WTI Briefly Hits $40 Overnight -- June 19, 2020

First things first:

• WTI goes above $40 overnight; drops back a bit. Woo-hoo! 
• buzz word you will see all day today: backwardation (a bullish sign; no incentive to store oil to sell at a later date)
• China to accelerate US farm purchases after Hawaii talks, link here; 

Continental Resources (CLR): will resume production in July, 2020; will maintain 50% curtailment, link here at SeekingAlpha;

• Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) says it will partially begin resuming production in July but still expects to curtail roughly half of its operated oil production
• the company previously announced it would curtail 70% of operated oil production in May, with continued curtailments into June
• Continental expects total production will average 150K-160K boe/day in June, increasing to 225K-250K boe/day in July; Q2 output is forecast at 200K-205K boe/day.

Fast and furious: oilprice.com stories that deserve a second look; comments later, perhaps:

• Oman is building the largest oil storage facility in the Middle East. Link here. 
• how Saudi Arabia caused the worst oil price crash in history; link here. 
• surprise draw in fuel inventories boosts oil prices, link here.
• gasoline production at Russian refineries at 15-year low, link here;
• here we go again, underinvesting could send oil prices soaring, link here;
• FWIW: China's emissions jump the most since 2011, link here;
• Aramco cuts hundreds of job amid oil price collapse, link here;

Other stories we may come back to later:

• Apple's mobile economy is bigger than you think, link here;
• Apple will close some recently re-opened stores in the Carolinas (north and south); Florida, and Arizona;
• $190-oil in 2025? JPMorgan says it's possible; link here; I think "they've" also said $10-oil is possible; covering all bases;
• daycare, childcare, and Covid-19, link here;

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$39.85	6/19/2020	06/19/2019	06/19/2018	06/19/2017	06/19/2016
Active Rigs	12	62	61	56	28

Three wells coming off the confidential list today:

Friday, June 19, 2020: 46 for the month; 191 for the quarter, 418 for the year:

• 37058, conf, CLR, Angus Federal 9-9H, Elm Tree,
• 35677, conf, CLR, Boston 9-25H1, Brooklyn,
• 35674, conf,CLR, Boise 0-24H1, Brooklyn,

RBN Energy: shippers take sides on Enbridge's Mainline recontracting plan, part 2.

Enbridge’s proposal to have crude oil shippers on its now fully uncommitted Mainline sign long-term contracts for as much as 90% of the 2.9-MMb/d pipeline network’s capacity is a big deal — and controversial. Refiners and integrated producer/refiners generally support the plan, which is now up for consideration by the Canada Energy Regulator, while Western Canadian producers with no refining operations of their own — and, for many, no history of shipping on the Mainline — mostly oppose it.

What’s driving their contrasting views?

It’s complicated, of course, but what it really comes down to is that everyone wants to avoid what they see as a bad outcome. Refiners and “integrateds” fear that if the current month-to-month approach to pipeline space allocation remains in place, cost-of-service-based tariffs on Mainline will soar when new takeaway capacity is built on the Trans Mountain and Keystone systems and fewer barrels flow on Mainline. Producers, in turn, are wary of making multi-year, take-or-pay commitments to Enbridge if they’ll soon have other takeaway options, and are equally concerned that they’d be left in the lurch if they don’t commit to Mainline and the Trans Mountain Expansion and Keystone XL projects don’t get built. Today, we consider both sides of this important debate.