Friday, August 7, 2015

Ledecky wins the 200 meter freestyle: link here.  This video might be slow to load. If possible, open it in another window, let it run, and then come back to it in a few minutes so you can watch it uninterrupted. I think the announcer may have had to change his underwear at the end of this race.

Refineries running all-out. I don't know about you, but I find this quite exciting --

Some points to consider:

• have the refiners cracked the code? The US bans crude oil exports (with minor exceptions) but does not ban export of refined products
• refiners produce much more than just gasoline
• the record was previously set in 2014 (last year)
• the record is being broken this year -- by a lot

If refineries are running at record capacities, with really low price of oil / gasoline, how are gasoline stocks doing in the US? From a Jack Kemp posting, August 10, 2015:

Tesoro raises dividend significantly: from 42.5 cents to 50 cents/share. 

Active rigs in the Bakken:

	8/7/2015	08/07/2014	08/07/2013	08/07/2012	08/07/2011
Active Rigs	73	192	181	199	184

RBN Energy: update on Houston midstream. Archived.

Crude oil distribution to Houston area refineries is still being re-plumbed to reflect the ongoing transition to domestic supply. Estimates of current crude pipeline flows indicate as little as 43% of inbound pipeline capacity is being used - but new projects could add over 1 MMb/d to inbound supplies by early next year.

Today we start a new series reviewing how well crude infrastructure is meeting Houston area logistic challenges.

About a year ago we posted an in-depth series covering the Houston refining region with an emphasis on crude storage. Since then a lot has changed in the oil market in the wake of the crude price crash, the subsequent pull back in drilling, and changing production forecasts. For one thing - new midstream infrastructure project announcements are less frequent than they used to be because of lower future crude production expectations. But even though many large crude oil pipelines planned during booming production from 2012 to 2014 have now come online – a number of infrastructure challenges have yet to be resolved. Last year’s drop in crude prices caused a huge build up in crude inventories because of the contango market (where future prices are higher than today – incentivizing storage).

That prompted market concerns about whether storage space would run out. And although the build out of pipelines to the Gulf Coast from nearby basins such as the Permian and the Eagle Ford has been relatively smooth – that has not been the case for crude travelling from Western Canada or North Dakota. Along the Gulf Coast the movement of crude from west to east has also been far from smooth with a lot of barge and tanker traffic required to bypass pipeline congestion. Growing exports of processed condensate also pose a challenge for the distribution system because they have to be segregated en-route to marine docks. We start this series by revisiting the crude supply/demand balance in the Houston area.