December Propane Exports Hit All-Time Highs; Seven Wells Coming Off The Confidential List; WPX Reports Four Huge Topaz Wells -- December 21, 2020

Fracking 101: The WSJ. December 21, 2020. This will be a great article to see how much Ms Jinjoo Lee really knows about fracking. I assume we will see lots of memes without analysis, such as high decline rate.

WTI: drops almost 4%; down $1.87.

QEP: Diamondback Energy will buy QEP; stock deal valued at $2.2 billion

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$47.23	12/21/2020	12/21/2019	12/21/2018	12/21/2017	12/21/2016
Active Rigs	15	54	69	52	42

Seven wells coming off confidential list --

Monday, December 21, 2020:

• 37322, loc/A, WPX, Topaz 24HUL, Mandaree, t--; cum 24K over 14 days;
• 37321, loc/A, WPX, Topaz 24HA, Mandaree, t--; cum 24K over 12 days;
• 36683, loc/A, Hess, BL-Iverson C-155-96-2314H-8, Beaver Lodge, Beaver Lodge, t--;  first production 6/20; cum 103K 10/20;

Sunday, December 20, 2020:

• 37320, loc/A, WPX, Topaz 24-13HZ, Mandaree, t--; first production, 10/10; cum 28K over 12 days;
• 30818, loc/NC, BR, Cleetwood 31-27MBH-A, Elidah, no production data,

Saturday, December 19, 2020:

• 37319, loc/A, WPX, Topaz 24-13HB, Mandaree, t--; first production 10/20; cum 24K over 8 days;
• 30817, loc/NC, BR, Phantom Ship 3C UTFH, Elidah, no production data,

RBN Energy: US propane prices spike; December exports soar to all-time highs. Archived.

It’s been a wild and woolly December in the U.S. propane market. The Mont Belvieu propane price is up by almost 40%, blasting past 70 c/gal on Friday — a level not seen since February 2019, when WTI at Cushing was trading at $57/bbl, $8/bbl above where that price sits today. 

Is it simply cold weather goosing demand? Sure, that’s one factor. But it’s really all about exports. Just as 2020 cold weather finally arrived in U.S. propane country, exports hit the highest levels ever recorded. December Gulf Coast export volumes — 92% of the U.S. total — are up 21% over last month, and 39% above December 2019. So both international and domestic demand are pulling hard on supplies at the same time. No wonder propane prices are soaring. 

We started this series on winter 2020-21 supply/demand in late November by suggesting that there could be a few gotchas still out there that were not being reflected in the forward propane market. Well, we’ve now seen one of those gotchas. But there’s a lot of winter left to go — in fact, the official start of winter is this morning! Today, we review what’s happened so far in propane markets, and what could be coming next.