Thursday Morning News, Views, And Links -- PART II; Bakken Pricing

Active rigs: 184 (steady)

Halcon reports a nice well; wells coming off confidential list have been posted.

RBN Energy: An update and a primer on the "crack spread."

The term “spread” means the difference between the sales price of the refined products and the raw material cost of crude i.e. the refining margin. The 3-2-1 Crack spread approximates a refinery that produces two barrels of gasoline and one barrel of diesel for every three barrels of crude input. In other words the refinery yield is two-thirds gasoline, one-third diesel.

In our case the 3-2-1 crack we are looking at is the NYMEX CME futures market proxy for a refinery margin that is calculated using nearby delivery contract prices for New York Harbor gasoline and diesel (aka heating oil) and subtracting the cost of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude. This is the most widely followed crack spread because it roughly approximates the state of the US refining business. RBN Energy keeps a running tally on the 3-2-1 crack - you can see that chart and those of other important market indicators on our website. You get access to more detail behind the charts if you are an RBN member.

RBN Energy: a re-post of an earlier RBN energy story -- Bakken pricing. 

Refiners ultimately determine crude price values. Refining margins vary by location, crude quality, product prices and refinery configuration. Today we return to the Bakken to conclude our series: The Bakken Buck Starts Here – Bakken Crude Pricing Part IV - to discover that a longer journey to market might just be the most profitable.

Today’s blog completes the final leg of our voyage of learning from the wellhead to the refinery in pursuit of the true value of Bakken crude.

From The Dickinson Press:

• Proposed new CBR terminal near Belfield; would provide 200 jobs. The town, without influx, couldn't support number of workers needed. So, we'll see. For me, it seems we are close to, if we have not already passed, the tipping point for new CBR facilities. 

Update on building permits in Dickinson:

In the first seven months of 2012, the city issued 442 new building permits — 363 of which were single-family structures, 32 were commercial structures and the rest were multi-family structures. Permit values were $150.3 million, less than half the record-breaking $389 million seen in 2012.

From January to July this year, the city has issued 245 building permits — 193 of which are single-family homes, 41 commercial structures, three public buildings and eight multi-family structures. The value of these 245 structures is $233.6 million.