Six New Permits -- April 17, 2019

Active rigs:

$63.76	4/17/2019	04/17/2018	04/17/2017	04/17/2016	04/17/2015
Active Rigs	64	59	52	29	93

Six new permits:

• Operators: Hess (5); MRO
• Fields: Alkali Creek (Mountrail County); Chimney Butte (Dunn County)
• Comments:
• Hess has permits for a 5-well EN-Thompson Trust pad in section 18-154-94, Alkali Creek;
• MRO has a permit for a Delmont well in section 23-146-95, Chimney Butte

One permit canceled:

• 35964, Whiting, a Rauser well permit, in McKenzie County

A Fairly Unremarkable Weekly Petroleum Report -- April 17, 2019

Weekly EIA petroleum report, link here, data points:

• US crude oil inventories decreased by 1.4 million bbls
• US crude oil inventories now stand at 455.2 million bbls, about 2% below the five-year average; and the 5-year average has been rising over the past year or so
• refineries operating at 87.7% capacity
• a fairly unremarkable report compared to the past few weeks

Re-balancing:

Week	Week Ending	Change	Million Bbls Storage
Week 0	November 21, 2018	4.9	446.9
Week 1	November 28, 2018	3.6	450.5
Week 2	December 6, 2018	-7.3	443.2
Week 3	December 12, 2018	-1.2	442.0
Week 4	December 19, 2018	-0.5	441.5
Week 5	December 28, 2018	0.0	441.4
Week 6	January 4, 2019	0.0	441.4
Week 7	January 9, 2019	-1.7	439.7
Week 8	January 16, 2019	-2.7	437.1
Week 9	January 24, 2019	8.0	445.0
Week 10	January 31, 2019	0.9	445.9
Week 11	February 6, 2019	1.3	447.2
Week 12	February 13, 2019	3.6	450.8
Week 13	February 21, 2019	3.7	454.8
Week 14	February 27, 2019	-8.6	445.9
Week 15	March 6, 2019	7.1	452.9
Week 16	March 13, 2019	-3.9	449.1
Week 17	March 20, 2019	-9.6	439.5
Week 18	March 27, 2019	2.8	442.3
Week 19	April 3, 2019	7.2	449.5
Week 20	April 10, 2019	7.0	456.5
Week 21	Apr 17, 2019	-1.4	455.2

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

Putting Things Into Perspective

From twitter today:

• $5 billion / year / population of US = $5 billion / 300 million = $20/person/year
• per day = 5 cents/day/per person

Color me unimpressed / not excited about monetary concern over sanctions on Venezuela and Iran
In addition, the $5 billion / year cost contains many assumptions. The biggest assumption, of course, is that as the price of oil goes up, the price of gasoline goes up, and American drivers don't change their driving habits.

Four Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today -- April 17, 2019

Wells coming off confidential list today -- Wednesday, April 17, 2019: 59 wells for the month; 59 wells for the quarter

• 34313, SI/NC, XTO, Arlene Federal 44X-23B, North Fork, no production data, 
• 33880, drl, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Bennie 6-20-17-157N-99W TFH, Lone Tree Lake, no production data;
• 30910, 1,301, BR, Curtis 24-9 MBH, North Fork, t2/19; cum --;
• 27736, 424, Oasis, McCauley 5601 41-34 6B, Tyrone, t11/18; cum 62K 2/19;

Active rigs (to newbies, anything above 66 active rigs is a very, very bullish sign for the Bakken; below 59 would be concerning):

$64.44	4/17/2019	04/17/2018	04/17/2017	04/17/2016	04/17/2015
Active Rigs	65	59	52	29	93

RBN Energy: the frack sand revolution, part 4. Archived here.

Nowadays, the hydraulic fracturing of a typical Permian well with a 10,000-foot lateral requires about 12,500 tons of frac sand — enough sand to fill more than 500 large sand trucks. That sand needs to be at the ready — delivered, offloaded, stored, and set for blending and use. If it’s not, the well completion and the start of production would be delayed or the hydraulic fracturing process would be shut down after starting — a mortal sin in the shale world. With reliable, seamless access to frac sand at the well site being so critical, E&Ps and their pressure pumpers are understandably doing all they can to optimize their “last-mile” sand logistics. This involves everything from minimizing truck-delivery congestion to maximizing the speed at which sand is transferred from truck to storage, as well as the type of storage used. It’s all much more high-tech than you might think. Today, we conclude our series with a look at the latest in last-mile logistics, which can account for as much as one-third of the total delivered cost of sand.