Monday Morning

Wells coming off confidential list have been posted.

RBN Energy: Canadian west coast pipelines -- another great update and Pipelines 101.

Hess to sell refinery on east coast; get out of the refining business altogether, it sounds like. More to follow, perhaps.

Hess Corporation announced today that it will pursue the sale of its terminal network in the United States. Hess also announced that it will complete its exit from the refining business by closing its Port Reading, New Jersey refinery.

The terminal network is located along the U.S. East Coast and has a total of 28 million barrels of storage capacity in 19 terminals, 12 of which have deep water access. The terminals previously served as the primary outlet for Hess’ share of production from its HOVENSA joint venture refinery, most of which was used to supply Hess’ Retail and Energy Marketing businesses.

With the closure of the HOVENSA refinery in 2012 as well as Hess’ ability to access refined products from third parties to supply these marketing businesses, the terminal system is no longer core to the company’s operations. The company’s St. Lucia oil storage terminal in the Caribbean with 10 million barrels of capacity will also be included in the package for divestiture. In addition to the proceeds from the sale of the terminal network, the transaction should also release approximately $1 billion of working capital for redeployment to fund Hess’ future growth opportunities. 

Three refineries closed/re-opened/whatever in the Philadelphia area this past year. Tea leaves are telling us something. Remember: Hess committed $2.2 billion to the Bakken this year -- 185 wells is what I guess.

CAT earnings: $1.91 (vs $1.60). The company reported earnings of $1.91 a share, excluding a write-down of 87 cents a share relating to a China holding. That compared to earnings of $2.32 a share in the year-earlier period. The market liked the news: CAT is surging in pre-market trading.