Three Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today; One Will Be A DUC -- December 12, 2018

Hess: first to offer oil and gas apprenticeships in North Dakota. 

ISO New England: link here. Right on schedule --

• demand surge
• natural gas kicks in
• renewables unchanged
• request for Canadian hydro
• spot price spikes to $150/MWh
• to hold down costs, coal plants fired up
• coal well over 4%: 7% right now; 8% peak yesterday

Oil tankers find solace in shale -- Bloomberg.

Maiden LNG cargo leaves Corpus Christi -- Rigzone. See this link for background, interactive map.

ADNOC claims first.

Calling the move unprecedented, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. reported Tuesday that it has safely completed the first co-loading of liquefied petroleum gas and propylene onto the same vessel. The products are typically shipped separately.

According to ADNOC, successfully loading approximately 12,600 metric tons of propylene and 33,000 metric tons of LPG onto a single vessel – docked in Ruwais,

Peak oil? Hardly. EIA says US domestic oil production rising despite low prices.

New refinery? Alberta may build one. 

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Back to the Bakken

Note: yesterday it was noted that MRO extended its core position in the Bakken. This announcement was made in the face of tanking WTI prices, trading at about $50 when the announcement was made. Speaks volumes.

Wells coming off the confidential list today -- Wednesday, December 12, 2018:

• 34115, 612, Lime Rock Resources, Neal 2-33-28H-144-95, Murphy Creek, 50 stages; 6 million lbs, 6/18; cum 58K 10/18;
• 34114, 457, Lime Rock Resources, Twist 2-4-9H-143-95, Murphy Creek, 50 stages; 6 million lbs, t6/18; cum 51K 10/18; 
• 33893, SI/NC, Hess, SC-5WX-152-99-0310H-4, Banks, no production data, 

Active rigs:

$52.60	12/12/2018	12/12/2017	12/12/2016	12/12/2015	12/12/2014
Active Rigs	65	51	41	65	181

RBN Energy: IMO 2020 and the need for increased global oil refinery runs.

The IMO 2020 rule, which calls for a global shift to low-sulfur marine fuel on January 1, 2020, is likely to require a ramp-up in global refinery runs — that is, refineries not already running flat out will have to step up their game. Why? Because, according to a new analysis, the shipping sector’s need for an incremental 2 MMb/d of 0.5%-sulfur bunker less than 13 months from now cannot be met solely by a combination of fuel-oil blending, crude-slate changes and refinery upgrades. The catch is, most U.S. refineries are already operating at or near 100% of their capacity, so the bulk of the refinery-run increases will need to happen elsewhere. Today, we continue our look into how sharply rising demand for IMO 2020-compliant marine fuel may affect refinery utilization.

This is the third blog in this series, and the latest of the many blogs about the ongoing effort by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) — a specialized agency of the United Nations — to ratchet down allowable sulfur-oxide emissions from the engines that power the 50,000-plus tankers, dry bulkers, container ships and other commercial vessels plying international waters.

The current 3.5% cap on sulfur content in bunker (marine fuel) in most of the world is set to be reduced to a much stiffer 0.5% on January 1, 2020. [There is an even tougher 0.1%-sulfur limit already in place in the IMO’s Emission Control Areas (ECAs), which include Europe’s Baltic and North seas and areas within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. and Canadian coasts.] There are three primary options shipowners have to achieve compliance with IMO 2020: (1) continue burning high-sulfur bunker (HSB; sulfur content up to 3.5%) and install an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) to eliminate most of the sulfur dioxide emissions; (2) switch to marine distillates or low-sulfur bunker blends whose sulfur content is 0.5% or less; or (3) use alternative low-sulfur fuels like liquefied natural gas (LNG) or methanol.