The Market And Energy Page, And Other Stuff, T+352 -- January 8, 2018; Visa Launches Expanded Matching Program For 401(k)s -- Cites Trump's Tax Plan

Updates

Later, 10:55 p.m. CT: from a reader -- why we are seeing a surge in natural gas for electricity generation:

Regarding New England ... temperatures warming up (30 degrees or so) freeing up natgas for heating to be used for power generation.

LNG from Arctic region - Yamal - offloaded in UK a few days ago and partially re-loaded onto tanker Gaselys. This ship is now headed to Boston to supply the Everett LNG terminal.

Story at Bloomberg.

Another Bloomberg story, from 2016 -- Boston and the road to New England -- "The US has more gas than it needs and Boston is importing."

The U.S. is grappling with the biggest glut of natural gas in four years. And you wouldn’t know it from the number of tankers bringing supplies of the fuel into the Northeast.

Original Post

Bakken wells: Data for wells coming off confidential list this week has been posted; not all data has been posted by NDIC yet this morning.

A record-breaking Bakken well: previously discussed -- this well should be a record-breaking Bakken well

• 33398, 3,291, WPX, Hidatsa North 14-23HX, Reunion Bay, 2 sections; Three Forks B1, 51 stages; 8.6 million lbs; sections 14/23-150-93; TD = 21,419;

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	11-2017	30	59857	61189	38798	67574	12685	48319
BAKKEN	10-2017	31	85032	83607	49471	77974	10905	57801
BAKKEN	9-2017	30	14682	14030	8734	13462	1500	10233

Three things to note about that WPX Hidata North well:

• it was NOT a 3-section long lateral as some suggested; it was only a standard long lateral, the kind that is the norm in the Bakken;
• it did not use an inordinate amount of proppant and the number of stages, although high, not incredibly high; and, finally,
• it was a Three Forks, upper bench, well

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Active rigs in North Dakota:

$61.50→	1/8/2018	01/08/2017	01/08/2016	01/08/2015	01/08/2014
Active Rigs	54	39	58	165	193

RBN Energy: refined-product delivery and storage infrastructure in Mexico, part 2.

Holy mackerel: Visa announces a huge 401(k) matching program with passage of new tax bill. Huge, huge deal. Details still developing. Link here.

Peak oil? Not! Hess announces sixth oil discovery offshore Guyana, further increasing resource potential. Exxon calls this their "sixth home run" in this play. Wow.

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Other

CBR: some, including me, thought CBR was dead. Not so fast. Rail shipments of Canadian oil to US seen rising over 60 percent.

Canadian crude shipments to the United States by rail could rise more than 60 percent this year on demand by Gulf Coast refiners for the heavy crudes and the wide differential between Canadian grades and the U.S. benchmark.

The rail shipments could reach as much as 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) by year end and average some 400,000 bpd in 2019, estimated analysts at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

Last year, the shipments averaged 130,000 bpd, according to U.S. government data.

Canadian crudes have been replacing heavy oil from Venezuela and Mexico at the Gulf Coast, due to production declines in both countries.

Record: Hettinger, ND, set the low-temperature record around the world the other day, and received no national media exposure as far as I know. But, New Hampshire's Mt Washington comes in second and gets huge national media exposure. Linked at the Drudge Report. Drudge missed Hettinger, ND.

The road to Europe: higher energy costs. Russia announces higher shipments of crude oil to China. Could decrease amount sent to Europe resulting in higher crude oil expenses for oil.

Poll: closing out this poll in which we asked, do you agree that the opioid crisis is the #1 story in the Bakken in 2017?

• yes: 14%
• no: 86%

New poll, if given the choice between only two, will your next pick-up be a diesel Ford F-150, or a Tesla EV pick-up?

Slow news day: CNBC spending an ungodly number of minutes on a non-story -- teachers in California blaming Apple for teenage suicides. Let's see how legalization of recreational use of marijuana affects California children. 

ISO New England: this is the first time I've seen this phenomenon in the recent cold snap in New England -- percentage of natural gas surging over percentage of oil being used to provide electricity.

 

The Hudson Freezes Over -- And Look What They Are Worried About -- Oil And Heating Oil. Link here with video:

The Hudson River.

Ice, ice, ice, as far as the eye can see.

“It’s vital that we keep these navigation channels open… we’ve got to keep them open to get the heating oil and other products down river so they can get out to the people who need them most,” said Steve Strohmaier, U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs Officer.
Heating oil is a precious commodity, especially right now in the state of New York when many are in short supply. [Because CAVE dwellers refused to put in pipelines that don't freeze.]

“About 90% of that heating oil that we use in the Northeast is brought in by tug and barge,” Strohmaier said.

A reader notes: they are hauling oil on barges down the Hudson River day in, day out. And no one says a thing. Where are the all the Steyer-Soros-DAPL protestors. What a bunch of hypocrites.