Friday, September 19, 2014

Update On The Propane Terminal At Hannaford, ND -- September 19, 2014; BNSF Wants To Resolve ChokePoint In Idaho

TwinCitiesPioneerPress is reporting:
Officials see a new propane terminal at Hannaford as a way to combat the shortages and high prices seen last year. The $6.5 million terminal is a project of CHS and Central Plains Ag Services and will bring propane from the Oil Patch to users in eastern North Dakota.
The terminal will operate under the CHS propane terminal name.
Previously, most propane marketed in eastern North Dakota was delivered by the Cochin Pipeline from Canada, Kumm said.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, owners of the Cochin Pipeline, reversed the flow of the pipeline to deliver refined products from Illinois to Canada. This led to shortages and high prices last fall and winter, according to Ken Astrup, general manager of Dakota Plains Cooperative in Valley City.
The Hannaford terminal will take delivery of propane by rail, Kumm said. The bulk of the propane will come from a CHS-owned loading facility at Ross, and originates from the Bakken oilfields. CHS also has suppliers in Canada for diversity in case the supply from the Bakken is interrupted.
I didn't see the article say it specifically, but perhaps the terminal is operational; the story back in April suggested it would be up and running in time for the 2014 harvest. 

Again, another "thank you" to a reader for sending me the link. The same reader sent the following story.

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:
Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad wants to build a second bridge in northern Idaho to handle an expected increase in traffic that includes coal and oil trains.
The one bridge now at Sandpoint handles about one train every half-hour, a bottleneck for BNSF's busy Hi-Line that connects the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest.
Montana Rail Link trains also use the single-track bridge that crosses Lake Pend Oreille where it meets the Pend Oreille River.
"It's known by rail fans as the funnel," BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said. "And it's a choke point."
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Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Sets All-Time Record

Off the Bremen chart

If I recall correctly, the warmists now tell us that the extent of sea ice (Antarctic, Arctic, or otherwise) no longer correlates with global warming but "to be honest with you" (would I ever not be honest with you?), I think one can find almost any theory or any explanation or any temperature or almost anything one wants to hear about global warming. The only thing I pretty much know for sure: the Statue of Liberty won't disappear underwater due to global warming as the National Geographic suggests.

Perhaps it's time to pull out the 1976 HAB theory

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Renewable Energy Department At Risk?

Politico is reporting:
The New York Times leadership is currently considering a new round of buyout offers that is likely to slash at least 50 positions from the company, and possibly several more, sources at the paper told POLITICO this week.
The official plan is being hammered out at this week's Times Company board meeting on the West Coast, the sources said. Executive editor Dean Baquet, who is attending the meeting, is expected to make an announcement as early as this afternoon or next week. The buyouts are likely to affect both the newsroom and the business side.
The impending buyouts come amid significant personnel growth on the Times digital side, as well as in its video department. The Times has launched several ambitious new digital and mobile projects in recent months and is expected to launch more in the weeks ahead.

Week 38: September 14, 2014 -- September 20, 2014

Operations
200 active rigs in North Dakota
Understanding nomenclature: the Teton / Kings Canyon wells
Understanding nomenclature: the Teton / Kings Canyon wells
An expensive Three Forks B2 well
Oasis reports three huge wells in Camp oil field
Austin 22-31H (#17287) back on-line
CLR reports a huge well near Divide County line north of Williston 

Fracking
Landmark federal study: no evidence of groundwater contamination from fracking

CBR
It started with President Obama killing the Keystone XL

Bakken Economy
The Port of Vancouver presentation, Williston Economic Summit
Williston Economic Summit, 2014
Proposed Watford City High School -- artist's rendering, video

CBR
New CBR terminal near Powers Lake, ND (near Cottonwood oil field)?

Miscellaneous
Links and comments to Vern Whitten photos

Great Article On Katie Ledecky; The Russian Bear -- Russia And The Ukraine -- September 19, 2014

This really is some good writing (the language initially turned me off; I thought it was going to be a different perspective; I was wrong; I'm glad I kept reading).

This is really some good writing on Katie Ledecky. It really is a must-read. And when you get to the part about the video at the 2012 London Olympics ... stop, go to YouTube and view the video (the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHbNKX3VkIM). 

I would write more but I want to show the video to my older granddaughter who is currently making / baking banana bread / muffins with their grandmother.

Huge thanks to the reader who sent me this link. I never would have seen it. Grantland really is a great site; I don't visit it enough.
 
Search the blog for other stories on Katie Ledecky if you are unfamiliar with why I would post this
story.

Ledecky was the power player of the week, September 7, 2014, on Chris Wallace Fox News. A second clip of the same.

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The Russian Bear

In this international game of chess, Putin vs the World, I'm not sure if this means anything, but today it was announced that a Russian company just bought Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. USA Today is reporting:
Pabst Blue Ribbon — a sub-premium beer brand that embraced savvy marketing to stay relevant in a craft beer age — has been sold, along with its parent, Pabst Brewing Co., to Russian company Oasis Beverages.
The companies declined to disclose the sale price, but beverage industry analysts estimate the sale at nearly $750 million — a figure nearly three times the estimated $250 million that C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. paid for it in 2010. Oasis Beverages' partner in the purchase is TSC Consumer Partners, a consumer products company that will take a minority stake Pabst.
Besides the familiar Pabst Blue Ribbon label, Pabst Brewing Co. makes Colt 45, Old Milwaukee and Schlitz. It also makes regional brews such as Lone Star, Rainier and Old Style.
Lone Star! Okay, that does it. This is a win for Putin. 

And the gall to call PBR a "sub-premium" beer. Ha.

By the way, I use PBR when making beer-can chicken. 

All I can say is this: thank goodness Hamm's beer is no longer around -- the Hamm's mascot going to Moscow would be too much to bear. But talk about a perfect fit. [Update: a reader informs me that Hamm's is still around.]

Hamm's

Ten (10) New Permits, Including Seven More Teton/Kings Canyon Wells In Camel Butte -- North Dakota -- September 19, 2014

Active rigs:


9/19/201409/19/201309/19/201209/19/201109/19/2010
Active Rigs196182187196146

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

Ten (10) new permits:
Eight (8) producing wells completed:
  • 23016, 1,161, CLR, Sacramento Federal 7-10H1, Brooklyn, t9/14; cum --
  • 25598, 2,919, HRC, Fort Berthold 147-94-2B-11-3H, McGregory Buttes, t8/14; cum --
  • 25911, 468, Zavanna,  Bills 32-29 4TFH, Stockyard Creek, t8/14; cum --
  • 25913, 929, Zavanna, Bills 32-29 2H, Stockyard Creek, t8/14; cum --
  • 26406, 2,164, BR, CCU Four Aces 24-21MBH, Corral Creek, t8/14; cum --
  • 26859, 1,207, Hess, EN-State D-154-93-2635H-9, Robinson Lake, t8/14; cum --
  • 27315, 142, Hess, EN-Joyce-LE-156-94-1721H-2, Manitou, 4 sections, t8/14; cum --
  • 28205, 326, Triangle, Nygaard 150-101-28-33-4H, Pronghorn, t9/14; cum --  

An Expensive Three Forks B2 Well -- September 19, 2014

27337, 205, Slawson, Hunter 8-8-17TF2H, Big Bend, Three Forks B2, 45 stages; 9 million lbs sand, t6/14; cum 30K 7/14;

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For Investors

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.

Trading at new highs today: AMGN, BRK.B, CFN, EEP, EEQ, ENB, MSFT, RAIL, TRP.

The best thing that ever happened to TRP investors: President Obama killing the Keystone. TRP saved all that CAPEX -- invested it elsewhere -- and a lack of adequate pipeline helps keep price of oil up. A one-two punch.

Think TRP is alone in this? Thing again. All three publicly traded Enbridge-related companies trading at new highs today: EEP, EEQ, ENB. EEP is paying almost 7%; of course, if one bought EEP some time ago, one is getting much more than 7%. 

On July 18, 2014, Zack's: why EEQ could be positioned for a surge. Shortly after that EEQ surged.

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Good Neighbors

This is really, really cool.

In the middle of Los Angeles, among the ribbons of freeway, the cougars are sharing their turf with humans. Unfortunately, unlike humans who have ramps to enter/exit the freeways, cougars do not have ways of getting to their turf, often blocked by freeways.

So, the good folks in southern California are on the cusp of providing a cougar-pass for the felines. The story is at The Los Angeles Times

Previously posted: 

Deer Crossing

Port Of Vancouver Presentation From The Williston Economic Summit -- September, 2014

From the Williston Economic Summit -- 2014, "Port of Vancouver."

Slide 6 -- an eye-opener. Note all the crude oil pipelines in the west (Washington state, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico). After looking at that slide, then vote on the poll regarding CBR at the sidebar on the right.

Slide 8: cost to ship crude oil over next two years -- California, by rail, $13 to $15/bbl; Bakken rail to Cushing, $9/bbl; Alberta to east coast by rail, $9 to $12/bbl. By ship, Brent to the US, $0 to $9.

 Slide 9: Bakken crude by rail to San Francisco ($13/bbl); to Los Angeles ($14/bbl) -- remember, there are no pipelines to California

Slide 10: West Coast refineries increasingly dependent on foreign oil

Slide 11: by 2025 -- zero oil from Alaska North Slope -- an incredible slide

Slide 12: opposition in California to CBR is growing ... do you see where this presentation is headed ..? Remember, this is a "Port of Vancouver" presentation.

The most important data this presentation did not share: the likelihood that California in-state crude oil production could also decline significantly. It was touched on in slide 13, but easily overlooked. At best, there is no increase in California oil production from now to eternity.

Propylene Plants Are Coming -- RBN Energy, September 19, 2014

Active rigs:


9/19/201409/19/201309/19/201209/19/201109/19/2010
Active Rigs197182187196146


RBN Energy: the propylene plants are coming.
Starting at the end of 2015 six new North American propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plants are expected to come online. These new plants will have the capacity to convert up to 170 Mb/d of propane into much more valuable propylene. If all the plants are built, these new supplies of propylene should more than replace declining output from olefin crackers and refineries. These on-purpose PDH plants should also make propylene supply more directly responsive to feedstock prices. Today we describe how PDH plants are likely to impact the propane market.
We last posted a blog about propylene just over a year ago.  As we explained then, propylene (C3H6 - also known as propene) is chemically similar to propane (C3H8) – it just has two less hydrogen atoms. Without those two hydrogen atoms, the propylene molecule is significantly more reactive than propane, making it an ideal chemical building block. 
Propylene is used in downstream petrochemical processes to make films, packaging and synthetic fibers. About two thirds of propylene is used to make polypropylene - one of the best-selling plastics, second only to polyethylene.  Polypropylene is used extensively in automobiles and in the manufacture of packaging films, bottle caps, fiber ropes as well as bicycle helmets and disposable diapers. 
According to IHS, the world consumed about 90 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) or 198 billion pounds of propylene in 2013 - expected to increase to 130 mmtpa (286 billion pounds) within the next decade. Current US demand is about 14 billion pounds per year. China is expected to drive propylene demand, which is tied closely to economic growth.
Apple: riding into Southlake, TX, town center today, I purposely rode by the Apple retail store. I arrived about 8:20. Two lines, as expected. The shorter line for those with pre-ordered pick-ups. And then a very, very long line, perhaps stretching three city blocks, possibly four, for those hoping to get an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. My hunch is that a lot of folks will be getting "rain checks."