Two of the MRO Tyler wildcat wells come off the confidential list Monday (April 28, 2014); no production data reported yet; I track these wells here. [Later: I am being told by a reader/good source that the Powell well comes off the confidential list June 25th, not tomorrow as reported on the NDIC website.]On Monday, April 28, 2014, I updated the original post to report the wells coming off the confidential list. I was able to access the file report for the Powell report, suggesting that it had indeed come off the confidential list:
Sunday afternoon my friend and I drove out to the Powell well and the Rundle trust well. At the Powell well, nothing has changed in three (3 )months ... ten (10) frac trucks setting on site, along with tanks and a oil/water separator.
The bonds were sold with yields ranging from 1.07 per cent for $1.5bn in three-year securities to 4.49 per cent for the $1bn 30-year tranche. The $2.5bn notes maturing in 10 years were sold at 3.46 per cent.These bonds were heavily subscribed, according to the linked source: 1.07% to 4.49%. How incredible is that? One point oh seven percent for three year bonds. Apple is getting some really "cheap" money.
The train was traveling from Chicago. It was unclear where the crude shipment was headed, but there is one oil train terminal in Virginia. The Yorktown, Va., storage and shipping site owned by Plains All American Pipeline LP began receiving shipments of crude by rail in December, according to a securities filing. Bakken oil produced in North Dakota is railed to Yorktown where it can be loaded on barges and shipped north to East Coast refineries, one expert said. Plains didn't return calls for comment.Irony? hopefully there were no injuries in the crude oil derailment. Four were killed when a small private plane flies into "wind farm windmill." It was noted that this story -- a most unusual story to say the least -- was not picked up by the mainstream media.
This is not the first time a plane has crashed into a wind farm--in 2008 near southeast Minnesota, poor weather caused the pilot of a 1948 Cessna 140 to lose control while trying to fly around wind turbines.
| 4/30/2014 | 04/30/2013 | 04/30/2012 | 04/30/2011 | 04/30/2010 | |
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| Active Rigs | 187 | 185 | 210 | 173 | 112 |
| 4/30/2014 | 04/30/2013 | 04/30/2012 | 04/30/2011 | 04/30/2010 | |
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| Active Rigs | 187 | 185 | 210 | 173 | 112 |
The US is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies.
The US has been the global leader since overtaking the UK in 1872. Most economists previously thought China would pull ahead in 2019.Stagflation? MyWay is reporting (it will be interesting to see how Reuters spins this story; I assume the White House is helping Reuters re-write the story):
The U.S. economy slowed drastically in the first three months of the year as a harsh winter exacted a toll on business activity.
The slowdown, while worse than expected, is likely to be temporary as growth rebounds with warmer weather.
Growth slowed to a barely discernible 0.1 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was the weakest pace since the end of 2012 and was down from a 2.6 percent rate in the previous quarter.What is the definition of a recession, again?
Phillips 66, the second-largest independent U.S. oil refiner, reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by a big gain from a share exchange and its chemicals and midstream businesses.
Crude oil and natural gas pumped from shale formations in the United States have lowered feedstock costs for companies such as Phillips, which is expanding its network of pipelines and processing facilities for increasing onshore output.
Phillips, based in Houston, had a first-quarter profit of $1.6 billion, or $2.67 per share, compared with $1.41 billion, or $2.23 a share, in the same quarter of 2013.
Excluding a one-time gain of $706 million primarily related to Berkshire Hathaway Inc's deal to swap its Phillips 66 shares for ownership of the company's specialty products unit, Phillips 66 earned $1.47 per share.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of $1.34 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Trading at 52-week highs: AAPL, BRK.B, HES, OKE.
There was no immediate information about where the train was coming from or where it was heading. Most East Coast refineries are far to the north. One of the only crude oil facilities to the east of Lynchburg is a converted refinery in Yorktown, which is now a storage depot run by Plains All American. Officials said there were no reports of injuries.
Saudi Arabia will probably have to sustain production above 10 million barrels a day for the longest period in more than 30 years as it meets the summer surge in domestic demand and compensates for production losses in Libya.This should come as no surprise to regular readers. The surprise will come whether Saudi Arabia is able to keep up on a prolonged basis. Both Brent and WTI are trading lower today; obviously no one thinks this is a very big deal.
Competition from natural gas combined with increasing environmental regulations has made casualties of many of the nation’s aging coal-fired power plants, including Salem Harbor Power Station and Brayton Point in Somerset.
By 2020, about 60 gigawatts of coal-fired electric-generating capacity — enough to power an estimated 48.5 million homes — is expected to disappear, at least partly due to the expense of meeting federal rules to cut pollution from power plants, according to the Energy Department.Don't let anyone fool you. Natural gas played a role but this is all about the war on coal, nothing else, regardless of how one wants to spin it. Don't believe me? Read the next two paragraphs:
“For an existing coal plant to basically stay in operation, it would have to install some sort of pollution control apparatus, such as a scrubber,” said Elias Johnson, an energy analyst with the Energy Information Administration. “The problem is that these technologies are not cheap.”
The consequences are likely an even greater reliance on natural gas, which despite booming production, is experiencing upward pressures on prices. That in turn could mean higher heating and electrical costs for New England consumers.
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Permian Basin crude producers are currently churning out over 1.5 MMb/d of crude from a basin that has produced oil since the 1920’s but is the center of a recent renaissance. With new production comes new demand for takeaway capacity and between January 2013 and the end of 2015, about 1 million barrels of new pipeline has been constructed or will come online directed towards Houston, Nederland and Corpus Christi, TX.
About a dozen new gathering systems are being constructed to help get new production from the wellhead to the larger takeaway pipelines. Today we continue our series on new Permian gathering infrastructure.Earnings to be reported today:
With paparazzi tracking her every move, V. Stiviano -- friend of sanctioned Clippers owner Donald Sterling -- roller-skated in her driveway Tuesday and said she wanted to be president.
“One day, I will become president of the United States of America and I will change the legislation and laws,” Stiviano said in one of several odd encounters with media camped outside her home. “Modern day history. Civil rights movement.”
Elk Petroleum Limited is pleased to announce that it has acquired the Singleton Unit in Nebraska. The effective date of the transaction is 1 May 2014, when the company will take over operatorship of the Unit.
The company plans to develop the remaining oil potential in the Singleton Oil Field using CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. The source for the CO2 for the project is the Bridgeport Ethanol plant, located 25 miles to the northeast of the Singleton Unit.
The Singleton Oil Field has produced 10.9 million barrels of oil and is historically the largest oil field in the Panhandle of Nebraska.I do believe the proposed route for the Keystone, killed by activist environmentalists, was through the Panhandle of Nebraska.
Having completed the acquisition of the Singleton Unit and secured the CO2 supply, Elk Petroleum is now in a position to attract external funding for development of the project. The corn‐ethanol source of the CO2 for the project makes the CO2‐EOR process a carbon sequestration project, with the implication that the oil produced from the Singleton Field will be carbon negative. This aspect of the project makes it attractive to green energy funds, which have a mandate to develop energy sources that result in reduced CO2 emissions. Elk has started conversations with several green energy funds in the United States regarding the development of the project.Some feel that the Bakken will also be a candidate for EOR somewhere down the line.
| 4/29/2014 | 04/29/2013 | 04/29/2012 | 04/29/2011 | 04/29/2010 | |
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Retired four-star general and former CIA Director David Petraeus visited the Oil Patch on Tuesday and met with local officials at a private event in Williston.
Petraeus was hosted by North Dakota State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt.
Petraeus has a tie to the Bakken through private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which is partnering with other investors on a 164-acre housing development in Williston. Petraeus works for KKR as chairman of the KKR Global Institute.
The newest MacBook Air is faster and cheaper, with the most recent price tag of $899 for the base model of the 2014 MacBook Air making it closer in price to fellow laptop makers HP, Samsung, and Lenovo.
While portable computers options continue to spring up at prices ranging from $199 netbooks to $1,500+ for more high-end offerings, Apple’s slow downward trickle suggests that it’s more than just cheaper technology at work here. Apple may be attempting to become a more mainstream competitor in the laptop market.
Apple previously carried a lower priced laptop in the form of the MacBook, the predecessor to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. They were quietly discontinued in 2011. The downward pricing of the latest MacBook Air starts to put it at prices below the original MacBook, with an initial price of $1,099 before taxes. Three MacBook Air options are that price or lower today.There may be another reason. Apple users know that Apple computers last "forever." I have had my MacBook Pro for two years, and I love it. I have no reason to get something different. However, I love my wife's MacBook Air and was thinking about buying one this summer (after federal taxes, property taxes, etc are paid). I had convinced myself that the $999 price was "doable" but the new price, $899 -- although not that much different in the big scheme of things -- has convinced me to get an MacBook Air.
EPE may now commence construction of the first two units, which it expects to bring online by the summer peak of 2015. The issuance of the EPA permit allows EPE to stay on track to effectively meet the growing needs of the communities it serves. EPA's permit action follows the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's decision in January 2014 to issue a separate permit for emissions other than GHG.
El Paso Electric is pleased to announce its next investment to prepare for the region’s economic growth and to meet our customers’ growing demands for electricity in west Texas and southern New Mexico. The investment is a new power station located in east El Paso. The plant will be located adjacent to Montana Avenue, just east of Zaragoza Avenue.Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.
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The success of an LNG export project is founded on many things. Good connections to natural gas supply. Easy access to LNG buyers. A competitive delivered cost. Timing matters too, and may turn out to be a critical factor for Veresen’s Jordan Cove LNG export project in Oregon. Not only is it the first greenfield project to win the approval of the US Department of Energy (earlier DOE approvals went to projects to convert existing import terminals to export facilities), Jordan Cove also would be the first new LNG export terminal on the US West Coast—days closer to key buyers in the Asia/Pacific region than its Gulf Coast competitors. And it appears likely to beat out the first LNG export projects in British Columbia. Today in the first of a two-part blog series, we take a look at the Jordan Cove plan—its gas supply sources, the pipelines feeding it, the project’s economics, and its likely fate.
A race is on among prospective LNG exporters in the US and Canada to secure regulatory approvals, lock in LNG buyers and gas suppliers, and build the needed infrastructure. Being among the first at the finish line is a do-or-die matter, because realistically there will be limits to the number of LNG export projects approved, the volume of LNG that will be allowed to be exported, and demand from major LNG buyers. LNG buyers in Asia, Europe, and Latin America have options--Qatar, Australia, and Malaysia among them—and, in their quest for sourcing diversity and low prices, they are constantly sizing up the North American LNG export projects under development to see how they might fit into their gas-supply mix.
Jordan Cove is a 6 MMTPA (or million metric tons per annum - about 800Mcf/d) LNG export terminal (expandable to 9 MMTPA, 1.2 Bcf/d) to be built within the Port of Coos Bay on the Oregon coast. (The project was first envisioned as an LNG import terminal a few years ago, but the US and Western Canadian shale boom put the kibosh on that.) In March, Veresen, ,the project’s owner, a Canadian midstream natural gas infrastructure company, received DOE’s approval to export up to 800 Mcf/d of LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries for 20 years. (That approval is critical for exports to the Asian market where only Singapore and South Korea are FTA countries.) Veresen this fall expects to get Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval to build Jordan Cove. If all goes according to plan, Veresen’s financial investment decision and construction start will come in the first quarter of 2015, and the first LNG will be shipped in late 2018 or early 2019. Figure #1, from a recent presentation by the owner, helps us tell the story.
Natural-gas prices jumped to a two-month high as investors wagered that supplies wouldn't bounce back fast enough from their lowest levels in 11 years. Inventories are just starting to climb after an unusually cold winter drove demand for the heating fuel to records.
Supplies are at about half their normal level for late April, even as U.S. gas production hits a record. Investors in the $52.1 billion natural-gas futures market are turning increasingly bullish, questioning whether producers are up to the task of replenishing stockpiles.
Analysts said producers would need to add an extra 20 billion to 35 billion cubic feet a week above the average for six months to ensure power plants have enough gas on hand to meet another frigid winter. Some investors said prices could climb this summer should a hot summer drive up air-conditioning demand, reducing the amount of gas left over for winter.
The BueLingo breed of beef cattle was developed in Ransom County, North Dakota, on the Bueling Ranch, by Russell Bueling and R. B. Danielson of the Animal Science Department of the North Dakota State University at Fargo. It is similar in appearance to the Dutch Belted breed of dairy cattle. BueLingo cattle usually have a white belt around the stomach area.The "buelingoes" even have their own web page.
| Pool | Date | Days | BBLS Oil | Runs | BBLS Water | MCF Prod | MCF Sold | Vent/Flare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LODGEPOLE | 2-2014 | 28 | 1096 | 1320 | 4173 | 835 | 430 | 405 |
| LODGEPOLE | 1-2014 | 15 | 573 | 0 | 3475 | 392 | 302 | 90 |
| LODGEPOLE | 12-2013 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 140 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 11-2013 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 10-2013 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 363 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 9-2013 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 1755 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| LODGEPOLE | 8-2013 | 15 | 16 | 0 | 6446 | 16 | 0 | 16 |
| LODGEPOLE | 7-2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 6-2013 | 17 | 112 | 313 | 35 | 66 | 66 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 5-2013 | 31 | 191 | 341 | 178 | 126 | 126 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 4-2013 | 30 | 207 | 0 | 85 | 119 | 119 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 3-2013 | 31 | 224 | 334 | 93 | 125 | 125 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 2-2013 | 27 | 224 | 301 | 89 | 118 | 118 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 1-2013 | 30 | 234 | 0 | 93 | 156 | 156 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 12-2012 | 31 | 276 | 338 | 88 | 177 | 177 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 11-2012 | 30 | 218 | 331 | 275 | 185 | 185 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 10-2012 | 31 | 309 | 329 | 271 | 199 | 199 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 9-2012 | 30 | 281 | 323 | 415 | 206 | 206 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 8-2012 | 31 | 324 | 305 | 517 | 234 | 234 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 7-2012 | 31 | 349 | 314 | 434 | 250 | 250 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 6-2012 | 30 | 388 | 320 | 443 | 252 | 252 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 5-2012 | 31 | 466 | 329 | 476 | 295 | 134 | 161 |
| LODGEPOLE | 4-2012 | 29 | 569 | 579 | 475 | 426 | 10 | 416 |
| LODGEPOLE | 3-2012 | 31 | 862 | 1602 | 668 | 681 | 0 | 681 |
| LODGEPOLE | 2-2012 | 17 | 798 | 218 | 577 | 630 | 0 | 630 |
| LODGEPOLE | 1-2012 | 19 | 958 | 805 | 1178 | 757 | 0 | 757 |
| LODGEPOLE | 12-2011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| LODGEPOLE | 11-2011 | 6 | 150 | 0 | 87 | 119 | 0 | 119 |
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Whether you trust him or not, Continental Resources does control 1.2 million net acres in the Bakken and was also the first company to discover the Parshall shale in North Dakota.I thought it was EOG who made the Parshall discovery that started the Bakken boom in North Dakota. Not taking anything away from Harold Hamm who quietly bought up a lot of leases over the years prior to the boom, but I thought it was EOG who had the "discovery" well as it were. But, the Bakken has any number of drillers who say they were first.
Co provided an update on Q1 2014 production and operations. Summary Highlights Sanchez Energy reported Q1 2014 production of ~1,691 MBOE (18,784 BOE/D), an increase of 376% compared to the same period a year ago Reported production volumes consisted of 72% oil, 15% NGLs, and 13% natural gas Current production is ~21,000 BOE/D with 13 gross wells in various stages of completion. Operating in the Eagle Ford and the TMS.Williams Cos suspends investment in Bluegrass NGL Pipeline due to insufficient customer commitments: Co announces it has suspended capital investments in the Bluegrass Pipeline, a proposed natural-gas-liquids project, primarily in response to an insufficient level of firm customer commitments. The company continues to engage in discussions with potential customers regarding the scale and timing of demand for services and the required firm contractual commitments that would support any future capital investments.
SAN ANTONIO — The voestalpine Group will break ground this week on a $740 million plant at the Port of Corpus Christi.
The plant on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay will use iron ore to make briquettes that will be shipped to European auto plants. Hot-briquetted iron, or HBI, is a primary material for raw steel making.
The voestalpine manufacturing plant will be powered by natural gas and is part of a wave of industrial investment at the port. The emergence of a cheap, reliable source of natural gas in the Eagle Ford Shale has drawn billions of dollars in projects to the Corpus Christi area.
The voestalpine plant will create about 800 construction jobs and 150 full-time jobs, the company said.It takes a village.
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Last week Transport Canada (the federal department responsible for transportation policy) directed that DOT-111 rail tank cars built prior to new safety standards proposed in January 2014 be phased out or refitted within three years.
Fifty five thousand railcars built to the new standards are currently on back-order. The directive could constrain rapidly developing Canadian crude by rail shipments to the US - currently running at about 250 Mb/d according to an April report by Peters and Company.
Increased use of crude-by-rail is driven by pipeline congestion out of Alberta - a situation the latest Keystone pipeline delay appears to make worse. Today we review unit train options out of Western Canada.
The last episode in this series distinguished between oil sands producers that are able to deliver their bitumen crude to market direct from the production plant as pipeline quality dilbit via feeder pipelines and smaller producers that mostly do not have that luxury.
We pointed out that it is often more convenient for small producers to deliver their crude by truck to rail terminals because of the overhead costs associated with blending up their crude to pipeline specifications and securing scarce capacity on pipelines out of Alberta.
However, we also noted that such small producers are unable to justify shipping their crude on unit trains of 100 cars or more even though doing so would achieve economies of scale. Until these smaller producers are able to ramp up production and invest in improved infrastructure, they are essentially price takers. This time we look at increased unit train options available to larger producers.Their conclusion:
Nevertheless it seems that larger oil sands producers are willing to go ahead and ship dilbit by unit train just to get their crude to market, regardless of the diluent penalty. The fact that a number of these producers have made long term commitments to Alberta rail terminals on that basis is a good indication of just how constrained the pipeline systems out of Western Canada have become. The recent Keystone decision delay underlines the reality that pipeline congestion could continue for some time. So even though the new rail car regulations will increase rail costs, producers have little choice but to pursue rail alternatives.
Nearly 15 million people in New England live within driving distance of America's biggest natural-gas field, yet heating and electricity prices reached a record for the region this winter.
As states stretching from Massachusetts to Maine thaw out from bitter cold, questions linger about why New England hasn't benefited from the energy boom in the nearby Marcellus Shale. The short answer is not enough pipelines.
And the reason is an impasse between pipeline operators and power plants over how to pay for new capacity.
The problem is that pipeline operators want long-term contracts in place before they spend the hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to build a new pipeline or expand an existing one. But power companies, which buy gas to fuel generators on a need-to-have-it basis, work on a different timetable. Independent power-plant operators must supply electricity to utilities at the lowest cost possible, and utilities are restricted in the extent to which they can pass on costs to customers.
The result is that the power industry long has been wary of getting locked in to long-term contracts with higher prices than necessary.
Regulators are proposing a tax to bridge the gap.Microsoft browser has security flaw. I have never used IE on my personal computers. A security hole in Microsoft's IE -- the default web browser for many -- could be particularly troubling for those still running Windows XP.
| 4/27/2014 | 04/27/2013 | 04/27/2012 | 04/27/2011 | 04/27/2010 | |
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The Rundle Trust 21-29TH lateral target zone did not have any observable oil in samples while drilling. Oil-based drilling weight was kept very heavy ...during the final trip of the initial later (11,456' MD), very thick and likely parafinated, oil-saturated mud was removed from the side of the mud motor, and was a very different consistency and smell than the drilling mud.
A sample of this was forwarded to Marathon, and has been sent for a detailed petro-physical analysis. Other indicators oi oil present in formation were rising oil to ater ratios of the drilling mud. When the sidetrack lateral started, oil to water ratios were 85/15; at the end of the side track lateral, oil to water ratios were 94/6.
Due to heavy mud properties, gas response during the Rundle Trust 21-29TH lateral was minimal, and did not appear to be better or worse in any particular place in zone. Background gas averaged 30 units, with shows peaking at 90 units. Gas was almost entirely methane, with a trace component of ethane. The max trip gas observed was 115 units. No flaring or backside pressure was observed or held while drilling.
It's an $8 billion to $10 billion project that requires railroad companies to upgrade and rewire the nationwide network of more than 50,000 switches and signals already in use, add a network of fiber-optic cable, cellular and satellite equipment, and create software platforms to run it all.
“It's the largest infrastructure project done by any railroad in our history other than building the railroad itself,” says Henry McCreary, a director of PTC at CSX Corp., a railroad that stretches from Richmond, VA, to Chicago to Tampa, FL.
CSX estimates it will spend $1.7 billion on an effort that includes upgrading signals and switches along 16,000 miles of track, as well as installing or upgrading software, hardware and communications equipment on 3,600 locomotives.
Altogether, 22,000 locomotives will be outfitted with new equipment, primarily cellular and satellite gear. Railroads banded together and spent $40 million buying their own wireless spectrum to transmit data among trains, signals, switches and dispatch centers. The railroads even own a company that makes some of the communications equipment needed on trains and towers alongside tracks.