April 6, 2016

John Kemp has also noticed this and has been tracking it at his tweet. From the EIA today:

Since 2013, the share of premium gasoline in total motor gasoline sales has steadily increased to 11.3% in August and September 2015, the highest share in more than a decade.

Although lower gasoline prices may be supporting demand for premium gasoline, the upward trend in sales is more likely driven by changes in fuel requirements for light-duty vehicles (LDV) in response to increasing fuel economy standards, which will have widespread implications for future gasoline markets. --- EIA

Active rigs:

	4/6/2016	04/06/2015	04/06/2014	04/06/2013	04/06/2012
Active Rigs	29	94	192	187	208

RBN Energy: What’s Ahead in Refined Products Movements to the East Coast.

BNSF cutting thousands of jobs in light of oil collapse. Over at Dallas bizjournal:

BNSF Railway has furloughed roughly 4,600 of its employees nationwide over the past few months as declining oil prices and coal demand have taken a toll on the industry not seen since the Great Recession.

The furloughs total about 10 percent of Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s workforce, roughly matching the layoffs the railroad made in 2007 and 2008.

Kemper's clean coal power -- the price tag went up again. Over at bizjournal:

The price tag for Southern Co.’s Kemper clean coal power plant in Mississippi just went up... again. In a Securities and Exchange filing, the Atlanta-based energy giant reported costs rose $18 million through February and could rise further still.

During March 2016, Mississippi Power has continued to conduct repairs and modifications to the refractory lining inside each of the gasifiers and to inspect and evaluate the need for additional refractory work.

This never-ending story is tracked here.  

Let's see, does the next article mention Kemper in Mississippi?

The clean coal debacle in The New York Times:

OTTAWA — An electrical plant on the Saskatchewan prairie was the great hope for industries that burn coal.

In the first large-scale project of its kind, the plant was equipped with a technology that promised to pluck carbon out of the utility’s exhaust and bury it underground, transforming coal into a cleaner power source. In the months after opening, the utility and the provincial government declared the project an unqualified success.

But the $1.1 billion project is now looking like a green dream.

Known as SaskPower’s Boundary Dam 3, the project has been plagued by multiple shutdowns, has fallen way short of its emissions targets, and faces an unresolved problem with its core technology. The costs, too, have soared, requiring tens of millions of dollars in new equipment and repairs.

“At the outset, its economics were dubious,” said Cathy Sproule, a member of Saskatchewan’s legislature who released confidential internal documents about the project. “Now they’re a disaster.”

The utility that runs the project, SaskPower, and advocates for carbon capture argue that the setbacks are typical teething problems associated with any new and complex technology.

The Boundary Dam Power Station sits near a wealth of resources not far from the North Dakota border.

Hundreds of years of coal reserves are buried under the ground nearby, virtually eliminating transportation costs. And the mining creates employment in an area with limited job prospects.

But the costs are piling up.

One shutdown last spring to clean and replenish the chemical cost 17 million Canadian dollars. Mr. Marsh said that the company was still looking for a way to prevent the contamination.

The repeated shutdowns have caused SaskPower to miss multiple carbon dioxide deliveries to Cenovus Energy, the Canadian oil company that signed a 10-year contract with the utility to buy most of the gas. (Cenovus uses carbon dioxide to force oil from largely depleted wells.)

SaskPower has had to pay 7 million Canadian dollars in penalties, offsetting most of the 9 million Canadian dollars in payments received.

On top of that, the carbon system is a voracious consumer of the electricity generated by Boundary Dam, which has 150 megawatts of capacity. Mr. Marsh testified that about 30 megawatts of capacity were consumed by the system, and an additional 15 to 16 megawatts were needed to compress the carbon dioxide.

Nope, Kemper not mentioned.