Nine DUCs Reported As Completed; WPX With Three New Permits -- March 3, 2023

Active rigs: 45.

WTI: $79.68.

Natural gas: $3.009.

Three new permits, #39696 - #39698, inclusive:

• Operator: WPX Energy
• Field: Reunion Bay (Dunn County)
• Comments:
• WPX has permits for three Three John Elk wells, NWSE 28-150-93; 
• to be sited beetween 2122 FSL and 2139 FSL and between 157 FWL and 215 FWL

Three permits renewed:

• Petroshale (2): two Helen permits, Eagle Nest, Dunn County
• XTO: one GBU Janice permit, Grinnell, Williams County

Nine DUCs reported as completed:

• 35661, 528, Lime Rock Resources, Jore Fed 12H,
• 35663, 612, Lime Rock Resources, Jore Feed 14H,
• 29396, 555, Lime Rock Resources, State Gresz 6-35-26H-143-98,
• 38885, 1,519, Neptune Operating, Jacobson 150-101-17-20-13H,
• 38886, 1,591, Neptune Operating, Jacobson 150-101-17-20-7H,
• 38887, 1,604, Neptune Operating, Jacobson 150-101-17-20-6H,
• 38716, 622, Ovintiv, Calhoun 149-98-3-10-7H,
• 38718, 1,205, Ovintiv, Calhoun 149-98-3-10-6H,
• 38720, 636, Ovintiv, Calhoun 149-98-3-10-5H,

Week 9: February 26, 2023 -- March 4, 2023

The top stories: 

• 
  

The single best story:

• 
  

Top story:

• Joe Biden is still president.

Top international non-energy story:

• Ukraine war continues.
• Sweden: deep recession; could last through 2025.
  

Top international energy story: 

• Russian oil and gas revenues tank in February, 2023
  
• 
  

Top national non-energy story:

• 
  

Top national energy story: 

• 
  

Javier Blas:

• 
  

Focus on fracking: most recent edition.

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

• Another cold spell.
  

Top North Dakota energy story:

• 
  

Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories:

• Quick connects. 

Bakken economy:

• Chugging along.
  

Commentary:

Entertainment:

Feeling Pretty Good Today -- March 3, 2023

All month:

• sanctions not working;
• Russia selling all the oil it can produce;
• Russia self-insuring its tanker fleet to get around sanctions;
• India buying Russian oil -- Russia oil is now India's #1 source;
• Russia selling oil at far higher price than "cap" allowed by sanctions / EU;
• Russia will cut production by 500,000 bopd in March because it simply doesn't need all that revenue;
• yeah, those were the headlines readers linked me throughout the past month;
• today: 

All month:

• this is all I heard all month; even to the point I said, "it gets tedious."

• I haven't looked at my portfolio today but based on what I see on the CNBC crawler this will be the best day I've ever had since I began investing in 1984;
• I am fully invested; I am always fully invested; cash? Don't have any; it's parked in ATT;
• seriously; I park all cash I get, no matter how little into ATT, buying and selling ATT, using it like a checking account
• my "40-30-20-5-5" new money allotment: big cap (e.g. DE, UNP) - semis (AAPL, TSM, AMD, AVGO) - oil (DVN, CVX, CHRD, EOG, HES) - mRNA (Big Pharma) - Daimler
• I've never seen a crawler like the one I'm seeing today
• worst sector right now: utilities. SRE, one of my biggest holdings, only utility: up 1% today
• SRE for me is like KO for others; I haven't bought any new SRE in years, but dividends are such I can't "afford" to sell and its cost basis -- probably trending toward $0. 
  

So, this will be up for 30 minutes, then taken down.

The above is a snapshot in time.

Next week, the perfect storm may hit and I may be homeless, but today I'm feeling pretty good.

The CNBC "Fast Money" folks yesterday said they couldn't understand this market, why it was doing so well. I wonder what they will say today. Unfortunately I will miss the show today -- I will be with Sophia (Jiu-Jitsu competition today) and Olivia (high school soccer).

The Three-Day Workweek -- March 3, 2023

The 3-day week: wow, wow, wow. the fog is clearing. A new theme for 2023 will be posted.

Fifty percent of office workers are still working remotely and big corporations are having difficulty of getting their workers back to the office. At best it looked like they might get workers back four days each week, but now, two new data points:

• USAA: told its workers yesterday that they will be bac in the office three dahys iif they want ot keep their jobs;
  

• Huge commercial property owner (NYC area) declared bankruptcy yesterday; talk has shifted to "A" property and "B" property -- and now commercial property, to survive, is factoring in a three-day workweek.

Putting this all toogether: for office workers and where else possible, the US workweek will morph into a permanent three-day workweek, not the four-day workweek we all thought was the transition back to the five-day workweek. 

Odds And Ends -- March 3, 2023

The 3-day workweek: wow, wow, wow. the fog is clearing. A new theme for 2023 will be posted.

Fifty percent of office workers are still working remotely and big corporations are having difficulty of getting their workers back to the office. At best it looked like they might get workers back four days each week, but now, two new data points:

• USAA: told its workers yesterday that they will be bac in the office three dahys iif they want ot keep their jobs;
  

• Huge commercial property owner (NYC area) declared bankruptcy yesterday; talk has shifted to "A" property and "B" property -- and now commercial property, to survive, is factoring in a three-day workweek.

Putting this all toogether: for office workers and where else possible, the US workweek will morph into a permanent three-day workweek, not the four-day workweek we all thought was the transition back to the five-day workweek. 

Why did oil fall 2% this morning, when it was rising overnight and tea leaves suggested a good day for oil? From oilprcie.com:

WTI has since recovered a bit. 

GDPNow: down slightly from last reading --

Streaming wars: huge development. 

After years of investors thinking Disney would buy the rest of Hulu, the talk is shifting. Bob Iger himself has said he is re-considering, everything is on the table. Now, the talk is shifting. Disney might sell all of Hulu; Comcast may be interested. A new CEO needs to do something fast, and something big when it comes to the Disney situation. With the talk shifting, it's hard to not suggest that smoke is real, and there's a fire there.

Streaming wars tracked here.

Market today:

• CMCSA: up slightly; basically flat; lousy long-term investment past five years. A 3% dividend saved it from being a complete disaster.
• DIS: up a bit today but in a trading range; still below $100.

A Must-Read -- March 3, 2023

RBN Energy: drilling and completion set the stage for hydrocarbon production, part 4. Archived.

Oil and gas production in the Shale Era is a refined, controlled process — and a far cry from the early days of wildcatting a century ago. Modern drilling typically involves multiple wells on a single well pad, with each well going through a four-stage process to produce hydrocarbons that are then separated into distinct components. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how drilling-and-completion techniques have evolved over the years, from old-school vertical wells to the highly complex strategies targeting shale areas today, and how they set the stage for hydrocarbon production and recovery.

Uinta Basin: tracked here.

Cube development:

Four Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today -- March 3, 2023

CNBC this morning, two takeaways:

• for investors: happy days are here again; and,
• YOLO and FOMO back in play
  
• for conspiracy theorists: it's now accepted, Wuhan flu was a deliberate act of war

Peak oil? From oilprice.com:

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

Active rigs: 

Peter Zeihan newsletter.

WTI: $77.77.

Natural gas: $2.821.

Sunday, March 5, 2023: 24 for the month; 186 for the quarter, 186 for the year
39098, conf, CLR, Woodrow 6-32H,
38749, conf, Ovintiv, Sorenson Federal 153-96-9-4-5H,
38341, conf, Enerplus, Dropshot 149-92-31C-30,
36483, conf, WPX, Skunk Creek 12-7-8-16HA,
36482, conf, WPX, Skunk Creek 12-7-8-16H3,
23930 (no typo), conf, Hunt, Oakland 2-18-19H,

Saturday, March 4, 2023: 18 for the month; 180 for the quarter, 180 for the year
39099, conf, CLR, Woodrow 7-32H,
38748, conf, Ovintiv, Sorenson Federal 153-96-9-4-5H,
38616, conf, Hunt, Halliday 146-93-25-36H 4,
28847 (no typo), conf, Hunt, Oakland 2-7-6H,

Friday, March 3, 2023: 14 for the month; 176 for the quarter, 176 for the year
38959, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1603-3BH, 
38957, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1622-1BH, 
38615, conf, Hunt, Halliday 146-93-25-36H 3,
38342, conf, Enerplus, Grip 149-92-31C-30H,

RBN Energy: drilling and completion set the stage for hydrocarbon production, part 4. Archived.

Oil and gas production in the Shale Era is a refined, controlled process — and a far cry from the early days of wildcatting a century ago. Modern drilling typically involves multiple wells on a single well pad, with each well going through a four-stage process to produce hydrocarbons that are then separated into distinct components. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how drilling-and-completion techniques have evolved over the years, from old-school vertical wells to the highly complex strategies targeting shale areas today, and how they set the stage for hydrocarbon production and recovery.