Two CLR Peterson Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today; Active Rigs Jump To 64 -- April 26, 2019; Anyone Think Gasoline Isn't Going To Be A Whole Most Expensive In Two Months?

Highlight of my day: summarizing the agenda for the May, 2019, NDIC hearing dockets. But that will have to wait. Sophia is driving me to school -- LOL. 

Gasoline demand: going back to this post, a reader notes:

Gasoline supplies have been sliding, probably in conjunction with the low refinery throughput you've been noting. But even with this week's big increase in the amount of oil being refined, gasoline output still fell by 136,000 barrels per day, after falling by 252,000 barrels per day the prior week.

So gasoline inventories fell for the 10th week in a row, and they're now down to 225,826,000 barrels, from 258,301,000 barrels on February 8th. Ok, that's only 2% below that "5 year average for this time of year", but heading in the wrong direction only a month before Memorial Day.

Gasoline demand, link here. Two words, okay, three: "strong Trump economy."

Jobless claims: we've talked about this before. Almost everyone that has a job needs some kind of transportation to get to work. All things being equal, one would assume gasoline demand would increase when unemployment / jobless claims go down. Work trumps vacation time when it comes to gasoline demand (if for no other reason, work = 50 weeks/year; vacations = 2 weeks/year), but with a better economy expect more people to take vacations this year.

Price: anyone want to suggest gasoline prices will be significantly lower in July, 2019? LOL. 

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Back to the Bakken

Wells coming off the confidential list today -- Friday, April 26, 2019: 79 wells for the month; 79 wells for the quarter

• 34463, 1,431, CLR, Peterson 5-29H1, 60 stages; 6.1 million lbs; East Fork, t1/19; cum 39K 43 days;
• 34462, 1,806, CLR, Peterson 4-29H, 60 stages; 9.1 million lbs,East Fork, t1/19; cum 43K 40 days;

The CLR Peterson wells are temporarily tracked here.

Active rigs:

$62.93	4/26/2019	04/26/2018	04/26/2017	04/26/2016	04/26/2015
Active Rigs	64	63	48	26	84

RBN Energy: E&P transformations drive strong 2018 results and 2019 outlook, part 2. Archived.

Wednesday’s blockbuster announcement that Occidental Petroleum is challenging Chevron’s definitive agreement to acquire Anadarko Petroleum with a considerably higher offer sent another shock wave across what had been mostly somnolent energy M&A and equity markets.

Oxy’s $76/share bid — $11/share more than Chevron’s — valued Anadarko at a whopping 65% premium to its closing price the day before Chevron’s deal to acquire the company was unveiled on April 12. The prospective Oxy/Chevron bidding war provided some of the strongest evidence yet that investors overreacted to the fourth-quarter decline in oil prices when they drove down E&P stock prices by some 40%, as measured by the S&P’s E&P Stock Index.

Why the lack of market love? Many U.S. E&Ps are doing very well, actually. In today’s blog, Nick Cacchione identifies and discusses the outstanding performers among the 44 U.S. E&Ps we track, and considers the factors that could drive profit improvement in 2019.