The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog): 03/24/21

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Focus On Free Cash Flow -- March 24, 2021

Link here.

Gasoline Demand Improving -- US Inventory Shows Domestic Fuel Consumption At Highest In Four Months -- March 24, 2021

Updates

March 28, 2021:

Original Post

Link here at Rigzone.

So, let's look at today's graphic on gasoline demand. Link here.

Update On Covid-19 AKA Chinese Flu AKA Wuhan Variant In Texas -- March 24, 2021

Link here.

No comment, no arrow, even a caveman should be able to "read" this graph.

One comment. I can't resist.

I think one can make a case that the pandemic in the US was receding well before the vaccine rollout ever began. Maybe not, I don't know. On the other hand, the vaccine rollout in the EU is not going well and the EU is back into lockdowns due to things getting worse. Anyway, that seems to be what the headlines are saying; I'm not following the story very closely any more.

No New Permits; Four CLR Permits Reinstated; An Expired Rimrock Permit With A Name Change -- March 24, 2021

Active rigs:

$60.76	3/24/2021	03/24/2020	03/24/2019	03/24/2018	03/24/2017
Active Rigs	15	50	69	60	49

No new permits.

Four permits reinstated:

CLR: four Harrisburg permits on Indian Hill, across the river from Williston, ND, McKenzie County

comment: the "original" Harrisburg well runs from the south; and is still a nice well;
28405, 980, CLR, Harrisburg 1.34H, Indian Hill, t10/14; cum 328K 1/21;

Two producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

37704, drl/A, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-11C-2-1HS, Charlson, no production data;
36240, drl/A, Slawson, Periscope Federal 4 SLH, Big Bend, no production data;

Well name change:

31436, PNC, Rimrock Oil & Gas, Narwhat 16-10H, was Moccasin Creek 16-10-34-3H3; the permit for this well has expired year after year and it's always renewed. One would think that if a company is going through the effort to re-name the well, something must be afoot. First permit by Whiting; then acquired by Rimrock around 2018.

Operators must be using this "quiet" time to clean up their paperwork:

twenty producing wells were now reported as abandoned. All were generally old wells. Of the twenty, eleven were EOG wells; three were Liberty Resources wells; and, two were Hess wells. Others: Whiting (2); Slawson (1); XTO (1).

WTI Back Up Over $60; One Well Coming Off Confidential List -- March 24, 2021

Most interesting data point for the archives, link here:

Currently, crude by rail accounts for about five per cent of revenue at CP and about two per cent at KCS. The two companies believe the deal will boost these revenues.

Suez canal: blocked by a huge container ship. It is being reported that efforts to "unstick" the container ship have been suspended for the day (Thursday). In the mideast, "today" (as in "inshallah"), can mean anything from six hours to six months. Again, for the archives. It's interesting but that's about all. By the way, do you all remember when The NYT suggested it would be the Panama Canal that would have problems. There is even a Panama Canal link for the blog.

Gas prices headed higher: leap in gas prices put $3 / gallon in sight. WSJ. That article was published by The WSJ before the 5.3% surge in the price of oil today.

Weekly EIA petroleum report, link here:

US crude oil in storage increased by1.9 million bbls; about what was forecast; in other words, not a "bad" number;
US crude oil now stands at 502.7 million bbls, about 6% above the already fat five-year average:
distillates increased by 3.8 million bbls; distillates in storage just 1% above the five-year average for this time of year;
refiners are operating at 81.6% of their operable capacity; that's a pretty healthy jump; all things being equal, there should be a nice draw in oil inventories next week;
jet fuel supplied was down 35.4% compared with the same four-week period last week; that seems counterintuitive with the significant increase in air travel, but this was explained last week;

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