKKEN	3-2013	31	163	0	0	193	193	0
BAKKEN	2-2013	28	0	261	20	664	664	0
BAKKEN	1-2013	31	992	907	529	1951	1151	799
BAKKEN	12-2012	31	806	480	324	1138	884	253
BAKKEN	11-2012	28	1366	945	1467	2593	1822	770
BAKKEN	10-2012	19	460	920	881	1105	1004	101
BAKKEN	9-2012	30	1229	1329	1976	2403	1715	688
BAKKEN	8-2012	22	1257	1297	1877	4311	1982	2329
BAKKEN	7-2012	18	675	407	704	2364	1033	1331
BAKKEN	6-2012	24	1528	1450	1514	2555	1898	656
BAKKEN	5-2012	12	1050	1348	0	2032	1695	337
BAKKEN	4-2012	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	3-2012	16	1294	939	977	2438	1069	1369
BAKKEN	2-2012	7	207	0	0	407	152	254
BAKKEN	1-2012	24	3028	3039	0	4951	0	4951
BAKKEN	12-2011	1	131	44	0	190	0	190
BAKKEN	11-2011	29	619	779	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	10-2011	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	9-2011	13	1520	1263	1	2204	0	2204

30234, 1,844, BR, Sun Notch 43-32TFH, t11/15; cum 99K 5/16, production profile:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	5-2016	12	6009	5942	2773	21467	21450	0
BAKKEN	4-2016	8	8198	8219	1852	20173	20158	0
BAKKEN	3-2016	23	13629	13655	5531	38385	38352	0
BAKKEN	2-2016	29	21861	21833	6667	43465	43438	0
BAKKEN	1-2016	31	23536	23530	5952	40021	39995	0
BAKKEN	12-2015	11	10646	10503	2186	16803	16792	0
BAKKEN	11-2015	14	14624	14624	7935	35160	0	35145

22914, 2,954, BR, Sun Notch 44-32TFH, Sand Creek, 4 sections, t5/13; cum 194K 5/16; original frack plan 20-stage sliding sleeves with swell packers; permit says 1280-acre spacing; spud 2/18/13; TD reached 3/13/13; stimulated 5/11/13 with 5 stages, 400K lbs with IP of 2,954; no other frack data provided; production profile:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	5-2016	7	781	1061	318	947	947	0
BAKKEN	4-2016	15	2550	2736	165	2757	2757	0
BAKKEN	3-2016	21	4562	4428	719	4910	4634	272
BAKKEN	2-2016	15	2733	2690	656	2813	2811	0
BAKKEN	1-2016	18	4975	4950	1970	5400	5398	0
BAKKEN	12-2015	1	48	46	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	11-2015	14	2127	1959	566	3019	3017	0
BAKKEN	10-2015	11	1966	2017	604	5208	5208	0
BAKKEN	9-2015	30	4374	4672	2180	11214	8496	2719
BAKKEN	8-2015	31	5193	4912	2151	7843	6462	1382
BAKKEN	7-2015	31	4215	4296	1681	5563	5058	506
BAKKEN	6-2015	30	4778	4662	1701	6944	4262	2682
BAKKEN	5-2015	31	5230	5320	1731	7837	2534	5303
BAKKEN	4-2015	30	5589	5601	1698	9096	6870	2226
BAKKEN	3-2015	31	6111	6167	1697	6447	4852	1590
BAKKEN	2-2015	28	6278	6030	1503	8817	8813	0
BAKKEN	1-2015	31	7505	7877	2104	12135	12130	0
BAKKEN	12-2014	25	5965	5855	1279	6658	5923	731
BAKKEN	11-2014	17	4814	4849	1623	12133	12131	0
BAKKEN	10-2014	31	10882	10580	3988	20164	20164	0
BAKKEN	9-2014	30	14653	14756	4247	27896	26749	1147
BAKKEN	8-2014	31	14371	14431	2769	30270	16354	13916
BAKKEN	7-2014	31	7277	7310	1863	7226	7079	148
BAKKEN	6-2014	27	2735	2615	596	3023	2663	359
BAKKEN	5-2014	10	513	683	24	652	652	0
BAKKEN	4-2014	29	4993	5006	1165	7192	4278	2914
BAKKEN	3-2014	13	1822	1939	73	2171	1329	840
BAKKEN	2-2014	3	1342	1001	122	2588	1386	1201
BAKKEN	1-2014	31	7495	7846	1370	10561	9496	1062
BAKKEN	12-2013	28	1592	1199	153	3242	2532	706
BAKKEN	11-2013	14	1417	1664	58	1656	1203	451
BAKKEN	10-2013	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	9-2013	3	2068	1840	0	527	527	0
BAKKEN	8-2013	31	22419	22344	3605	5692	1550	4141
BAKKEN	7-2013	31	6685	6786	1838	251	165	86
BAKKEN	6-2013	30	340	0	0	0	0	0
BAKKEN	5-2013	10	13779	13779	0	0	0	0

Incredible Hailstorm In Western North Dakota, Eastern Montana -- July 12, 2016

In addition to the photos and the video, some interesting comments about hailstorms at this Weather Channel link. Some of the worst damage was in/near Killdeer, North Dakota.

*************************

Saudi Energy Minister Is Worried

Updates

Later, 8:40 p.m. Central Time: Saudi Arabia Minister of Energy has reason to be concerned: American operators apparently making money on $40-oil.
 

Original Post

 

I didn't watch the video. I only read the headline and the caption. The caption says the Saudi Arabian minister of energy thinks oil needs to be between $50 and $100. He says $50 oil is too low. Comments:

• that's a pretty wide range
• the tea leaves suggest we are stuck in a trading range of $45 to $49 in current US dollars
• Saudi will hemorrhage cash reserves at anything less than $90, and below $60 their losses are unsustainable
• there is no evidence that Saudi Arabia will/can significantly increase crude oil exports

I just saw the video -- don't waste your time.

*********************************

Active Rigs Back Down To 28

	7/12/2016	07/12/2015	07/12/2014	07/12/2013	07/12/2012
Active Rigs	28	73	190	186	212

******************************

Market At Late Afternoon

NYSE, new highs: 277

• Cabela's
• Chevron (a big whoop)
• Cliffs Natural Resources
• XOM (a huge whoop)
• Medtronic
• Murphy USA
• Newfield Exploration (NFX) (who wudda thought?)
• ONEOK (OKE)
  ONEOK Partners (OKS)
• Winnebago Industries

NYSE, new lows: 2

• Humana

***********************************

GOP Hypocrite

Paul Ryan defends the wall around his own home, but won't put up a "wall" to protect America.  He says he put up the wall around his own home to protect his three children. The ranchers in Arizona and Texas along the Mexican border know exactly what we're talking about.

The Road To New England: Pipeline Phobia -- Bloomberg -- July 12, 2016

This is a cool story from Bloomberg. Again, I would not have known about this story had it not been for the blog and readers who alerted it to me sometime ago.

I've actually blogged about the Mystic River (once) before. See these other posts regarding the linked Bloomberg story above:

• New England's appetite for Trinidad's natural gas, September 30, 2015
• US LNG imports from Trinidad, July 25, 2015

Here's the most recent article, titled "Pipeline Phobia Keeps New England's Unlikely Trade Route Open" -- reminds me of the rum and molasses trade during the Revolutionary War:

Thanks to the shale revolution, the U.S. has plenty of natural gas of its own. All along the eastern seaboard, a chain of import terminals -- built when the country expected to get its fuel from abroad -- now lie idle.

Except one.

For reasons that have to do with environmental politics and geology, New England is bucking the trend. Three or four times a month, a police helicopter escorts giant ships through Boston Harbor, as they deliver liquefied natural gas from Trinidad to a terminal on the Mystic River. [And spewing all that CO2.]

Why buy from the Caribbean, when so much cheap gas is pumped out of Pennsylvania and Ohio? One objection is the new pipelines needed to bring it to New England. The Northeast is famously cold in winter, and it sits on beds of granite that make underground fuel storage a problem, so gas and power prices typically spike way above the rest of the country when there’s a freeze. But using shale gas to cut the bills means a longer-term commitment to fossil fuels, and any proposed pipeline route triggers local objections: it will leave a scar along the Catskill Mountains, or pose a safety risk to residential neighborhoods. That’s the dilemma that has given Engie SA’s import facility near Boston, unlike all its peers, a new lease on life.

“We’ve been competing with pipelines since we opened,” Carol Churchill, a spokeswoman for the French utility in Massachusetts, said by phone. Once the gas arrives in Boston, some of it goes straight to an adjacent Exelon Corp. power station and the rest is transported via existing pipes or by truck. “It doesn’t make sense to build a pipeline to satisfy demand for 30 to 40 days a year,” Churchill says.

That argument has seen off a few potential rivals. Kinder Morgan Inc. scrapped its proposed $3.3 billion Northeast Energy Direct project in April, after failing to sign up enough customers. The Constitution Pipeline, intended to bring Marcellus gas from Pennsylvania, has been held up because New York denied a water permit, amid concern about contamination of the city’s supply.

Solution or Stopgap?

Instead, New England relies on tankers like the BW GDF Suez Everett, a regular visitor, whose logbook reflects the surge in Yankee demand. It used to roam the world’s seas, putting in at places like Singapore, Nigeria and Yemen; this year, it’s been plying a straight shuttle between Trinidad, where it loads up with LNG, and Boston.

Engie’s terminal there looked like it was sliding into disuse a couple of years ago, but now it’s taking in more cargoes than at any time since 2012. It supplied 11 percent of New England’s gas in January.

To pipeline-builders, that’s a stopgap not a solution. They point out that New England, like other parts of the U.S., has a growing appetite for natural gas in homes and power plants, as dirtier fossil fuels like coal and oil are phased out. Gas-fired plants are providing more than half of the Northeast’s power supply this month, up from 15 percent in 2000.

Wow, I did not know it was a French utility. Now, it finally all makes sense. LOL. This is how the 13 colonies continue to thank France for their help in the Revolutionary War.

Much, much more at the link.

***********************************

Hamilton, The Revolution

Speaking of the American Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter have just published their book on the Broadway play, Hamilton: The Revolution. It's a very high-quality book and I think anyone who is thinking about buying it sight-unseen will not be disappointed.

******************************

The Drunken Botanist

Another great little book is The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create The World's Great Drinks, Amy Stewart, c. 2013.  I had not seen this book before. It's pretty clever. It's a very, very good book on botany but also includes some great cocktail recipes.

Whenever I visit a new "Mexican" restaurant, I always order chile relleno. By ordering the same thing in each new restaurant I get a feeling for how "good" the restaurant is, if that makes sense.

Likewise, now that I understand the "classic martini" -- which I think is a misnomer (a martini is a martini; everything else with martini in its name is simply flavored vodka or gin) -- when looking at a book on cocktails, I immediately look up the author's recipe or comments on martinis. That tells me a lot about the author. In this case, Amy Stewart has it exactly right. It is interesting that she got it so "right," because her bio says she is from California (a state not exactly not known for martinis) and there is nothing in her bio about her having any experience with cocktails. But despite that, she got the martini exactly right.

Remember: Hillary Wants To Ban Fracking -- July 12, 2016

From the Obama administration, over at Twitter: "Shale oil and condensate production in Ohio reached a high of almost 22 million bbls in 2015."

In addition, according to the Obama administration, Ohio had the 2nd highest year-over-year increase in natural gas production in 2015. The increase is from 1,300 fracked wells.  In Ohio, 1,075 Utica wells have been fracked and 29 Marcellus wells have been fracked, something Hillary does not support. She has been very, very clear on this.

The EIA says "we've" issued over 5,231 Utica wells to be fracked. I'm not exactly sure what he (Scott Kell, EIA) means by "we." But again, these are fracked wells which Hillary does not support.

Scott Kell, EIA, does note that fracking does NOT cause earthquakes (seismicity, as they call it), but rather seismicity, according to the EIA, is associated with salt water disposal: "Ohio was the first state to promulgate rules regarding seismicity caused by brine injection." But then this -- a bit of "hedging": "we've had about 90,000 stimulations with only three wells producing seismicity from hydraulic fracturing in Ohio."

US Natural Gas Glut Is Disappearing -- Reuters -- July 12, 2016

I did not read the article, but the John Kemp does not support that headline that says "US gas glut is disappearing." If anything the natural gas glut has increased slightly in most recent report. The amount of injection might be decreasing compared to historical norms, but the graph by John Kemp at Twitter shows natural gas working storage as high as ever for this time of year.

In fact, here's the story -- I went over and looked at it:

• U.S. natural gas prices have risen by a third since hitting a two-decade low in the first quarter, amid signs supply and demand are rebalancing and excess stocks left over from an unusually warm winter are being worked down.
• The volume of gas in working storage hit a record 4.01 trillion cubic feet in November 2015 and is still at 3.18 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
• Gas stocks are 513 billion cubic feet (19 percent) higher than in the same week in 2015. But the build has shrunk steadily from a record 1.014 trillion cubic feet (69 percent) in March.

So, natural stocks are down, but still at record levels for this time of year according to the John Kemp graphic at Twitter. So, perhaps the "glut is disappearing" -- but it's all relative.

Also at Twitter, Steve Kean at EIA says "natural gas exports to Mexico are booming at a record level of about 3.6 bcf/day.

Also at Twitter from the EIA: global energy intensity continues to decline. "Intensity" is defined as "BTUs/trillion dollars GDP." The graphic:

• World average: from 8.1 quadrillion BTUs/$1 trillion GDP in 1990 to 5.8 in 2015 (a 28% drop)
• OECD countries: from 7.2 quadrillion BTUs/$1 trillion GDP in 1990 to 5.2 in 2015 (a 28% drop)
• non-OECD countries: from 9.8 quadrillion BTUs/$1 trillion GDP in 1990 to 5.9 in 2015 (a 40% drop)

Monday's NDIC Daily Activity Report Has Just Been Posted -- July 12, 2016

Yesterday's daily activity report has just been posted: https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/dailyindex.asp.

The report included the results of eleven (11) producing wells completed by SM Energy. From this report, it appears we know how to determine formation targeted based on legal names used by SM Energy.

In this report, also note that Halcon used 57 stages in most recent frack reported, and 4.9 million lbs of proppant.

Filloon: Rig Counts In The Bakken Matter Little In Predicting Production -- July 12, 2016

This is great to see. I have opined out loud many times, asking when we would see some serious analysis of this issue -- rig counts matter little in the Bakken.

Today, a Mike Filloon update: rig counts matter little, as horizontal wells have changed how we predict future production.

Summary:

• Given the large differences in oil and natural gas production depending on geography and well design, rig counts do little to predict future production.
• Rigs specific to horizontal drilling in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken, and STACK are under the greatest demand
• Rigs have moved to the best core areas, and now operators have switched from exploration to development mode, drastically improving production per rig
• Higher tech rigs and better techniques have decreased the time needed per well, so more wells can be drilled per rig

The article will be archived. 

Starting The Day With 29 Active Rigs; Venezuela -- Tic, Tic, Tic -- July 12, 2016

Active rigs:

	7/12/2016	07/12/2015	07/12/2014	07/12/2013	07/12/2012
Active Rigs	29	73	190	186	212

RBN Energy: if all trades were index deals, what would the index be?

Yesterday, I gave four reasons why the tea leaves suggested the worse may not be over for the Bakken. One of the four reasons included the global economy. Just two hours ago, Platts reported that Chinese oil demand fell 2.7% in May, year-over-year.

Meanwhile, this Bloomberg headline: OPEC sees rising crude demand in 2017 as Saudis pump near record. Data points:

• Saudis produced 10.6 million bopd in June to meet summer demand (not only did it not seta record, the number itself is unremarkable; Saudi domestic demand is soaring)
• Saudi production increased by 280,000 bopd to 10.55 million; close to the record 10.564 million pumped last June
• OPEC said it will have to produce 33 million bopd next year to meet demand; 142,000 bopd more than its June output
• OPEC production in June increased by 264,100 bopd to 32.858 million
• global oil demand will increase by 1.2 million bopd to reach an average of 95.3 million
• growth will be concentrated in emerging economies such as India and China
• oil production outside OPEC will fall by 100,000 bopd (incredibly insignificant) to 55.9 million 
• non-OPEC decline is smaller than the contraction of 900,000 bopd expected this year 

Reuters reports that price of oil rose during recent "brief" Iraqi loading halt. Data points:

• brief halt due to pipeline leak, not terrorist or conflict-related
• although loadings resumed overnight, Iraq plans to cut crude oil exports from its southern ports to 2.79 million bopd in August from 2.99 million bopd planned for July
• story raises more questions than it answers

Newsweek has a nice piece on Jeff Bezos (Amazon).

Reuters reports that Citibank will close the Venezuelan government's foreign currency accounts within a month. According to the report, due to strict currency controls in place since 2003, the government relies on Citibank for foreign currency transactions.

AP's big story today: in Venezuela, the "line" takes precedent over everything else -- including stopping a murderer.

Closing Out One Poll, Posting A New Poll -- July 12, 2016

Closing out the poll in which we asked, what percent of automobiles in Germany are EVs, rounded to nearest full percent? The answer was 0%.

New poll: today, President Obama will visit Dallas to eulogize the five slain police officers. The slaughter of these police officers created great soul-searching among some in the "Black Lives Movement." Will President Obama give BLM a shout-out; encourage them to "continue the course"?

The poll at the sidebar at the right will be up for a very short period of time.

Later: after posting the poll and the short note above, I happened across this op-ed while reading today's WSJ print edition.  Google healing after dallas without Obama wsj.

Later: this is also the topic of talk radio in Dallas-Ft Worth today -- just announced (8:16 a.m. Central Time).