We Haven't Even Gotten To Hurricane Season Yet, Much Less Driving Season -- March 2, 2022

Before we get started, I haven’t gone through my twitter feed all day. I just went through the feed. Holy mackerel. Every country, every company, with minor exceptions is exiting Russia. Russia’s economy is smaller than Texas so perhaps it’s no big deal, but imagine if Russia becomes a “failed nation-state” literally overnight? Population? One-hundred-fifty million people, just slightly less than half of the US. Germany has 85 million people. This is a big deal. Russia becomes a “North Korea” overnight.

Now, back to the price of oil.

So many story lines:

 

 

Let's go through (some of) the list:

• the perceived shortage is so severe, countries around the world are releasing oil from their strategic petroleum reserves;
• and, yet, if this shortage is so severe, why is the number of days of US crude oil in storage trending up?
  
• "they" agreed to release 60 million bbls; global demand is 60 million bbls every twelve hours or so; 
• everything I've read suggests US refiners don't need more light oil "right now." They've been operating at 87% capacity for as long as I can recall, and have not complained about a shortage of supply.
• those folks who suggest oil should be no more than $30/bbl right now have a pretty good argument; but so far, they aren't winning.
• we haven't even gotten to --
• driving season yet
• hurricane season yet
  
• inflation;
• to explain oil moving from $60 to $120? To say inflation, that seems a bit excessive.
  
• producers from OPEC to Texas are holding the line on production;
• there are three main producers
• Saudi: holding the line; if any increase in production, that increase will be measured and moderate
• US: the current administration is still anti-oil; not one initiative to encourage more production; in fact, quarterly federal lease sales scheduled for 1Q22 will not be held ("someone's dog ate the paperwork"; someone missed the deadline to file the necessary paperwork to hold the quarterly lease sale)
• Russia: we all know that story;
• SOTU address: Covid is over; back to normal; the US is coming out of a two-year lock down; the economy is poised to surge -- think about that, a two-year lock down coming to an end; wouldn't this be like the end of WWII in 1945?
  
• supply chain shortages: I haven't heard that phrase uttered in weeks;
  
• today's job report: absolutely blew the door down; completely exceeded analysts' expectations;
• Jay Powell's remarks suggests he doesn't want to be blamed for upsetting the punch bowl; will raise rates 25 basis points -- yawn.
  
• how did the market react to his comments? Let's just look at one -- just one -- data point suggesting where traders think the US economy is headed: did anyone see this? Did anyone pay attention to this? UNP jumped over 4% today; jumped almost $10 and closed at $252; on a macro scale how much more bullish can one get about the US economy?
• an aside: decades ago I subscribed to an investment letter: "Dow Theory." A jump in transportation like today would have been said to be about as bullish as anything could be
  
• if UNP jumped $10 today based on fundamentals, can you imagine how BNSF is doing, owned by Berkshire Hathaway / Warren Buffett -- if you haven't read his annual letter -- released over the weekend -- well, what can I say? One can lead a horse to water ...

***************************
Sixteen Reasons

Sixteen Reasons, Connie Stevens

Early Evening -- Brent Jumps Another $4 -- Absolutely Ludicrous -- Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Oil:

• Brent: up 7.58%; up $7.96; trading at $112.90; Later, 7:40 p.m. CT: $116.40. Now, 7:57 p.m. CT: $116.90.
• WTI: up 1.56%; up $1.72; trading at $110.90. Later, 7:35 p.m. CT: $113.10. Now, 7:59 p.m. CT: $113.50. Later, 8;46 p.m. CT: someone has a screen shot of WTI at $114.58.
  

So many story lines:

The price of oil is not the price of the first bbls being sold, but the price of the last barrel.

Amazon: shutting down brick-and-mortar; link here.

• shutting down all its Amazon Books physical bookstores, as well as its Amazon 4-star and Amazon Pop Up shops, which sold a variety of electronics and other hot items.

*****************************
EOR - NG

Updates

July 7, 2022: approved. The Buddy Domindgo pad in Williams County.

Original Pad

CCS / Harold Hamm / Summit Carbon Solutions: The Williston Herald.

• CLR: $250 million buy-in over two years;
• help fund a project with Summit Carbon Solutions
• gather CO2 from ethanol plants in Midwest (Iowa, Nebraska, ND, SD)
• pipeline CO2 to ND for permanent storage
• comments: 
• if they were to do something with the CO2 (like EOR) it might make sense;
• to simply store it isvirtue signaling when China is building a new coal plant every week, or whatever they're doing
• and, of course, the pipeline is already being "fought" in Iowa
  

Nine DUCs Reported As Completed; Six New Permits -- March 2, 2022

Gasoline demand, link here.

Brent: $112.90.

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

CCS / Harold Hamm / Summit Carbon Solutions: The Williston Herald.

Active rigs:

$110.90	3/2/2022	03/02/2021	03/02/2020	03/02/2019	03/02/2018
Active Rigs	31	14	53	67	59

Six new permits, #38799 - #38804, inclusive:

• Operators: CLR (4); Hunt Oil (2)
• Fields: Jim Creek (Dunn County); Ross (Mountrail County)
• Comments:
• Hunt has permits for two King wells in SESE 5-156-90, 
• to be sited 265 FSL and between 570 FEL and 540 FEL;
• CLR has permits for four Medicine Hole wells in SESE 27-146-96, 
• to be sited between 485 FSL and 468 FSL and between 1220 FEL and 1086 FEL

Nine producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 38046, 2,302, Slawson, Muskrat Federal 3-28-33H, Big Bend, minimal production;
  
• 38352, 1,171, CLR, Bice FIU 10-32H, Chimney Butte, minimal production,
  
• 38353, 986, CLR, Bice FIU 11-23HSL1, Chimney Butte, minimal production,
  
• 38156, 822, CLR, Kukla 10-16HSL1, Chimney Butte, first production, 11/21; t--; cum 23K 1/22;
  
• 38358, 1,104, CLR, Dolezal FIU 7-5H, Chimney Butte, minimal production,
  
• 37244, 2,574, MRO, Colgrove 14-34TFH, Bailey, huge well, first production, 12/21; t--; cum 49K over 47 days; neighboring older wells off line;
  
• 37245, 3,860, MRO, Armstrong 14-34H, Bailey, huge well, first production, 12/21; t--; cum 74K over 52 days; neighboring older wells off line;
• 38076, 112, Slawson, Muskrat Federal 7-28-33TFH, Big Bend, minimal production,
  
• 38077, 402, Slawson, Vagabond Federal 1 SLH, Big Bend, minimal production,
  

Apple Page -- March 2, 2022

 This was posted earlier this week:

The Apple Page

 News and rumors:

• Apple Lightning Port: will we see a "portless" iPhone? Only way to charge an iPhone, with wireless charging? The EU may force Apple's hand.  
• A really inexpensive iPhone? We should know next week if Apple will drop the price of the current iPhone SE to $199 while introducing a new iPhone SE priced at $399.  
• A two-fer: Apple will halt all sale from online store in Russia. Link here. A "two-fer" is when a company does one thing but benefits for at least two reasons. In this case, Apple couldn't afford the sanctions on Russia to continue online sales; and, Apple will now have more chips available for products for other countries. Win-win for everyone. 

Now this, today, from Reuters: Apple to host spring event next week, low-cost 5G iPhone in focus.

• March 8, 2022
• expected to launch a low-cost version of its popular iPhone with 5G: the 5G iPhone SE;
• my current iPhone SE no longer holds much of a charge
• if this rumor turns out to be true, I will be upgrading to the new iPhone SE;
  
• the new phone would be the first update to the iPhone SE model in two years
• rumored to come with an improved camera and a faster processor
• if true, this speaks volumes about Apple on many levels
• also: a new version of the iPad Air and a high-end Mac Mini

Three Dow stocks set to soar in 2H22: The Motley Fool --

• AAPL, WMT, and DIS

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Russian Urals -- From A Reader -- March 2, 2022

With regard to my notes regarding Russian oil (Urals, specifically), a reader responds:

Urals is more of a medium grade, about 31 API gravity. Comparable to Mars grade from US GOM or Alaskan North Slope. Nothing like Canadian or VZ grades that can be 10 API or lower, and are usually around 17 API during transport. (California crude is also about 17.)

The sulfur content of Urals has been creeping up lately, from 1.3% towards high 1s or even 2%. But that's really still comparable to Mars grade or ANS and still less than classic medium grades like Basra. And it's not like the 4% in Canadian, VZ, or California heavy crudes.

Also, note that the world is NOT short of medium, heavy, or light grades. This is all silliness from reporters and analysts that have never really worked in refineries or traded oil globally. Mixing, moving crudes is very normal and has been something the industry has done for last 100 years as new fields of different grades came on line.

Also, FWIW, medium sour grades like Mars, Urals, ANS, Basra still trade at LOWER prices than WTI/Brent (classic light sweet). And heavy grades have even lower prices than medium. Yes, the world got a lot of light sweet from West Texas and the Bakken, but it just (slightly) shrunk the advantage of light sweet. It has not reversed the advantage.

Also, Bakken oil is near perfect, like WTI, in terms of API and sulfur content. Gets premium pricing AFTER reaching its destination. So, if you're trading in Houston or Rotterdam or Singapore, WTI/Brent/Bakken (all very similar) get the premium price. Only reason you see lower sometimes is because of transport (pricing them in the field, versus at the customer).

The reader follows up with these comments (see comments below):

But another issue is some stories talking about the big discounts Urals crude is getting lately.

Over the last month (and mostly last few days), Urals has moved from Brent-$2 to Brent-$12. So you see a lot of posts about Russians hurting on oil prices. But this ignores that Brent itself moved from $90 to $110 over the last month (mostly last few days). So actually Urals is up about $10: from $88 to $98.

Oil tankers are still moving Urals in both the Baltic and Black Seas. However, much of it is now going to Asia (longer transit, more expensive) and there are also risks associated with each of those routes (and to financial payments with Russia). So that's why Urals has moved from -$2 to -$12. It's just needed to compensate the Asian buyers for a longer trip and higher risks.

But net/net: oil is still flowing. And Russians actually getting more per barrel, when you do the math for the Brent increase along with the diff increase.

Essay Of The Day -- The West's Green Delusions Empowered Putiin -- March 2, 2022

I haven't watched CNBC in three to four weeks, but via twitter I've heard that Sorkin and Kernan had a spat over renewable energy this morning. I don't know how Kernan can show up to work each day having to listen to Sorkin. The latter, what a doofus. 

Link here. Archived.

How has Vladimir Putin—a man ruling a country with an economy smaller than that of Texas, with an average life expectancy 10 years lower than that of France—managed to launch an unprovoked full-scale assault on Ukraine?

There is a deep psychological, political and almost civilizational answer to that question: He wants Ukraine to be part of Russia more than the West wants it to be free. He is willing to risk tremendous loss of life and treasure to get it. There are serious limits to how much the U.S. and Europe are willing to do militarily. And Putin knows it.

Missing from that explanation, though, is a story about material reality and basic economics—two things that Putin seems to understand far better than his counterparts in the free world and especially in Europe. 

The numbers:

Putin knows that Europe produces 3.6 million barrels of oil a day but uses 15 million barrels of oil a day.

Putin knows that Europe produces 230 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year but uses 560 billion cubic meters. He knows that Europe uses 950 million tons of coal a year but produces half that.

The former KGB agent knows Russia produces 11 million barrels of oil per day but only uses 3.4 million. He knows Russia now produces over 700 billion cubic meters of gas a year but only uses around 400 billion. Russia mines 800 million tons of coal each year but uses 300.

That’s how Russia ends up supplying about 20 percent of Europe’s oil, 40 percent of its gas, and 20 percent of its coal. 

The best paragraph:

John Kerry, the United States’ climate envoy, perfectly captured the myopia of this view when he said, in the days before the war, that the Russian invasion of Ukraine “could have a profound negative impact on the climate, obviously. You have a war, and obviously you’re going to have massive emissions consequences to the war. But equally importantly, you’re going to lose people’s focus.”

As the West fell into a hypnotic trance about healing its relationship with nature, averting climate apocalypse and worshiping a teenager named Greta, Vladimir Putin made his moves.

I would have changed that paragraph slightly for the alliteration:

.".. John Kerry's... myopia of the moment ..."

Did Putin Miscalculate? Weekly EAI Petroleum Report -- March 2, 2022

Did Putin miscalculate? Did the rest of us miscalculate? Some random observations:

• in the big scheme of things, Russia has only two "things" that generate income: a) oil and natural gas sales; b) military hardware (planes, missiles, technology, and mechanized, armored vehicles); 
• of the two, oil and natural gas might be more important
  
• 2022 will be the year the global economy surges, coming out of Covid-19;
• pretty much evenly divided among analysts whether supply will keep up with demand;
• regardless of which school is correct, even if supply keeps up with demand, it will be close;
• asking if "supply will keep up with demand" is the wrong question; of course, supply will keep up with demand ... at what price? That's the better question.
• folks, including Putin, felt that Europe was so dependent on Russian oil, that Russia could get away with serious show of military force;
• the meme a week or so ago was that "no other country" could make up for lack of Russian natural gas or oil;
• that meme is starting to change: maybe the world can get along without Russian natural gas and/or crude oil; again, it's all about the price;
• folks were upset that initial sanctions did not include SWIFT and still do not include natural gas and crude oil;
• SWIFT is now among the sanctions
• no one thought with natural gas so critical for Europe that the continent would actually shut down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline; not only is the pipeline shut down, but project backers ready to seek bankruptcy protection; 
  
• even without formal sanctions, many western countries / companies are saying "no" to Russian oil / natural gas; Russia will find new markets?
• if Russia was unable to "win" Afghanistan after a decade fighting that war, will Russia be able to "win" Ukraine? And if Russia does win, what will Ukraine look like?
• although Russia military will eventually come out on top, that doesn't mean, Russia will "control" the population; economy of Ukraine could become a drag on Russia; a Pyrrhic victory of historic proportions?
• the reason for the huge spike in oil price so quickly? Much of it has to do with type of oil Russia was able to provide. 

**********************************
Weekly EIA Petroleum Report

The numbers:

• US crude oil inventories stand at 413.4 million bbls;
• US crude oil inventories decreased by a modest 2.6 million bbls from the previous week;
• US crude oil imports averaged 5.8 million bopd last week, decreasing by 1.1 million bopd from the previous week; over the past four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged 6.2 million bopd, 9.4% more, than the same four-week period last year;
• US refiners are operating at 87.7% of their operable capacity; almost no change over several months;
• distillate inventories decreased again; this time decreased by 0.6 million bbls; inventories stand at 16% below the five-year average;
• jet fuel supplied: increased by 24.5% over same four-week period last year

A Lot More Folks Driving To Work -- March 2, 2022

Question of the day: why are US refineries only operating at 87% of their capacity? And we move on.

Days of crude oil supply, US: had dropped below 27 days in recent weeks, but now back over 27 days.  When the US supply of oil exceeds 21 days, common sense tells me crude oil should not be priced more than $60. There is nothing to suggest the US crude oil will get to less than 21 days supply any time soon.

A lot more folks are driving to work: and the economy will surge this summer. Private sector jobs increased more than expected. Link here. And not by an insignificant amount:

• February, 2022, forecast: 375,000 jobs
• reported: 475,000 jobs
• but look at this revision:
• January: initial report, a drop of 301,000 jobs -- which would have been the first drop since December, 2020
• January, 2021, revised an incredible jump of 509,000 jobs
• that's a swing of 800,000 jobs
• first question: could the February figures be off that much?
• we'll know next month

****************************
Focus On Jeri Ryan

I watched an old re-run of Psych last night during the SOTU address. A familiar face popped up. I recognized her but couldn't "place" her.

It turned out to be Jeri Ryan who guest starred in Leverage back in 2009 where I first saw her. Since then she has gone on to bigger and better things. She has an "infectious" smile, as they say, and reminds me of a very, very beautiful actress of some years ago ... I'll let readers guess.

Whatever.

But this is what caught my attention. I maintain that folks that get to the top in their chosen field are no dummies. 

Jeri Ryan:

Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann on February 22, 1968, in Munich, West Germany, the daughter of Gerhard Florian "Jerry" Zimmermann, a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, and his wife Sharon, a social worker. She has one older brother, Mark. 

Ryan grew up on Army posts in Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia and Texas.

When she was 11, her father retired from the Army and the family settled in Paducah, Kentucky. She graduated from Lone Oak High School in 1986 (as a National Merit Scholar), and then attended Northwestern University, where she was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority. She graduated from Northwestern in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in Theatre.

In 1989, Ryan was chosen as Miss Illinois. She competed in the Miss America 1990 pageant, where she finished as third runner-up, winning the preliminary swimsuit competition and singing "On My Own" from Les Misérables for her talent.

Oil Is Surging Before The Market Opens -- March 2, 2022

Finally, folks are getting the message. "Quality" of oil matters.

Look at this overnight, and in the past few minutes;

Continuing from where we left off last night: 

Watching oil move tonight, just has to be more interesting than the speech:

• WTI: up 5.01%; up $5.18; trading at 108.68. 
• Brent: up 5.23%; up $5.49; trading at 110.46. 

Now, this morning:

• WTI: up 7%; up $7.16; trading at 110.57. 
• Brent: up 7%; up $7.35; trading at 112.32. 

Holy mackerel: just minutes later --

• WTI: up 8.5%; up $8.74; trading at 112.15. 
• Brent: up 8.4%; up $8.79; trading at 113.76. 

This from yesterday: "quality of oil matters." The world needs heavy oil -- the kind Canada would have shipped down the Keystone XL -- and that's the kind Russia also supplies. 

It's going to be hard to replace that Russian oil. And yes, how does that affect WTI? A light oil. It's complicated. From Brian Sullivan yesterday: absent recession or big OPEC (Saudi) surprise, easy to see oil hit $125 soon. 

Russian barrels are hard to replace. Oil has different qualities. 

We've been talking about this for years. And, oh by the way, the price of oil is not determined by how much the first bbl costs but how much the last bbl costs.

Many, many story lines why oil is surging. Most of it has to do with Ukraine, Russia, but a lot has to do with fact that Biden administration unable to admit it made a huge mistake. Will let that mistake get worse.

Oil companies:

• shares surging?
• where is that money coming from?
• RIVN: down 8.4% yesterday; today, in pre-market, down another 2.5%; market opens, and RIVN is down 13% in early morning trading;
  
• LCID: down 14% yesterday; today, in pre-market, down another 1%; in early morning trading, down another 5% from yesterday;
  
• F: down 5% yesterday; goes below $17; today, in pre-market, up 3.5%, back above $17, which appears to be the new floor; in early morning trading, up almost 5% over yesterday;
  
• FSLR: holy mackerel, down 14% in pre-market today; one-year high, $123; now trading at $65; in early morning trading, down 12%; trading at $66.73;
  
• I guess this is called sector rotation; wonder how BlackRock is doing?
  

PEMEX: The Road To Mexico -- March 2, 2022

PEMEX: how do they do it? Posts another $6 billion 4Q21 loss vs a profit one year ago. Link here. Can anyone make sense of this: their revenue almost doubled, and yet they lost money. Wow, that must be hard to do.Apparently due to currency exchange losses and higher taxes -- say what? 

Mexican state oil company Pemex reported a $6.05 billion fourth-quarter net loss on Monday, driven by higher taxes and currency exchange losses despite more oil output, with the firm set to require further big cash infusions from the government.

Pemex, which has long struggled to stay in the black,managed to turn a profit of nearly $5 billion in the year-ago period.

Revenue for the state-run company, known officially as Petroleos Mexicanos,rose almost 80% in the last three months of 2021, boosted by a jump in domestic sales and crude exports.

The country taxes them, they show a loss, and now the government needs to return that tax money plus more to keep Pemex solvent?

One Well Coming Off Confidential List; Mid-Streaming? Again, Buffett Saw It Coming Years Ago -- March 2, 2022

Continuing from where we left off last night: 

Watching oil move tonight, just has to be more interesting than the speech:

• WTI: up 5.01%; up $5.18; trading at 108.68. 
• Brent: up 5.23%; up $5.49; trading at 110.46. 

Now, this morning:

• WTI: up 7%; up $7.16; trading at 110.57. 
• Brent: up 7%; up $7.35; trading at 112.32. 

Holy mackerel: just minutes later --

• WTI: up 8.5%; up $8.74; trading at 112.15. 
• Brent: up 8.4%; up $8.79; trading at 113.76. 

Why so much this morning (oil)? Apparently traders not happy with Biden's SOTU address and a paltry 30 million bbls from the US SPR -- 30 / 100 = 03 = 7.2 hours of global demand. 

Agree 100%, from social media: the price of oil is moving up so quickly, equity share price appreciation cannot keep up. "Everybody" wondering how this will play out. Sure, six months to a year from now, prices may be "back to normal," but in the meantime, two quarters of incredible financial reports. 

PEMEX: how do they do it? Posts another $6 billion 4Q21 loss vs a profit one year ago. Link here. Can anyone make sense of this: their revenue almost doubled, and yet they lost money. Wow, that must be hard to do.Apparently due to currency exchange losses and higher taxes -- say what?  

Doomberg: disappointed. I really like Doomberg but not enough to subscribe. Doomberg announces it will convert to a "pay format" in two months. Nice knowing you. Mucho gusto. Hasta luego.

Nord Stream 2: bag holders -- this came from a reader -- apparently hard to find -- I had not thought of looking this up; explains why it took so long for western world to go "negative" on this project -- look at the western companies involved -- wow, what a story! I understand the "project" will seek bankruptcy protection.

Gazprom paid half the cost of building Nord Stream 2, with the remainder of the $11 billion pipeline project financed by British oil and gas major Shell, Austria's OMV, France's Engie and Germany's Uniper, and Wintershall DEA.

Nord Stream 2: has fired the entire staff. Link here. 

The Swiss-based company building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany has fired all 106 staff after being targeted US sanctions.

The German government moved to halt approval for the $11bn (£8.2bn) pipeline last week before President Joe Biden then directed his administration to impose sanctions on the operating company.

In a further blow, major backer Shell announced it would pull out of the project.

The Gazprom-owned company denied reports it had filed for bankruptcy.

XOM: to exit Russia at a cost of $4 billion? Link to first couple of paragraphs.

And then they wonder why their gasoline is so expensive. California:

• MPC to convert Martinez refinery to renewable fuels project;
• Finnish Neste says to become first global renewable fuels producer.

Mixed messages from Canada:

• says it won't import oil from Russia;
• apparently hasn't imported "crude oil" from Russia since 2019; but,
• continues to import "petroleum productions" from Russia; link here.
• other articles corroborate the story but behind paywalls.

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

WTi: $109 or thereabouts. Remember, these guys are making money on $30-oil.

Active rigs:

$108.96	3/2/2022	03/02/2021	03/02/2020	03/02/2019	03/02/2018
Active Rigs	32	14	53	67	59

Wednesday, March 2, 2022: 2 for the month, 110 for the quarter, 110 for the year 

• 38063, conf, Hess,GO-Soiine A-156-97-2932H-2, Dollar Joe; a very nice well; 46K first month (unknown number of days of production; see below.
  

RBN Energy: a steeper path to gas-project certification following new FERC policies. 

It ain’t easy being a midstreamer lately. Well, it’s probably never been easy, but these days trying to get a pipeline project to the finish line might feel a bit like Sisyphus from Greek mythology, forever pushing a boulder up a hill, filled with obstacles and setbacks. That hill has leaned ever-steeper in the past several years as turnover among FERC’s commissioners delayed project reviews, courts reversed a number of FERC approvals, and public opposition to pipeline projects increasingly delayed progress, even resulting in cancelations. And two weeks ago, the approval process was made tougher still when FERC announced new statements of policy regarding project certifications and greenhouse gas impact assessments. The proposed changes have caused a lot of anxiety among midstream companies, although in many ways FERC just declared as policy what was already happening on a case-by-case basis. But midstreamers shouldn’t panic. In today’s RBN blog, we explain the commission’s new guidance and how much impact it will really have.

*********************
38063

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
1-2022	12823	0
12-2021	18314	55867
11-2021	26311	63474
10-2021	29167	63827
9-2021	46149	49745

Is Anyone In Congress Paying Attention? Does Anyone Care? Something Tells Me The Administration Doesn’t Really Care — March 2, 2022

 Re-posting:

From The Bismarck Tribune:

A federal oil lease sale in North Dakota expected to occur during the first quarter of this year will not take place, and the state's lawsuit over the matter looks to be heating up again. 

The federal government has missed the mid-February deadline to publish a notice to hold a lease sale this quarter, the U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing last week in North Dakota's federal leasing suit. 

The holdup has to do with a recent court ruling in Louisiana that blocked the government from using calculations it had made of the social costs of greenhouse gases. 

Those calculations are part of its environmental analysis in federal lease sales. 

The federal Bureau of Land Management had planned a lease sale this quarter with 29 parcels of federal minerals up for grabs in North Dakota and Montana. 

Oil companies seeking to develop federal minerals need to secure a lease and, subsequently, a permit to drill. 

President Joe Biden halted federal leasing upon taking office last year, launching a review of the federal program to examine potential reforms. North Dakota and a number of other oil- and gas-rich states filed lawsuits to try to force leasing to continue. A ruling stemming from one of those suits last summer ordered the government to resume lease sales nationwide.

Pleas for more drilling: Meanwhile, the president is asking US producers to drill more.