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A reader sent me the following link to a Reuters article this morning. I am embarrassed that I missed this when it first came out. I haven't had chance to read full article:
Even as big U.S. oil pipelines invest billions of dollars to ship booming oil production south from Canada and North Dakota, a new race is underway in the opposite direction.
Two of the country's biggest pipelines, both now underutilized, are competing to pump a special type of ultralight oil from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest, betting on growing demand from Canadian producers for the "diluent" necessary to get their heavy oil sands bitumen flowing to refiners.
The race between the Capline and Explorer lines, which may play out over years rather than months, is the latest example of how fast-growing inland oil production has roiled the U.S. market, forcing key parts of the nation's oil infrastructure to adapt -- or face obsolescence. It is fueled by forecasts that demand for diluent from Canadian oil producers will quadruple in just over a decade.More to follow, I'm sure.
Once there was beer. Then light beer - dilute beer with water.
ReplyDeleteThen heavy oil. Now dilute oil with ..... Why not with water or light beer?
Strange world.
Anon 1
There should be a great market for condensate from rich gas plays in the WB. When will they be announced? 2013?
Ethane crackers in Canada? Fertilizer plants, such as the new one just announced in Jamestown, ND -- a couple hundred miles to the east?
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