- Midwest, East Coast refiners look to Bakken, Alberta for crude
- some refineries delay work due to higher margins
- Brent/WTI spread widens, making exports more profitable
Too bad the Keystone XL was killed by President Obama. Wow, what a doofus. And, of course, Minnesota, is hell-bent on stopping any more improvements/expansions of existing pipelines.
Thank goodness for the DAPL, I guess.
From the linked story in case the article disappears thirty years from now and our great-granddaughters are roughnecking on CLR's 37,000th well which will probably be in some Watford City suburb just west of the city's newly annexed Alexander subdivision.
By then I assume some businessman-turned president will have sold off the SPR and signing legislation mandating:
- SPR North: the Bakken
- SPR South: the Permian
The shutdowns had a twofold effect for Midwest refineries. It pushed U.S. oil to its lowest point against Brent crude in two years WTCLc1-LCOc1, cheapening Bakken and Canadian grades for Midwest buyers. It also boosted refining margins, creating a unique opportunity for the likes of Marathon Petroleum, HollyFrontier Corp and others.
For comparison, it was recently reported that six oil trading companies bought crude oil from the US SPR to capitalize on the hurricanes.Those refiners delayed scheduled work to take advantage of the stronger returns, bid up physical barrels and ran their refineries at higher-than-usual rates for this time of year.Canadian prices are higher due to demand by Midwest and East Coast refiners “anxious to cash in on higher margins while Gulf Coast plants remain offline,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar.
No number was given in that short article, but let's assume 100,000 bbls per trading company = 600,000 bbls. Oh, let's say they bought the entire amount that was to be sold as announced here: 14 million bbls.
14 million bbls: 14 days' worth of production from the prolific Bakken when oil companies are choking back production due to miserably low price of less than $40/bbl.
Unfettered, the Bakken would easily produce 2 million bbls of crude oil / day or about 7 days of SPR crude oil reserves that the US is offering for sale.
And, that's just the Bakken.
[It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway: it takes about two years to release oil from the SPR under "non-emergency conditions" and probably a week or two under "emergency conditions." The Bakken can easily match those time parameters by opening shut-in wells and completing DUCs.]
And, one more thing. To get that Bakken oil to the refiners, the businessman-turned president will mandate the Keystone XXL -- not just XL -- but XXL.
And, one more thing. To get that Bakken oil to the refiners, the businessman-turned president will mandate the Keystone XXL -- not just XL -- but XXL.
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