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Friday, April 22, 2011

Two New Natural Gas Plants to Come On-Line Soon -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Two new natural gas processing plants soon to open:
  • Saddle Butte Pipeline LLC gas plant, seven miles south of Watford City, ND; on-line May, 2011
  • Hilland Partners LP gas plant, near Cartwright, ND; on-line 4Q11
Saddle Butte/Watford City plant
  • Phase I capacity: 25 million cubic feet per day
  • Phase II expansion: an additional 35 million cfd --> 60 million cfd total
Hiland Partners/Cartwright plant
  • Phase I capacity: 30 million cfd
  • Phase II expansion: an additional 55 million cfd --> 85 million cfd total
North Dakota currently produces about 350 million cfd of natural gas. With these two new plants and others in the region one would think that "we" are getting close to processing much (most?) of the natural gas being produced in the Bakken, except for the issue of pipeline infrastructure. 

Link here. Regional links break early and break often.

RV Parks Beginning To Fill Up -- Bakken, Williston Oil Basin, North Dakota

Link here. Regional links break early and break often.

Williams County will enforce rules that one cannot "live" in county parks.

Long-term RV parks are beginning to fill up.

Another Rate Increase For Utility With Wind Energy Exposure

Link here.
The Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative on Friday approved a wholesale rate increase for its co-op members.
The board approved a 4.5 percent increase, effective this month. The increase comes four months after a 4.5 percent increase in December.
More electricity, less demand, and "we" still gotta pay off those pesky wind turbines.
Spring runoff is happening a little sooner than usual, producing more hydropower in the Columbia Basin, there is more wind power in the market and the demand for power is flat, he said. All of which is driving down the short-term price of electricity.

The wholesale price increase is needed for Southern to balance its revenues with expenses in a fluctuating market.
It would have been interesting for the writer to go a bit more into the "expenses." One can guess where additional expenses are originating.

This was predicted a few days ago in a story regarding same circumstances affecting BPA.

Well, Which Is It? Too Much Oil or Not Enough

After just reporting that it slashed production by 800,000 bopd in March, 2011, because the world is well-supplied with oil, Saudi Arabia now says it needs to pump more oil to meet global demand.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia needs to pump at least 9 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude for the next few years and is considering boosting capacity to meet rising demand, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) said in a report citing Saudi sources this week.
By the way, if one reads the 1Q11 Schlumberger earnings conference call closely, the following quote from the linked article is very, very interesting (in light of what Schlumberger said in the conference call):
Saudi Arabia plans to bring in more rigs this year as it moves ahead with Moneefa, boosting rigs at its disposal by over a quarter.
Repeat, in case you missed it: "... boosting rigs by over a quarter."

"Demand Destruction?" What Demand Destruction?

Link here.
Despite steadily rising fuel prices in this year’s first quarter, deliveries of crude oil and petroleum products were up sharply from a year ago, according to the latest data from API.

In its monthly statistics report, API reported that total US first-quarter oil deliveries, a measure of demand, climbed by 5.5% from the 2010 first quarter. March deliveries surged by 7.3% to 20.5 million b/d from a year earlier.
I was going to do a stand-alone post on this subject; was thinking about it all day while out and about.

This article provides a good starting point -- if I find time to get around to it. For now, the article stands alone.

Kuwaiti Analysis of Global Oil and Gasoline Prices

This is a very interesting article. I am catching up on a lot of news, having been gone all day, so I will link the article now, and comment on it later, if I remember.

But it is a very interesting article.

Two data points from the article:
  • ... [P]rotests and unrest in Libya, as well as in Bahrain, have led to high oil prices, but that the crisis in Japan has created some price balance due to its reduced consumption of oil
  • However, the prices of oil and gas products, especially auto fuel, will skyrocket due to the stoppage of several world oil refineries for maintenance ...
The first point is counter-intuitive.

The second point is scary. I'm sure the US Attorney General will look very closely into the timing of refinery maintenance. Of course, the EPA and OSHA require on-going maintenance, certainly in light of last year's Gulf spill. The American Bar Association is probably watching all aspects very, very closely.

Predictions of Energy Requirements in China Raised Significantly

Link here.
China’s top energy industry regulator raised its forecast for the nation’s electricity demand in 2011 because of faster-than-estimated economic growth.

The country’s power use may increase as much as 12 percent to 4.69 trillion kilowatt-hours this year following a “good start” in economic expansion, the National Energy Administration said in a statement today. That compares with the 9 percent growth forecast made by the agency in January.
This is a huge story on many levels. Just four months ago, China predicted a 9 percent growth forecast; now that forecast has been raised 30 percent.

That is not trivial. 

We've Been Calling Them Coal-Powered Cars From the Beginning -- Now Even the Environmentalists Are Calling Them What They Are

Updates

June 19, 2011: Green vehicles will create a significant amount of carbon over the lifetime of the vehicle compared to conventional automobile.
A typical medium sized family car will create around 24 tonnes of CO2 during its life cycle, while an electric vehicle (EV) will produce around 18 tonnes over its life. For a battery EV, 46% of its total carbon footprint is generated at the factory, before it has travelled a single mile.

Original Post
Yahoo!News story here.

OilPrice.com story here.

I remember all the grief I got when I first referred to them as coal-powered cars -- now, it's mainstream.

Thank you Yahoo!News and and OilPrice.com.

Thank goodness for "blogger" time-date stamping blog entries.

Minimal Posting Today -- I'm Here -- But News Cycle Slow

The oil industry news cycle will be slow this weekend, starting today.

I will try to find something to post, but probably not much.

I do update previous posts linked at the sidebar at the right. Earnings, annual reports, and transcripts of conference calls are linked under the "Investors" tab at the top, at the top of the sidebar on the right, or by simply clicking here

It's also interesting to read some of the old commentaries, to see how far the Bakken and this blog have come.

Later I will be out and about for the day and won't be posting until late evening.

Have a great day.

Oh, remember, to check in on some of my favorite sites linked at the bottom of the sidebar at the right.

Enbridge To Apportion Space on Pipelines 5 and 6B

Link here.
Enbridge will allocate space on two pipelines for May because demand for crude shipments exceeds capacity, the company said.