Four Wells Come Off Confidential List Today; 56 Active Rigs; WTI Near $57 -- November 15, 2019

US shale: "impressive execution" in 2019 -- Rigzone. CAPEX coming down; production increasing.

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Back to the Bakken

NDIC Director's Cut: scheduled to be released later this morning. I will be off the net most of the day. You are on your own. Due to a very, very September (wettest on record?) the forecast is for a significant decline in crude oil production.

Active rigs:

$56.67	11/15/2019	11/15/2018	11/15/2017	11/15/2016	11/15/2015
Active Rigs	56	62	55	39	64

Wells coming off the confidential list today -- Friday, November 15, 2019: 53 for the month; 148 for the quarter:

• 36040, conf, WPX, White Owl 32-29HC, 
• 36031, conf, RimRock, Skunk Creek 12-10-11-16H,
• 34883, conf, Hess, AN-Norby-152-94-0409H-3, 
• 29923, conf, Oasis, O M Erickson 5501 44-7 7B,  

RBN Energy: how crude oil schedulers keep volumes in check and oil flowing.

They are unsung heroes, the guys and gals who get in early, stay late, and are usually working odd hours on the weekends. They resolve issues before they arise, solve complex problems when they do pop up, and are always working the phones to get the next hot piece of intel. No, we’re not talking about the new cast from Season 2 of “Jack Ryan,” and no, it’s not the kids from “Stranger Things.” The keyboard warriors we’re referring to are crude oil schedulers. They’re at the forefront of the daily logistics taking place at truck injection points, gathering systems, and takeaway pipelines from Western Canada down to the Gulf Coast (and around the rest of the world as well). As more and more new pipelines get built out in places like West Texas, it’s important to revisit the basics of how crude oil moves and the role that crude schedulers play. Today, we bring it back to the roots of crude oil operations and shine some light on an underappreciated group of crude oil operators.

Scheduling. When the layperson thinks about the word, they think about their dentist planning their root canal, or their contractor planning their roof repair. In the world of crude oil, scheduling refers to a person, or group of people, tasked with ensuring that every barrel that is being purchased or produced makes it to the next delivery point or sales destination. Schedulers tend to be unheralded because when they do their job well, everything runs smoothly and no one notices. But if there’s a missed detail, a tariff error, or an ill-managed calendar, well, these things are noticed as they can cost companies anywhere from thousands to millions of dollars. Schedulers can range in age and experience from new hires straight out of college and junior analysts waiting to get tapped to become traders or management folks who run large teams, to lifers who often know more about the intricacies of the pipelines they schedule than the owners themselves.