Eleven New Permits -- November 26, 2018 -- US Oil Output Rising At Its Fastest Pace In 98 Years

For the archives, from Investor's Business Daily, "how fracking turned OPEC into the walking dead."

The river of oil now hitting the market from U.S. fracking has stunned global energy markets. The U.S. has already leapfrogged both Russia and Saudi Arabia as the No. 1 producer. Will U.S. oil lead to OPEC's demise?

For the first time since World War II, the U.S. is on the verge of being a net oil exporter — something that, just five years ago, would have been considered impossible.

As Javier Blas of Bloomberg notes, U.S. oil output is rising at its fastest pace in 98 years. Meanwhile, both Russia and the Saudis are also pumping at record levels. The U.S. is tipping the scale. Since 2010 in the West Texas Permian Oil Basin alone, some 114,000 new wells have been drilled, bringing millions of barrels of new oil to the market. Other parts of the U.S. are undergoing the same transformation.

That's bad for OPEC.

"The U.S. energy surge presents OPEC with one of the biggest challenges of its 60-year history," wrote Blas. "If Saudi Arabia and its allies cut production ... higher prices would allow shale to steal market share. But because the Saudis need higher crude prices to make money than U.S. producers, OPEC can't afford to let prices fall." This, of course, has caught the 28-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries by surprise. Even just a few years ago, the consensus was that fracking and its related technologies would add a decent amount of oil to the market, but nothing like what's happening now.

For the archives, previously posted, but quick reminder. For month of November, 2018:

• Saudi Arabia produce record volume, 11.1 - 11.3 million bopd some days; not yet known if a record will be set for the entire month
• Russia: post-Soviet high, 11.41 million bopd in October, up from 11.36 million bopd in September
• US: similar

Making American great -- it just doesn't quit. Rigzone is reporting that one-half of the $360 million required to widen/deepen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel has now been secured. It's easy to become "numb" reporting/hearing these numbers. They never seem to end. $360 million for just one project in Corpus Christi. I don't think Amazon HQ2 comes close to that kind of money. $360 million -- that's close to half a billion dollars. It's probably no big story, just another oil and gas story but I think it's a pretty big deal. And just think, every ten years or so, after every "hurricane of the century," they can clean it up, dredge it, and make is usable again. Just tongue-in-cheek. Don't take me seriously. My wife doesn't. According to the linked article:

President Trump and the US House will shoulder $230 million of the estimated $360 million to complete CIP and the port will cover the remaining $130 million.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$51.63	11/26/2018	11/26/2017	11/26/2016	11/26/2015	11/26/2014
Active Rigs	62	53	37	65	183

Eleven new permits:

• Operator: CLR (6); Hess (5 -- one of the Hess permits was from a day earlier)
• Fields: Epping (Williams); Baskin (Mountrail)
• Comments: CLR has permits for a six-well Sodbuster pad in Lot 3, section 6-155-99; Hess has permits for a 5-well EN-Farhart pad in lot 1, section 4-156-93;

Six permits renewed:

• Crescent Point Energ (4): two CPEUSC Holmes and two CPEUSC Ruby permits, all in Williams County
• Petro-Hunt (2): two Noonan Federal permits, both in McKenzie County

Four producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 33940, 3,655, MRO, Axell USA 34-19TFH, Reunion Bay, t10/18; cum --
• 33481, 1,748, Whiting, Wold Federal 42-1-1H, Sand Creek, t9/18; cum 20K after 25 days; the Wold wells in Sand Creek are tracked here;
• 34703, 1,707, Whiting, Stettner 11-24-2H, Robinson Lake, t9/18; cum 6K after 29 days;
• 34702, 592, Whiting, Stettner 11-24TFH, Robinson Lake, t9/18; cum 6K after 29 days;

Temporarily abandoned:

• starting to see some "recent" permitted wells go to TA status including --
• 30079, TA, Nine Point Energy, Arnegard 150-100-23-14-10TFH
• six Lime Rock Resources wells, four in Dunn County (five Sharon Rainey and one William Sadowsky); two in Billings County (State Gresz wells)