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Texas Oil and Gas Production for April

The preliminary Texas RRC Production Data is out this morning. There appears to be a considerable drop in Texas crude oil production in April. All Texas RRC data in the charts below is through April 2015 and all EIA data is through March 2015. For those new to this site, the Texas RRC data is incomplete. The drooping lines will eventually, after the final data comes in, closer resemble the EIA data. Though I believe the EIA data is quite a bit too high at this point. Texas C+C It appears that, when the final data comes in that Texas will have took a huge hit in January, recovered somewhat in February and March, then took another hit this past April. Dean C+C Dr. Dean Fantazzini, with his algorithm that calculates the final production numbers, also comes to the conclusion that Texas took a hit in April production. Dean […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BHI: Down just 2, US rig count posts smallest decline of 28-week slide

Posting its smallest decline of the now 28 consecutive weeks of losses, the US drilling rig count dropped just 2 units during the week ended June 19 to settle at 857 rigs working, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc. The decline over the past 6 weeks has averaged a hair more than 6 rigs/week compared with double-digit and near triple-digit declines over the previous 22 weeks. The count has now lost 1,063 units since the week ended Dec. 5 and is down 1,001 year-over-year ( OGJ Online, Dec. 5, 2014 ). In an energy update released this week, analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. noted that 853 well permits were issued last week, down 12 from the prior week, decreasing the 4-week average by 15 to 844. RJA tracks permitting activity as a primary indicator of rig count activity. “In the context of regular swings in permit […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. oil rigs decline, but up in Permian, Bakken: Baker Hughes

U.S. oil drillers this week added one rig each in the Permian and Bakken shale basins, data showed on Friday, another sign that higher crude prices are coaxing producers back to the well pad after a six-month slump in activity. Overall, drillers reduced the number of rigs by four this week, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. It was the 28th straight weekly decline and brought the total rig count down to 631, the lowest since August 2010. The number of oil rigs in the Permian, the nation’s biggest shale oil field located in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, climbed to 232 this week, up one from the lowest level in at least four years last week, according to Baker Hughes data going back to 2011. Drillers also added one rig in the Williston section of the Bakken formation centered in North […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WoodMac: Western Canadian liquids production on upward trajectory starting in 2016

Wood Mackenzie Ltd. believes the economics of core areas within shale plays in western Canada will yield comparable returns to key producing plays in the US Lower 48. “Our western Canadian liquids production forecast is underpinned by an increasing commodity price environment and growing demand for oil sands diluent. We anticipate an upward trajectory in volumes beginning in 2016 and peaking in 2021 with the Montney, Duvernay, and Cardium formations driving volumes,” said Peter Argiris, WoodMac upstream analyst in Calgary. While WoodMac’s liquids growth outlook remains positive, there is a potential downside to the forecast. “One factor that is currently front of mind is the supply-infrastructure constraints from the lighter end of the NGL stream,” Argiris said. “Propane supply is at historic levels and we have seen material price declines as a result. How this affects the remaining NGL stream (apart from diluent) from a pricing-infrastructure capacity perspective could […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Big Trucks Face New Standards on Fuel Efficiency

WASHINGTON—The government on Friday proposed new carbon-emissions standards for big trucks as part of President Barack Obama ’s broad climate-change agenda, a move many in the trucking industry cautiously support as a way to save money on fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department jointly announced draft standards for big vehicles ranging from garbage trucks to 18-wheelers, as well as from vans and buses to heavy-duty pickup trucks. “In 2014, trucking spent nearly $150 billion on diesel fuel alone,” said Glen Kedzie, a vice president of the American Trucking Associations. “So the potential for real cost savings and associated environmental benefits of this rule are there.” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy The administration is proposing two broad categories of standards for big trucks: one for the load-pulling tractor unit of large so-called semitrailers and one for the trailer it hauls. The tractor standard will require that a truck […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BP to Pay Rosneft $750 Million for Part of Siberian Oilfield

BP Plc will pay OAO Rosneft $750 million for a stake in an East Siberian oil producer, following Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s plans to expand a natural gas export project in Russia. BP will take a 20 percent stake in Taas-Yuriakh Neftegazodobycha LLC in Russia’s Far East, according to statements from Rosneft and BP. The companies will also jointly explore areas in Siberia and, if successful, form a venture with Rosneft holding 51 percent. Holdings in their German refineries will be reorganized as well, the partners said. Europe’s two biggest oil companies are looking for increased access to Russia’s vast energy reserves and their proximity to the markets of China and Japan even as the world’s second-biggest oil and gas producing nation seeks to maintain sales to Europe in the face of U.S.-led sanctions. BP reset its Russia strategy two years ago when it swapped its half in TNK-BP […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russian fury at Belgium asset seizure in Yukos oil case

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partners sued the Russian state after Yukos was broken up Russia has protested to the Belgian ambassador over the seizure of Russian state assets in Belgium – a move triggered by a court ruling over the now-defunct Yukos oil firm. The ambassador was told that the asset seizure was "an openly hostile act" that "crudely violates the recognised norms of international law". Last year a court told Russia to pay Yukos shareholders $50bn (£32bn) in compensation, after Yukos’s break-up. A Russian state firm took over Yukos. Last July an international arbitration court in The Hague said Russian officials had manipulated the legal system to bankrupt Yukos, and jail its boss, the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Wider seizures France has also seized Russian state accounts in about 40 banks, along with eight or nine buildings, AFP news agency reports. And a legal application has also been filed […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China to Design New Russian High-Speed Railway

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—China has signed up to design a high-speed railway between the Russian cities of Moscow and Kazan, one of the first concrete examples of the new business with China that Russian officials have been pursuing with renewed vigor since falling out with the West. A unit of Russia’s state-owned JSC Russian Railways signed a contract Thursday with the design unit of China’s state-controlled China Railway Group 601390 -9.92 % to come up with the plans for a 770 kilometer high-speed rail between the two Russian cities. The Chinese firm will work alongside two Russian companies for on the designs for a total cost of 20.8 billion rubles ($383 million) over the next two years, according to Russian Railways. Once the designs are developed, a separate tender will be held for the actual construction of the rail link, which Russian Railways expects to cost 1.06 trillion rubles ($19.5 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EU Says Existing Gas Pipelines From Russia More Than Enough

LUXEMBOURG—Existing gas pipelines from Russia already more than meet the European Union’s existing and future needs, the European Commission said Friday, a day after OAO Gazprom OGZPY -1.82 % and several Western energy companies said they would double the capacity of a pipeline to Germany. The tentative agreement with Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.17 % PLC, Germany’s E. ON AG EONGY -2.24 % and Austria’s OMV AG OMVKY 2.10 % would allow Gazprom to ship an extra 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe every year through the Nord Stream pipeline via the Baltic Sea and forms another attempt by Moscow to avoid Ukraine as a transit route. The EU currently imports about one third of its gas from Russia, with almost half of that coming through Ukraine. Moscow has been working to reduce its dependence on Ukraine as a transit country , arguing that Kiev, with which […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BP, Rosneft Sign Production, Exploration, Refining Pacts

Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin, Russia’s most powerful oil official, signed a raft of deals Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, including further production, exploration and refining agreements with BP. They come a day after another Russian energy company affected by sanctions, OAO Gazprom , OGZPY -1.82 % inked a preliminary deal with three European firms, including Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.17 % PLC, to expand a pipeline to Germany. U.S. and European sanctions over Russia’s interventions in Ukraine prevent Rosneft from raising credit in the West or accessing Western technology for tapping shale and arctic reserves, but don’t prevent asset sales and purchases. The U.S. has also imposed personal restrictions on Mr. Sechin. The deals announced on Friday cement the strategic alliance between Rosneft and BP, which owns a nearly 20% stake in the Russian company. BP is taking a 20% stake in Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple