Locator: 48457B.
US Supreme Court on deportation: "weak" response. And the court's "order" for the administration to initiate efforts to get a single individual back from El Salvador was unsigned. It's not unusual for such orders to be released by the high court unsigned but it certainly suggests the court is not eager to ... it's hard to see that this story has any legs.
Pete Hegseth: two weeks ago I suggested Hegseth was at high risk to be "fired" within two weeks if a bigger story did not come along for the US media to shift their attention. That story held nicely.
Mexico: Trump finds another pressure point. Reported a few weeks ago but apparently back in the news. Water rights.
Iran, Mideast: feels too quiet.
DOD: Lt Gen Dan Caine confirmed as the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Confirmed, 60 - 25 vote. He was promoted to four stars prior to the vote. Several "firsts" in his appointment, and several "near-firsts."
Retired USAF F-15 pilot, earning nickname "Razin Caine" for his "aggressive" behavior as a pilot.. Experienced CIA background. Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, wiki. Bio, wiki. Bio, CNN.
He is the first chairman of the JCS to have never served at the rank of four-star general or admiral before being nominated and the first to be nominated in retirement.
Has now returned to active duty status, as a four-star general. He was a "serial entrepreneur and investor" from 2009 to 2016 while serving part time in the National Guard. No history of tendering his resignation prior to combat deployments.
Graduated from Hahn American High School, in Hahn, Germany, an F-16 base when I was stationed in Europe decades ago. His father was also a fighter pilot. Retired in December, 2024. Venture capitalist among other financial interests. Follows "dramatic" firing of senior officers since Trump re-elected president.
Reserves. Oil and gas, not military. Huge jump in Gulf of America estimates. Link here.
Making America Great Again: good, bad, indifferent. Everything suggests Trump is working 24/7 to making good on his promise to radically change how things are being done in Washington. Still seems to be the most transformational president since FDR. Will set a new bar for future presidents, although unlikely few, if any, could hit that bar.
Everything's bigger in Texas: Electrek reports on a "vast 600 MW Texas solar farm." Link here. To put that in perspective, a typical nuclear reactor generates around 1,000 MW (1 gigawatt) of electricity.
- developer: Vesper Energy
- project: Hornet Solar
- milestone: one million panels installed
- location: Swisher County, TX (never heard of it before)
- output: 600 MW, enough to power 160,000 typical homes
- Vesper's total investment in state of Texas: $45 billion -- that's with a "B"
- Vesper: for solar, currently ranked #2 in the US with 37 GW installed
- again, Vesper's total installed based: 37 GW; Hornet Solar, huge, will add 1.6% to Vesper's total solar output in US
- Vesper: for solar, will install 51 additional GW over the next five years
- will move Vesper into #1 when additional projects come on line
- tax revenue: will generate > $100 million in new tax revenue to Swisher County
- Swisher County: at the base of the Texas panhandle where the panhandle connects to the rest of Texas; five counties south of Oklahoma; we're talking remote.
- county population: 7,000
- county seat: Tulia, population 5,000
- I can't even imagine what 7,000 folks will do with $100 million annually, although the July, 1999, drug bust could provide some interesting commentary
- footprint: 1.36 modules covering more than six square miles
- a typical North Dakota township is six-mile square, or 36 square miles
- a typical North Dakota section contains 640 acres, and is one-square mile
- Hornet Solar: six "North Dakota" sections of land
Trade war: China has raised tariffs to an astounding 134% or something to that effect and says future increases would be "futile." So, at least we have a "bookend."
***************************
Back to the Bakken
WTI: $60.05.
New wells:
- Sunday, April 13, 2025: 45 for the month, 45 for the quarter, 252 for the year,
- 41167, conf, CLR, Arley 6-18H1,
- 41137, conf, CLR, Shadowcat 1-31H,
- 39038, conf, Grayson Mill, Orville 4-9 4H,
- 30295, conf, Hunt Oil, Palermo McNic 156-90-22-23H-3,
- Saturday, April 12, 2025: 41 for the month, 41 for the quarter, 248 for the year,
- 41099, conf, CLR, Christiana 7-6H,
- 41028, conf, Wesco Operating, Federal 43-20,
- Friday, April 11, 2025: 39 for the month, 39 for the quarter, 246 for the year,
- 41166, conf, CLR, Arley 5-18H,
- 40699, conf, Hess, EN-Kiesel-155-94-1918H-9,
RBN Energy: different names, different uses add to mystery around natural gasoline.
It’s the most expensive NGL, accounting for more than 25% of the value
of a weighted average barrel. It is the only NGL that does not require
storage or transportation under pressure. And it’s the most
misunderstood of the NGLs, going by different names depending on the
market and geography, with a chameleon-like characteristic that allows
it to be transformed into various products. And to further complicate
matters, other petroleum liquids are similar to natural gasoline, but
not identical. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll delve into the mysteries of
natural gasoline and explore what makes it such a crucial component of
the hydrocarbon landscape.
Like
all the NGLs, U.S. natural gasoline production has increased
dramatically since the onset of the Shale Revolution. As shown in Figure
1 below, before shale, natural gasoline production from gas processing
plants (the only source of “real” natural gasoline) was less than 300
Mb/d. Over the past decade, volumes have tripled, now approaching 900
Mb/d. As production volumes ramped up, new markets for the product
emerged, a topic we’ll revisit in a moment. But first, what is natural
gasoline in the first place? What makes it natural? And is it really
gasoline?
Figure 1: Gas Plant Production of Natural Gasoline. Source: EIA
The name — natural gasoline — comes from its source and its
qualities. It is “natural” because it comes from natural gas, not a
refinery. And it is “gasoline” because the product is similar to very
low-quality motor gasoline. It has an API gravity of around 80 degrees,
making it very light with low density. (For more on API gravity, see Don’t Let Your Crude Oils Grow Up To Be Condensates).
Natural gasoline is the heaviest product in the mixed NGL stream
produced at a natural gas processing plant and is the heaviest cut from
an NGL fractionator. Chemically, it is composed mostly of pentanes, a
compound with five carbon atoms (C5). The stream also includes smaller
amounts of heavier molecules including hexanes, heptanes and higher (C6,
C7, C8). The molecules are nearly all paraffinic, meaning they have as
many hydrogen molecules as possible (also known as saturated
hydrocarbons).
