Welcome To The Bakken -- Post #26899 -- September 4, 2018

AMZN: trillion-dollar market today. Then dropped back a bit. So two US companies hit the milestone -- Apple and Amazon. Whoo-hoo.

Link here. On a down day for the market -- early trading -- Ford holds on -- flat, maybe slightly green. MarketWatch story here.

WTI: up almost 2% today. A dime over $71. 

So, I don't forget:

• Mad as hell: EU beef imports from Argentina increased by 10 percent and accounted for 17 percent of total imports, followed by Uruguay with 7 percent market share and Botswana with 2.65 percent. Imports from the United States increased by 180 percent, but still only represent 0.5 percent of total EU beef imports; the Marshall Plan; NATO support; US bases in Germany; and, in return, 0.5% of total EU beef imports; and the only person in the US who cares? Trump. Free trade? I don't think so. Link here. At the link, search for "0.5."
• Still mad as hell: those Canadian tariffs on US dairy products
• Idlib: back to the future; Obama drew a "reddish" line; Trump will draw a "red" line; John Kerry faults Obama on his "reddish" line -- the Syrians saw Obama's "reddish" as "yellow" -- proceed with caution, but proceed; Inshallah; Idlib on the blog in 2015; also, here;
• Trust but verify: XTO in the Grinnell; no wells in 30/31 -- what gives? See this post.
• SPR release: Saudi Arabia buying -- speaks volumes, doesn't it? 
• Ford: September sales to be released about 9:15 a.m. EDT today

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Back to the Bakken

Wells coming off the confidential list over the long weekend and today:

Tuesday, September 4, 2018 

• 33923, SI/NC, MRO, Maleckar USA 31-30H, Reunion Bay, no production data,
• 33122, 955,  CLR, Mountain Gap 9-10H2, Rattlesnake Point, some production; t6/18; cum 16K 7/18;

Monday, September 3, 2018

• 34597, SI/NC, MRO, Sheldon USA 21-30TFH, Reunion Bay, no production data, 
• 32529, drl, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-4A-9-8H, Charlson, no production data, 
• 30522, 804, CLR, Burr Federal 15-26H1, Sanish, 4 sections, t6/18; cum 21K 7/18;
• 29710, IA, CLR, Thorvald 3-6H, Rattlesnake Point, four sections, some production, the Thorvald wells are tracked here;

Sunday, September 2, 2018

• 32965, 692, Oasis, Ceynar 5198 12-5 4B, Banks, huge well; 125K in less than four months; t3/18; cum 172K 7/18; the Oasis Ceynar wells are tracked here.

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
7-2018	37599	89537
6-2018	28265	51263
5-2018	43039	90745
4-2018	37581	76222
3-2018	25525	56677

Saturday, September 1, 2018
None.

Active rigs:

$71.16↑↑	9/4/2018	09/04/2017	09/04/2016	09/04/2015	09/04/2014
Active Rigs	63	56	33	75	196

RBN Energy: to put this next story in perspective, see this post from yesterday. MPLX's strategy to pipe more northeast field condensate and heavier NGLs.

The Utica and “wet” Marcellus plays in eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania are producing increasing volumes of natural gas liquids and field condensates that need to be moved to market. In response, MPLX, a master limited partnership formed by Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) six years ago, has been implementing a multi-part strategy to develop new or expanded pipeline takeaway capacity through the Midwest to deal specifically with the heaviest NGLs — natural gasoline and other pentanes — and with field condensates. That work is now largely done, the results have been positive, and MPLX is now undertaking the next phase of its strategy that will further expand the system’s capacity and add a new element: the ability to transport batches of two other, lighter NGLs — normal butane and isobutane — on a few of the same pipelines. Today, we discuss the next steps the company is taking to facilitate the transport of liquid hydrocarbons out of the Utica and Marcellus.

Two years ago we discussed the fact that while most of the market talk about the Utica and wet Marcellus focuses on either natural gas or lighter NGLs like ethane, propane, and butanes (normal and iso-), the side-by-side regions produce sizable volumes of natural gasoline (an NGL also known as plant condensate) and superlight crude (also known as field condensate or lease condensate), both of which are important products that have the potential for value uplift. Plant condensate/natural gasoline, separated out at gas plants and fractionators, is used as a gasoline blending agent, a feedstock for steam crackers and as a diluent — that is, blended into heavy bitumen crudes in Western Canada to reduce viscosity and enable them to flow more easily through pipelines. Field condensate, which is produced at the lease, can be blended into crude oil, run as a feedstock at refineries and condensate splitters or used as diluent, among other things. Also, recall that condensate splitters are simple refineries that process condensate into its component fractions — mostly NGLs, naphtha and distillate or jet kerosene. We noted that most condensate and natural gasoline was being transported within and out of Marcellus/Utica production areas via truck, rail or barge.

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The Book Page

River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea, Colin Fletcher, 1997.

Whitewater rafting levels of difficulty at this link.

• international system: I - VI (level 1 - 6)
• Grand Canyon only: 1 - 10 rapids scale

The Grand Canyon continues to use an older river rating scale that was developed before the International scale was introduced. A class V ( highly technical & difficult, etc.) on the international scale is equivalent to a 10 on the Grand Canyon scale.

From the book, in Marble Canyon:

• Soap Creek Rapid: 6,5,5,5
• House Rock Rapid: 9,8,7,7
• North Canyon Rapid, at Mile 20, the brink of the Roaring Twenties: 5
• 21 Mile Rapid: 5
• 24 1/2 Mile Rapid: 6,6,5,5, +)
• 25 Mile: 7,6,5,5
• Nankoweap, Mile 52, Mile 1000 of the author's journey: the end of Marble Canyon

Entering the Grand Canyon

• in the first twenty miles, only three rapids; the highest rating, 6
• first day, Unkar: 7,7,6,6
• next day, seventeen miles; eleven riffles and eleven rapids; four of hte rapids rated "8" or higher
• Hance: 10,9,9,8,+; vertical drop 30 feet
• then into the Inner Gorge; Precambrian rocks plunged steep into the river
• Sockdolager: 8,8.9,8; 19 foot drop
• Grapevine: 8; 18 foot drop
• through the Inner Gorge; three more rapids; then Bright Angel Creek
• Phantom Ranch
• Horn Creek Rapid: 9,10, 8,8; 10 foot drop); not recommended between 4000 and 10,000 cfs)
• Hermit Rapid
• Crystal, the first of the Canyon's two monsters; more than a hundred miles below Glen Canyon Dam;: 10,+
• 104 Mile Rapid: 7,6,6,5
• Specter: 8,7,6,5
• Deubendorff: 9,8,8,7,+
• they are on their sixth day below Crystal
• Havasu Creek
• Havasu Rapid
• Lava Falls Rapid, the quintessential "10" rapid with a 34-foot vertical drop; awestruck
• four more days of rapids, but no challenges
• Diamond Creek Wash
• the last few rapids; none rated above "6"
• Gneiss Canyon Rpaid
• Separation Canyon (p. 300)
• Grand Wash Cliffs, forty miles away, three days travel; easy

Out of the Grand Canyon