WTI Continues To Fall -- Despite Tariff Threats -- Promises Made, Promises Kept — March 5, 2025

Locator: 48462B.

Europe: green is dead. Must-read at Bloomberg.  Trump scores a two-fer: kills "green energy" and make Europe pay more for its own defense.

Cat and mouse: link here. 

The "chip connection: Taiwanese airline EVA Air announced it will add (introduce?) five nonstop flights to Dallas Fort Worth international airport this year (2025). 

• just some of the many new national and international flights that will added to DFW in 2025. Southwest Air is still considering moving from LUV to DFW. 
• Wright Amendment prevent that move until 2025
• the Wright Amendment expired in 2014, but a restriction on SWA' ability to expand at Love Field expires in 2025 (I don't think I've ever come across a more confusing Federal law)
  

• EVA air
• from DFW to Taiwan Taohuan International Airport
• non-stop: 7,718 miles

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $65.73. Promises made, promises kept -- President Trump.

New wells:

• Thursday, March 6, 2025: 17 for the month, 133 for the quarter, 133 for the year,
• 40204, conf, Hess, EN-Weyrauch A-LW-154-93-1719H-2,
• 39945, conf, Hunt Oil, Halliday 146-93-10-2H-1,
• 39834, conf, Hess, EN-Meiers-154-93-1324H-9,
• Wednesday, March 5, 2025: 14 for the month, 130 for the quarter, 130 for the year,
• 41017, conf, WGO Resources, Koon Harkins 1-35.
• 39978, conf, BR, Manchester 2E,
• 39944, conf, Koda Resources, Stout 2033-8BH,

RBN Energy: NYMEX leads the way on WTI futures contracts, but there's room for more.

The U.S. crude oil market has undergone a drastic shift since the Shale Revolution. After a quarter-century of declining production and increasing dependence on imported oil, the U.S. has become the world’s leading producer. This transformation turned the U.S. into a major exporter and a critical supplier to the international market and also led to an evolution in crude oil trading. In today’s RBN blog, the first in a series, we’ll explore the history of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contracts. 

Before the export market blossomed for U.S. crude oil in the late 2010s, most domestic production flowed through the important Midcontinent hub of Cushing, OK (see Give and Take). That location might seem odd on the surface for a global energy hub — the closest major cities are Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and the nearest refineries (HF Sinclair in Tulsa and Phillips 66 in Ponca City, OK) only account for about 325 Mb/d of demand. However, if you look a little deeper, you’ll see that Cushing has a rich history (see The Heart of the Matter), an astonishing 94 MMbbl of aboveground storage, and a long-standing role as a “trading post.”

The strong physical trading liquidity at Cushing attracted paper traders, allowing market participants to hedge their physical business and bet on the market via the WTI Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract (contract symbol: CL) on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). This contract, which launched more than 40 years ago, became important in the domestic market and internationally. In 2008, NYMEX was acquired by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which currently manages the CL contract. CL remains the world’s most liquid crude oil contract. While this contract was initially supplied with WTI directly from West Texas, it did not exclude crude oil that originated elsewhere but met the contract standards. (See Trading in the U.S.A.; more on this in the next blog in this series.)