Texas Railroad Commission Reports Rise in Drilling Permits for June '17

The Texas RRC released its drilling, completion, and permitting statistics for June this week.  Total new permits topped 1,200 for only the second time in years, with combo (oil+gas) and oil wells leading the charge.  Gas well permits were also up, but only represented 70 of the permits issued.

It's notable that new well completions still have not begun to follow the upward trend in permitting.  Whether that is tardy reporting, or maybe DUC count is rising, it suggests that unless many of these permits are being delayed or abandoned, we will eventually witness a surge in completions, and therefore production.

Gas new-drill completions reported in June were just 68, and oil completions were 446:

Western Hydropower Surplus Fading Quickly

The record snowfalls and subsequent runoff in the Pacific Northwest has led to massive electrical output this year, but the effect is wearing off suddenly and quickly.

In June, the surplus generation over 2016 was equivalent to about 1 BCFD of natural gas.  But June's average hydro output of 12.8 GW has fallen to 8.6 GW as of yesterday, and should generally decline further throughout the month.  

This should reduce exports to California, which would in turn increase thermal generation there.  Thermal output in CAISO has been badly lagging prior years up to now: