The Permian On Track To Produce 4 Million BOPD Within Five Years -- November 3, 2017

LOWEST unemployment rate since December, 2000. 

Venezuela, tick, tick, tick: the government admits it can no longer pay its bills. I do believe that is the definition of default. Note the date: November 2, 2017 -- the date that headline was posted. No links. Story everywhere. Okay, here's a link. Also here.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro finally admitted his government can't afford to pay all of its mounting bills.

Maduro said in a televised speech Thursday that Venezuela and its state-run oil company, PDVSA, will seek to restructure their debt payments.

The oil company made a $1.1 billion payment on Thursday, he said, a sizable amount for a country with only $10 billion left in the bank. "But after this payment, starting today, I decree a refinancing and a restructuring of the external debt," Maduro told the country.

****************************************

Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$54.69→	11/3/2017	11/03/2016	11/03/2015	11/03/2014	11/03/2013
Active Rigs	55	36	69	186	181

RBN Energy: crude oil shuttle pipelines and gathering systems in the Permian, Part 5.

Permian crude oil production now tops 2.5 million barrels a day (MMb/d) and is expected to increase to 3.5 MMb/d by 2022 under RBN’s least optimistic price scenario.

If prices hold steady or rise, production in the play could easily surpass 4 MMb/d within five years.

But the Permian’s output isn’t just dependent on price. It’s also critically important that sufficient gathering capacity is in place to efficiently transport crude from the lease to central points where oil can flow onto shuttle pipelines or takeaway pipes. Today, we continue our blog series on key infrastructure in the nation’s hottest shale region with a look at a number of existing and planned gathering systems.

With Permian production on the rise, there’s been a big push on to expand regional pipeline networks’ capacity to move more crude oil out of the play’s Delaware and Midland basins and — just as important — to give producers and shippers as many destination options as possible. Until a few years ago, most of the oil produced in the Permian flowed north to the crude storage and distribution hub in Cushing, OK. By 2011-12, though, rising crude production in the Bakken, western Canada and the Permian itself — combined with too little pipeline capacity from Cushing to the Gulf Coast — caused a supply glut at Cushing. That, in turn, caused heavy discounting for Cushing benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) versus Louisiana Light Sweet (LLS) at the Gulf Coast, and spurred development of new takeaway capacity from the Permian to Houston and other coastal destinations.

Inappropriate exuberance: I thought I was inappropriately exuberant about Apple, Inc. I can't come close to this contributor over at Seeking Alpha. 

Making America great again: Broadcom "will move" back to the US following Trump's push for tax reform. The company will "move" regardless of how things turn out.