Five (5) New Permits In North Dakota -- May 4, 2016; Anyone In The Market For A Slightly "Used" New Refinery?

Updates

May 7, 2016: by the way, this story on the MDU/Calumet refinery was picked up by oilprice.com:

A brand new North Dakota refinery—the only new refinery built in the United States since the 1970s--has been forced to cut production, while its owners and operators are forced to concede that a sell-off might be in order thanks to the consistently low oil prices.

The North Dakota based refinery, owned by MDU Resources Group Inc and Calumet Specialty Product Partners LP, is only running at 75 percent of capacity due to low demand for diesel fuel, which is its main product. Refinery losses over the first quarter amount to $7.2 million.

The refinery, which only started selling fuel a year ago, got off to a rocky start with an initial investment of US$430 million—a sum that was 40 percent above original estimates. 

Original Post

 

I assume it's just a matter of time before we see this white elephant on the auction block. MDU cites continued losses with their new refinery in southwest North Dakota:

MDU Resources Group Inc., will only run its Dakota Prairie Refinery in Dickinson at 75 percent capacity following continued losses of $7.2 million in the first quarter.

MDU Resources CEO Dave Goodin said the company is assessing its options regarding its partial ownership in the refinery, which started operations a year ago. The company had expected run the plant at 90 percent capacity but with a low local demand for diesel and higher costs of production, the refinery is currently only processing 15,000 to 16,000 barrels of Bakken crude daily. The lowest the capacity can be sustainably reduced at the refinery is 14,000 to 15,000 barrels per day.

MDU’s partner in the refinery, Calumet Specialty Products Partners, LP, also said in its quarterly earnings report that it may divest of some of its assets including Dakota Prairie.

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From Today's Daily Activity Report

Operator transfer: Legacy Oil transfers about 148 wells (three SWD wells; all the rest oil and gas wells) to Crescent Point. See yesterday's note when I wrote:

Corinthian Exploration transferred about 83 wells to Legacy Oil:

• earliest permit: 00884
• oldest permit: 29202
• two SWD wells

Corinthian and Legacy have a long history together. Back in June, 2014, there was a post: "Legacy buys Corinthian."

I've never been able to keep track of Corinthian, Legacy, and Surge. I track North Dakota operators here. In addition, one can search any of the names here at the blog.

So, it's the same with Crescent Point. One big mixing bowl: Crescent Point, Legacy, Surge, Corinthian. I can't keep them straight.

Wells coming off confidential list Thursday:

• 11409 (no typo), dry, Denbury, Cedar Hlils 21-22, wildcat, this well has a long history, of course: the original name was Cedar Hills 1-22, Bowman County, back in 1985; targeting the Red River "C"; "the Red River "C" zone, because of its thickness, is usually the best zone of production in the Bowman County area; this well was dry in '85; and it was dry again in 2015; this time they targeted the South Red River B; re-entry date: November 29, 2015; permit application: "will drill out existing cement plugs to 9500' and re-plug well per NDIC requirements. Re-plug objective is to isolate entire Red River A, B, C, & D intervals in order to prevent conformance issues; in an earlier note, the same thing: "re-plug to abandon the well."
• 30686, SI/NC, XTO, Rink 12X-4D, Garden, no production data;

Active rigs:

	5/4/2016	05/04/2015	05/04/2014	05/04/2013	05/04/2012
Active Rigs	28	84	185	192	211

Producing wells completed: none.

Five (5) new permits --

• Operators: EOG (4), Petro-Hunt
• Fields: Parshall (Mountrail), Charlson (McKenzie(
• Comments: the four EOG wells will be on a single pad in SWSE/SESW 21-154-90

Two permits canceled --

• Triangle canceled a Sanders permit in McKenzie County
• Abraxas canceled a Yellowstone Boxer in McKenzie County