Eleven Wells Coming Off Confidential List This Weekend, Today -- Monday, August 19, 2019

Not on my radar scope: if one just read the mainstream media, one would never know -- this caught me by surprise -- US petroleum demand strongest since 2007. Just the other day, the US SecEnergy said the oil and gas industry kept the US out of a recession ... don't know if the sector will delay the next "recession that is right around the corner," but if delayed, it will be because of the US oil and gas sector. Even on twitter, the so-called experts are mostly talking gloom-and-doom. It gets tedious. From Rigzone staff, data points:

• year-to-day, July, 2019: total US petroleum demand average its strongest level since 2007
• total petroleum demand: 20.8 million bopd
• 0.9 percent year-on-year increase
• highest demand for the month of July since 2005
• July, 2007: 20.4 million bopd
• US oil supply and NGLs remained near record levels in July at 12 million bopd and 4 million bpd, respectively
• US oil production: 12.2 million bpd
• US crude oil exports: a new all-time high of 3.3 million bpd

Canada: needs more export outlets. From Rigzone, data points:

• Canada, 4th largest oil producer in the world: 5.2 million bopd in 2018
• represents a 65% gain over the last decade (Hubbert peak oil theory?)
• Alberta: 80%
• Saskatchewan: 10%
• for first time since 2010, oil sands (crude bitumen) exceeded conventional supply
• oil sands accounts for 65% of Canadian production
• exports 80% of the oil it produces, most of it goes to the US
• and again, a reminder how Obama killing the Keystone changed everything: 

Over the past decade, U.S. oil imports from Canada have risen almost 75 percent. In fact, Canadian oil is critical for the U.S. because the country’s refining system is configured to process these heavier grades. In 2018, for instance, Canada accounted for half of total U.S. crude oil imports and nearly a quarter of U.S. refinery crude oil intake.

Water: remember that pop quiz some time ago, in which we asked which "uses" more water -- conventional vertical wells or tight, horizontal, fracked wells. Here it is again, from oilprice: conventional wells use 10-times the amount of water that fracked wells use. Again, those stories about all the water fracked wells needed turned out to be fake stories meant to destroy the US shale revolution. Readers were never duped by these stories; they knew that US golf courses used much more water than the fracking industry. and in the Bakken, the amount of water taken from Lake Sakakawea was inconsequential. In fact, during much of the Bakken boom, the Missouri River often flooded the oil fields. Whatever.

Pop quiz: by the way, I never did answer the rock-and-roll pop quiz of a few days ago. I'll do that later today.

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Back to the Bakken

Wells coming off the confidential list over the weekend, today -- Monday, August 19, 2019: 44 for the month; 91 for the quarter:

• 34156, 1,995, Oasis, Aagvik 5298 14-26 14TX, Banks, t3/19; cum 115K 6/19;

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	6-2019	30	32336	32320	24683	94842	75120	19422
BAKKEN	5-2019	31	31059	31011	25288	89829	88496	1023
BAKKEN	4-2019	30	23898	23762	25611	67781	64615	2866
BAKKEN	3-2019	31	27921	27785	31844	76744	73266	3478
BAKKEN	2-2019	0	0	0	0	2158	1776	252

Sunday, August 18, 2019: 43 for the month; 90 for the quarter:

• 3593, SI/NC,XTO, Badlands Federal 21X-13C, North Fork, no production data;
• 35602, SI/NC,XTO, Cole Federal 44X-32D, Siverston, no production data,
• 35538, 1,833, CLR, McClintock 8-1H1, Pleasant Valley, t2/19; cum 117K 4/19:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	6-2019	30	22245	22340	23008	41922	41228	290
BAKKEN	5-2019	31	27757	27372	29607	42155	39865	1874
BAKKEN	4-2019	30	37674	37739	40642	55270	25213	29669
BAKKEN	3-2019	19	18869	18827	25922	26858	10007	16610
BAKKEN	2-2019	9	10618	10246	15647	14223	4089	10134

• 35349, SI/NC, Hess, RS-State D-155-92-0203H-5, Alger, no production data, 
• 34791, SI/NC, WPX, Sweet Grass Woman 22-15H, Spotted Horn, no production data,  
• 34764, SI/NC, MRO, Jocelyn 14-36TFH, Killdeer, no production data,  
• 32400, SI/NC, Slawson, Atlantis Federal 2-34-35H, Big Bend, no production data,  

Saturday, August 17, 2019: 36 for the month; 83 for the quarter:

• 34790, SI/NC, WPX, Sweet Grass Woman 22-15HZ, Spotted Horn, no production data,  
• 32467, SI/NC, BR, CCU Boxcar 8-8-22MBH, Corral Creek, no production data,  
• 26804 (no typo -- it's really that old), SI/NC, XTO, Cole Federal 44X-32H, Siverston, no production data,  

Active rigs:

$55.15	8/19/2019	08/19/2018	08/19/2017	08/19/2016	08/19/2015
Active Rigs	61	59	53	32	74

RBN Energy: unit trains now delivering US propane to Mexico. Archived.

In May 2019, Twin Eagle Liquids Marketing shipped a 100-car train filled with propane from North Dakota to Mexico, marking the first-ever single-commodity train — i.e. “unit train” — between the Bakken and the U.S.’s southern neighbor. As it turns out, it was also the first of what appears to be a regularly scheduled run to Mexico.

Since May, three more unit trains have made the journey south from the Bakken’s first unit train terminal for propane.

Rail shipments of propane to Mexico as part of mixed-goods trains aren’t new, but figuring out how to economically ship large quantities of propane via unit trains has long evaded NGL marketers and producers — that is, until now. What are the economics and other factors that finally made it possible, and what are the prospects and challenges ahead for unit-train exports to Mexico? Today, we look at how the first all-propane train to Mexico came to pass and what the outlook might be for these shipments to continue.

Note, tag, LPG_By_Rail: 

Propane is LPG but not all LPG (LP) is propane. ... Propane is classified as LPG (LP), along with butane, isobutane and mixtures of these gases. LPG comes from natural gas processing and oil refining. LPG is frequently used for fuel in heating, cooking, hot water and vehicles.

California LPG: reposting. From March 30, 2017 --

California's production of propane and butane continues to decrease; the decrease in production is offset by an increase in rail shipments. This is an interesting story for the archives with regard to many, many story lines. EIA data points:

• many, many story lines including CBR; the state's fossil fuel regulatory environment
• total US production of propane and butanes (liquified petroleum gases - LPG) increases to over 2 million bopd
• increased in all regions of the country except for the West Coast
• unlike other regions, West Coast LPG production has been decreasing since 2010, driven by declining refinery production
• production in the region totaled 80,000 bopd in 2016, 10,000 less than in 2010
• as a result, rail shipments have become a growing means of transporting LPG to the region
• the amount of LPG production in the US has surged (except along the West Coast)
• West Coast import/export data: the increased ability to transport LPG by rail has allowed Western Canadian producers, who can no longer ship LPG by pipeline to the Midwest following the repurposing and reversal of a key pipeline, to ship more LPG to the West Coast, where it can then be exported to overseas markets
• the West Coast has only one major LPG export terminal; it accounts for nearly all overseas LPG exports
• as LPG exports continue to increase, two other terminals on the West Coast have been proposed, but the permitting phase of development is not finished yet