The Dark Side of the Oil Shale Bust - The bust is leaving towns like Williston, North Dakota stretched extremely thin as it tries to deal with the aftermath. Williston is coping with $300 million in debt after having leveraged itself to buildup infrastructure to deal with the swelling of people and equipment heading for the oil patch. Roads, schools, housing, water-treatment plants and more all cost the city a lot of money, expected to be paid off with revenues from oil production that are suddenly not flowing into local and state coffers the way they once were. But North Dakota was experiencing a lot of the negative side effects of an oil boom even before prices crashed. The massive increase in drilling brought a huge wave of cash and people to once sleepy towns, fueling a boom not only in oil, but also in violent crime, prostitution, and drug trafficking. - OilPrice - 6/16/15

Offshore drilling rig count rises - The US offshore drilling rig count continues to move the opposite direction from the onshore rig count. This past week the offshore rig count rose two to reach 29 while the onshore count fell nine to 859. Both counts, however, are down from the same time a year ago when the offshore rig count was 59 and the onshore count was 2,849. - Offshore - 6/15/15

Indonesia to rejoin OPEC in move to secure oil supplies - Indonesia's energy ministry said the country will rejoin the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries this year to forge a closer relationship with oil suppliers. Indonesia will reactivate its membership in November after all OPEC members approved its application to rejoin the oil cartel. The Southeast Asian country left the group in 2008 after nearly five decades of being the only Asian member amid declining oil reserves and investment. The country joined OPEC two years after it was founded in 1960. - PennEnergy - 6/12/15

IEA: Global oil demand rising on economic recovery, lower oil prices - According to the International Energy Agency, global oil demand averaged 93.3 MMB/D in this year’s first half, up 1.6 MMB/D on the year and 400 MB/D above the previous estimate. Global demand for the whole year is forecast to average 94 MMB/D, 1.4 MMB/D up on the year and 300 MB/D higher than the previous report. Global oil production fell 155 MB/D in May to 96 MMB/D as a small increase in production from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was more than offset by lower production from non-OPEC nations. The estimate of US oil production was raised 90 MB/D for fourth-quarter 2014 and more than 200 MB/D for this year’s first quarter, based on latest data from the US Energy Information Administration. Sharp cuts in drilling rates are nevertheless starting to curb supplies. In all, US oil production is expected to average 12.7 MMB/D in 2015, up 800 MB/D from year ago. - Oil & Gas Journal - 6/11/15

BP: US surpassing Saudis in oil output among world’s ‘tectonic’ energy shifts in 2014 - According to BP's latest Statistical Review of World Energy, US oil production has passed Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest oil producer and surpassing Russia as the world’s largest producer of both oil and gas. Last year the US recorded the largest oil output growth in the world at 1.6 MMBPD, becoming the first country ever to increase production by at least 1 MMBPD for 3 consecutive years. Oil production in Canada, up 310, MBPD, and Brazil, up 230  MBPD, also reached record levels in 2014. While production outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries increased 2.1 MMBPD,  OPEC output was flat and the group’s share of global production fell to 41%, its lowest since 2003. Global oil production growth was more than double that of global consumption, rising 2.1 million b/d or 2.3%. - Oil & Gas Journal - 6/10/15

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