Two Wells Coming Off Confidential List; WTI Up Almost Five Percent -- August 23, 2021

Rigs on fire: Pemex, Gulf of Mexico, off Campeche, Mexico.

WTI: jumps almost 5%; up over $3/bbl; trading at $65.17.

Oil stocks: surging. 

Autos: Phil LeBeau -- huge apologist for auto industry; blows off the GM Chevy Bolt recall, saying in effect, "nothing to see  here," but does note GM stock is down 25% since early June, 2021. Phil said these were "old" battery design .... which raises the question ... GM was putting the "old" battery design into 2022 models. From social media:

This $1 billion on the Chevy Bolt is pretty wild. LG is legit as it comes when manufacturing batteries, but they they're still having problems that are causing cars to catch on fire. Chevy wants all production to be EV by 2035; I just don't see how people think this is realistic.

Bitcoin: $50K+. I've talked about my flip-flop on this recently.

Covid-19: delta has peaked. Despite.

*************************
Back to the Bakken

Active rigs: updated data COB.

$65.17	8/23/2021	08/23/2020	08/23/2019	08/23/2018	08/23/2017
Active Rigs	24*	12	64	62	53

Two wells coming off confidential list:

Monday, August 23, 2021: 13 for the month, 24 for the quarter, 204 for the year:

• None.

Sunday, August 22, 2021: 13 for the month, 24 for the quarter, 204 for the year:

• 37988, conf, CLR, Harms Federal 18-33H, Antelope, producing, data not updated;

Saturday, August 21, 2021: 12 for the month, 23 for the quarter, 203 for the year:

• 36078, conf, Petro-Hunt, Hurinenko 144-98-11C-2-2H, Little Knife, no production data, 

RBN Energy: the ins and outs of natural gas storage, part 2.

The volume of natural gas in storage and the flow of gas into and out of it are among the most closely watched indicators in the U.S. gas market. That makes sense, given that these numbers provide important weekly insights into the supply-demand balance, gas price trends, the impact of LNG exports, and any number of other market drivers. However, what’s often ignored by those not involved in the day-to-day physical gas market are the mechanics and economics of storage itself. Who uses gas storage, and for what purposes? What are the value drivers for a storage facility? Why are there different types of gas storage contracts? How much does storage cost, and what do storage rates reflect? Today, we explore these and other questions.

In the decades leading up to the early 2000s, the U.S. gas market underwent a series of fundamental changes, each spurring the development of new storage capacity. First, starting in the 1910s, ’20s, and ‘30s, a number of depleted gas reservoirs were converted to storage facilities — initially in the Northeast, but then in other regions (yellow dots in Figure 1 map and yellow slice of pie chart to left). In the late 1940s and ’50s, another approach — “aquifer storage” — was introduced as an option for regions (primarily the Midwest) that needed gas storage capacity but lacked a sufficient number of depleted gas fields. Aquifer storage (red squares in map and red slice in pie chart to left) had an advantage over depleted-reservoir storage, namely that gas can typically be injected into and withdrawn from it more quickly. However, a disadvantage of aquifer storage is that it needs to be completely empty at the end of the heating season each year, or it can lose gas. The primary purpose of both types of storage facilities was — and is — to help balance seasonal swings in gas demand.