Economics Of Bakken-To-Mexico Propane Unit Trains -- RBN Energy -- August 22, 2019

Peak oil? What peak oil? oilprice rewrites Global Witness article with headline that "US will drown the world in oil." Global Witness is an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide -- according to wiki. Wiki states the organization does not have any political affiliation. I'm resisting posting links, etc. but I've given up. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's an interesting article -- I'll re-post as a stand-alone.


Headline at Rigzone today, no links:

• GoM leases: 
• BHP, largest bid; $42 million; 20 tracts
• Anadarko: $23 million; 14 tracts
• Chevron: $23 million; 17 tracts
• Equinor: $17 million; 23 tracts
• BP: $15 million; 21 tracts
• Pipe: Pembina to buy Kinder Morgan's Canadian unit and the US portion of the Cohin Pipeline system; $3.3 billion
• Alberta: extends oil output cuts to end of 2020

Fracking sector disappoints: 2Q19 -- Rigzone staff --

A review of 29 fracking-focused oil and gas companies revealed “meager” cash returns in the second quarter of 2019.

The report, which was carried out by Sightline Institute and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), noted that only 11 of the 29 companies under review registered positive free cash flows and that the 29 companies combined generated $26 million in aggregate free cash flows.

These aggregate free cash flows were said to be “far too modest to make a significant dent in the more than $100 billion in long-term debt owed by these companies, let alone reward equity investors who have been waiting for a decade for robust and sustainable results”.

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Back to the Bakken

Only one well coming off the confidential list today -- Thursday, August 22, 2019: 60 for the month; 107 for the quarter:
35935, conf, XTO, Badlands Federal 21X-13H, North Fork,
Active rigs:

$56.13	8/22/2019	08/22/2018	08/22/2017	08/22/2016	08/22/2015
Active Rigs	64	62	52	32	76

RBN Energy: the economics of Bakken-to-Mexico propane unit trains, part 2. Archived. Part 1 was here.

In May 2019, the first-ever propane unit train from the Bakken to Mexico reached its destination, and since then, three more of these 100-car, single-commodity “bulk” trains have made the same trip. Facilitating these shipments by Twin Eagle Liquids Marketing is Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s (MPC) unit train-loading terminal in Fryburg, ND, which was initially set up to load crude oil but was recently expanded to handle propane too. And soon, the terminal in Torreón, Mexico, that has been receiving these unit trains will have a new loop track too, enabling producers and marketers to take full advantage of the bulk transport option. Today, we look at the economics and challenges of this relatively new propane export route.

As we discussed earlier, Mexico’s need for propane — widely used for cooking and heating water — is on the rise, even as local supply has been dwindling. That’s boosted propane imports to the country, including from the U.S. and Canada in recent years. While most of those imports come to Mexico via ship (~52% or 83 Mb/d in 2018) or are trucked across the U.S.-Mexico border (33 Mb/d or 21%), a good portion (29 Mb/d or 18%) of it is railed in. [Only 14 Mb/d, or less than 10%, of it was transported via pipeline last year, owing to the limited pipeline capacity and routes available to reach key markets in interior Mexico.]