Week 12: March 15, 2020 -- March 21, 2020

Quote of the week:

• Tom Hanks after being released from quarantine: "You mean that's it, it's over?" Are you a bad person if you get coronavirus?

Top international non-energy story:

• Tom Hanks and wife survived COVID-19; will likely make movie of their ordeal, a 3-hour epic to rival Dr Zhivago; more special effects than Apollo 13; 
• Wuhan flu: China, South Korea may be winning; Italy remains out of control;
• Turkey: flooding the EU with illegal "migrants"
• Saudi Arabia: in a fight for its very survival?
• US-Canadian border closed; US-Mexico border closed except for essential travel;

Top international energy story:

• Oil in free-fall; a demand story; a supply story; a story of panic; the "market meltdown / oil shock of 2020"

Top national non-energy story:

• Some of President Trump's most vicious opponents have praised the president for the way he  is handling the crisis; last I heard, Biden wants open borders;
• IRS to extend filing deadline by 90 days;
• Waffle House forced to close in Texas;

Top national energy story:

• WTI trades as low as $20; finishes the week about $22/bbl
• Gasoline down to $1.15 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma;
• Gasoline demand hits all-time record for this time of year;
• Jet fuel delivered dropped 13% week-over-week; every airline could be "broke" by May, 2020;
• Flaring triples in the Permian in two years;

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

• Boeing 737 -- largest a/c yet to land at new Williston airport;

Top North Dakota energy story:

• Number of inactive wells in North Dakota surges;
• Bakken 4.0: the oil shock of 2020;
• The middle Bakken is great; the first bench, better; the second bench; best!

Geoff Simon's top North Dakota stories:

• ND locked down: coronavirus
• "the bottom has just dropped out"-- priceof oil
• ND weighs plan to keep some Bakken crude off market
• ONEOK tables plans for gas plant expansion
• ND crude oil production unlikely to fall below one million bopd
• Hess to cut rigs to one and almost $1 billion in CAPEX cuts
• Minot's Norsk Hostfest canceled for this year; will resume in 2021
• US and Canada to close border to non-essential traffic
• as total US crude oil imports have fallen, imports from Canada have increased 

Operators:

• Petro-Hunt with eight more permits in one of the best fields in the Bakken;
• White Butte oil Operations;

Operations:

• The Bakken wells are simply incredible; 
• CLR's Carson Peak / Morris wells have been updated; many new permits; and, here;
• The XTO FBIR Bird wells have gone to drl status;
• CLR's Steele Federal wells starting to report production;
• Two of three White Butte Panzer wells have just gone off line;
• WPX getting ready to frack some new Wolverine wells?
• CLR reporting incredible Pittsburgh / Uhlman wells;
• Newfield's incredible Hoffman wells;
• Are we about to see some great CLR Bailey wells in the Pershing oil field?

Fracking:

• An update of a re-fracked CLR Gunderson well;

Re-entry:

• Approved re-entry;

Pipelines:

• ONEOK Elk Creek pipeline on hold;

Commentary:

• It may be time for companies like CLR to go private; Slawson is private;
• The next epidemic?
• A wartime president?
• Saudi Arabia: in a fight for its very survival?
• Market meltdown, oil shock -- 2020;
• The Bakken: OOIP;
• What condition is my condition in?