Chuck Berry, Dead At 90 -- March 18, 2017

Johnny B. Goode, Mr Chuck Berry

Appeals Court Won't Take The DAPL Case -- Oil Could Start Flowing Monday -- March 18, 2017

From the AP, so I assume it is not fake news. LOL. Seriously, a huge "thank you" to a reader for sending this:

An appeals court on Saturday refused a request from two American Indian tribes for an "emergency" order that would prevent oil from flowing through Dakota Access pipeline.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means the $3.8 billion pipeline to move North Dakota oil to a distribution point in Illinois could be operating as early as Monday, even as the tribes' lawsuit challenging the project moves forward.

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes have challenged an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg not to stop final construction of the pipeline, and they wanted the appeals court to halt any oil flow until that's resolved.

The appeals court said the tribes hadn't met "the stringent requirements" for such an order.

Restores at least some of my faith in the US court system. Or maybe I'm just focused on the "Ninth Circuit Court."

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The Book Page

I know nothing about vermouth except what little I picked up when leaning about martinis. A reader happened to mention vermouth in passing and now I'm excited to learn about vermouths. I assume the plural of vermouth is vermouths -- it sounds plausible.

On page 17, in Adam Ford's Vermouth, c. 2015, in the introduction:

Meanwhile, in Europe, vermouth has taken over as the drink. In Spain, they call it simply, to do vermouth -- by which they mean the ritual of drinking vermouth and enjoying a light snack before dinner and a night out.

From Australia to England, new craft producers are releasing novel and innovative takes on the product across the globe. In America, too, finally, amazingly, we're starting to enjoy vermouth on its own. In New York, where vermouth was actually born in America, Michelin-rated restaurants are serving vermouth straight, even by the bottle on wine lists, and major spirits publications are tripping over themselves to tout vermouth as the trend of the moment. In other words, it seemed like the perfect time to write this all down. 

From winefolly:

Fundamentally, vermouth is required to be 75% wine which is typically from white grapes and the remaining portion is a blend of sugar (or mistelle: grape juice plus alcohol), botanicals and alcohol. The blends of botanicals and the selection of wine differs according to the producer’s exacting (and closely guarded) recipe. Today’s top Vermouth brands, such as Martini and Rossi or Dolin, were originally developed in the 1800’s and their recipes are protected much like the recipe for Coca-Cola (which by the way, is essentially a non-alcoholic derivative of Vermouth).

The Uppercut.

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Remember Gilda Radner

Maybe it's just me, but this tells me that Gilda Radner "channeled" Betty Hutton -- intentionally or unintentionally -- begins at 32 seconds in the video below and Gilda Radner "can be seen" in many clips: her voice, her mannerisms, her humor.

Betty Hutton
Something else Gilda Radner and Betty Hutton had in common: both born in Michigan -- one in Detroit, one in Battle Creek.

Another Major Texas Natural Gas Pipeline? -- March 18, 2017

Locator: 10001OILGRADES.

Active rigs:

	3/18/2017	03/18/2016	03/18/2015	03/18/2014	03/18/2013
Active Rigs	47	32	107	191	186

Another major Texas pipeline? From Rigzone, data points:

• Cheniere Energy
• link STACK/SCOOP to Gulf Coast
• 200-mile, 36-inch natural gas pipeline
• in-service date of early 2019 proposed

Phillips 66: files request to dredge project in Arthur Kill near its Bayway facility. Data points:

• second paragraph: 10-year project is to increase Bakken oil barge traffic, according to Sierra Club
• Sierra Club: supports unlimited bird kills by wind farms

Changing "quality" of oil with OPEC cuts. From Reuters, data points:

• global oil: lighter and sweeter with OPEC cut
• US, North Sea, West Africa: relatively low density, low sulfur
• Saudi Arabia, Mideast: heavier, and much more sulfur
• Atlantic: light and sweet
• Arabian: medium/heavy and sour
• Previous posts on same subject:

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Review -- Previously Posted

NYMEX:

• light crude oil for domestic U.S. oil as having an API gravity between 37° API and 42° API 
• light crude oil for non-U.S. oil as being between 32° API  and 42° API

Canadian National Energy Board:

• light crude oil as having a density API gravity greater than 30.1°

Alberta, government; Alberta process most of Canada's oil:

• API gravity greater than 35° API

Pemex, Mexican state oil company:

• light crude oil as being between 27° API and 38° API 

This variation in definition occurred because countries such as Canada and Mexico tend to have heavier crude oils than are commonly found in the United States, whose large oil fields historically produced lighter oils than are found in many other countries.

Loop Sour: see this post.

LOOP Sour comprises US Gulf of Mexico grades Mars and Poseidon and a crude blend called Segregation 17, named after a cavern into which the Middle Eastern grades Arab Medium, Basrah Light and Kuwait Export Crude can be delivered. The grade has been most similar to Mars in terms of API gravity over the past 12 months, averaging 0.33 degree off Mars’ typical 29.44; and from a sulfur standpoint, averaging 0.02 percentage point off Arab Medium’s typical 2.53%.

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Benchmarks

Much, but not all, information below comes from wiki.

WTI

• A wide variety of benchmark crude oils worldwide are considered to be light. The most prominent in North America is West Texas Intermediate (WTI):
• API gravity of 39.6° API; lighter than Brent, but not by much
• sulfur: 0.24% (sweet oil is defined as oil with sulfur content less than 0.5%)

Brent Crude

• "basket" changed in early 2017 due to older fields depleting
• Platts will add Norway's Troll to the basket of four British and Norwegian crude grades which is already uses to assess dated Brent from January 1, 2018
• this will join Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, or BFOE as they are known
• Troll: a light, sweet crude; operated by Statoil (also contributes to the Oseberg, Statfjord, Gullfaks, Grane and Asgard streams)
• the most commonly referenced benchmark oil from Europe is Brent Crude, which is
• 38.06° API

Dubai Crude

• the third most commonly quoted benchmark is Dubai Crude, which is 31° API
• this is considered light by Arabian standards but would not be considered light if produced in the U.S.

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Others

Saudia Arabia's Ghawar field:

• the largest oil field in the world, Saudi Arabia's Ghawar field
• light crude oils ranging from 33° API to 40° API (see above; most would consider Saudi oil to be medium/heavy; and sour

Alaska North Slope: from XOM -- 

• 31.4°
• sulfur: 0.96%

Bakken:

36 to 44 degrees API. The quality of this oil is excellent, almost identical to WTI. The benchmark crude oil is West Texas Intermediate, which is 40 degrees API sweet crude. It is the benchmark because it requires the least amount of processing in a modern refinery to make the most valuable products, unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel.

North Dakota Spearfish: 36°

• presentation, Corinthian, undated, perhaps early 2014 
• sulfur content: 0.8% to 1%

Mexico: generally heavy to medium-light; sulfur content

• Isthmus: 21.8°.3.3% sulfur
• Maya: 33.4°; 1.35% sulfur
• Olmeca: 37.3°; 0.84% sulfur

Iraqi: heavy oil

Crude oil found in Iraq varies significantly in quality, with API gravities generally ranging from 22° (heavy) to 35° (medium - light).

Over 70% of national oil reserves are below 28° API  and the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted in its 2012 report on Iraq that future production is likely to include a larger share of heavier crudes. However some of the crudes produced at the Taq Taq field in the norther semi-autonomous Kurdistan region are as light as 48° API, dubbed by Reuters as "champagne crude." See Taq Taq here.  

California: heavy oil; pdf here -- old data, from 2004, but type of oil probably has not changed

• Kern County: heavy oil with 1.2% sulfur; accounts for 75% of California's on-shore production
• Los Angeles Basin: heavy oil; sulfur content 1.7% to 2.0%
• Off-shore: intermediate for the most part, 18° (heavy) to 36° (medium-light)

Ecuador: heavy oil; 24.1°

Seeks low-sulphur, light oil, September 1, 2015:

Net crude exporter Petroecuador issued a tender to import 30 million barrels of light sweet crude over the course of a year in an attempt to maximize diesel and gasoline production when its Esmeraldas refinery comes back online in the fourth quarter, market sources said Tuesday.

Petroecuador is seeking 30 million barrels of low sulfur crude oil with an API gravity of 28 degrees to be delivered in a one-year period, according to a tender issued late Monday.

The state-owned oil company is seeking the barrels "in order to optimize the Esmeraldas refinery operations, once the revamping has been complete," the tender said. 

Venezuela: heavy oil, similar to Canadian oil sands.

Brazil:

• Buzios: link here.
• Mero: link here.
• both Mero and Buzios (almost identical):

• a medium heavy crude (perfect for diesel, unlike WTI / Bakken)
• an API gravity of around 28.4 degrees

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Notes To The Granddaughters

Olivia's soccer team won today, 1 - 0. Her team was awarded max points: points for the win and points for the shut-out. They knocked off the #1 team in their bracket. Olivia's team is now in 1st place in their bracket. The other team may have dropped to third place depending on how other teams do today.

Olivia plays midfield and defense but today was given credit for the assist with the one goal. She kicked the ball to the player who scored.