Notes From All Over -- Part 1 -- Friday, August 6, 2021

Opening salvo: as a reader said, for an industry that is supposed to be dead, or at least dying, there was a heck of a lot of incredibly great news for the oil and gas sector this past week. 

I think the biggest story is the slowdown in EV excitement. Few are talking about it yet, but the Biden administration hosting an "EV conference" and not inviting Tesla speaks volumes. Biden has backtracked, at least from my perspective, saying he wants fifty percent of all new cars sold in the USA by 2050 (?) to be EVs but that includes hybrids. Tea leaves from just a few months ago suggested automobile manufacturers were eyeing one hundred percent and indeed some auto manufacturers have said their entire portfolio will be EVs in just a "few" years. I don't think it's going to happen.

Close on the heels of that story: the incredible natural gas story. I've always wondered about the disconnect between high natural gas prices overseas vs low natural gas prices stateside, thinking that it was only a matter of time before the US would follow overseas prices. And, although the spread is still huge, natural gas prices in the US are surging. And, this despite the fact that a number of cities / states are moving to "electricity only." As if electricity is not generated by natural gas. 

Oil and gas investors had a great week. There were a few disappointments. COP's dividend was probably the biggest one. More on that later. 

Oh, I almost forgot, the biggest story for many readers will be the news that CLR will be drilling an exploratory well in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, targeting the Austin Chalk-Louisiana, just west of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. 

And, the DAPL expansion, too. Wow, the stories simply don't quit. 

My desktop is overflowing with stories that need to be posted. 

Marathon renewable diesel refinery in Dickinson, ND: I thought I was late to this story, and that it had become an old story. Wow, I was surprised to see a huge story in the Oil & Gas Journal, from yesterday, dated August 5, 2021: Marathon completes startup of North Dakota renewable diesel factory. Link here.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) has fully commissioned a grassroots renewable diesel production unit built as part of the operator’s conversion of its former conventional crude oil refinery in Dickinson, ND, into a renewables manufacturing site. Data points: 

• former conventional crude oil refinery
• following operational startup in late-2020 and based on Haldor Topsoe AS’s proprietary HydroFlex technology, the new Dickinson unit is now producing 100% renewable diesel from soy and corn oil at its full design capacity of 12,000 b/d
• commissioning of the Dickinson refinery’s HydroFlex unit follows MPC’s late-2019 decision to convert the refining site into a renewable diesel production plant as part of the operator’s plan to increase output of fuels that align with objectives of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) as well as MPC’s own greenhouse gas (GHG)-reduction targets
• with final engineering on the project now underway, the reconfigured Martinez renewables refinery is scheduled to achieve first-phase production rates of 17,000 b/d of renewable diesel by second-half 2022 before ramping up to its full production capacity of 47,000 b/d by 2023