WTI Back Over $53; Active Rigs Holding Steady; No Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today -- February 19, 2020

Saudi Arabia: in 2019, lower prices overall, and exports dropped 11%. Link here for most current Saudi Arabia foreign exchange reserves:

US crude oil imports: from all sources, a 13% drop year-over-year, November, in thousand bbls/month crude oil:

US crude oil imports: from Saudi Arabia (remember, SA has a huge refinery in the US): a 65% decrease, year-over-year, November, in thousands of bopd. To put this "352,000 bopd" in perspective, the Bakken is producing 1.5 million bopd and unfettered, the Bakken would produce upwards of 2.0 million bopd:

If I did the math correctly, the US imported about 8 million bopd in November, 2020. Of that 352,000 bopd came from Saudi Arabia. Most of it, I assume, was shipped to California.

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Back to the Bakken

Refining: Permian and Bakken refiner wants to be change agent. Link here, Rigzone.

The developer of two grassroots U.S. oil refineries reported late last week that it has formally completed and adopted a stringent program for identifying, evaluating and managing environmental and social risks tied to the projects. Meridian Energy Group, Inc., which plans to build new refineries in the Bakken Shale formation and the Permian Basin, stated that its new Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) aligns with the Equator Principles – a risk management framework embraced by 101 financial institutions in 38 countries.  

Rig count: Rigzone reporting number of active rigs at 3-year low. Well, let's see, three years ago in the Bakken (2017): 40 rigs. Today: 56. Okay. 

Active rigs:

$53.01	2/19/2020	02/19/2019	02/19/2018	02/19/2017	02/19/2016
Active Rigs	56	66	56	40	38

No wells coming off confidential list today, although two wells scheduled to report February 14, 2020, still haven't reported.

RBN Energy: North Montney Mainline will help boost WCSB natural gas supplies.

Natural gas supplies in Western Canada fell into a hole in 2019, registering their first decline in a half-dozen years. That drop was led by a supply pullback on TC Energy’s Nova Gas Transmission Limited (NGTL) system, the largest gas pipeline network in the region, as producers grappled with widespread pipeline maintenance, shrinking budgets, and wellhead shut-ins due to ultra-low prices, especially during the summer months. That supply hole is going to be fixed in the months ahead, thanks to a major pipeline expansion — the North Montney Mainline — that recently entered service with a direct connection into the NGTL system. With this new pipeline tapping deeper into the vast Montney formation in northeastern British Columbia, gas supplies are showing signs of pushing higher, and more upside is expected in the months ahead. Today, we examine the new pipe and what it means for gas supplies on NGTL.