Active Rigs Up To 65 In North Dakota-- May 23, 2018

Making America great again: US household income hits all-time high under Trum. -- Investor's Business Daily. 

Something happening? Turkey. Italy, Venezuela.

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

Back to the Bakken

Active rigs, nice jump in past few days:

$71.83→	5/23/2018	05/23/2017	05/23/2016	05/23/2015	05/23/2014
Active Rigs	65	51	25	82	189

Four new permits:

• Operators: WPX (3): Liberty Resources
• Fields: Squaw Creek (McKenzie); White Earth (Mountrail)
• Comments: WPX has permits for a 3-well Plenty Sweet Grass in NWNE 18-149-94;

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 33361, 1,874, Whiting, Johnson 24-7TFH, Truax, t5/18; cum --
• 31433, 2,153, Slawson, Osprey Federal 7-26-29TFH, Big Bend, t5/18; cum --
• 31431, 655, Slawson, Osprey Federal 6-26-29TFH, Big Bend, t5/18; cum --

Fifteen permits renewed:

• Kaiser-Francis (9): nine permits in Mountrail County -- Rat Lake, Knife River, Sikes, Liberty, Banner, Pratt, Parishall, Torino, and Brookbank; seven in SWNW 4-153-92; 
• QEP (4): four MHA permits in  Dunn County
• Enerplus (2): one Rocket permit and one Copper permit, both in Dunn County

I'm Traveling Again, So Notes Will Be Brief -- May 23, 2018

Weekly petroleum report: link here --

• huge jump in US crude oil inventories, and yet WTI price "held"
• WTI: $71.83
• US crude oil inventories: jumped 5.8 million bbls; now at 438.1 million bbls; this is/was a huge jump, but yet EIA says, "US crude oil inventories are in the lower half of the average range for this time of year." Language unchanged from previous reports.
• refinery operating capacity at 91.8% hardly changed from last week; on low side; should be in 93 - 95% range, one would
• but gasoline and distillate fuel production still more than adequate it seems

Gasoline demand, link here:

US crude oil days of supply, link here: ever so slightly, the days of US crude oil supply have inched up very, very sightly, maybe from 25.3 days to 26.4 days, but a year ago we were up to 30 days of supply.

Making America Great Again: Trump, China Agree On Exploring More Energy Deals - Cheniere Okays Third LNG Train At Corpus Christi LNG Export Terminal As Direct Result -- May 23, 2018

The "original" list of proposed US LNG export terminals is at this post.

Cheniere Energy has approved the construction of a third liquefaction unit (a train) at its Corpus Christi export terminal in Texas. Data points:

• first new LNG project to go ahead in the US since 2015
• decision comes after President Trump and China said a US trade tram would travel to China to explore new energy deal
• the first two units at Corpus Christi are expected to enter service next year (2019)

Note: this is as good a time as ever to take another look at "Making America Great Again." Does anyone really think we would have seen a similar list had President Obama been elected to a third term? 

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

Back to the Bakken

Where New Natural Gas Production Records Are Being Set Each Month

Active rigs:

$71.76→	5/23/2018	05/23/2017	05/23/2016	05/23/2015	05/23/2014
Active Rigs	64	51	25	82	189

RBN Energy: rising NGL production in the Permian's Delaware Basin drives need for new pipes, a continuing saga.

Production of natural gas liquids in the Permian has been increasing rapidly, especially in the Delaware Basin, challenging the region’s existing NGL pipelines and other infrastructure and accelerating the development of new capacity.

The Permian already had a substantial amount of NGL pipeline capacity in place before the region’s production of crude oil and associated gas took off, and more has been added since.

But a number of the NGL pipes out of the Permian also move barrels from other basins, either inbound flows from the Rockies or volumes added downstream of the Permian in the Eagle Ford and Barnett shales. In addition, the vast majority of the Permian’s incremental NGL production is occurring in the Delaware, which had only a limited number of pipes and suddenly needs more.

And one more thing: fast-rising ethane demand from new petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast will reduce the share of ethane that is “rejected” into Permian natural gas. In today’s blog we discuss the NGL takeaway challenges facing producers and processors in cowboy country.

“Mid-Curve” forecast for NGL output (now more than 500 Mb/d) is expected to top 1 MMb/d by early 2022.