• Oil prices slid at press time, building on last week’s steep losses, as rising Covid cases prompted fears of a demand slowdown. West Texas Intermediate crude futures declined 2.5% to trade at $66.60 per barrel. International benchmark Brent crude declined 2.2% to $69.15 per barrel.
• Mammoth Energy Services Inc. is seeing increased activity in the energy industry as commodity prices improve. “In our energy businesses, improved commodities pricing is generating some positive industry movement and increased equipment utilization as we are ramping up to put a second hydraulic fracturing fleet to work in mid-August,” Chief Executive Officer Arty Straehla said. “We are also beginning to experience increased market activity in our sand business.”
• U.S. tight oil operators have for several months been depleting their inventory of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) and, amid a slower drilling response, the number of “live” DUCs in the country’s major oil regions slumped to 2,381 wells in June 2021, the lowest level since 2013, a Rystad Energy analysis revealed. The total number of horizontal DUCs in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken, Niobrara and Anadarko regions combined fell to 4,510 wells by the end of June. That implies a reduction of 1,800 wells from the peak of 6,340 in June 2020 and an average depletion of 150 wells per month over the past 12 months. The last time the size of the inventory was at this level was in the second half of 2018.