North Dakota Ethane Now Reaching Feedstock Facilities In Alberta, Canada -- June 13, 2014; Bakken Impacts International Economies

I'm still getting caught up with stories sent to me by readers some time ago. This one is a huge story. The WSJ is reporting, from June 13, 2014:

NOVA Chemicals Corporation announced that the first barrels of ethane supplied from natural gas associated with oil production from Bakken Shale are being utilized at its Joffre, Alberta complex.

The ethane was produced at Hess Corporation's Tioga, North Dakota plant and transported across the border into Alberta via the Vantage Pipeline.

The Vantage Pipeline connects to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System (AEGS) in Empress, Alberta, for the final journey to Joffre. 

The Vantage Pipeline has an initial design capacity of 40,000 bpd but is expandable to greater than 60,000 bpd, a volume that reflects more than 20% of Alberta's existing installed ethylene production capacity.

Ethane extracted from associated gas produced from Bakken Shale is expected to be a growing and stable feedstock supply source for the Alberta petrochemical industry.

"The introduction of Bakken Shale-based ethane into the feedstock diet at Joffre marks an important milestone in the diversification of our ethane sources for the region and our NOVA 2020 strategy to capitalize on North American demand," stated Todd Karran, NOVA Chemicals Acting CEO and CFO.

"The new supply sources we recently began to use, together with those currently in development, should enable us to run our existing polyethylene plants at full capacity, as well as support our PE1 Expansion project in Joffre and position us well for potential further growth."

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We Need The Kurds To Save Iraq -- John Kerry

How bad are things in Iraq? Pretty badly if we're relying on the Kurds "to save Iraq."  Reuters is reporting:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged leaders of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Tuesday to stand with Baghdad in the face of a Sunni insurgent onslaught that threatens to dismember the country.

Security forces fought Sunni armed factions for control of the country's biggest oil refinery on Tuesday and militants launched an attack on one of its largest air bases less than 100 km (60 miles) from the capital.

At least three story lines:

• no matter how you spin it, things are going badly for the home team
• SecState confirms that the home team is on its own; the US is not sending in any reserves or substitutions; there is no bench
• SecState should have played professional basketball (see photograph at the linked article); everyone would have been better off
  

Actually there's a fourth story line, the most important story line. Did anyone else catch it? If not, re-read the very first phrase in the very first sentence in the very first paragraph. One word ... drum roll ... autonomous.

That says it all.

This will be John Kerry's quid pro quo to the short guy in the photograph: "If you save Iraq, I will personally bring to the floor of the UN a binding mandate to declare Kurdistan a sovereign nation. If you say "no," I will orate for two hours on global warming. Now, how about a game of one-on-one?"