The Interior Department said it’s moving forward with the first sales of public oil and gas onshore drilling leases under President Joe Biden. But they will dramatically increase royalty rates paid by producers and sharply drop the acreage available. The royalty rate for new leases will increase by more than 50%, the first such increase since the early 1900s. President Biden suspended new leasing just a week after taking office in January 2021. But, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered the sales to resume, saying Interior officials had offered no “rational explanation” for canceling them. The news agency Interfax reports Russian crude production is down more than seven percent, even as executives in Europe draft proposals to ban Russian crude. Yet another uprising in Libya forced that country to shut down production at its two largest oil fields. Analysts tell Reuters that crude-oil supplies are so tight, even minor disruptions are likely to have an outsized impact on prices. Crude prices surged on Monday with the benchmark contract in New York gaining more than two percent from the pre-holiday close. Light sweet crude for May delivery on the Nymex was fetching $109.34 per barrel at lunchtime Monday. Brent crude in London was trading over $114. Kansas crude prices rose nearly ten dollars a barrel in the last week. Kansas Common crude at CHS in McPherson starts this week at $97.25 [["ninety-seven twenty-five"]] per barrel. Baker Hughes reports a spike in active drilling rigs in Texas for the fourth week in a row. The national Rotary Rig Count increased by four rigs last week. In Texas the count was up two in the Permian Basin and up three in the Eagle Ford play in South Texas. Oklahoma gained one rig while New Mexico lost one. Regulators in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico okayed 904 permits for horizontal drilling last month, the highest tally ever. Analysts at Rystad Energy calls that a response to higher prices and said it foreshadows a spike in supplies starting early next year. The four-week average of 210 permits through April 3rd was also a record, according to a Bloomberg Report. So far this year, 108 Kansas operators have spudded 348 wells, an increase of more than 96% over a year ago. Independent Oil & Gas Service is scouting 365 wells currently in various stages of drilling and completion, up nearly 124% from last year. The Rig Count in Kansas is down one rig in the eastern half of the state and up two west of Wichita. Drilling was underway Friday on a lease in Barton County. Operators were about to spud two wells in Barton County and one in Ellis County.  The monthly tally of intent-to-drill notices posted on the Web site of the Kansas Corporation Commission reflects a dramatic increase in the pace of oil-and-gas drilling activity across the state. There are 169 new intents on file statewide through the end of March, bringing the first-quarter total to 389, compared to 213 through the end of March last year. There are 18 new notices on file in Barton County, four in Ellis County, three in Russell County and three in Stafford County. Most of the first-quarter totals are dramatically higher than last year. Barton County's three-month tally is 24 intents, compared to just two a year earlier. Ellis County has 15 new notices on file this year, up from two last year. Russell County has just three new intents, down from five at this time last year. Stafford County weighs in with nine new intents for the first quarter of 2022, compared to just three last year. Operators completed two wells in Ellis County and two in Stafford County last week, out of 34 new well completions statewide. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports32 of those are in Western Kansas, and just two in the eastern half of the state. The running total for this year is 467 newly-completed wells. Kansas operators received permits for 31 new drilling locations across the state last week, including two in Barton County. The Kansas Corporation Commission has approved 438 drilling permits for new locations so far this year. The Energy Information Administration reported US crude-oil inventories increased by nearly ten million barrels last week. As of April 8th, stockpiles totaled 421.8 million barrels, up 9.4 million barrels from the week before and about 13 percent below the five-year seasonal average. Gasoline stockpiles were down 3.6 million barrels and are about three percent below the five year average. The government reported a slight decrease in US crude-oil production last week. EIA reports output for the week through April 8th was down 50,000 barrels per day, at 11.848 million. US crude imports averaged six million barrels per day, down 305,000 barrels a day. Imports over the last four weeks are up nearly fiver percent from a year ago. Oil by rail in the US increased by 751 tanker carloads last week. The American Association of Railroads reports 9,319 tankers hauling petroleum for the week through April 9th. That's down more than 25% from the same week a year ago. Canadian traffic was up more than 500 carloads over the week before, an increase of more than 25% over a year ago.  National gasoline prices have dropped nearly twenty-three cents per gallon in the last month, but they remain over a dollar higher than a year ago. Locally motorists are paying 30-cents a gallon less than a month ago, but 40 cents more than they were last fall. The auto club Triple-A reports the national average pump prices for a gallon of regular on Monday was just over $4.08 per gallon, down three cents from a week ago and 19 cents a gallon less than a month ago.

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