Marathon To Discontinue Funding The Enbridge Sandpiper Pipeline; WTI Under $40; Crude Oil Inventories Up 1.4 Million Bbls -- August 3, 2016

Breaking news: petroleum inventories rise by 1.4 million bbls. WTI is up, according to the Yahoo!Finance crawler, but is still below $40 -- sitting at $39.94.

EIA provides an update on CBR to the East Coast. Link here. 

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Back To The Bakken

Active rigs:

	8/3/2016	08/03/2015	08/03/2014	08/03/2013	08/03/2012
Active Rigs	34	74	194	179	206

RBN Energy: NG pricing.

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Stake Sold In Bakken Pipeline Project

Marathon To Discontinue Funding For Sandpiper Project

$2 billion pipeline deal. Energy Transfer/Sunoco sell pipeline to MRO/Enbridge. Link here. 

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Sunoco Logistics Partners (SXL) said late Tuesday that they agreed to sell 36.75% of their Bakken pipeline project in the Rockies to MarEn Bakken Co. LLC, a unit of Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC) , for $2 billion in cash. ETP expects the sale to close in the third quarter, when it will receive $1.2 billion and SXL will get $800 million.

The Bakken pipeline entities already arranged a $2.5 billion financing facility to fund the remaining capital needed to complete the project, so ETP and SXL plan to use the proceeds to pay down debt and help fund their current growth projects. All the owners of the project will contribute whatever capital is needed to complete the project based on the size of their stakes.

A unit of MPC has committed to participate in a forthcoming Dakota Access/Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline open season and make a long-term volume commitment on the Bakken project. A new open season is expected to be launched in the third quarter.

Bakken Holdings Co. LLC, a joint venture between ETP and SXL, owns a 75% interest in Dakota Access LLC and Energy Transfer Crude Oil Co. LLC, or ETCO, which are developing and will own and operate the project.

The project consists of 1,172 miles of new 30-inch diameter crude oil pipeline from North Dakota to Patoka, Ill., and more than 700 miles of pipeline converted to crude service from Patoka to Nederland, Texas.

MPC added that it and Enbridge agreed to cancel MPC's transportation services agreement related to the Sandpiper project and liquidate MPC's indirect ownership interest in North Dakota Pipeline Co. LLC. The move would cancel MPC's commitment to fund any more construction costs for that project, for which it's already contributed $301 million, resulting in an impairment review of the carrying value of the investment in the third quarter. 

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Other News

Office Depot to close 300 stores. Link here. Office Depot to Close 300 More Stores, Add Dividend After Failed Deal With Staples. Office supply company plans to trim $250 million in costs by 2018, initiate quarterly dividend. I track the demise of the big box stores here.

Already old news.  Oil edges up to $42, but glut still weighs.