Huge Refineries Going Up In China -- April 20, 2018

The largest refinery in the US is the Motiva, at 600,000 bbls crude oil / day. And only one or two other come close. Hold that thought.

From Reuters today:

Chinese private chemical producer Hengli Group has won state approval to import 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude oil, the largest quota ever for a private refiner, as it challenges the country’s smaller independent plants in an oversupplied Chinese fuel market.

Another private chemical firm, Zhejiang Ronsheng Group, is also expected to start operating a new 400,000-bpd refinery in the eastern city of Zhoushan later this year. 

I think a lot of folks forget how big China really is.

It would be interesting to know if these refineries are configured/optimized for light, sweet oil (Bakken) or heavy oil (Mideast). I really don't know.

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Zacks On The Bakken

Link here.  North Dakota oil production slips but set for 2018 milestone -- Zacks.

As per North Dakota’s oil regulator, the state’s daily crude output fell 0.4% in February after edging down 0.3% in the previous month. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources’ (‘DMR’) latest data said that oil production in February averaged 1,174,769 barrels a day, down 4,795 barrels a day from January.

But unlike crude, natural gas output went up – from January’s 2,071,820 thousand cubic feet per day to 2,102,266 thousand cubic feet per day – a new all-time high. As operators scramble to the core areas of the Bakken, wells here tend to produce more gas along with crude (present gas flare rate of around 15%).

Meanwhile, North Dakota’s total number of producing wells numbered 14,327 at the end of February, essentially unchanged from the previous month.

While the slight drop in oil activity – primarily attributed to cold weather – is the third month-over-month production decrease in a row, the decline was much smaller than anticipated. Moreover, daily output remained above 1 million barrels for the thirteenth month.

Therefore, notwithstanding the temporary blip, the newest numbers confirm the resurgence in volumes extracted from North Dakota, centered on the Bakken Shale formation.