We Start The Day With 31 Active Rigs In North Dakota -- June 28, 2016; US Ethane Export To Asia, Latin America About To Pop -- RBN Energy

US Olympic Swimming Trials (or as some call it, the "Katie Ledecky Show"):

• at SwimSwam
• dash / schedule / results

Active rigs:

	6/28/2016	06/28/2015	06/28/2014	06/28/2013	06/28/2012
Active Rigs	31	75	191	189	216

RBN Energy: US ethane exports to Asia, Latin America about to pop. Archived.

Canadian ethylene plants have been receiving U.S.-sourced ethane by pipeline for two and a half years now, and waterborne ethane exports from Marcus Hook, PA to Norway started earlier in 2016. Soon the real fun will begin, when Enterprise Products Partners initiates (and quickly ramps up) ethane exports from a new, 200 Mb/d terminal on the Houston Ship Channel at Morgan’s Point.  The destinations of the ships leaving Morgan’s Point are likely to be places like India, Brazil, Europe, and maybe even Mexico.  Today, we consider the imminent bump-up in U.S. ethane export capacity, the international markets ethane will be headed to in the near-term, and the longer-term question about how much ethane exports can grow.

Just a few years ago, before the Shale Revolution, the thought that sometime soon the U.S. would be piping significant volumes of ethane to Canada and floating ship after refrigerated ship of the lightest natural gas liquid (NGL) to European ethylene plants (steam crackers) would be dismissed as nothing short of crazy. But here we are.  

Ethane exports to Canada via the Mariner West and Vantage pipelines ramped up from zero in 2013 to average 38 Mb/d in 2014, 65 Mb/d in 2015 and almost 80 Mb/d so far this year.  Oceangoing ethane exports started on March 9 of this year when the JS Ineos Intrepid departed Marcus Hook with 175 Mbbl of ethane headed for INEOS’s cracker at Rafnes, Norway.  Since then about 16 Mb/d of ethane has moved out of Marcus Hook, with 22 Mb/d exported in May.

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Walmart Wins Food Stamp Debate?

From The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. regulators are pushing stricter rules for stores that accept food stamps, ultimately determining which retailers win and lose the billions of taxpayer dollars at stake.

The proposal is throwing gas stations and corner stores into a battle with giants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kroger Co. over the $74 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

By year end, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to adopt rules that require stores redeeming food stamps to stock a wider variety of meats and vegetables and sell fewer hot meals, like pizza.

At a time when sales growth is hard to come by, redeeming food stamps is critical for grocers. Last year, SNAP funds comprised an average of 5.8% of sales at participating stores.

Big supermarket chains like Wal-Mart already happen to meet the tougher requirements because of their breadth of inventory.

But some 195,000 smaller stores would have to add as many as 168 items to their shelves—a move they say would be costly and unprofitable, given their limited shelf space and spoilage issues for fresh food.