Funny How Things Work Out ....

For newbies, the daily posts are mostly filler just to get me through the day. Smile.

The really good stuff is buried in the archives at the sidebar at the right.

One of the "data bases" (although it's not really a data base) is "Earnings Central." The list started with Bakken-centric companies, expanded to oil and gas in general, then added some non-energy companies I was particularly interested in. Some, because I had invested in them at one time or another, and others, simply because they ... are well, occasionally, interesting.

CNP is an example of a company that I added to "Earnings Central" some time ago because it was a company I have invested in over the years. I continue to accumulate. It was one of the first companies in which I ever invested, when I was looking for a conservative, stodgy investment to balance other not-so conservative, stodgy investments.

I was perhaps as surprised as anyone when it was announced that a newly-formed, wholly owned subsidiary of CNP will be transporting XTO crude oil from the Bakken. This is the press release.

CenterPoint Energy Bakken Crude Services, LLC, an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy, Inc., announced it has entered into a long-term agreement with XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, to gather XTO's crude oil production through a new crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system in North Dakota's liquids-rich Bakken shale. The agreement with XTO is the first agreement entered into pursuant to the open season announced by CEBCS on February 19. 

Under the terms of this new agreement, which includes volume commitments, CEBCS will provide service to XTO over a gathering system to be constructed in Dunn and McKenzie counties, North Dakota. The gathering system will have a capacity of up to 19,500 barrels per day.

It was also reported in the WSJ, but one will need a subscription or use google reader.  The WSJ article was very, very short, summed up here:

The agreement is the first secured for the proposed pipeline, which will have a capacity to gather 19,500 barrels per day. It underscores the rapid buildup of infrastructure taking place in the shale plays that are underpinning a big boost in U.S. oil output.

The Bakken shale is located in North Dakota, and has turned the state into the second-largest producer of crude after Texas. Limited infrastructure in the region has led many producers there to ship their oil via rail, and the bottleneck has produced a discount in the price of crude extracted in the region. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here, or what you think you read here. 

I always thought of CNP as a regulated electricity utility out of Houston serving that area and north and east to Louisiana and Arkansas. I never thought CNP would be interested in a crude oil pipeline. 

Simply too much information to follow. Smile. 

On a completely unrelated note, back on March 15, 2013, a new midstream partnership involving CNP  was announced. MarketWatch reported:

CenterPoint Energy, OGE Energy Corp. and ArcLight Capital to Combine Assets to Form Leading Midstream Partnership - Partnership will be a significant midstream company in U.S. with combined assets of nearly $11 billion - Will benefit from exposure to gathering and processing activities in high-growth basins and stability of substantial interstate and intrastate pipeline business. 

The partnership will include:

The new partnership will own and operate 8,400 miles of interstate pipelines with nearly 9 billion cubic feet of transport capacity and nearly 2,300 miles of intrastate pipelines. It will also have more than 11,000 miles of gathering lines, which in 2012 moved nearly 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Additionally, it will have more than 90 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity and 11 major processing plants with nearly 2 billion cubic feet per day of inlet capacity. 

Its operating areas:

Significant asset positions in a broad range of basins, including the Granite Wash, Tonkawa, Mississippi Lime, Cana Woodford, Haynesville, Fayetteville, Barnett and Woodford plays.