Legacy Fund Monthly Deposit Drops; Active Rigs Jump To 61 -- August 22, 2018

Longest "bull run" in history.

Legacy fund: August, 2018, deposit takes unexpected dip; deposit at $58 million; below July deposit of $62 million; slightly below June deposit; link here;

S & P 500 hits all-time high.

Dow holds overnight despite setback for Trump.

WTI: climbs almost 2%; now just over $67; is the worst "recent' pullback over? Rigzone article here;

• bellwether majors: COP up 1.27%; CVX up 0.56% in pre-market trading
• tankers not shipping Iranian oil to China
• French company Total pulls out of $4.9 billion deal with Iran over Trump sanctions 
• API, yesterday: huge decline in US inventories; weekly crude oil inventories: down 5.170 million gallons
• EIA: today's weekly report pending;
• Norway needs to decide whether it will dump all equity in oil

Headlines from WJS:

• EPA ruling on coal: not the climate apocalypse; it won't save coal; it won't poison the planet 
• fracking, the next big bet: produced water -- how to get rid of it

Misc:

• Ebola outbreak in Congo worsens: toll now up to 55 -- London tabloid, The Daily Star

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

Back to the Bakken

Wells coming off the confidential list today, Wednesday: none.


Active rigs:

$67.05↑↑	8/22/2018	08/22/2017	08/22/2016	08/22/2015	08/22/2014
Active Rigs	61	52	32	76	193

RBN Energy: Tellurian's Driftwood LNG: gas reserves, pipelines, liquefaction and export docks.

With global demand for LNG rising and U.S. natural gas producers needing markets for their burgeoning output, it’s not a question of whether another round of U.S. liquefaction/LNG export facilities will be built, but which developer will be first and when it will make its final investment decision (FID). Odds are that the initial FID for this “next round” of projects is only months away, but as for the specific developer and project that will lead the pack, that has yet to be determined. We do know, however, that a handful of projects appear to be making real progress, and today we consider one of them: Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG project near Lake Charles, LA.

This is the second episode in our series on the next round of U.S. liquefaction/LNG export projects. Previously, we discussed the roller-coaster ride that U.S. LNG has been on for the past 20-odd years — and some odd years they’ve been. Through the 1990s and the first two-thirds of the 2000s, U.S. natural gas production was close to flat, so the general thinking was that U.S. gas output had peaked, and that over time the country would need to import increasing amounts of LNG to meet its gas demand. In 2005, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that by 2015 the U.S. would be importing the LNG equivalent of nearly 12 Bcf/d, and that by 2025, the nation would be importing LNG volumes equal to nearly 18 Bcf/d. A number of LNG import terminals were constructed to handle the expected inflow. It became clear by 2010-11, however, that the Shale Revolution — and the resulting boom in U.S. gas production — had eliminated the need for LNG imports. All of a sudden, many of the companies that had just finished building LNG import terminals started exploring the possibility of adding liquefaction plants at those sites to export LNG instead.