Five Wells Should Come Off Confidential List Today -- NGLs Come To The Rescue In The Bakken -- RBN Energy -- January 2, 2020

China-US trade war: now that it appears to be coming to an end, CNBC wraps it up in six charts.  

Recession-proof? Is Goldman Sachs suggesting that the economy is nearly recession-proof? Again, from CNBC.

Economic expansion could continue for years. 

Boom! Shanghai stocks pop on the first day of trading in 2020.

US Navy: orders $22 billion worth of new submarines.

US natural gas reserves:

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$61.04	1/2/2020	01/02/2019	01/02/2018	01/02/2017	01/02/2016
Active Rigs	55	66	52	39	60

Wells coming off confidential list today:

Thursday, January 2, 2019: 5 for the month; 5 for the quarter; 5 for the year:
35781, conf, Hess, EN-Farhart-156-93-0409H-5,
34384, conf, BR, Veeder 3A MBH, 

Wednesday, January 1, 2019: 3 for the month; 3 for the quarter; 3 for the year:
35877, conf, Whiting, Domaskin31-20HU, 
35876, conf, Whiting, Domaskin 24-17TFHU,
35571, conf, Whiting, Anderson 41-7TFH,

RBN Energy: top 10 RBN Energy prognostications for 2020. Archived.

Negative Permian gas prices. Wall Street sours on all things energy. E&Ps and midstreamers forced by capital markets to tighten their belts. Infrastructure coming online just as production growth is slowing. Oil, gas and NGLs totally dependent on export markets to balance. The list goes on. Just as producers and midstreamers came to terms with a new normal for oil and gas prices, this new round of challenges hit the market in 2019. And it is going to get a lot more complicated as we enter the new decade. There is just no way to predict what is going to happen next, right? Nah. All we need to do is stick our collective RBN necks out one more time, peer into our crystal ball, and see what 2020 has in store for us.

RBN posted ten.

Here is #4:

NGLs are coming to the rescue in the Bakken. The past couple of years have been difficult for Bakken producers. Crude prices are down and the economics of drilling and completion are tough to make work outside the four “core” counties in North Dakota. And in those counties, producers have faced a shortfall in natural gas processing and NGL takeaway capacity, which has resulted in more flaring and fewer well completions. But relief has arrived!

[ONEOK's new Elk Creek NGL pipeline is archived here.] New processing plants are coming online and ONEOK’s new Elk Creek y-grade pipeline has just started up — it should resolve the y-grade takeaway issue for a long time to come. Also, by allowing additional ethane to be recovered rather than rejected into the gas stream, the new facilities will also reduce the Btu content for gas flowing into Northern Border, the largest gas takeaway pipe out of the Bakken. Northern Border has been struggling with Btu content issues and is reported to be considering a new, tight Btu spec. All in all, it is a good-news story for the Bakken.