McKenzie County Passes A County Budget Of Almost $200 Million -- Wednesday -- October 8, 2014

Active rigs:

	10/8/2014	10/08/2013	10/08/2012	10/08/2011	10/08/2010
Active Rigs	190	184	193	194	156

RBN Energy: Part IV -- Eagle Ford condensate.

Just four years ago (October 2010) the Eagle Ford Basin was producing less than 100 Mb/d of crude oil. Now production is over 1.5 MMb/d and in the interim a network of gathering, pipeline and terminal infrastructure has sprung up to deliver crude and condensate to market via Houston and Corpus Christi.

The quality challenge of handling up to 45 percent condensate has changed in the last year from one of “dealing with” unwanted super-light crude into a midstream scramble to build condensate splitters and now export facilities. Today we continue our survey of changing Eagle Ford infrastructure by looking at Harvest, Martin, Trafigura and Buckeye.

This is Part 4 in our series updating analysis of Eagle Ford infrastructure.

In Part 1 (see Condensate City – Finding a Home For Eagle Ford Crude) we described a five-fold increase in Eagle Ford crude oil production over the past three years to 1.5 MMb/d. We explained that unlike other basins such as the Bakken in North Dakota, takeaway capacity has not been a big challenge for Eagle Ford producers. Instead the varying quality and in particular the high percentage of condensate in liquids output (about 45 percent) has caused headaches for producers and refiners alike. We also noted that two main pipeline routes to market have developed from the Eagle Ford – south to the Port of Corpus Christi and East to Houston area refineries.

In Part 2 we described the growth and continuing expansion of the crude takeaway systems developed by Magellan Midstream Partners and Kinder Morgan.

In Part 3 we reviewed the expanding takeaway infrastructure developed by Plains All American Pipeline (Plains) and Enterprise Product Partners (Enterprise). This time we look at relatively smaller infrastructure build out by Harvest Pipeline, Martin Midstream, Energy Transfer Partners and Trafigura.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

McKenzie County commissioners have approved a whopping budget of $188.8 million, a 93 percent increase over 2014, as North Dakota’s largest oil producing county tries to keep up with booming growth.

Canadian train derailment: this is incredibly unimportant in the big scheme of things, but for the archives, CBC is reporting a major train derailment near Wadena, Saskatchewan. Wadena, Saskatchewan, is about 275 miles due north of Williston; or about 100 miles northeast of Regina. The train was 100 cars long; 60 cars were empty; forty were carrying freight; two tank cars carrying crude oil condensate exploded; no injuries. Twenty-six (26) cars derailed: six of them contained hazardous materials, including four that had either hydrochloric acid or caustic soda. The other two had petroleum distillates, CN said. These were the two that exploded. The origin of the train was west of the Bakken.