Bakken Producers Are Switching From Rail Back To Pipelines -- RBN Energy

Updates

May 30, 2013: RBN Energy provides a correction to their story below:

Yesterday in our blog titled “To the Pipelines, Robin” we examined Genscape data that showed lower volumes moving via out of the Bakken and higher volumes moving via pipe.  One of the terminals in the data table was Inergy’s Colt terminal, which showed a decline this month versus last.  We got an email from our good friends at Inergy saying that in fact April volumes at Colt were in excess of the reported volumes and more importantly their May actual volumes increased 12% versus April.  Genscape uses remote cameras to record the goings and comings of rail cars at these terminals.  It turns out that there was a camera malfunction for a week, so the table should have reflected that fact.  We apologize for the error.

Original Post

Active rigs: 186 (steady)

RBN Energy: due to narrowing spread, Bakken shippers returning to pipelines.

Genscape is a provider of all kinds of energy information.  One of their products provides data that shows dynamically what is happening on the ground in North Dakota. The table below shows the volume of crude loaded onto trains in North Dakota at 12 terminals that Genscape monitor remotely around the clock. The Genscape table provides a daily tally of loading data at each terminal as well as monthly averages. The final column in the table shows that loadings at these terminals are mostly down during May versus April (purple oval on the table).

Three rail loading terminals at Fryburg (Bakkenlink), Epping (Inergy COLT) and Van Hook (Plains) are loading 30 percent less so far in May 2013 than they did in April. The Musket terminal at Dore is loading 25 percent less and the Global terminal at Stampede 24 percent less. Although the volume shipped at some terminals such as EOG Stanley, Hess Tioga and Lario Dickinson  are basically flat, the general trend would appear to be significant.

Several story lines at the linked article.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

My red-eye from Dallas to Boston went well, arriving at Logan oh-dark-thirty; on the Silver Line and then the Red Line to Harvard Square where I am back at Starbucks before heading to the house.  This will probably be the last time I ever see Boston, and so I need to make every moment count. And Starbucks at Harvard Square is a good place to start.

While at the Desert Museum I picked up a copy of John Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez. I have no idea why a book on marine biology would be found at a desert museum but there it was. I'm glad it was. It's really quite a good read. I don't recall reading John Steinbeck in high school, but I most assuredly did -- East of Eden or Grapes of Wrath, but I certainly don't recall his writing style. It is remarkably enjoyable. The humor of Mark Twain with a bit more subtlety, less sarcasm, and less verbosity. At least that's my take. It's a short book and I read about half of it on the overnight flight. It's another book one could finish in one setting, but one wants it to last longer.

So, I will finish it over the next couple of days.

Boston is overcast, cool, misty to drizzling. Dallas, when I left, was dark, warm, and dry. Maybe slightly humid. I'm going to miss Boston a lot, but I'm probably not going to miss the weather. Dallas seems to be a nice balance between San Antonio (very hot, humid) and Boston.

After an absence of some time, walking through Harvard Square I sense the presence of the first love of my life. She passed away a few years ago; she taught me the ways of Boston.

It will be good to see the granddaughters again.

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Timely article in today's WSJ: jet lag --- easier to adjust when traveling west to east. Probably true, but a two-hour time change, Dallas to Boston, won't be a problem.

In the military, six-hour time changes were not uncommon. I can't remember what we thought then, which was was easier to adjust. I never considered it an issue. If you're drinking from a fire hose, there's not much time to check the clock.