Five New Permits Today; One Permit Renewed; Price Of Oil Plunging -- September 5, 2025

Locator: 49019B.

Friday, today, September 5, 2025:

WTI: $61.87.

Active rigs: 32. 

This Past Week

Friday, today, September 5, 2025:

• Five new permits:
• Operator: Phoenix Operating
• Field: Zahl, Williams County;
• Comments:
• Phoenix has permits for four M Johnson wells, NWSW 27-159-101; to be sited 1872 / 1992 FSL and 475 FWL.
   
• One permit renewed: also Phoenix Operating, but a permit for a SWD well.
  

Thursday, yesterday, September 4, 2025:

• Four new permits:
• Operator: Phoenix Operating
• Field: Zahl, Williams County;
• Comments: 
• Phoenix has permits for four Haefele wells, NWSW 34-159-101; 
• to be sited 2107 / 2227 FSL and 475 FWL.
  
• One permit canceled: #31315, SGOC, a permit for a Porcupine well, Dunn County;
  
• Eight permits renewed:
• Marathon (4):
• Enerplus (3):
• Silver Hill Energy (1):
  

Wednesday, earlier this week, September 3, 2025:

• Four new permits:
• Operator: Hunt Oil Company;
• Field: Ross, Mountrail County;
• Comments: 
• Hunt Oil has permits for four Palermo wells, SWSE 13-15-90; 
• to be sited 785 FSL and 1577 / 1667 FEL;
  
• Twelve permits renewed:
• Grayson Mill (4)
  
• XTO (2)
• Kraken (2)
  
• Enerplus (1)
  
• Oasis (1)
• Formentera Operations (1)
• Enerplus (1)
  

Tuesday, earlier this week, September 2, 2025:

• Four new permits:
• Operator: CLR;
• Field: Hardscrabble, Williams County;
• Comments:
• CLR has permtis for four Patch wells, NWE 11-153-102; 
• to be sited 360 FL and 1738 / 1834 FEL.
  

Alison Ritter -- Quick Connects -- September 5, 2025

Locator: 49018B.

• Controversial data center moves forward in eastern North Dakota -- North Dakota Monitor

• North Dakota data center buildout could prompt new power plants -- Bismarck Tribune

• Continental Resources lands two mile lateral in deeper Williston Basin -- Hart Energy

• State's Public Service Commission awarded over $300K for pipeline safety -- Kevin Cramer

• ND PSC holding public comment period for Basin Electric Power Co-op until October 3 -- The Beacon

• Hunt Oil notifies NDDEQ of 15,540 gallon crude oil spill 13 miles southeast of Stanley -- KX News

• US Supreme Court formally asked to review North Dakota redistricting dispute -- Bismarck Tribune

• Disaster declared for August severe storms that damaged utility infrastructure -- Office of the Governor

• North Dakota tribal nations become a model for promoting Native tourism -- North Dakota Monitor

• Gov. Armstrong asks Trump administration for help recovering from August storms -- North Dakota Monitor

• NDDOT to begin mowing operations along state highways in early to mid September -- NDDOT

• Former state lawmaker selected to fill vacancy in southeastern North Dakota -- North Dakota Monitor

• McKenzie County Commissioners clarify budget, address community concerns -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Twelve hot air balloon pilots to return to Medora from across US for 23rd annual rally -- Dickinson Press

• Dickinson weighs proposed one percent sales tax increase for public safety funding -- Dickinson Press

• Minot City Council rejects proposal to make wayfinding upgrades, scales back spending -- Minot Daily News

• Minot City Council swears in retired contractor Mike Hayes as newest member -- Minot Daily News

• Oil and gas quietly support nearly every aspect of our educational system -- Santa Fe New Mexican

• North Dakota State superintendent encourages students to apply for US Senate Youth Program -- KX News

• New lead teacher apprenticeship program to offer students more personalized help in classroom -- KX News

• Public schools and teachers play an essential role in sustaining our communities -- North Dakota Monitor

• Longtime Valley City lawmaker dies at 75, remembered for support of higher education -- Bismarck Tribune

• Energy secretary says rising electricity prices are what he worries most as US faces high bills -- The Hill

• California energy regulators halt efforts to penalize oil companies for high profits until 2030 -- PBS

• Trump administration announces plans for coal lease sales in Alabama, Montana and Utah -- Reuters

• Oil and gas group IPAA picks natural gas advocacy leader Edith Naegele as its new president -- E&E News

• USDA to no longer use taxpayer funding for solar panels on productive farms -- The Empowerment Alliance

• EIA report shows 10 Permian counties account for 93% of US oil production growth since 2020 -- World Oil

• Interior Secretary Burgum tells 'Pod Force One' Biden punished Alaska 'more than Iran' -- New York Post

• ConocoPhillips says it will lay off up to 25% of its workforce, impacting thousands of jobs -- AP News

• Crude production in Alberta, Canada's main oil-producing province, hit a record high in July -- Oil Price

• DC Appeals Court: EPA's Zeldin can stop $16B in "gold bars" earmarked for green groups -- Breitbart

• U.S. House committee probes major science group over potential partisan climate review -- Daily Caller

• DOE climate report triggers "settled science" tantrum from climate alarmist critics -- Irina Slav on Energy

• Despite record-breaking U.S. corn crop yields, biased AP reporting cries climate crisis -- Climate Realism

• Steve Milloy: Rescinding endangerment finding may be tougher than Trump admin thought -- Daily Caller

COP To Cut 25% (Or Perhaps More) Of Its Global Workforce -- September 5, 2025

Locator: 49017COP.

Updates

September 6, 2025: shortly after posting the original blog, this popped up, not a good look. Link here. Social media, via ChatGPT, suggests investors are getting antsy. Reminder, under CEO Lance, PSX has acquired Marathon Oil, Concho Resources, and Shell's assets in the Permian. With those acquisitions, PSX may yet prevail. A lot of good assets.

• Under Lance’s watch, unit costs have risen from $11 to $13 per barrel, and the company announced plans to cut 20%–25% of its workforce (about 2,600 to 3,250 people) to save $2 billion by 2026.

Original Post 

I cannot make sense of this. I can't explain it. ChatGPT is not helpful. But why is COP cutting 25% (or possibly even more) of its global workforce?

First thoughts:

• COP has way too many employees, even way more than its competitors, on a relative basis;
• COP sees the coming downturn in oil prices to be more severe than anyone else so far imagines;
• COP sees their own company's financial situation as more dire than how analysts see COP;
  
• COP is getting ready to reorganize; sell non-core assets;
• COP is getting ready to be acquired, making themselves more attractive to some other oil and gas operator (E&P, refiner) that wants to grow their own company, and do that by acquiring another fossil fuel company.
• a change in leadership often results in such changes, e.g., through reorganizations, but in this case, the current COP CEO has been in place since 2012.
  

None of those possibilities look good, except perhaps the "M&A" angle.

So, I don't know. But cutting one's workforce by 25% (or more) certainly got my attention.

TGIF -- September 5, 2025

Locator: 49016B.

The Fed: link here.

Jobs: it's official. Trump's own folks are telling him again -- the second consecutive month -- that US jobs are becoming an issue. Link here. Are we looking at a "50-basis point" cut this month? Again, JPow's legacy is riding on this.

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

WTI: $61.84.

New wells:

• Sunday, September 7, 2025: 12 for the month, 105 for the quarter, 545 for the year,
• 40813, conf, Enerplus, Fort Berthold 148-94-19D-18-9H,
• Saturday, September 6, 2025: 11 for the month, 104 for the quarter, 544 for the year, 
• 41076, conf, Hess, GO-Foss Fam TRST-156-97-2314H-5,
• 40812, conf, Enerplus, Fort berthold 148-94-19D-18-8H,
• 40577, conf, KODA Resources, Amber 1336-6BH,
• Friday, September 5, 2025: 8 for the month, 101 for the quarter, 541 for the year,
• 40503, conf, Hess, GO-Foss Fam TRST-156-97-2314H-4,
• 36719, conf, Enerplus, Fort Berthold 148-94-19C-18-6H,
• 36718, conf, Enerplus, Fort Berthold 148-94-19C-18-7H,

RBN Energy: US / Canadian energy market connections more critical than ever amid rapid changes.

North America is an integrated energy market so deeply connected that it functions as one massive, interdependent system for the three “drillbit hydrocarbons”: crude oil, natural gas and NGLs. But the rapid changes happening in the market now — driven not only by supply/demand dynamics and evolving infrastructure but also regulatory policies and political pressures — mean it’s more important than ever to talk about how the ongoing relationship between the U.S. and Canada will evolve and strengthen in the coming years. That was the focus of our School of Energy Canada and the subject of today’s RBN blog. Warning: Today’s blog includes some blatant plugs for a newly available replay of our recent conference in Calgary. 

Our theme for this year’s School of Energy was “Two Countries, One Market,” and we started Day 1 with a detailed look at crude oil fundamentals. The U.S. and Canada have each seen crude production increase sharply over the past 15 years. U.S. production (left side of Figure 1 below) has grown from less than 6 MMb/d in 2011 to more than 13 MMb/d this year, while Canadian production (right side) has risen from about 3 MMb/d to about 5.5 MMb/d today.

Figure 1. U.S. and Canadian Crude Oil Supply and Cross-Border Flows. Source: RBN

Despite the continuous rise in U.S. production, crude oil flows from the U.S. to Canada (top graph in middle section of Figure 1) haven’t changed all that much in the last few years. Most of the crude the U.S. sends to Canada comes via waterborne tanker from the U.S. Gulf Coast up to terminals in Montreal or New Brunswick. On the other hand, most of the growth in Canadian production has been in heavy-sour crude, which is well-suited for complex refineries in the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast, and those cross-border flows are up significantly from 2011 — doubling over the past 14 years (bottom middle graph).

t's a similar story for the natural gas and NGL markets, with surging production and largely stable cross-border flows making each country heavily dependent on the other. For the U.S. and Canada, the oil, gas and NGL markets are completely and inextricably intertwined, and rely on each other to help balance regional supply and demand, and what happens in one market will directly affect the other. The U.S. and Canada form a global powerhouse in energy markets that will continue to fuel prosperity in both nations.