Monday, March 5, 2018 -- Active Rigs In The Bakken Back Up To 60; WTI Holds Steady After Last Week's Scare

Blogging will be intermittent today -- I will be biking all day (until 4:00 p.m. when I pick up Sophia from Tutor Time). The forecast for today: "increasingly sunny." It's already 70 degrees. I will bike from wi-fi spot to wi-fi spot to blog and get something to eat.

My first stop: McDonald's. They've completely renovated the inside area and the process. They do it very much like What-A-Burger here in Texas and Chik-Fil-A. You place your order and then take a seat. They deliver your order to you. No more standing in line. One also has the option to order on-line on on the huge iPad-like kiosks. Plenty of outlets for those wanting to charge their mobile devices. This is a completely different McDonald's. I normally don't bike to this McDonald's -- it's a bit farther from home, but the one closer to home is also in the process of being renovated.

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Energy

Making America great again: A global energy watchdog says booming production in the United States will meet 80 percent global growth in demand for oil over the next five years.

Rigs: US explorers lift rig count to 800 for first time since 2015.

US: the US will be the world's largest oil producer by 2023 -- IEA. That's only five years from now. That may be the headline story, but this is the really, really big story:

Consumption of oil will remain robust, shrinking the gap between demand for crude and producers’ capacity to pump it to the lowest level since 2007—when oil prices were on a run toward record levels over $140 a barrel.

The IEA sees little sign that oil demand will peak in the next five years, weighing in on a debate over whether efforts to curb the impact of climate change could eventually limit global oil consumption. Oil demand is expected to go above 100 million barrels a day for the first time next year, rising by a total of 6.9 million barrels a day to 104.7 million barrels a day by 2023.

Peak oil. The WSJ article linked above does include this trope:

Still, without more investment outside the U.S., growth in production begins to slow after 2020, the IEA said. A dramatic slump in oil prices since 2014 has eviscerated investment in the sector outside U.S. hot spots.

Greece: the country's only energy explorer and producer signed a financing agreement for $1.27 billion to finance development of two natural gas fields off the coast of Israel. Huge threat to Russia, Qatar, others.

Tesla: cars/week production continues to tick downward.

Oil states: Reuters says "oil states" fight budget deficits for fiscal year 2019. Three-quarters of the article is devoted to Alaska. The "other states" mentioned, almost in passing, Louisiana and Oklahoma. North Dakota was not mentioned.

Alpha olefins (AO): Shell's Baton Rouge (LA) was North America's largest AO producer even before the company decided to expand. Expansion is on track; set up open later this year. Once on-line, production will expand to 1.3 million tonnes per annum, making the site the world's largest AO producer. 

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs -- pleasant surprise -- back to 60 rigs:

$61.39→	3/5/2018	03/05/2017	03/05/2016	03/05/2015	03/05/2014
Active Rigs	60	45	35	113	192

RBN Energy: fight's on! Oil and gas exports, trade wars, and the implications for US producers.