Active Rigs Steady At 58 As North Dakota Moves Into Autumn -- September 29, 2017

Active rigs:

$51.62→	9/29/2017	09/29/2016	09/29/2015	09/29/2014	09/29/2013
Active Rigs	58	34	69	186	184

RBN Energy: development finally advancing in Argentina's biggest shale play. Bottom line: a long way to go.

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From Boomberg / Moody's Investors Services: for shale drillers and oil sands producers -- consistently above $50 is needed. Data points:

• study consisted of 37 E & P companies in US and Canada
• with a few notable exceptions, few companies with a "healthy leveraged full cycle ration"
• exceptions: Appalachian explorers Antero Resources Corp and Range Resources Corp, as well as Canadian shale gas producer Seven Generations Energy Ltd
• most others had ratios way below a level Moody's considers healthy
• the three best performers focused on liquids-rich gas plays: the Marcellus and the Utica, and the Montney
• cash flow surge in last few years: Antero and Seven Geenrations
• Moody's: producers' leveraged full cycle ration needs to be significantly above 1 for explorers to earn a meaningful return on their investment
• the average for 37 explorers, last year: 0.59
• the ratios of the top three: above 1.5
• Antero's ratio: 2.19 tops the list
• among the lowest ranking were Apache Corp and Devon Energy Corp with ratios below 0.05

Dutch natural gas: from Reuters via Rigzone, data points:

• recent natural gas discovery in Dutch North Sea could be even bigger than originally thought
• now estimated at 2 trillion cubic feet of gas, more than the Netherland's annual gas production

The story only interests me because:

Dutch gas production has been steadily declining, partly due to a lack of new developments and partly to a government-mandated cap on output from the country's largest field at Groningen after it was established that it triggered earth tremors.