Update On The Montney: Did WTI Just Peak? -- May 22, 2019

Plastics plant:

From the beginning I had my doubts about a "plastics plant" in North Dakota, but I have to admit that with "plastics plant," Tioga, and Hess all in the same sentence once starts to get excited. From a reader,  The Tioga Journal Tribune suggests a "plastics plant" could bring 200 jobs to Tioga. The article is dated May 21, 2019, so it's sort of current.

First things first: if you haven't seen these --

• Vern Whitten's aerial tour of North Dakota
• McKenzie County: #1 crude oil producing county in the US
• USGS releases latest edition of the national land cover database  
• why the price of oil is likely to remain range-bound for the foreseeable future (five years)

Memories

It is hard to argue there is any similarity with regard to the weather between Scotland and north Texas. However, when I got on my bike this morning to come into work at 4:50 a.m., it was overcast, there was a strong southerly wind, and it was a bit brisk. My first thoughts: this feels like the weather I remember on my long walks in northern Yorkshire years ago. By the way, interestingly enough, there are many ties to Scotland in north Texas, with regard to place names, etc.

Tesla: tea leaves -- not looking good.

• even Tesla bulls and long-term supporters are starting to get nervous 
• Tesla reduces prices on Models S and X amid stock slump; this is on top of previous price cuts 
• this is the year Tesla comes undone
• treading water the past few days, now in futures, TSLA is down another $6, dropping below $199
• but Elon Musk? laughing all the way to the bank -- just exercised options to buy 175,000 TSLA shares for $31.17 -- he can sell them today, I suppose, and pocket a cool $30 million;  Musk owns about 20% of the company; 
• that was the original post -- before the market opened earlier today. Now, later, mid-day trading, when the overall market is down but not all that much, TSLA is down almost 5%, down another $10 and trading at $194.85. The fact that Musk bought more shares today is not seen as a bullish sign (normally it would be); he bought them for $31.17. 

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 think you may have read here.

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

Back to the Bakken

Wells coming off the confidential list today -- Wednesday, May 22, 2019:

• 35726, SI/NC, XTO, Halverson 13X-33DXA, Capa, no production data,
• 35359, SI/NC, Hunt, Halliday 146-92-19-18H-4, Werner, no production data,
• the Halliday wells are tracked here;
• 35320, SI/NC, MRO, reyes USA 21-16H, Reunion Bay, no production data,
• 35301, SI/NC, WPX, Minot Grady 26-35HY, Squaw Creek, no production data,
• the Minot Grady wells are tracked here;
• 35271, SI/NC, Petroshale, Bear Chase 2MBH, Spotted Horn, no production data,
• 34904, SI/NC, Hess, SC-JCB-154-98-1720H-7, Truax, no production data,
• 34294, SI/NC, Petro-Hunt, USA 154-95-36D-35-2H, Charlson, no production data,

Active rigs:

$62.65	5/22/2019	05/22/2018	05/22/2017	05/22/2016	05/22/2015
Active Rigs	65	64	51	25	82

RBN Energy: Pembina's plan to move more condensate out of the Montney. This is really, really cool. I just updated the Montney a few days ago (see below).

As Western Canadian natural gas production has been recovering off lows from a few years ago and pushing higher, one of the by-products of this recovery has been steadily rising production of natural gasoline, an NGL “purity product’ also known as plant condensate. Condensate production has been growing so much that Pembina Pipeline Corp. — a leading transporter of natural gasoline in the region — has been undertaking another round of expansions to its Peace Pipeline system to move more of the product to the Alberta oil sands. There, condensate is used as a diluent to allow the transportation of viscous bitumen to far-away markets via pipelines or rail. Today, we take a closer look at Pembina’s effort to expand the Peace Pipeline.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. is a major midstream player in the Canadian oil and gas sector. The company owns and operates extensive pipeline networks across Western Canada (primarily in Alberta and British Columbia) that transport crude oil, NGLs (including natural gasoline/condensate) and natural gas to downstream users, as well as to storage, terminals, fractionation facilities, and wholesale marketing and refining operations. Pembina is also involved with Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corp. in the development of a PDH/PP (propane de-hydrogenation/polypropylene) plant now under construction at its Redwater complex just outside of Edmonton, AB.

The recent update on Montney:

May 12, 2019: recent headlines from  naturalgasintelligence - Montney:

• Encana's well costs have dropped $1 million/well after merger with Newfield Exploration in February, 2019
• Montney's unconventional potential of almost 2,000 trillion cubic feet (333 billion boe?) said to be barely tapped
• Duvernay, Monteny growth requires natural gas pipeline expansion
• links between fracking, earthquakes remain elusive, Canadian report
• Encana adds Anadarko Basin to "core three" with Montney, Permian