Tuesday Morning News And Links

Active rigs: 189

Wells coming off the confidential list have been posted.

RBN Energy: what becomes of empty pipelines -- markets for TransCanada's Mainline crude oil conversion.

The Energy East pipeline project proposes to convert part of the TransCanada Mainline natural gas system and add new pipeline in eastern Canada to connect oil receipts in Alberta with refineries in Ontario, Quebec and on the Atlantic seaboard. The proposal competes with existing plans by Enbridge to feed eastern Canadian refineries with light crude but does offer the prospect of supplying heavy crude for export from Canada’s East Coast. Today in Part 2 of a series on the project we review destination markets.

In Part 1 of this series (see What Becomes of the Empty Pipelines?) we described TransCanada’s plans to convert part of their massive Mainline natural gas pipeline to oil.

The Energy East Pipeline project would convert 1865 miles of existing natural gas pipeline and require construction of a further 870 miles of new pipeline to deliver oil from Hardisty Alberta and Saskatchewan as far East as St John, New Brunswick on the Eastern seaboard. If approved by Canadian regulators the pipeline will flow between 500 Mb/d and 850 Mb/d of heavy crude oil starting in 2017. The TransCanada open season on the project will end later this month on June 17, 2013.

If the Energy East pipeline gets built there should be no lack of crude production in Western Canada to be transported on it. 

Job watch. I happened to catch a snippet of CNBC this a.m. Two segments had to do with joblessness. The magic numbers for job creations remains 150,000 and 200,000. Below 150,000 will be a disaster; at 200,000 it will be pretty much ho-hum.

WSJ Links

Section D (Personal Journal):

• Marriage advice: sharing a hobby is good for your relationship

Section C (Money & Investing):

• Heard on the street: investors are losing their love affair for dividends.

Section B (Marketplace):

• The new world at Hess.

Section A:

• With energy so cheap (relatively) in the US, this is surprising (or concerning): US factories in May posted their worst month since the end of the recession.
• US oil boom scrambles Mideast calculus.
• Op-ed: ObamaCare is raising premiums in California and Oregon.