Morning Note; WTI Continues To Trend Down -- October 23, 2018

Khashoggi? Hardly mentioned in international oil and gas news. 

What if you held a party and no one came? Looks pretty dismal in Riyadh. Link here.

WTI: continues to trend down.

For newbies: the definition of a "frack spread" at this link.

“A frack spread, sometimes referred to as a frack fleet, is a set number of equipment that a pressure pumper – an oilfield service company – uses for hydraulic fracturing,” explained Matt Johnson, Principal with Primary Vision. “This includes a combination of fracturing pumps – also referred to frack pumpers and/or pumping units, data trucks, storage tanks, chemical additive and hydration units, blenders and other equipment needed to perform a frack stimulation.”

Johnson said that his company’s frac spread counts have shown a clear growth trend sector-wide over the past 18 months.

In addition, Johnson said that his company has reported that insurance premiums on the frac pad have been increasing as a result of inexperienced hires.

Since January, Primary Vision has reported some fluctuation in frack spread activity but Johnson said the latest movement has been upward.

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Back to the Bakken

One well coming off confidential list today:

• 34667, SI/NC, MRO, Veddy 44-16H, Jim Creek, no production data, see this post.

Active rigs:

$68.07↓↓	10/23/2018	10/23/2017	10/23/2016	10/23/2015	10/23/2014
Active Rigs	71	54	34	68	194

RBN Energy: Enbridge and Michigan's long-awaited deal on Line 5.

For 65 years, Enbridge’s Line 5 has been a critically important conduit for moving Western Canadian and Bakken crude oil and NGLs east across Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas and into Ontario, where the now-540-Mb/d pipeline feeds Sarnia refineries and petrochemical plants. Some crude from Line 5 also can flow east from Sarnia to Montreal refineries on Line 9.

But Enbridge has been under increasing pressure to shut down Line 5 over concern that a rupture under the Straits of Mackinaw might cause major environmental damage. At long last, the state of Michigan and Enbridge have reached an agreement to replace the section of Line 5 under the straits by the mid-2020s, and to take steps in the interim to enhance the existing pipeline’s safety. In today’s blog, we consider the significance of the Enbridge pipeline and of the newly reached accord.

As any music lover or sports fan knows, the Mick Jaggers and Tom Bradys of the world get all the attention, but lesser-known members of the band or the team help make the stars shine. The same holds true in the midstream sector, as evidenced by Enbridge’s Line 5, a 645-mile pipeline that is part of the company’s much larger Canadian Mainline and Lakehead systems.

Line 5 originates at the company’s terminal in Superior, WI, and runs east/southeast through Michigan to Sarnia, ON. The Superior terminal is the end point for five elements of the Mainline/Lakehead systems ­— Line 1, Line 3 and Line 4 from Edmonton, AB; Line 67 from Hardisty, AB; and Line 2B from Cromer, MB — and has the capacity to handle 2.8 MMb/d of incoming and outgoing liquid hydrocarbons (most of them light, medium or heavy crudes).

Line 5 is one of five pipelines out of Superior; it transports “batches” of either light crude, light synthetic crude or NGLs that are sourced primarily in Western Canada (and also in the Bakken) and bound for either Michigan, Sarnia or Montreal. At the Straits of Mackinac — the four-mile-wide water passage between Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas (and Lake Michigan and Lake Superior) — the 30-inch-diameter, single-pipe Line 5 splits into two 20-inch-diameter, parallel pipes that are anchored along the strait’s lakebed.