Tuesday -- A Short Week -- WTI With An 8-Handle -- Whoo-Hoo! Count Your Blessings -- January 17, 2023

Amazing: and I understand despite / in spite of provocateurs. From The LA Times:

Covid: ‘Tripledemic’ anxiety has LAUSD parents pleading for mask mandate.

Many Los Angeles parents are navigating another troubling winter of health worries, as COVID-19, flu cases and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, continue to circulate.

Among many low-income or multifamily households, a contagious virus threatens both their child and their financial stability.

A group of families, largely Spanish-speaking parents from East and South Los Angeles, is now asking L.A. Unified for mandatory masking and to re-establish on-campus weekly coronavirus testing.

They have not yet received a direct response from the district. But at a January 9, 2023, news conference, Supt. Alberto Carvalho took on what he referred to as “misinformation, disinformation, confusion and unwarranted fear.”

Long essay on poverty in California. Link here. Count your blessings.

Links: if anyone is interested.

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Back to the Bakken

The Far Side: link here.

Active rigs: link here.

WTI; $80.18.

Natural gas: $3.712.

Wednesday, January 25, 2023: 58 for the month; 58 for the quarter, 58 for the year
39048, conf, CLR, Kelling 8-4H,
39000, conf, Hunt, Alexandria 161-100-24-13H-5,
38867, conf, Prima Exploration, Yogi Bear State 3H,
34525, conf, Slawson, Armada Federal 7-14-18H,

Tuesday, January 24, 2023: 54 for the month; 54 for the quarter, 54 for the year
38999, conf, Hunt, Alexandria 161-100-24-13H-3,
38889, conf, Koda Resources, Stout 2918-3BH,
38888, conf, Koda Resources, Stout 2918-4BH,

Monday, January 23, 2023: 51 for the month; 51 for the quarter, 51 for the year
38998, conf, Hunt, Alexandria 161-100-24-13H-3,
38997, conf, Slawson, Blizzard Federal 1-13H,
38732, conf, Hess, EN-Neset-156-94-1819H-1,
31325, conf, Oasis, Slagle 5101 41-12 2B,

Sunday, January 22, 2023: 47 for the month; 47 for the quarter, 47 for the year
None.

Saturday, January 21, 2023: 47 for the month; 47 for the quarter, 47 for the year
39012, conf, Kraken, Wilhelm 16-21 5H,
30868, conf, Prima Exploration, Smokey Bear State 3H,
27898, conf, CLR, Jersey FIU 15-6H,

RBN Energy: the secret list of survivors of DOE's hydrogen hub cutdown. Archived.

Two links (previously posted) regarding a hydrogen hub proposal in North Dakota at this post but not discussed in the RBN Energy update.

The U.S. has committed billions of dollars over the last couple of years to clean-energy initiatives, everything from advanced fuels and carbon-capture technology to renewable energy and electric vehicles. The “all-of-the-above” approach also includes clean hydrogen, whose development the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has deemed crucial to meeting the Biden administration’s goals of a 100% clean electric grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As part of its efforts, the U.S. plans to provide generous financial support for the buildout of several hydrogen hubs — initial concept papers were submitted last year by dozens of applicants for the federal largesse, and the DOE recently provided formal “encouragement” to 33 proponents to submit a full application this spring, in what amounts to an informal cutdown, but declined to name them.

In today’s RBN blog, we examine the 18 projects we’ve been able to identify that survived the trimming, what they tell us about the selection process, and how it compares to our previous expectations.

Location, location, location: We’ve long thought that the Gulf Coast was a natural choice for a hydrogen hub.

Of the 18 projects we’ve identified to date that were encouraged to submit a full application, at least three of them are in Texas or include Texas. The standout among them may be the HyVelocity Hub proposal for a hydrogen network along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, a region that already has an impressive array of hydrogen production, pipeline and storage assets — not to mention natural gas supply, wind farms, solar facilities, carbon-sequestration potential, and scores of hydrogen end-users.

The founding proponents of the HyVelocity Hub include the Center for Houston’s Future, GTI Energy, Chevron, Air Liquide and the University of Texas at Austin.

Along those lines, a plan put forward by the Port of Corpus Christi has similar strengths. The Corpus Christi area — including Ingleside, just across the bay — appears to have all the makings of becoming a cost-effective, scalable hydrogen hub. Among other things, there are large tracts of land (much of it owned by the Port of Corpus Christi) that could be used for clean hydrogen (and clean ammonia) production, hydrogen/ammonia storage, and carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration, as well as a plethora of marine terminals that could be expanded to export ammonia. Ammonia, which contains a lot of hydrogen, is an efficient carrier — or “suitcase molecule” — for transporting hydrogen by ship. (A third Texas plan focuses on Permian natural gas.