Friday News and Links --I'm Glad To See Enbridge So Concerned About Safety, But I Think There Is More Here Than Meets The Eye

Note: the AP, MSNBC, others will be releasing political news after the news cycle for the week ends today about 5:00 pm. 

The 5.7 earthquake this morning in northern California was probably not caused by a) George Bush, or, b) global warming. But the day is not yet over and we have not yet heard from Rhode Island's junior senator, the honorable and particularly crazy, Sheldon Whitehouse. Besides being crazy, he is a bit insensitive.

The only well coming off the confidential list today was: DRY. Well file report not helpful at this time.

Active rigs: 185 (steady, trending down)

RBN Energy:  Sour gas -- the Bakken H2S problem --

This particular tariff modification was a request to alter the quality specifications of crude that could be carried on the Enbridge pipeline – effective immediately (the next day). The new specification limited the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) content of pipeline crude to 5 parts per million (ppm) or less. H2S is a colorless, flammable, extremely hazardous gas with a rotten egg smell. It occurs naturally in crude petroleum, natural gas, and other naturally occurring sources like hot springs. Enbridge had found dangerously high levels of H2S vapor phase content (gas) at their Berthold Station Terminal in North Dakota. Enbridge’s rapid implementation of a new quality rule was motivated by a concern about the safety of its workers – particularly those loading rail tank cars with crude oil at the Berthold Station. Crude oil from the Enbridge pipeline is delivered into the Berthold terminal for rail loading.

The Enbridge action to limit the H2S content of crude on its pipeline caused immediate pushback from one of the company’s longest established shippers – Plains Marketing LP that together with its affiliates transports over 20 Mb/d of oil on the Enbridge North Dakota pipeline to Clearbrook MN. [At Clearbrook the North Dakota system joins the Enbridge Lakehead pipeline system transporting crude to Chicago and on to Cushing, OK]. Plains lodged a protest about Enbridge’s new tariff filing the day after it was posted. They objected to Enbridge having acted hastily to impose the H2S limit with one day’s notice under an emergency filing procedure and they objected to the tightness of the specification – arguing that it should be 10 ppm instead of 5 ppm. In their filing Plains argued that other North Dakota pipelines such as Bridger and Belle Fourche had instituted 10 ppm H2S limits in April 2013 with 30 days notice.

Original posting here.

Canadians increasingly against any more pipelines.  I assume they plan to start burning their forests for energy. And, of course, they probably like the railroad, maybe reverting to steam locomotives using coal, before it's all over. Good for them.

Colorado appears to be joining the crazies. Banning fracking. Good for them. They, too, can start burning their forests for energy.

Fundamentally, a ban on hydraulic fracturing is a ban on oil and gas development in Colorado,” said Doug Flanders, a spokesman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, another energy group based in Denver. “And it begs the question: if not here then where?” [The Bakken, North Dakota and Montana.]

Communities from New Jersey to California have also sought to impose restrictions on fracking, according to data kept by Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based environmental group.

In Colorado, communities have made the most direct challenges to fracking, which injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground to break apart shale rock formations so oil and gas can flow to the surface.

Voters in Longmont overwhelmingly approved a ban on fracking in November. Fort Collins had a moratorium on the process. The city council voted May 21 to lift it after Prospect Energy LLC, the only oil and gas company operating within city limits, agreed to standards that are stricter than state rules.

Carpe Diem: shale oil boom spreads to other states, with great charts, as usual

...large increases in shale oil output over the last three years (February 2010 to February 2013) to the five states of: Oklahoma (51%), Utah (46%), Colorado (64%), Wyoming (22%) and New Mexico (46%).