Allegheny County, PA — When Olympus Energy began work on its Midas 6M well in Plum Borough earlier this year, it didn’t plan on a record-breaking lateral length. But that’s exactly what the Canonsburg-based driller accomplished.

The privately-held Olympus Energy — the 10th-largest natural gas producer in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to the 2020 Pittsburgh Business Times Book of Lists — completed the Midas 6M with a lateral length of 20,060 feet. That’s a record in the Marcellus Shale among completed and producing wells, according to Olympus Energy and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection data.

That’s about 4 miles in length.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/business/olympus-energy-completes-record-breaking-natural-gas-well/ANQUQQBNUFG3BBZ6XXEWBF7C44/

Written by Valerie Jones at Rigzone

The U.S. could see its crude oil exports nearly double by 2022, according to energy research firm Rystad Energy. Rystad forecasts that U.S. crude exports could increase from current levels of 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd) to nearly six million bpd by 2022. This is based off the nation’s expected production increase of 1.2 million bpd year-over-year in 2020 and domestic refineries at capacity to absorb shale growth.

“Crude exports will grow on the back of new infrastructure coming online in Corpus Christi, Texas, and as international crude buyers ramp up efforts to diversify their import sources after the attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and overall rising tensions in the Middle East,” said Paola Rodriguez-Masiu, a senior analyst on Rystad’s oil market team.

Rystad also noted the recent slowdown of U.S. crude exports in third quarter of 2019, due in part to the narrowing of the Brent-WTI price spread and effects from the five percent tariff imposed on U.S. crude by China. Despite that slowdown, Rystad expects an export rebound to 3.7 million bpd in fourth quarter 2019 before climbing to even higher levels.

“This surge in crude shipments from the U.S. will be made possible by a flurry of new pipeline and export terminal infrastructure coming online in the coming years,” Rodriguez-Masiu said.

By Bloomberg, November 18, 2019

(Bloomberg) — Oil dropped for a second day on indications American crude stockpiles and shale output will keep expanding, while investors wait for a breakthrough in U.S.-China trade talks. Futures declined as much as 0.6% in New York after falling 1.2% on Monday, the most since Nov. 6. U.S. inventories probably rose by 1.5 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before government data on Wednesday, while shale output at major fields is expected to increase next month.

Global markets are in a holding pattern, sensitive to any developments on trade after months of closely followed negotiations. The ebb and flow of trade talks between Washington and Beijing has weighed on oil prices, which have fallen around 14% from an April peak. While negotiators held “constructive discussions” over the weekend, CNBC reported Monday that China is pessimistic about a deal due to President Donald Trump’s reluctance to roll back existing tariffs. The market is “still very vulnerable to headline risk around the trade dispute, whether positive or negative,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. Oil prices will remain under pressure while the market waits for an agreement on trade, he said. West Texas Intermediate for December delivery fell 30 cents, or 0.5%, to $56.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:06 a.m. in London. The contract slid 1.2% to settle at $57.05 on Monday, dropping from the highest close in almost eight weeks. The front-month contract will expire Wednesday. Brent for January settlement slipped 19 cents to $62.25 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange. The contract lost 1.4% to close at $62.44 on Monday. The global benchmark crude traded at a $5.42 premium to WTI for the same month.

U.S. crude stockpiles are at the highest level in four months. If official government data confirms the forecast increase in inventories, it would be the fourth weekly advance.

Output at major American shale fields will climb by 49,000 barrels a day to 9.13 million barrels a day in December, according to a drilling report from the Energy Information Administration.

Word that the White House would extend a license to allow U.S. companies to do business with Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Co. competed with reports suggested Beijing was skeptical about reaching a broad trade deal anytime soon. Economic expansion in Japan and China is floundering, while Germany barely dodged a recession, according to data released last week, as trade conflicts took a toll.