OPEC Basket Drops Again -- Now Down To $12.41 -- April 29, 2020

OPEC basket: drops again, now at $12.41. Link here. I have trouble believing the 15,000 Saudi princes are happy with MbS right now, giving away their life-blood for less than $13/bbl, and draining their country's foreign exchange reserves.

Just posted, overnight, Saudi's foreign exchange reserves -- House of Saud in deep doo-doo:

In April, 2020, Saudi Arabia will be borrowing $60 billion. I don't know if that will be reflected in the foreign exchange reserves. If so, we will see a jump in reserves next month. On the other hand, if the $60 million borrowed is necessary to pay for on-going budgetary requirements we won't see that bump.

Last month it was said that Saudi Arabia was building up its foreign exchange reserves in preparation for market-share / price-war scenario. Whether that was true or not, it now seems moot.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$14.25	4/29/2020	04/29/2019	04/29/2018	04/29/2016	04/29/2015
Active Rigs	30	64	62	29	86

Two wells coming off the confidential list today  --

Wednesday, April 29, 2020: 48 for the month; 48 for the quarter, 292 for the year:

• 36258, 1,493, Hess, RS-Harstad-155-91-0433H-2, Stanley, t10/19; cum 64K 2/20; a 25K month; frack data not scanned in yet;
• 36257, 896, Hess, RS-Harstad-155-91-0433H-3, Stanley, t11/19; cum 38K 2/29;

RBN Energy: big changes impacting ethane and LPG markets. Archived.

The crude oil market garners all the headlines in the COVID/OPEC+ era, and understandably so. But the NGL market is also in turmoil and deserves attention too. Declining volumes of associated gas from crude-focused plays will soon be cutting into NGL supplies. Demand for natural gasoline has been hit hard, along with the crude, motor gasoline and jet fuel markets.

But propane prices relative to crude oil have soared to historically high ratios, in part reflecting recent strong international demand for U.S. LPG exports. As for ethane — the lightest NGL, and the most important feedstock for the Gulf Coast petchem sector — it is going through wrenching changes, with major implications for both suppliers and steam crackers. Today, we begin a short series on the major dislocations that crude-market chaos is spurring in NGL production, ethane rejection, feedstock selection by steam crackers, and ethane/LPG exports.