Back In Boston -- Energy Links, the Bakken If Possible, Some Snarky Politics, I Suppose

I departed Long Beach Airport at 9:30 p.m. last night on JetBlue. A huge "thank you" to Conrad over at the JetBlue terminal getting me a great aisle seat on the plane. I was all settled in when a Japanese/Hispanic man asked if his mother from Japan could sit next to him/his wife. So, I moved from the best aisle seat to a middle seat across the aisle for a cross-country flight. But this good deed was rewarded; a most attractive young woman sat at the window seat. And so it goes.

Wow, JetBlue was nice. Fast flight. Fourpointfive (4.5) hours. Slept most of the way. I don't recall a nicer flight in quite some time; lots of leg room. At Boston (Logan) airport, public transportation is free into and out of the airport, so I caught the Silver Line Bus to downtown Boston (25 minutes) and then the Red Line Subway to Harvard Square (Cambridge) where I am presently (about 6:30 a.m.) having coffee and an old-fashioned doughnut. I e-mailed my daughter telling her I would arrive "home" later in the morning.

Cool, not cold, with a bit of old snow on the ground here.

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RBN Energy: Year of the snake. Top ten prognostications for 2013.

As we enter 2013, the major theme for U.S. hydrocarbon markets must be “surplus”.  Who wooda thunk it.  We had a white Christmas in Texas, up in the Northeast Tennessee Zone 6 gas at year-end was $10.79/MMbtu, but natural gas inventories are still at multi-year highs and Henry Hub gas is languishing at $3.47/MMbtu.  Those low prices have been great for gas demand, with gas duking it out with coal in the power generation market, and winning.  Crude production in the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Permian is skyrocketing, Cushing inventories are still high, and that is keeping WTI at Cushing at a $20/Bbbl discount to Brent.  Propane production is up 12% in the past year, while propane prices are down 35%.  And that looks good compared to ethane, with prices down 70% over the past 12 months to 24.5 cnts/gal at Mont Belvieu, pretty close to parity with natural gas and near a level that would encourage widespread ethane rejection.  What’s the world coming to?

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It appears Congress passed the ObamaCliff bill and the president is heading back to Hawaii. A reader writes to tell me that his luggage looks like something out of the 1950's with all the stickers. But that's about all the news I know. Saw it in the LA Times on-line; not sure if Drudge is really reporting it yet. Oh, yes, on the crawler on the television on JetBlue I see that SecTreas Tim Geithner has quit paying into some federal pension program to delay hitting the debt limit. Yes, JetBlue has a television at every seat. I didn't listen or watch -- slept most of the trip -- but saw the crawler as we were in final approach to Boston.

College football: I was in Los Angeles during the day yesterday but I missed the Stanford-Wisconsin game. I guess it was a good game, but Wisconsin did not score in the second half, I read. Not my cup of tea. And then I see the Orange Bowl was a yawner, 31-10. Does it even matter who played? Florida State (okay) and Northern Illinois (huh?). And, of course, USC, my alma mater, ... well, what can one say.

Hollywood: Speaking of flying back to Hawaii, and luggage looking like the 1950's with all the stickers, reminds me of David Lynch's opening scene in Mulholland Drive.  That, too, could have been set in the 50s. I was blown away by a newcomer's performance in that movie: Naoma Watts. Some years ago. I have followed her off and on over the years. Then, coincidentally and surprisingly, she was featured on the cover of Delta Airlines magazine in the December issue. I took Delta a few weeks ago, from Boston to San Antonio. I've been meaning to mention Naomi in a post for the past several weeks, always forgetting. And now, finally. An excellent cover photo, and a great story inside.

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 Okay, one last note before I move on to a new post. The Bakken. I see I received a comment about Chesapeake blowing it. I will reply to the comment. Hindsight is 20/20. Had CHK hit some good wells in southwestern North Dakota, the story would have been completely different. Someone had to drill those wells to see where the edge of the Bakken Pool was. It would be interesting to know if the Red River is viable there. I think the article said CHK drilled about eight wells. A lot more than eight wells were drilled prior to 1951 looking for oil in North Dakota before they finally hit at Clarence Iverson. It is what it is. I wish CHK the best. A lot of roughnecks worked very hard drilling those wells.