North Dakota Oil Production Regains Million-Barrel Mark -- The Bismarck Tribune -- September, 16, 2020

Link here. Renee Jean of The Williston Herald gets the byline but the link is to The Bismarck Tribune. Director's Cut posted here.

North Dakota oil production regains million barrel mark.

• RENEE JEAN Williston Herald
• 10 hrs ago

North Dakota reported 1.04 million barrels of crude oil per day for July and nearly 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production. The state also reported a 91% gas capture rate.

That represents a 16.5% increase in production for both oil and gas, and a 19% increase in gas capture volumes.

But there haven’t been enough new well completions to make these production gains sustainable, North Dakota Director of Mineral Resources Lynn Helms said. 

It takes around 70 new wells per month to sustain production in the range of 1.25 million barrels per day. In May, however, just 12 wells were completed, Helms said. In June, 37 were completed and in July 59.

LEGO Set -- Nothing About The Bakken -- September 16, 2020

The Bespin duel.

More on this LEGO set at a later date. For the archives.

Five Snapshots That Captures How Weird 2020 Has Become -- September 16, 2020

From ZeroHedge and The Bismarck Tribune today:

 

Kavango Basin -- September 16, 2020

Two and a half decades ago, Nick Steinsberger invented what is now the modern-day frack in the Barnett shale. Now, the petroleum engineer extraordinaire is tasked with proving up untold billions of barrels of oil in Namibia’s Kavango Basin in what could very well be the world’s last-ever discovery of a massive onshore sedimentary basin.

Link here.

Archived.

Sturgis Rally, One-Month-Follow-Up -- September 16, 2020

Link here.

Sturgis Rally: August 7 - August 16, 2020.

At link above, set "search" for "yesterday."

Number of cases means absolutely nothing.

Number of deaths associated with Covid-19 "means more" but numbers are incredibly questionable. Criteria for diagnosis varies across jurisdiction.

But be that as it may, new deaths in last 24 hours:

• Montana: 1
• Wyoming: 0
• North Dakota: 5
• South Dakota: 8
• Nebraska: 3
• Iowa: 3
• Minnesota: 6

Deaths per million population, and (ranking among 50 states and DC):

• Iowa: 392 (23)
• Minnesota: 352 (27)
• North Dakota: 232 (38)
• Nebraska: 227 (39)
• South Dakota: 217 (40)
• Montana: 132 (45)
• Wyoming: 79 (49)

Graphics:

Hess With Two New Permits; Fourteen Permits Renewed -- September 16, 2020

Active rigs:

$40.05	9/16/2020	09/16/2019	09/16/2018	09/16/2017	09/16/2016
Active Rigs	11	62	65	56	32

Two new permits, #37844 - #37845, inclusive:

• Operator: Hess
• Field: Manitou (Mountrail)
• Comments: 
• Hess has permits for two EN wells; an EN-Hegland well and an EN-Zunich well; sited in SWSW 33-156-94, 1300' FSL and about 500' FWL

Fourteen permits renewed:

• Slawson (7): four Vixen Federal permits; two Phatkat Federal permits; and, one Phoenix permit, all in Mountrail County
• Rimrock (4): one Nosepress permit, one Nollie permit, one Boardslide permit, and one Shifty permit, all in Dunn County
• MRO (3): one Archie, one Erbe, and one Arnew permit, all in Dunn County;

Four permits canceled:

• Slawson (3): one Voyager permit; one Wizard permit; and one Jugard Federal permit, all in Mountrail County
• MRO: one Carl USA permit in McKenzie County

Gasoline Demand -- September 16, 2020

I'll be off the net until later this evening.

I've said this since I began blogging.

If I were allowed only one metric to track the US economy, it would be gasoline demand. I've defended that argument successfully in the past.

Today's release was not good. The line graph is the four-week average; the oval circles the one-week average. Generally, if the four-week average is bad, I look for the one-week numbers to give me a bit of optimism.

I'm not seeing it.  

Link here.

This is ahead of Hurricane (?) Sally.

Now, off the net until this evening.

Weekly EIA Status Report -- Distillates Continue To Be The Story -- September 16, 2020

Weekly EIA petroleum report, link here.

• US crude oil in storage decreased by 4.4 million bbls
• US crude oil in storage: 496.0 million bbls, back where we were a couple of weeks ago
• US crude oil in storage remains about 14% above the already-fat five-year average
• US refineries are operating at 75.8% capacity, following Hurricane Laure, we now have Hurricane (?) Sally
• US crude oil imports average 5.0 million bopd, down about half a million bopd; imports still averaging about 20% less than same four-week period last year (2019)
• distillate production increased last week
• jet fuel supplied was down 45.6% compared with same four-week period last year

Re-Balancing:

Week	Date of Report=	Change	Million Bbls Storage	Over/under 5-year average
Week 0	November 21, 2018	4.9	446.9
Week 1	November 28, 2018	3.6	450.5
Week 2	December 6, 2018	-7.3	443.2
Week 3	December 12, 2018	-1.2	442.0
Week 4	December 19, 2018	-0.5	441.5
Week 5	December 28, 2018	0.0	441.4
Week 84	July 15, 2020	-7.5	531.7	17%
Week 85	July 22, 2020	4.9	536.6	19%
Week 86	July 29, 2020	-10.6	526.0	17%
Week 87	August 5, 2020	-7.4	518.6	16%
Week 88	August 12, 2020	-4.5	514.1
Week 89	August 19, 2020	-1.6	512.5
Week 90	August 26, 2020	-4.7	507.8	15%
Week 91	September 2, 2020	-9.4	498.4	14%
Week 92	September 10, 2020	2.0	500.5	14%
Weej 93	September 16, 2020	-4.4	496.0	14%

Crude oil imports:

Crude Oil Imports
Week (week-over-week)	Date of Report	Raw Data, millions of bbls	Change (millions of bbls)	Four-week period comparison
Week 0	March 11, 2029	6.4	0.174
Week 1	March 18, 2020	6.5	0.127
Week 2	March 25, 2020	6.1	-0.422
Week 3	April 1, 2020	6.0	-0.070
Week 4	April 8, 2020	5.9	-0.173
Week 5	April 15, 2020	5.7	-0.194
Week 6	April 22, 2020	5.6	-0.700
Week 7	April 29, 2020	5.3	0.365	-19.700%
Week 8	May 6, 2020	5.7	0.410
Week 9	May 13, 2020	5.4	-0.321	-26.100%
Week 10	May 20, 2020	5.2	-0.194
Week 11	May 28, 2020	7.2	2.000	-16.400%
Week 12	June 3, 2020	6.2	-1.000	-18.300%
Week 13	June 10, 2020	6.4	0.000	-13.300%
Week 19	July 22, 2020	5.9	0.373	-13.500%
Week 20	July 29, 2020	5.1	-0.800	-13.600%
Week 21	August 5, 2020	6.0	0.900	-18.100%
Week 22	August 12, 2020	5.6	-0.389	-20.400%
Week 23	August 19, 2020	5.7	0.109	-21.700%
Week 24	August 26, 2020	5.9	0.185	-16.900%
Week 25	September 2, 2020	4.9	-1.000	-20.200%
Week 26	September 10, 2020	5.4	0.500	-17.900%
Week 27	September 16, 2020	5.0	-0.416	-20.100%

 

Distillate fuel:

Distillate Fuel Inventories
Week	Date of Report	Change in Millions	Relative to 5-Yr Avg
Week 1	August 26, 2020	1.40	24.0%
Week 2	September 2, 2020	-1.70	23.0%
Week 3	September 10, 2020	-1.70	20.0%
Week 4	September 16, 2020	3.50	22.0%

Jet fuel:

Jet Fuel Delivered, Change, Four-Week/Four-Week
Week	Date of Report	Change
Week 0	3/7/2020	-12.80%
Week 1	3/14/2020	-12.60%
Week 2	3/21/2020	-8.90%
Week 3	3/28/2020	-16.40%
Week 4	4/4/2020	-0.22%
Week 18	July 15, 2020	-51.90%
Week 19	July 22, 2020	-47.70%
Week 20	July 29, 2020	-42.10%
Week 21	August 5, 2020	-40.90%
Week 22	August 12, 2020	-45.80%
Week 23	August 19, 2020	-47.60%
Week 24	August 26, 2020	-45.70%
Week 25	September 2, 2020	-47.10%
Week 26	September 10, 2020	-45.10%
Week 27	September 16, 2020	-45.60%