Texas Tribune said it will sponsor a luncheon Wednesday, May 8, in Odessa with a theme of “West Texas: The State of Oil.” The Tribune said, “Oil and gas production in west Texas broke records last year. The Texas Oil and Gas Association reported that Texas supplied 42 percent of the nation’s oil in 2023 with most of it coming from the Permian Basin. How is this massive energy effort impacting local communities?” The luncheon will begin at noon, and the program (also offered online) will start at 12:30 p.m. at Saulsbury Campus Center at Odessa College. Registration is available on the Tribune w ..read more

U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday consumption of natural gas in U.S. reached a record 89.1 billion cubic feet per day in 2023. Since 2018 U.S. natural gas consumption has increased by an average of four percent each year. Monthly natural gas consumption set records every month from March 2023 through November 2023. U.S. natural gas consumption increased in the electric power sector as coal-fired, electric-generating capacity declined. Last year the largest monthly increases in natural gas consumed by the electric power sector were in July and August (by six percent compared w ..read more

After a record $192 billion in U.S. upstream consolidation last year, according to Enverus Intelligence Research, M&A activity in 2024Q1 appeared to be headed to another record with $51 billion in announced deals. But Enverus said it is “pumping the brakes on another record-setting year as deal activity slowed significantly in March, and Q2 appears to have already lost momentum.” Analyst Andrew Dittman said Tuesday, “Deals at the start of 2024 were driven by the same factors that led to last year’s marathon of mergers – foremost among them a desire to lock up high-quality inventory when it ..read more

Crude oil production in seven major regions of U.S. is forecast to be up by 16,000 barrels per day in May to 9.863 million barrels per day, according to the latest drilling productivity report from U.S. Energy Information Administration.  EIA expects production in Permian Basin to increase by 12,000 barrels per day in May to 6.167 million b/d after 6.155 million b/d in April.  Production is also expected to grow in Eagle Ford in south Texas (by 5,000 b/d to 1.164 million b/d) and Bakken. EIA said the May forecast of 6.167 million b/d in Permian would be the third highest monthly outp ..read more

U.S., Texas and Permian Basin added drilling rigs in the past week, according to the latest weekly report from Baker Hughes.  As of April 19, there were 619 rigs in U.S. (up 2 in past week, down 134 in past year), 296 in Texas (up 2 in past week, down 81 in past year) and 318 in Permian Basin (up 2 in past week, down 40 in past year).  Also, there were 108 rigs in New Mexico (down 1 in past week, up 3 in past year).  The gain in drilling rigs by U.S. broke a streak of four consecutive weeks of declines. In the Permian Basin, Eddy County, N.M., leads with 56 rigs (down 3 in past ..read more

How much does Permian Basin oilfield activity affect Basin aviation activity? It’s pretty much a direct, non-stop connection. According to Justine Ruff, director of airports at the Midland International Air and Space Port, “enplanements” are up exponentially right now. NicholasAir owns and operates its own fleet, employs its own pilots, and maintains an average aircraft age of only 5 years. An enplanement, per the definition she gave, is “a passenger getting on an airplane and flying out.” So, given this exponential increase, it’s clear that “oilfield traffic here is having a positive effect ..read more

U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its latest short-term energy outlook that it expects average Brent crude oil spot price will increase to $89 per barrel for 2024 after $82 per barrel in 2023.  Forecast average for 2024Q2 is $90 per barrel.  EIA said, “This increase reflects our expectation of strong global oil inventory draws during this quarter and ongoing geopolitical risks.” Average retail price for gasoline, according to EIA, is expected to be $3.60 per gallon for each of 2024 and 2025 – up from the previous forecasts March 12 of $3.50 per gallon for 2024 and $3.40 ..read more

Several analysts told The Telegraph last week they expect the price of a barrel of crude oil could reach $100 by June as Saudi Arabia extends supply cuts and geopolitical tensions continue to rise.  Bjarne Schieldrop of SEB Bank said, “Towards the end of second quarter, I think it’s natural to assume that we’ll see the price move towards the $100 mark… It’s a totally artificial price controlled by OPEC.  The big question is what OPEC will do in third quarter.” Others who forecast $100 oil included Callum Macpherson of Investec and Daan Struyven of Goldman Sachs, who told The Telegrap ..read more

Bureau of Land Management in U.S. Department of Interior issued new rules last week that will result in producers paying more to develop and produce crude oil and natural gas on federal lands.  Oil & Gas Journal said the rules for fluid mineral leases and leasing process are BLM’s first comprehensive updates to the federal onshore oil and gas leasing regulations since 1988, first update to minimum bonding levels since 1960, and first increase in royalty rates in more than 100 years.  Debra Haaland, secretary of the Interior and former U.S. representative from New Mexico, said Apr ..read more

Dusty Roach Welcome again to this month’s safety edition. It is indeed nice to write for this publication, in the sense of being able to have literary freedom in terms of discussing safety. While the government continues in its overreach to control everything, safety included, we still fortunately have freedom of speech. Our freedom of speech can be seen as a parallel to the stop work authority given to us at work by the government. The employee has the right and responsibility to stop any work that they deem dangerous at any time. Yes, I am aware that a previous article I wrote was about st ..read more