In North Dakota it is Mostly Just One County

North Dakota publishes crude oil production numbers for each county. The problem is these numbers do not include confidential wells. Their totals for all North Dakota do include these wells however. I have figured out a way to estimate, pretty closely I believe, each county’s share of those unreported wells. That is take each county’s percentage of total production, then assume they would have the same percentage of confidential wells. It is not exact but close enough.

North Dakota Total

The data is published only as a PDF file and cannot be copied and pasted. Therefore I must input the data for each of 18 counties, each month, manually. That is very time consuming and I only had the patience to do 15 months. But that is plenty for what I am trying to show.

ND by County

All the rest of North Dakota combined produces less than the lowest of the big four.
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A Look At OPEC Plus US States January Production Numbers

News Bulletin: Caught this on The Motley Fool:

Is Chesapeake’s Reduced Oil Production Growth Forecast Really That Bad?
But the company recently said that its crude oil production growth will slow dramatically this year — an announcement that clearly disappointed investors, judging by the immediate negative impact on Chesapeake’s share price. But is the guidance really that big of a deal?

I couldn’t find anything else about this story. Chesapeake doesn’t have anything in the Bakken but they are big in Eagle Ford. They drilled eight Bakken wells and they were all duds so they pulled out. But is this something that is happening to other Eagle Ford producers? 

The notion persist that OPEC has millions of barrels per day of spare capacity and could increase production if only they desired to do so. Many, in fact most people, really believe that all 12 OPEC nations are operating as a cartel and that perhaps all OPEC nations could increase production if they got the word. I think that idea is absurd and only the truly naive and those who know virtually nothing about the history and ability of OPEC could possibly believe such nonsense. And OPEC has done nothing to squash that idea.

OPEC Upstream Spare Capacity
Spare OPEC crude oil capacity is set to stabilize at around 8 mb/d over the medium-term, rising from an average level of around 4 mb/d in 2011. 

2011 was the year of the Libyan Revolution. At the beginning of that year three countries, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, combined, did have about 1.6 mb/d of spare capacity. The other eight OPEC countries had none. And by January 2012 all 12 OPEC were producing flat out, in my opinion anyway.
However not everyone believe that OPEC has that much spare capacity.

US oil boom may cushion any Venezuelan supply shock CNBC
“A geo-political risk premium in crude oil prices related to Venezuela is likely non-existent at present,” said UBS commodity strategists Giovanni Staunovo and Dominic Schnider in an email to CNBC on Saturday. “This could change at any time considering OPEC’s spare capacity is between 2.5 and 3.0 million barrels a day and Venezuela produced 2.5 million barrels a day in January. A loss of a large share of this capacity would not pass crude oil prices unnoticed.”

Commodities Now
Using IEA figures for 2013, OECD Europe imported 3.05 Mb/d of crude oil from Russia, or 36% of their net crude oil imports. When refined products, NGLs, and other feedstocks are included, total net oil imports rose to 4.33 Mb/d, or 44%, of OECD Europe’s net oil imports. These volumes far exceed Saudi/OPEC spare capacity of less than 2 Mb/d.

I found many statements on the web talking about how the markets get jittery when spare capacity gets too low and when it gets high they settle down. My question is: <b>How do they know?</b> So let me show you some production charts and see what you think.

EDIT: To those who believe Saudi has spare capacity I would just like to point out that Sadad Al Husseini, a former executive at Saudi Aramco, disagrees with you.
“This is strictly, totally business,” said Sadad Al Husseini, a former executive at Saudi Aramco, the state oil company.
Saudi production is flat out. Where you send it is a matter of where you make the best profit.”

OPEC 8X

The above eight OPEC countries are clearly in decline. the two vertical lines mark the actual cut in production by OPEC responding to the price collapse in late 2008. One year later all eight nations were producing flat out again. The slanted line shows the actual decline in production for these eight OPEC countries. The end of the line marks the “approximate” spot where their production would be except for the Iran sanctions and the Libyan political problems.

One of those eight, Shell Vice President says that Nigeria, is is steep decline.
Nigeria’s Crude Oil Production Decline Rates Pegged at 20 Per Cent

The Vice President of Shell Upstream International, Mr. Markus Droll has said that decline rates in crude oil production within Nigeria’s hydrocarbon industry can be as high as 15 to 20 per cent.

Droll also said that replacing such natural production decline rates in the industry requires more funds than is currently available and that the peculiar high cost operational environment of Nigeria has further compounded the situation.

Iraq, Kuwait, UAE

Here are the other OPEC countries with the exception of Saudi Arabia. Iraq has advertised the fact that they want to produce 12 mb/d but they are a long way from that number. But there is no question that they are producing every barrel possible.

Kuwait and the UAW did cut production after the collapse of 2008. And unlike the other eight, they both, along with Saudi Arabia kept those cuts through 2010. Then when the Libyan revolution hit in 2011 they all began to ramp up production as much and as fast as they could. And by 2012 every OPEC nation was again producing flat out.

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Update: North Dakota Bakken Data

North Dakota published their monthly report on Bakken Production and All North Dakota Prouction. Nothing to get excited about. Bakken production was up 28,285 barrels per day while all north Dakota was up 27,864 barrels per day. This means that North Dakota production outside the Bakken was down 421 bp/d.

The Director’s Cut comments on the price they are getting for Bakken Oil:

Oct Sweet Crude Price = $85.16/barrel
Nov Sweet Crude Price = $71.42/barrel
Dec Sweet Crude Price = $73.47/barrel
Today Sweet Crude Price = $71.25/barrel (all-time high was $136.29 7/3/2008)

Interesting that they are selling their oil at about a $21 discount to WTI about a $35 discount to Brent. More of the Director’s comments:

The drilling rig count was unchanged from Oct to Nov, but the number of well
completions dropped from 166 to 138. Days from spud to initial production remained
steady at 114. Investors remain concerned about the uncertainty surrounding federal
policies on taxation and hydraulic fracturing regulation. 

We estimate that at the end of Nov there were about 510 wells waiting on completion
services, an increase of 50.

This plot is “Bakken Additional Wells” and the 12 month trailing average. As you can see the average for the last 15 months or so has been pretty flat, around 150 additional wells per month.

Bakken Additional Wells

 

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