CLR Reports A Nice Pittsburgh Well -- March 17, 2020

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Back to the Bakken 

CLR's Uhlman/Pittsuburgh wells have been updated; huge wells, including one with 73K bbls crude in one month.

Active rigs:

$28.54	3/17/2020	03/17/2019	03/17/2018	03/17/2017	03/17/2016
Active Rigs	56	65	58	47	31

Wells coming off confidential list today -- Tuesday, March 17, 2020: 36 for the month; 207 for the quarter, 207 for the year:

• 34847, 922, CLR, Pittsburgh 4-18HSL, Banks, t10/19; cum 95K 1/20; 37K month; 49 stages; 11.1 million lbs;
• 34378, drl, White Butte, Jore Federal 4-12H, Clarks Creek,
• 34373, drl, White Butte Oil Operations, LLC, Jore Federal 11-12TFH, Clarks Creek,
• 33806, SI/NC, BR, CCU Gopher 6-2-15TFH, Corral Creek, t--; cum --;

RBN Energy: crude export capacity at gulf coast terminals.

With a number of U.S. producers slashing their drilling plans for 2020, crude oil production may flatten or even decline somewhat in the oil-focused basins over the next few months. Still, large volumes of crude — somewhere north or south of 3 MMb/d — will need to be exported from Gulf Coast docks for the foreseeable future to keep U.S. supply and demand in relative balance. That raises the questions of whether more export capacity will be needed, and if so, how much and when? The answers to these questions depend in large part on how much crude the existing marine facilities in Texas and Louisiana can actually handle. Today, we begin a series that details the region’s export-related infrastructure and examines its capacity to stage and load export cargoes this year and beyond.

U.S. crude oil exports have been a leading topic of conversation the past few years, and a frequent focus of RBN’s blogs. Since the ban on most exports of U.S. crude was lifted in late 2015, the volumes of mostly light, sweet crude from the Permian and other U.S. shale plays being shipped overseas have taken off –– from ~600 Mb/d in 2016 to ~1.1 MMb/d in 2017, ~2 MMb/d in 2018 and nearly 3 MMb/d in 2019. Volumes averaged north of 3.1 MMb/d in the first two-plus months of this year, and they often spike higher –– for example, nearly 4 MMb/d was sent out the week ended February 28.

While these gains align with forecasts, in which RBN Energy projected that U.S. crude exports would continue rising to at least 5 MMb/d in 2022 and nearly 6 MMb/d in 2024, that high-growth trajectory now appears unlikely to be maintained due to the recent collapse in oil prices and the resulting cuts in U.S. producers’ 2020 drilling plans. Still, U.S. production has the momentum of a moving train; it will take weeks and even a few months for output — and the anticipated need for additional exports — to come down much from current levels.

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Watching Frozen 2

Brand new Blu-Ray DVD, Frozen 2, watched by the family for the first time last night.

I think this may be my favorite photograph ever.

The innocence of childhood.