(Petrolytics) - As expected, it's a slow news day heading into the long weekend. While the post this morning will be brief, we wanted to leave you all with a little food-for-thought.

The headline plots illustrate US crude oil production on a per field basis and current US rig counts compared to 2019. We like to take inventory of simple visualizations to keep our bearings. Obviously, rig counts are down, production is down, and spending is down. What's critical to note, however, is gas rigs as a fraction of total rigs is increasing.

What are the implications of sustained gas production (and development) in a world of decreasing oil production (and development)? This is especially relevant given the associated gas production and flaring in the Permian, for example. Will we see gas wells shut-in if it's too expensive to off-load condensate? Oh, how the tables have turned.

Questions to ponder for the weekend (if you're bored).

In any case, a few short articles and then it's off to celebrate the 4th - whatever that looks like nowadays.

1. Bloomberg Opinion on lockdowns - Tyler Cowen
2. WSJ piece on E&P trend toward a greener future (apologies for the WSJ paywall)
3. Do asset write-offs even matter?

Hope all y'all have a great weekend. Happy 4th of July. Stay safe.