Apparently The North Dakota Voter ID Requirement Is Valid For The 2018 Elections -- October 9, 2018

I'm not sure what this means but the US Supreme Court did not accede to this urgent request to review the North Dakota voter ID law that requires "residential address on one's official ID."

"They" say the court upheld the North Dakota voter ID law but technically the US Supreme Court simply didn't accede to the urgent request to rule on its constitutionality. Subtle difference? I don't know; probably depends on definition of "subtle."

Anywhere, here's the story:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to toss out an appeals court order that allows North Dakota to enforce its voter ID requirement during the 2018 elections.

The request to toss out the order came from a group of Native American residents who are challenging a new state law that requires voters to present identification that includes a current residential street address.

The challengers argued the new rule disenfranchises a disproportionate share of the population because many Native American voters live on reservations with no street addresses.  

The District Court agreed and temporarily blocked the state secretary from enforcing the new requirements during the primary elections, but the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked that court order last month.

The challengers asked the Supreme Court in an urgent request submitted to the Justice Neil Gorsuch to toss out the Eighth Circuit stay, arguing it has left thousands of Native American voters unable to cast ballots, but the court denied the request without explanation.  

The Court's newest member, Brett Kavanaugh, did not take part in the decision.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, however, filed a dissenting opinion, which Justice Elena Kagan joined.

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Cramming For Her Neuropathophysiology Test

Neuropathophysiology, checking the spelling:

• neuro -: brain, nervous system
• patho -: abnormal
• physiology -: functions of the particular system

WTI Moves Slightly Higher On Storm Fears -- But This, Too, Shall Pass -- October 9, 2018

Three intriguing names in one paragraph! Jared, Nikki, and the Prince. Three other names in one paragraph: Sessions, Lindsey Graham, Nikki.

API weekly crude oil inventory data: it appears that the data will be released one day later than usual due to holiday on Monday?

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$74.96→	10/9/2018	10/09/2017	10/09/2016	10/09/2015	10/09/2014
Active Rigs	64	57	33	68	192

Six new permits:

• Operators: Oasis, Hess
• Fields: Tyrone (Williams), Squires (Williams), Truax (Williams)
• Comments: Oasis has permits for a new 4-well McFarland / Hendricks well in Lot 4 section 1-155-102; Hess has permits for a 2-well SC-Barney pad in SESE 7-154-98;

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 33978, n/d, BR, Rink 5-1-5 UTFH, Pershing, t--; cum --
• 34142, n/d, Whiting, Earl 14-34-6TFH, 4 sections; Epping, t-- ; cum --
• 33088, n/d, CLR, Sakakawea Federal 2-19H, Elm Tree, t--; cum --

Two permits canceled:

• MRO: two DCFH permits in McKenzie County

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Moving Gravel

Earlier in the day:

 Later in the day:

Plans For Increased VLCC Crude Oil Terminals Off-Shore Texas -- RBN Energy -- October 9, 2018

RBN Energy: part 5 -- more plans for offshore crude oil export terminals along the Gulf coast.

Part 1:

• ongoing boom in US crude oil exports; rising steadily since the 40-year ban on most exports lifted in December, 2015
• crude exports averaged:
• 590,000 bopd in 2016
• 1.1 million bopd in 2017
• 1.8 million bopd in 2018
• VLCC -- by far the most cost-efficient way to move oil to Asia
• 1,100 feet long
• width of nearly 200 feet
• fully loaded, draft of 72 feet
• today, only LOOP can handle a fully loaded VLCC
• Freeport, TX: joint plan by Oiltanking, Enbridge, and Kinder Morgan to develop an off-shore terminal -- 30 miles off-shore

Part 2:

• JupiterMLP's (sic) proposal for an offshore export terminal only six miles off Brownsville
• a new long-haul pipeline from Permian to Brownsville

Part 3:

• Trafigura's plan to build a deepwater export terminal 15 miles off Corpus Chrisi

Part 4:

• Tallgrass Energy's plan to build a combination export and import terminal 1.5 miles off the coastof Venice, LA
• Tallgrass' related plan to build new pipelines (Seahorse and Pelican) to connect Cushing to St James (LA)
• Tallgrass: a planned new terminal on the Mississippi in Plaquemines Parish (LA)
• Tallgrass: proposed offshore terminal near Venice

Part 5:

• plans for two new terminals capable of handling fully loaded VLCCs
• EPD: planned offshore terminal about 80 miles off Texas
• fast enough to fill a 2-million-bble VLCC in 24 hours
• South Texas Gateway Terminal; joint venture, Buckeye Partners, Phillips 66 Partners, and Andeavor (now part of MRO)
• the docks initially will be capable of partially loading VLCCs with full loading of VLCCs at the docks a possibility later on

US crude oil exports at this link.

Nikki Haley Resigns From UN -- October 9, 2018

Big Oil To Bury Skeptical Investors -- Rystad Energy -- October 9, 2018

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

This was the top story over at Rigzone today. t's a Bloomberg story. It's an open-book test.

Headline: Big Oil to bury skeptical investors in piles of cash. Data points:

• according to Bloomberg, investors still haven't forgiven oil companies for crude-price collapse four years ago
• oil remains at $80
• costs languish at an 8-year low
• 2018: oil companies will rake in as much extra cash as it did in the previous five years combined -- Rystad Energy
• one could liquidate Facebook and it wouldn't touch what oil companies will generate in free-flowing cash over the next three years
• international oil companies: could see free cash flow
• double this year
• to a record $175 billion
• rise again in 2019, to $200 billion
• stay around that level for least two more years after that
• Bloomberg cited enough concerns in the second half of the story to offset the first half

Oil Majors To Bury Investors -- Bloomberg -- October 9, 2018

Boom! Lead story over at Rigzone today. Oil majors to bury investors. Link here.

UK fracking: it will be a huge dud. Rizone staff story. I agree completely. I've never seen two oil wells get so much attention. I think they've been talking about these two wells for five years. Not exaggerating. North Dakota, meanwhile, is drilling upwards of 120 wells per day; will complete about two to five wells per day.

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Back to the Bakken

One well coming off confidential list today --

• 33327, SI/NC, XTO, Dakota Federal 42X-36C, Bear Den, no production data, 

Active rigs:

$74.70😊	10/9/2018	10/09/2017	10/09/2016	10/09/2015	10/09/2014
Active Rigs	64	57	33	68	192

RBN Energy: part 5 -- more plans for offshore crude oil export terminals along the Gulf coast.

Just as midstream companies are in a fierce competition to build new crude oil pipelines from the Permian to the Gulf Coast, there’s a race on to develop what would be the first Gulf Coast terminal in a generation capable of handling fully laden Very Large Crude Carriers. There’s a lot at stake.

Currently, 2-MMbbl VLCCs can be filled to the brim without reverse lightering only at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), and even if U.S. crude production continues to rise at a fast clip, it’s unlikely that more than another one or two high-capacity, VLCC-ready terminals would be needed over the next five years. And, assuming there’s not an overbuild situation, the project or projects that ultimately advance would be expected to be in-demand and highly utilized — VLCCs are the preferred mode of transporting crude to Asia and other far-away markets, and being able to fully load VLCCs saves the considerable cost and time associated with reverse lightering these supertankers in deep water.

Today, we conclude our series on the fast-paced efforts to develop export terminals in waters deep enough to float VLCCs chock-full of oil.

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Global Warming

Three items.

• Flathead Lake, Montana: folks telling me it's a bit cooler than usual for this time of year and they're expecting more of the lake to freeze over this year than usual.
• Yellowstone National Park: some roads through the park were closed earlier than usual due to early snow this year.
• Manitoba: unseasonable cold delays western Manitoba harvest -- losses in the millions. Link here. 

By the way: the tea leaves suggest that "global warming" is not going to go away as a political issue.

• Trump will expand ethanol program.
• ExxonMobil donates'$1 billion to carbon tax "program."

Serious about CO2 emissions? I'll believe it when "we" go nuclear.

• Egypt to build its first nuclear project
• 4,800-MW project
• turbine and generator units alone will cost $700 million -- GE got the contract
• one turbine each year, 2023 to 2026
• contract was awarded by AAEM, a joint venture between GE and Russia-based Atomenergomash
• Egypt, with an expanding population of more than 95 million and vast energy needs, wants to diversify its energy sources. In addition to building a nuclear plant, the country has said it wants to boost capacity to generate solar and wind power. The North African nation, which currently relies on oil and natural gas for more than 90 percent of its power, targets producing 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2022
• Russia and Egypt signed an agreement in 2017 deal to build the El Dabaa plant. Russia’s government-run Rosatom Corp. is expected to build four reactors of 1,200 megawatts each and supply nuclear fuel throughout the plant’s operational life. Atomenergomash is a unit of Rosatom. El Dabaa will help generate enough electricity for 4 million homes
• the article did not mention total price for project
• compare with 3,200 MW nuclear plant to be built in UK for cost of $24 billion
• back in 2014, a new nuclear plant in the US to cost  nuclear energy: $5,500 million / MW
• 4,800 MW *$5.5 million = 26400 million = $26 billion -- in ballpark of the UK plant

Where does Egypt get the money?

$20 billion / 100 million people = $200 / person.

Enbridge Line 3 -- Still In Limbo -- October 9, 2018

Link here, from Brainerd Dispatch just hours ago.

Enbridge Energy has asked the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission not to reconsider its June decision approving the company's Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project.

In a filing Friday, Oct. 5, Enbridge attorney Christina Brusven argued that the PUC should deny petitions for reconsideration filed last month by the Department of Commerce and environmental and Native American activists, which all argued the pipeline replacement is not needed.

"The Commission's decision to grant a Certificate of Need for the Line 3 Replacement project fully complies with the law, is consistent with decades of Commission precedent, and is supported by the voluminous record developed over the past four years," Brusven wrote. "Therefore, the Commission should deny the Requests."

Last month, the Department of Commerce, which has long opposed the pipeline project, argued the PUC did not base its decision to approve Line 3's certificate of need on future demand for crude oil and instead largely based it on the safety and integrity of the existing Line 3. The PUC's order "contains legal errors and ambiguities," the Department of Commerce said.

The Sierra Club, Youth Climate Intervenors, Friends of the Headwaters and Honor the Earth said in press release last month that their petitions for reconsideration were made because Line 3's harm would outweigh its benefit and that Enbridge didn't prove the pipeline required replacement.

More at the link.

Northern Gateway.

Trans Mountain. 

Keystone XL.

DAPL.

Line 3.

CBR.