Some Relief For The Permian Natural Gas Glut? Waha To Mexico -- June 13, 2018

Well, that was easy:

Floating storage of US shale oil "swamps" Europe -- from Reuters -- (estimates for the most part) --

• The boom in U.S. shale shipments has outstripped OPEC’s production cuts and pushed millions of barrels into European waters, where more crude is being stored on ships than at any time in the last 18 months.
• At a monthly average in May of 12.9 million barrels, or 26 percent of total global floating storage, Europe had more oil in floating storage than the Asia-Pacific region at 9.7 million.
• In March-April, Europe’s share was 10 percent versus 40 percent in Asia-Pacific.
• The monthly average share of oil in floating storage located in European – including the Mediterranean – in May outstripped volumes floating in Asia-Pacific for the first time since at least the beginning of 2015.

Global oil demand to remain strong in 2019 -- IEA -- link at WSJ.

• report says demand will grow by 1.4 million bopd
• this is IEA's first forecast for 2019
• demand for 2019 will be on par with this year
• a significant part of that growth will be driven by rising demand for petrochemicals  

US crude oil inventories, weekly data: one link is here --

• API report yesterday: an insignificant draw of 730,000 bbls
• expectation by analysts: a draw of 2.744 million bbls
• API: surprise build of gasoline inventories -- a build of 2.33 million bbls
• analysts had expected a build of only 443,000 bbls
• that's why your neighborhood service station dropped gasoline prices overnight (LOL)
• EIA' s weekly petroleum report will be released later this morning

US crude oil production (same link as above):

• US weekly production sets new record, I believe, up to 10.8 million bopd
• Saudi Arabia increases production to 10 million bopd
• Russia increased oil production to 11.1 million bopd

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Back to the Bakken

 
Active rigs:

$66.05	6/13/2018	06/13/2017	06/13/2016	06/13/2015	06/13/2014
Active Rigs	62	56	28	75	185

RBN Energy: the El Encino-to-Topolobamo pipeline nears completion, and what it means for Waha.

Mexico has been slowly increasing import volumes of natural gas from the U.S., utilizing spare capacity in the newest pipelines south of the border that access supply from the Permian Basin’s Waha Hub. The recent increases have been muted somewhat by delays in completing other infrastructure inside of Mexico, but one of those big delays is about to be resolved. TransCanada’s long-awaited El Encino-Topolobampo Pipeline is finally nearing completion, and once it’s online there may be a surprisingly big gain in gas export volumes to Mexico. As most of this gas will be supplied directly from Waha, Mexico’s impact on Permian gas balances is likely to jump materially in the weeks ahead. Today, we examine the latest development in Mexico’s natural gas pipeline buildout and its effects north of the border.