Locator: 51796B.
Anticipation:
AAPL: up slightly.
US threatens to shut down Iranian airlines. Is this the reason Iran says it is willing to open the strait?
LDCs: Texas governor puts all LDC permits on "hold." Let's see how this works out. LDCs are tracked here.
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Back to the Bakken
Bakken production, July, 2026, data: up about 2,000 bbls month/month; down slightly for year/year. Average price: $75.56 / barrel. From Art Berman, May 13, 2018. Recommended folks "short the Permian." It looks like he may have been right. WTI is now down below $90 after Iran says it will re-open the strait. US needs to end its blockade first. Happy days are here again.
WTI: $89.44. Hope springs eternal. Looks like Iran will open the strait if the US ends the blockade on Iran.
New wells reporting:
- Wednesday, September 23, 2026: 47 for the month, 127 for the quarter, 484 for the year,
- 41731, conf, BR, HBU Hazel 10S MBH,
- Tuesday, September 22, 2026: 46 for the month, 126 for the quarter, 483 for the year,
- 41723, conf, BR, HBU Hazel 5N MBH,
RBN Energy: Plains advances growth strategy with Silver Creek purchase. Link here. Archived.
Plains All American announced on September 16 that it is buying Silver Creek Midstream’s integrated crude oil gathering system in the Powder River Basin for $585 million. The system includes 600 miles of crude oil gathering and transmission pipelines, more than 350 Mb/d of capacity, and 1.2 MMbbl of operational storage. The deal marks a major expansion of Plains’ Rockies crude footprint and a sizable investment in the company’s crude oil infrastructure network. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how the deal could reshape flows around the Powder River Basin and strengthen Plains’ ability to move crude toward the Cushing, OK, storage hub.
First, let’s offer some history on Silver Creek Midstream. It was founded by J. Patrick Barley in August 2017 to acquire and develop midstream assets in Wyoming and Texas. Headquartered in Irving, TX, the company initially received a $150 million equity commitment from Tailwater Capital LLC and Silver Creek Midstream management. Silver Creek's initial Powder River Basin position came through an acquisition of assets originally built by Outrigger Powder River Operating. Outrigger had developed a crude oil gathering system in the basin, consisting of about 34 miles of gathering lines and approximately 150,000 acres dedicated under long-term, fee-based contracts. Tallgrass Energy Partners acquired Outrigger in August 2017 for $36 million and renamed it Tallgrass Crude Gathering LLC. Tallgrass agreed to sell its 100% interest in it to Silver Creek in February 2018.
As Outrigger built out its gathering system, Genesis Energy built its mainline network into Guernsey, WY, including a connection to Outrigger’s system. The system included the Powder River Crude Services Pipeline (PRCS; green line in Figure 1 below) from Campbell Station to Converse Station, and from there to the Pronghorn Terminal, which connects to the Powder River Express Pipeline (PRE; dark-blue line) south to the Guernsey crude hub. Genesis's infrastructure provided producers with access to Guernsey, regional refinery markets and rail markets, as well as Cushing via the Pony Express Pipeline.
