Merry Christmas Eve -- December 24, 2015

I'm a sucker for travelogues. Earlier this month I was pleasantly surprised with "Left Coast Cowboys" and the notes about their trip to the Dakotas. It turns out there was a lot more. For those interested in reading how others see the Dakotas, visit the earlier post that was much, much longer with regard to North Dakota.

And then from there, browse all the various places they visit. Highway 50 in Nevada was particularly interesting.

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Texas Math

This morning on my favorite non-talk local radio station this little nugget. They were talking about all the records Star Wars set. They looked at ticket sales and said it was mostly men who bought tickets. And then this: "50% of all tickets were sold to men."

I can't make this stuff up.

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Why?

The same folks who mentioned that 50% of all Star Wars tickets were sold to men, re-reported the story of the Southwest Airlines a/c with a Chicago destination that circled for four hours over Oakland, burning off fuel, due to indications of a landing gear problem. I assume the landing gear problem -- if there was one -- would have been the same upon landing in Oakland or Chicago. One wonders why they didn't just spend the four hours traveling to Chicago and then making their emergency landing there? If things turned worse, there are a gazillion places to land between Oakland and Chicago including the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Speaking of which, if you need a feel-good movie, consider "The World's Fastest Indian," starring Anthony Hopkins. Speaking of which, while driving to a water polo tournament north of Denton, I happened to see an Indian motorcycle dealer. I couldn't stop there then, but maybe this weekend now that I'm free.

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All-Weather F-15

Which reminds me of some of my own experiences in the USAF. I was fortunate enough to be stationed at Bitburg Air Base (Germany) for two assignments. Bitburg, at the time, was home to several F-15 squadrons. The F-15 was billed as the Air Force's first "all-weather fighter."

The fog was so bad most winter mornings in Bitburg that these "all-weather fighters" were grounded until the fog cleared.

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Barbecue

I had not planned to barbecue this winter (if you can call 70-degree weather in north Texas "winter") but with all the feedback I received on marinades, I plan to grill this weekend. My entire family here in north Texas -- my wife, our daughter, our son-in-law, our three granddaughters -- will be out of town. My wife is already in southern California and later this morning I drive the aforementioned family to the airport. I can't grill in the apartment complex -- at least, not easily -- but I have my grill over at the home of the aforementioned family and I just know the neighborhood will love the aroma of charcoal-grilled chicken and steak, and whatever else. My daughter got me a clever "appliance" for beer-can chicken -- a stainless steel holder for the beer can. I've done beer-can chicken so many times, I didn't see the need for this, but I do have to admit, it's pretty clever and will make it easier to remove the chicken from the beer can.

 Beer of choice for beer-can chicken: Pabst Blue Ribbon

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RNB Energy Did Not Take A Holiday

RBN Energy: Crude/Condensate Export Dock Facilities Ready to Roll in Corpus Christi.

In the new world where unencumbered crude exports are permitted, Corpus Christi holds a lot of strong cards as a major hub for shipping crude oil and lease condensate to international markets.

Crude and condensate shipments out of Corpus have gone through the roof since 2012 as production in the close-by Eagle Ford soared.

Pipelines offer producers direct routes to marine docks that currently ship crude to domestic refineries but could just as easily serve international customers. Today, we continue our look at Corpus’s emerging role as a crude oil/condensate hub with a review of existing and planned storage and marine dock facilities.

In the fall of 1921, after a day of South Texas deer hunting and several shots of whiskey—true story!--the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ district engineer in Galveston told the mayor of Corpus Christi that the Corps had selected Corpus as the site of a new deepwater port.

Five years later, a ship channel from the Gulf of Mexico to Corpus had been dredged and the port was in business. The port’s initial focus was on moving cotton, but by the start of World War II--with thousands of new oil wells being drilled in Nueces, San Patricio and other nearby counties, and the first refineries being built along the Ship Channel--the port’s business had shifted largely to petroleum and petroleum products.

Fast forward to the shale era. Oil still dominates activity at the port, and much of the Ship Channel is lined by refineries, a condensate splitter, storage facilities, and petroleum-oriented marine docks. And even with the recent slowdown in Eagle Ford and Permian Basin drilling activity, large volumes of crude and condensate are being shipped out of Corpus.

According to outbound commodity data published by the Port Authority, volumes of crude and condensate shipped out of Corpus averaged 680 Mb/d between January and November 2015. That is an amazing five times the average volume shipped in 2012 (136 Mb/d). According to the Corpus Port Authority data, outbound crude and condensate peaked in August 2014 at 757 Mb/d but was still close to 670 Mb/d in November 2015.

Active rigs:

	12/24/2015	12/24/2014	12/24/2013	12/24/2012	12/24/2011
Active Rigs	62	173	188	185	197