Two Wells Come Off The Confidential List Today -- December 12, 2019

Ustoppable? Palladium is now more expensive than gold has ever been. 

Most under-reported business story in recent months: the implosion of the automobile industry. Another example: Daimler to lay off at least 10,000 workers worldwide. This comes at a time when automobile manufactures have been forced to make multi-billion-dollar bets on EVs, and my hunch: this will not end well.

Tesla: speaking of trucks, Tesla Cybertruck was dead last in truck survey.

NGLs: folks may recall that the Bakken is rich in NGLs. This from a reader late last night:

Earlier today, I went over a short presentation from Antero Resources, the largest NGL producer in the country, based out of West Virginia.

They stated that the average price for their NGLs (excluding ethane) was now just over $30/barrel with the most valuable - the pentanes - fetching ~$54/bbl. Not too shabby.

There are processing fees taken out of those revenue numbers, but the global demand for propane, the butanes and pentanes continues to grow. American shale production is especially rich in NGLs and global refineries and consumers (think residential heating/cooking with propane) are seeking out these relatively low cost products.  

Progane: see RBN Energy's blog today. See below.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$58.93	12/12/2019	12/12/2018	12/12/2017	12/12/2016	12/12/2015
Active Rigs	53	68	51	41	65

Wells coming off the confidential list today --  Thursday, December 12, 2019: 37 for the month; 242 for the quarter:

• 36436, SI/NC, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Claire Rose 30-31-159N-99W MBH, Burg, no production data,
• 32412, SI/NC, CLR, Polk Federal 12-33H1, Banks, no production data,

RBN Eenrgy: can PADD2 propane consumers count on Canada to save the day?

Propane stockpiled in Canada has often been a mid-winter godsend for propane consumers in the U.S. Midwest and Great Plains states. If supplies in PADD 2 ever got tight due to unusually cold weather, greater-than-normal crop-drying demand and/or kinks in the U.S. supply chain, the higher prices spurred by the shortfall would incent more Canadian propane to be piped, railed or trucked south.

This winter may be different, though. A new propane export terminal in British Columbia and steady-as-she-goes exports from the U.S.’s northern neighbor to PADDs 2 and 5 have left Canadian propane inventories nearly one-third lower than a year ago, and propane in the Edmonton, AB, hub is selling at a far-from-typical premium to propane at Conway, KS, and Mont Belvieu, TX. Today, we explain why a supply-demand imbalance in the U.S. heartland this winter might be harder to fix.

As we said a couple of weeks ago, cold weather and spiking demand from Midwest and Great Plains farmers trying to dry their late-maturing, soggy crops have sent the regional propane market into a tizzy. Supply is not a major issue, at least not yet — propane inventory levels within PADD 2 are only a little below average, and stocks are plentiful along the Gulf Coast in PADD 3. But distributing propane by rail and truck for crop-drying use in PADD 2 has been a headache.

As a result, farmers have been scrambling to get more of the fuel, and propane prices in the U.S. heartland have been on the rise. We also hinted that, if things get even worse, Canadian suppliers may not be able to come to the rescue as they have in the past.