Never Saw This Coming: Alaska Crude Oil "Piling Up" At Port -- Bloomberg; Ten (10) New North Dakota Oil Permits; BR Reports Two Nice Wells Today -- October 21, 2014

Bloomberg is reporting:

Stockpiles of oil from Alaska’s North Slope have surged to a five-year seasonal high as tanker maintenance slows loadings, forcing the grade to trade at a discount to U.S. crude for the first time since 2010.

Inventories at the Valdez terminal, the northernmost ice-free port in North America and the loading point for Alaskan oil, have averaged 4.38 million barrels this month, the most for October since 2009, data posted on the Alaska Revenue Department’s website show. Tanker repairs have shrunk the pool of vessels available. 

A couple of data points from the linked article:

• California is bringing in a record volume of oil by rail from other states and the region has increased imports from countries including Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  
• Alaska North Slope crude for delivery to the U.S. West Coast weakened by 50 cents a barrel to a discount of 40 cents relative to domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate. It’s the first time the grade has been discounted against WTI since Dec. 9, 2010. The oil fell $1.53 a barrel versus the international benchmark North Sea Brent for prompt delivery to a $3.81 discount. 
• Production of [Alaskan] oil has declined from a peak of 2.1 million barrels a day in 1988 to an average of 523,797 barrels a day this month, state data show.  
• The tanker work is another blow for Alaskan oil producers as the West Coast replaces their output with less-expensive barrels from other states including Utah and North Dakota. California took 16,373 barrels of oil a day by rail in July, a record for the month.

And that's why I love to blog. Read the linked Bloomberg article above in context with one of my recent postings on the growing relationship between California and North Dakota. 

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Active rigs in North Dakota:

	10/21/2014	10/21/2013	10/21/2012	10/21/2011	10/21/2010
Active Rigs	191	182	186	195	151

Wells coming off the confidential list Wednesday:

• 27308, drl, BR, Lillibridge 21-27MBH, Johnson Corner, no production data,
• 27581, 2,342, MRO, Viani USA 44-10H,  Chimney Butte, t6/14; cum 42K 8/14;
• 27797, drl, Hess, AN-Evenson-152-95-1003H-8, Antelope, no production data,
• 28112, 11, Legacy, Legacy Berge 13-31H, North Souris, a Spearfish well, t6/14; cum --
• 28161, conf, Hess, BB-Budahn A-LS-150-95-0403H-1, Blue Buttes, no production data,

Wells coming off the confidential list today were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Ten (10) new permits --

• Operators: Hess (4), XTO (2), Whiting (2), Murex (2),
• Fields: Robinson Lake (Mountrail), Dollar Joe (McKenzie), Grinnell (McKenzie), Temple (Williams)
• Comments:

Nine (9) producing wells were completed:

• 26382, 331, Oasis, Mallard 5692 21-20 9T2, Alger, t8/14; cum 3K 8/14;
• 26769, 526, Mandaree 134-05H, Squaw Creek, t10/14; cum --
• 26898, 548, Oasis, Delta 6093 24-15 3B, Gros Ventre, t9/14; cum --
• 27059, 1,320, BR, Denali 21-4TFH, Johnson Corner, 4 sections, t9/14; cum --
• 27580, 1,440, BR, Sequoia 41-4TFH, Hawkeye, t9/14; cum --
• 27677, 290, Delta 6093 44-15 8T, Gros Ventre, t8/14; cum 5K 8/14;
• 27767, 698, SM Energy, Todd 13X-35H, Camp, t9/14; cum --
• 27769, 965, Tracy 13-35H, Camp, t9/14; cum --
• 28480, 262, Dishon 5893 44-36 1T2, Enget Lake, t8/14; cum 2K 8/14;