The Energy And Market Page, T+271 -- Deepwater Drilling? It's Over -- October 19, 2017 -- If Markey Is Upset About The GOP And The Arctic, It Has To Be Good

NFL-Free Thursday night. More time for blogging; more time for family. I'm lovin' it. It's kind of funny. I had completely forgotten about the game tonight until my brother-in-law mentioned it in passing a few minutes ago. It's on CBS, NFLN, and Amazon. Just saying.

The Trump rally! It continues. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow (the latter being down more than 100 points during the day) finished higher at the close. Not by much, but higher, nonetheless.

NYSE, new highs, 118, including -- KBR; McDonald's;

• new lows: 36, including Eastman Kodak;
• a bad day for AAPL, down over 2% -- great for buyers

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

GOP getting something done. Opening the Arctic. From Bloomberg:

Congressional Republicans have found a way to use the federal budget to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling -- and they don’t plan on stopping there. 

GOP leaders in the House and Senate are exploring ways to also expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans through congressional budget rules that allow them to pass major policy changes on a simple majority vote.

"There are other opportunities for us," Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview. "There is a significant way that we can help with the budget process."

Money from selling drilling rights and royalties from oil and gas production would be a revenue-raiser that could help offset some of the tax cuts Republicans are proposing. The House has instructed its Natural Resources Committee to find ways to generate $5 billion in revenue over the next decade. And the Senate is set to vote as soon as this week on a budget plan imposing a $1 billion target on Murkowski’s natural resources committee.

The moves give committee leaders the ability to advance proposals for drilling in ANWR -- or other areas, as long as they would generate new funds for the U.S. Treasury. 

Once the budget is approved, a later bill following its instructions is immune from the type of Democratic filibuster that has blocked drilling in the past.

Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called the tactic a "heartless Republican budgetary scam."

The glow is off. We've talked about this before with regard to the Permian. From Rigzone:

Encana Corp. Chief Executive Officer Doug Suttles says drillers in Texas’s prolific Permian Basin can no longer impress investors with how much acreage they’re snapping up or how quickly they’re boosting production.

Instead, investors will focus on how profitably companies are able to produce from their current holdings.

“The race for the land is kind of over,” Suttles said. “Now it’s what are you going to do with the land.”

Encana expects to increase cash flow about 25 percent a year through 2022, the Calgary-based company said Wednesday in a presentation to investors. Cumulative free cash flow in that period will be about $1.5 billion, assuming oil prices at $50 a barrel. Driving those gains will be a profit margin that expands to roughly $16 per barrel of production in five years, up from about $11 currently, the company said.

The glow is off. This time it's deepwater drilling. From Rigzone:

Transocean Ltd. is finally sending Pathfinder to its grave, after two years in a Caribbean purgatory that cost about $15,000 a day.

The move by the world’s biggest offshore-rig operator signals just how bleak the future looks for deepwater drilling. Pathfinder is the most famous of six floating rigs the company is scrapping in burials that will add up to a bruising $1.4 billion write-off.

Competitors are going the same route, jettisoning more rigs in the third quarter than have ever been trashed in a 90-day stretch.

Active rigs in North Dakota:

$51.40↓	10/19/2017	10/19/2016	10/19/2015	10/19/2014	10/19/2013
Active Rigs	56	31	66	190	184

Six new permits: 

• Operator: Kraken Operating
• Field: Lone Tree Lake (Williams)
• Comments: Kraken Operating has permits for a six-well Redfield/Colfax pad in NENE 25-157N-99W, Oliver oil field (see below)

Four permits renewed:

• EOG: four Burke permits in Mountrail County

Existing wells:

• 19133, 39 (no typo), SM Energy, Redfield 25, 36-157-99H, t8/11; cum 125K 8/17;
• 21971, 662, Kraken Operating, Mathewson 1-30H, Oliver, t4/12; cum 173K 8/17;
• 21781, 277, SM Energy, Redfield 24-13-157-99H 1NC, t2/12; cum 172K 8/17;