Largest Petrochemical Plant Of Its Kind To Be Built Near Houston; LyondellBasell; $2.4 Billion -- Making America Great Again -- 2,500 Construction Jobs -- July 21, 2017

Updates

July 22, 2017: after posting the LyondellBasell article below, I thought back to this article just a couple of days earlier:

RBN Energy: Really? New US cracker demand, exports will strain ethane supply. Really? Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.

The last couple of years have been a wild ride for the U.S. ethane market, but look out ahead.  It’s going to get crazy. 

The onslaught of new, ethane-only crackers is upon us at the same time overseas exports are expected to ramp up. 

At first glance, it might appear there is enough ethane to meet all that demand, coming from molecules that today are being rejected — that is, sold as natural gas rather than liquid ethane. But the big question — will it be enough? Because not all that rejected ethane has access to pipeline capacity needed to get it to market, at least not right now. In today's blog, we begin a new series on rising ethane demand, how the new demand will be met, and what it all means for ethane prices.

Ethane is a unique market — it’s the only energy commodity that can morph from being sold as natural gas to being sold to petrochemical plants as a liquid feedstock.

Original Post

 

A huge "thank you" to the reader who sent me this. From Chron.com, the data points:

• Houston petrochemical company, LyondellBasell ("Pat, I would like to buy an 'L'.")
• to build a $2.4 billion plant near Houston Ship Channel
• would be the largest factory of its kind in the world
• 2,500 construction jobs; 160 permanent positions
• represents a continuation of the petrochemical boom along the Gulf Coast
• of the $185 billion in petrochemical plants completed since 2010 or planned through 2023, $70 billion of those along the Texas Gulf Coast
• direct result of the shale-drilling boom which produced large amounts of ethane

************************

US Will Dominate Energy -- Rick Perry

For various reasons I did not want to post this story but on second thought there were some important points to bring out. The reader who sent me this article mentioned this about the journalist who interviewed Rick Perry for the article below: Ms Zito was one of the few reporters that covered the election correctly; she was on the ground in western Pennsylvania and got a great feel for Trump's support.

From The Washington Examiner, meeting with SecDOE Rick Perry outside Pittsburgh earlier this week:

BRUCETON, Pa. — The National Energy Technology Laboratory in suburban Pittsburgh is one of 17 government-funded national labs within the Department of Energy and is also part of a fascinating chapter in American history, not just in the development of energy, but also of science.

The complex, atop a rolling Appalachian ridge, once housed the head of the Ordnance Engineering Group for the Manhattan Project and the researchers and scientists who helped design the trigger for the first atomic bomb. SecDOE Rick Perry visited for a tour of the lab that is working to expand the possibilities for horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in shale. He praised work the lab is also doing to identify and extract rare-earth elements from coal and coal byproducts.

Two things come to mind immediately:

• the new attitude in Washington: America's exceptionalism
• fracking: for the US, no looking back

Hyperdrive: Now It's New Mexico -- July 14, 2017

Texas, actually New Mexico in this case, hyperdrive. It never quits.

From bizjournals:

The Woodlands-based Summit Midstream Partners LP and XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp., announced July 7 a deal for the creation of a new natural gas gathering and processing system. Data points:

• Summit: develop, own and operate a new natural gas gathering and processing system
• price: $110 million
• where: New Mexico portion of the Permian Basin's north Delaware Basin
• initial phase should be operation by this time next year (making America great again)
• capacity: 60 million cubic feet per day
• could be expanded to (a whopping) 600 million cubic feet per day

By the way, XTO will be moving its headquarters from Fort Worth to Exxon Mobil's 385-acre Springwoods Village campus between Houston and The Woodlands.

*******************

Linn Expanding In SCOOP/STACK

Meanwhile, also from bizjournals, Linn Energy subsidiary changes name and is building a gas plant in SCOOP/STACK.

• Linn Midstream LLC, a subsidiary of Houston-based Linn Energy: renamed Blue Mountain Midstream LLC
• BCCG Engineering, Midland,TX-based, will build a cryogenic gas processing facility in central Oklahoma
• capacity: 250 million cubic feet/day

should be in operation by this time next year (making America great)

The Energy And Market Page, T+174, Part III -- July 13, 2017

Camelot II is in Paris. Press conference pending.

Not riding Nvidia's coattails. XLNX is down slightly at the opening.

Saudi sends less oil to the US: according to Kemp. We'll see. If accurate, this will be quite interesting, on many levels. The big question: how much oil does Saudi's refinery in the US refine on a daily basis? If Saudi drops below the one-million-bbl threshold, that should be a headline. From Reuters: 

U.S. crude imports from Saudi Arabia averaged less than 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the four weeks ending on July 7, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia are running at the slowest rate since 2015, and the slowest for the time of year for over five years.

Imports from Saudi Arabia will fall even further to less than 800,000 bpd in August, according to a Saudi industry source familiar with the kingdom's oil policy. 

The most recent data available at the EIA site is all the way back to April.

Prediction. Plan B. I bet Warren Buffett has a back-up plan if Elliot Management thwarts BRK's bid to buy Oncor.

Whopping (their words, not mine). Old news. OPEC's production cuts (wink, wink). From 24/7 Wall Street:

In its monthly Oil Market Report for July released Thursday morning, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that global crude supplies rose by a whopping 720,000 barrels per day in June, due to increases from both OPEC and non-OPEC producers. Total output was 97.46 million barrels a day, up by 770,000 barrels a day.

Commercial inventories in May in OECD countries totaled 3.047 billion barrels, up by 6 million barrels from the April total. OECD stockpiles are now 266 million barrels above the five-year average, down by 34 million barrels from the prior month's total. The IEA said that preliminary indications show a "moderate reduction" in June stockpiles.
Much, much more at the link.

Much, much more at the link. As I've said before, the tea leaves suggest that the fundamentals suggest that the price of oil should be much lower than it is. It almost appears "every Arab for himself" with Saudi Arabia taking the brunt of the cuts (wink, wink).

Oil pricing, from EIA:

EIA now forecasts Brent crude oil spot prices to average $51 per barrel (b) in 2017 and $52/b in 2018. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are expected to be $2/b lower than Brent prices in 2017 and 2018. Daily and monthly average prices could vary significantly from this forecast because global economic developments and geopolitical events in the coming months have the potential to push oil prices higher or lower than the current Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) price forecast. --- EIA  

Sempra news: wins $115 million deal to build liquid fuel terminal. Details:

• Sempra's unit: IEnova
• 20-year contract
• awarded by Mexico's Veracruz Port Adminisration
• construction, maintenance, and operations
• capacity: will supply 1.4 million bbls of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel to central Mexico
• will begin 2H18
• 500 direct and 2,000 indirect workers will be needed

Texas hyperdive. Enterprise Products Partners, London co. plan new ethylene export terminal on Houston Ship Channel. Also at Zacks.

The proposed terminal would be built at Enterprise’s Morgan’s Point complex, where the company already has the world’s largest ethane marine export terminal.

The Houston company would manage the construction, operations and commercial activities of the new terminal, while Navigator Gas would utilize its fleet of 14 ethylene-capable vessels to deliver ethylene to customers.

The new terminal would connect to Enterprise’s ethylene salt dome storage and ethylene pipeline system, both of which currently are under construction.

The storage facility will have approximately 600 million pounds of capacity, and the pipeline system will connect to ethylene producers and consumers along the Gulf Coast. 

EEP. Spike in price of EEP coming? Or pump and dump?

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. 

Texas Hyperdrive -- July 6, 2017

From The New York Times, Texas hyperdrive:

In a twist that would have been unthinkable only two years ago, the oil tanker that arrives in China today may be carrying crude that left the South Texas port of Corpus Christi instead of Saudi Arabia.

Chinese drivers most certainly don’t care where their fuel comes from, but the export of American crude oil to dozens of countries over the last year is the latest chapter in a remarkable turnaround for the American oil and gas industry, about the only good news in three years of plummeting commodity prices, bankruptcies and layoffs.

For 40 years it was virtually impossible to sell American oil to any country except Canada because of an export ban that was a bedrock of United States energy policy. The Obama administration slowly loosened the ban and Congress finally ended it in late 2015 in a compromise that also extended tax credits for renewable energy.

Oil exports grew slowly through most of 2016, but this year there has been a surge reaching 1.3 million barrels a day — roughly 15 percent of domestic production — which even at today’s depressed prices is worth more than $1.5 billion a month.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffet is ready to announce the purchase of a huge Texas utility:

Oncor, one of the largest utility companies in the US, says it serves 10 million customers across Texas. It earned $935 million in operating revenues and $73 million in net income in the quarter ended March 31.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns electricity and natural-gas utilities across the US. Berkshire's acquisition would value Oncor below the $18.4 billion that NextEra had agreed to pay before that deal was halted by regulators.

Trump Looks To Be Favoring Mexico, Despite The Rhetoric More Pipelines Approved -- June 29, 2017

Trump loves Mexico. The US says it has issued permits for three more US-Mexico pipelines -- but no (?) movement on the Keystone XL. From Reuters, data points:

• NuStar Logistics hit the trifecta
• three NuStar pipelines given permits to cross the US-Mexico border
• New Burgos Pipeline: 180,000 bbsl/day of "refined petroleum products"; will cross near Penitas, TX
• two other pipelines, also; one also near Penitas, TX; the other near Laredo, TX -- will authorize a broader range of petroleum products

Mexican natural gas pipeline expansion -- EIA:

FERC: do we have a quorum? President Trump will apparently nominate a third member to the FERC. Google "turmoil FERC" at the blog for more; if the link does not break, this would be one place to start. 

Keystone XL dead: Canadian suppliers no longer have any interest in Keystone XL. Will be posted / linked later -- a Wall Street Journal article.

**************************

The Devil Sent You To Laredo

The Devil Sent You To Laredo, Baccara

Why I Love To Blog -- Reason #37 -- LNG Export Story Gets Bigger And Bigger -- June 26, 2017

Updates

June 29, 2017: from the US Department of Energy, a press release:

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today the approval of two long-term applications to export additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project in Lake Charles, LA.

Additional exports in the amount of 0.33 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas are approved from Lake Charles’s proposed liquefaction facility.

The two non-additive authorizations for the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project have been issued to Lake Charles Exports, LLC and Lake Charles LNG Export Company (the Lake Charles Companies) authorizing additional exports of domestically produced LNG from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project to any country in the world not prohibited by U. S. law or policy.

The Energy Department previously authorized the Lake Charles Companies to export LNG up to the equivalent of 2 Bcf/d of natural gas to any country in the world not prohibited by U.S. law or policy from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project.

Now, with further engineering of the planned project, additional design capacity has been realized and the Energy Department is authorizing an additional 0.33 Bcf/d of exports from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project.

According to the Lake Charles Companies, the construction of Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project will provide thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs as well.

Later, 10:30 p.m. Central Time: now it's South Korea! South Korea's KoGas in talks with Cheniere for more LNG supply. From Platts:

Korea Gas, the largest natural gas buyer in South Korea, is talking to Cheniere Energy about the possibility of acquiring additional capacity from the LNG exporter that would help it commercialize two liquefaction trains for which it has permits but has not yet made a final decision to build.

The comments during a small gathering at Cheniere's Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana to mark the commencement of a 20-year sales and purchase agreement for KoGas to take LNG from the facility highlight the aggressive marketing the company is doing to reach new deals, just as it faces growing competition from other US developers along the Gulf, Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

With the SM Eagle tanker expected to arrive in South Korea on July 1 with the first shipment of LNG from Sabine Pass' train 3 under the SPA signed in 2012, executives from Cheniere and KoGas said they want to build on their commercial relationship.

Cheniere is seeking offtakers for train 6 at Sabine Pass and train 3 at its Corpus Christi, Texas, export terminal before deciding whether to move forward with those units. 

Original Post 

Just this morning we posted two huge stories:

• US LNG exports will go over 11 Bcf/day by 2020 (currently around 2 Bcf/day)
• Senator Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, wants to see more US LNG export terminals

Now, this story from Bloomberg:  Cheniere Gets Ready for ‘Next Round’ in Global Gas Export Market.

Sixteen months after sending the first cargo of U.S. shale gas overseas, Cheniere Energy Inc. is already preparing to be at the forefront of the next wave of export projects.

Cheniere is exploring new ways to finance additional terminals that chill gas to a liquid and ship it across the globe, including skipping the banks and going to other capital sources, Jack Fusco, chief executive officer.

The company has room to grow: It’s leased additional acres at the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana and has the option to purchase more land at Cheniere’s Corpus Christi site in Texas, where another export project is under construction.

Cargoes of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to Australia are flooding the global market, adding to a supply glut and prompting investors to back new export facilities at the slowest pace since 1999. But a second round of projects is emerging on speculation that the slowdown will lead to a post-2020 construction boom that’ll benefit low-cost producers offering flexible contracts.

Steady At 59 -- June 23, 2017 -- Gasoline Demand In Northeast US At 6-Year Low

Active rigs:

$42.88	6/23/2017	06/23/2016	06/23/2015	06/23/2014	06/23/2013
Active Rigs	59	30	77	190	189

RBN Energy: global refinery capacity additions and the effect on US refiners.

Wow, it never quits, hyperdrive in Texas. From Oil & Gas Journal, data points:

• Delta production line at La Parte, TX
• builder: Braskem America Inc, Philadelphia, a subsidiary of a Brazilian company, Braskem SA Sao Paulo
• $675 million
• will build North America's largest polypropylene (PP) production line
• will build at Braskem's existing manufacturing site in La Porte, TX (about 26 miles from Houston)
• will add another 450,000 tonnes/year: homopolymers, random copolymers, impact copolymers, and reactor thermoplastic pololefins (neither do I)
• current production: 354,000 tonnes per year
• goal to meet global demand by leveraging access to low-cost sources of feedstock from North Amerian shale production as well as existing support infrastructure already in place
• should see mechanical completion of the PP unit during 1Q20
• once completed: Braskem's total US PP production capacity jumps to 2.02 million tpy from a current output of 1.57 million tpy
• announcement comes on heels of commissioning of another Braskem unit at La Porte, coming on line earlier than planned

Concerning, and unexplained, gasoline demand, from Reuters:

The operator of the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline system said demand to transport gasoline to the country's populous northeast is the weakest in six years, the latest symptom of a global oil market grappling with oversupply.

Summer is typically when gasoline demand peaks in the world's biggest oil consuming country as motorists hit the road for vacation, and keeping their gas tanks full strains the capacity of U.S. refiners and pipelines.

This year, so much fuel is stored in tanks in the Northeast that Colonial Pipeline Co said in a notice to customers that demand from refiners and fuel traders to bring gasoline through its pipeline to the region from refining hubs in the South was the worst in six years.

For the first time since 2011, demand for the pipeline was below capacity for a five-day period starting early next week, Colonial said on Thursday. The news pushed down gasoline prices in the Gulf region, where the pipeline begins.

Benchmark U.S. gasoline prices led the energy complex higher and were up about 2.1 percent shortly after midday, partly boosted by expectations that fewer barrels flowing into the East Coast would alleviate a glut.

Typically, demand exceeds the pipeline's space, forcing refiners and traders to supplement delivery with tanker shipments or imports.

Crude Oil Exports Could Rise To One Million BOPD By The Early 2020s -- RBN Energy -- June 8, 2017

Updates

June 26, 2017: in the original post, note the RBN Energy post, updating Corpus Christi. Now, today, in Bloomberg, Welcome to the Booming Texas Port at Center of U.S. Oil Exports --

Late last month, an oil tanker that measures three football fields long and six stories high moved slowly through the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, to test the waters of America’s booming crude-export industry.

After navigating the Aranasas pass around 7 a.m. on May 26, the vessel, Euronav NV’s Anne, didn’t pick up any oil. But its arrival in the humid air of south Texas marked the first time ever a tanker of that size had called on a U.S. terminal in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Anne docked at Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s terminal to determine if some of the world’s biggest carriers could start ferrying oil from Texas to foreign buyers. The shipping upgrade is necessary after a surge in production from U.S. shale fields like the Permian Basin led to more oil than Gulf Coast refiners could handle. And Corpus Christi is vying to become America’s main export hub.

Original Post

Job watch: source -- econoday. Down 10,000 from previous report

• actual: 245,000
• prior: 248K (surprise on the up side, up 13K) revised to 255K (wow, that was a bad week)
• forecast today: 241K (range: 235K to 245K)
• 4-week moving average: 238K 

Active rigs:

$46.14	6/8/2017	06/08/2016	06/08/2015	06/08/2014	06/08/2013
Active Rigs	52	26	82	194	189

RBN Energy: More crude projects in Corpus Christi, and a look at big ship access to the port.

By the early 2020s, crude oil flows from the Permian to Corpus Christi are likely to increase by at least several hundred thousand barrels a day and may well rise by more than one million barrels a day.

That can only happen, though, if new pipeline capacity is in place to move crude from West Texas to the coast and if enough crude-related infrastructure — storage, distribution pipelines, marine docks, etc. — is developed in Corpus to receive, move and load all that oil. Docks and ship-channel depth are particularly important; the bigger the vessels that Corpus marine terminals can handle, the more competitive Permian crude will be in far-away markets like Asia. Today we continue our series on the build-out of crude infrastructure in South Texas’s largest port and consider Corpus’s ability to load Suezmax-class vessels and maybe even Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).

Grand Opening Today -- Huge Plano-Based Legacy West -- $3.2 Billion Development North Of DFW -- Home Of Toyota -- June 2, 2017

Many, many links, including a full-page spread in today's Dallas Morning News.

Some links:

• NBCDFW: grand opening today.
• DallasNews: grand opening. 
• communityimpact: grand opening.
• Sam Moon hotel to locate there.
• Legacy West website.

It Just Never Quits -- May 30, 2017 -- Gas Production From The Permian Basin Is Likely To Triple By 2020

From The Wall Street Journal: The oil play that could flood the natural-gas market.

Gas output from the Permian basin is likely to surge by 2020, rivaling production from Appalachian Marcellus.

The oil-rich Permian Basin is emerging as a major source of new natural gas, a development that could deepen an existing glut and pressure gas prices for years.

The West Texas region has become the most prolific spot for horizontal oil drilling and fracking. The new oil wells also produce natural gas, making it a nearly free byproduct that energy companies can then sell on top of the more-sought-after crude.

Gas production in the Permian Basin is likely to triple by 2020 from its 2010 levels, analysts say. The region is poised to rival new gas output from the Appalachian Marcellus Shale, the U.S.’s biggest gas-producing region.

The numbers:

Gas production in the Permian is expected to increase by 5.5 billion cubic feet a day from the end of last year to reach 12.5 billion cubic feet by the end of 2020, according to energy investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. in Houston.

The Marcellus, which has long been the fastest-expanding gas field, is likely to add 6.1 billion cubic feet during the same period, not much more than the Permian, though its total production will be two times that of Permian by 2020.

Two thoughts come to mind as I ponder the story and the graph:

• the demise of solar/wind as a viable economic alternative
• US exports

From wiki:

According to the International Energy Agency, the top 10 natural gas producers in 2013 produce two thirds of the total world production of 3,479 billion cubic meters.

In billion cubic meters (percent of global production):

• US: 689 (19.8%)
• Russia: 671 (19.3%)
• Iran: 255 (5.9%)
• Qatar: 161 (4.6%)
• Canada: 155 (4.5%)
• China: 115 (3.3%)
• Norway: 109 (3.1%)
• Netherlands: 86 (2.5%) -- see 2015 production numbers below
• Saudi Arabia: 84 (2.4%)
• Algeria: 80 (2.3%)

That was back in 2013 -- which seems like a lifetime ago, and things have changed greatly since then. 

Compare this with a pretty sophisticated analyst's view back in 2013 (which has now been archived). I linked it at this post, "Exhibit A." The comments, as usual, are priceless.

BP's natural gas production statistics for 2015 are here.

North America (+3.9%) recorded the largest growth increment, driven by continued strong increases in US output, while production in Europe & Eurasia declined by 0.7%, with large declines in the Netherlands and Russia. The Netherlands (-22.8%) recording the world’s largest decline. Large volumetric declines were also seen in Russia (-1.5%) and Yemen (-71.5%).

EIA's 2016 assessment here.

PeakOil's top eight, May 24, 2016. Comments are priceless.

VLCC At Corpus Christi -- Successfully Tested -- OXY -- May 29, 2017

Updates

September 25, 2017: update on the OXY Corpus Christi terminal. To be complete by end of 2018.

Later, 11:35 p.m. Central Time: see comments from a reader.

Propane - propylene here: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W_EPLLPZ_EEX_NUS-Z00_MBBLD&f=W.

Ethane - ethylene here: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=METEXUS2&f=A.

Original Post

This is pretty incredible. Earlier a reader sent me a link to a story reporting that this historic event had been delayed 24 hours due to a local thunderstorm.

Apparently, things are back on schedule. New link to a new story. Data points:

• supertankers tested at Port Corpus Christi, TX
• mammoth tanker docking Friday at Port Corpus Christi, historic and successful
• 1,093-foot-long EuroNav tanker: Anne
• docked at Oxy's crude oil export facility
• classified as a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) 
• Belgian-owned ship: largest crude oil tanker to call on a Gulf of Mexico port
• will boost crude oil exports from Texas
• when fully loaded: the bottom of the hull -- 66 feet down
• unfortunately, Corpus Christi Ship Channel is only 45 feet deep
• so, they partially load the tanker dockside and then finish the loading in deeper waters using using a smaller ship and ship-to-ship transfer
• will fill up to 60% capacity dockside
• tanker at 100% capacity will hold 2.2 million bbls of crude oil for European and Asian markets
• Port of Corpus Christi plans to deepen its channel; build a higher harbor bridge to accommodate larger vessels

Think about that:

• ten years ago we were talking about Peak Oil
• President Carter: "start wearing cardigan sweaters"
• President Obama: "we can't drill out way to cheaper oil"
• now, VLCCs are docking off Texas
• Texas will dredge a channel to make it twenty feet deeper (20/45 = 44%)
• will build a new bridge over the channel
• all to export oil from the Permian -- an old basin thought to be dead ... until the Bakken revolution
• not in a generation; not in a lifetime; in less than ten years

Texas In Hyperdrive -- May 26, 2017

Saudi Arabia’s Motiva Enterprises said it plans to spend billions of dollars more to expand its Port Arthur Refinery — already North America’s largest — and grow more in the petrochemical and refining sectors.From FuelFix: Saudi Arabia's Motiva plans for billions in Texas growth.

I haven't read the article yet, I will in about 30 seconds, but this is what I think we'll read. Prince Salman, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia are in desperate straits. They are embarking on a huge pln to transition from E&P to refining. And they don't have many places to do that: essentially the Araiban peninsula and along the Texas coast.

That means one thing: a lot of Saudi money is going to flow into Texas.

Think about that. Wow.

Now to read the article. Wow, did I hit the nail on the head, or what? Here's the lede:

Saudi Arabia’s Motiva Enterprises said it plans to spend billions of dollars more to expand its Port Arthur Refinery — already North America’s largest — and grow more in the petrochemical and refining sectors.

Motiva, which finalized its divorce from Royal Dutch Shell in the beginning of May, said it plans to spend close to $18 billion in the U.S., largely along the Gulf Coast, within the next five years.

Although scant on details, this comes after Motiva already expanded the Port Arthur Refinery in recent years. Motiva emphasized it will continue to expand its crown jewel asset in Texas near the Louisiana border.

More at the link, but that's the gist. 

Hyperdrive: Permian To Test Corpus Christi's Infrastructure -- RBN Energy -- May 18, 2017

Active rigs:

$48.41	5/18/2017	05/18/2016	05/18/2015	05/18/2014	05/18/2013
Active Rigs	52	26	82	190	189

RBN Energy: Permian growth to test capacity of Corpus Christi's crude oil infrastructure.

Hyperdrive: Dow Chemical To Spend $4 Billion In Texas, Michigan, European Expansions -- May 13, 2017

From FuelFix, data points:

• Dow Chemical will keep its largest industrial campus south of Houston in Freeport and Lake Jackson
• the expansion will give Freeport the largest ethylene plant in the world
• Dow is completing a separate $6 billion expansion along the Gulf Coast, but primarily in Freeport
• the $6 billion expansion includes
• a "crown jewel" ethane cracker plant; 
• 1.5 million metric tons a year of ethylene
• added 500 permanent jobs in Freeport (more than Obama's stimulus did over eight years; fact-checked with Snopes)
• upcoming Freeport expansion
• will add two heating furnaces to the cracker's existing eight furnaces
• updates its total ethylene capacity to 2 million metric tons
• makes it the world's largest ethylene facility
• Dow will also build a new 600,000 metric ton plastics plant but hasn't announced if it will also be built in Freeport or Louisiana 
• Dow will expand some of its existing polyethylene facilities

Much, much more at the link.

Remember when Dow lobbied Congress to half natural gas exports? It looks like there is more than enough to go around.

Toyota: The Dallas Morning News devotes two full pages to Toyota moving into Plano, TX, north of DFW, starting this week, moving in 250 employees per week for the next few months. The story begins at the top of the fold on the front page, and then goes on for two complete pages later in the first section. Even with everything else going on north of DFW, the Toyota story seems to be bigger than life, and mostly off everyone's radar -- until they take time to take a look. When a real estate broker called the Plano's mayor some years ago, the agent said he was representing a company:
that needed 100 acres;

• that needed a million square feet;
• that would employ 4,000 employees locally;
• that was a global 25 company;
• that would base its US headquarters there; and,
• provide a median salary of $100,000-plus

The new facility, in fact, is now 2 million square feet, called Legacy West, mos recent cost estimate: $3 billion.

How much did Toyota like Texas. North Carolina offered the company $100 million for the complex; Texas offered $40 million. The company said it was looking for quality-of-life, not cheaper office space.

Things may have reached a peak, but Liberty Mutual and JP Morgan Chase have announced moves to Plano in Toyota's wake. Plano has been a corporate magnate since Frito-Lay's half-million-square-foot HQ set up shop in 1985.

****************************

Oldies But Goodies

Hyperdrive -- Toyota's US Operations Headquarters Set To Start Moving In Next Week -- May 13, 2017

Some time ago, Toyota announced it was moving its North American operations from Torrance, CA, to Plano, Texas. The amount of construction / activity in Plano this past year has been incredible even to the casual drive going down the George Bush Turnpike.

My wife told me earlier this evening that folks working at the new operations center will start moving in this week. I don't know. I might not have the story exactly right, but that's what my wife says she read.

So, let's see hat a google search will do: "Alexa, when do Toyota employees start to move into Plano operations center."

From communityimpact: Toyota employees to start moving in May 15, 2017, at North American headquarters in Plano. Data points:

• the company will begin moving  about 250 team members and corporate partners per week
• Legacy Wet, Plano

  Maybe President Trump should schedule a photo-op.

Saudi Plans To Help Make America Great Again -- May 13, 2017

Quick: the US DOE secretary is from which state? Yup. Texas. 

From ZeroHedge: Saudis plan $40 billion US investment to "cement ties with Trump." The lede:

Having gone all-in on a Hillary Clinton victory ahead of the elections, Saudi Arabia has quickly pivoted in its "appreciation" of the Trump administration, and having realized that the fastest way to Trump's heart is through the US Treasury's bank account, it is preparing to invest an "unprecedented" amount of money in the US.

According to Bloomberg, the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund will announce plans to "deploy as much as $40 billion into U.S. infrastructure." The investment will likely be unveiled as early as next week when Trump is scheduled to visit the kingdom.

While it is clear why Saudi Arabia is eager to appease Trump - after all the all important Aramco IPO is coming up, and the Saudis will be eager to open the world's biggest public offering in history to as many US accounts as possible while doing everything in their power to stay on America's good side  - Bloomberg's explanation that Riyadh felt "shunned by President Barack Obama, who crafted the 2015 nuclear deal with their Shiite rival Iran" leaves a bit to be desired: after all Saudi Arabia has consistently been the best customer of the US military-industrial complex for the past decade, and to claim that it had troubled relations with the previous administration is naive at best.

What is certain, however, is that Saudi Arabia would have been delighted had Hillary Clinton become president, considering the millions in "donations" the Clinton Foundation received from Saudi Arabia and its peer Gulf states over the years.

Be that as it may.

The bottom line: now that President Obama is out of office, the Saudis will be eager to open the world's biggest public offering in history to as many US accounts as possible while doing everything in their power to stay on America's good side.

Several readers sent me this story: it is found at various links. Easy to find.

When I saw the article, this was my reply to the reader who sent me the lnk:

All I can say is "wow."

I get tired of everyone complaining about Trump (we all do, of course). Most of his problems come from his communications team (Spicer, Huckabee, Conway, etc) pandering to the press. Fire them all, and let Trump tell his own story. If anyone seriously follows what Trump is doing and seriously follows his tweets, they would be quite surprised by how much he is accomplishing in making America great again.

Hyperdrive: what US state is likely to get the bulk of that $40 billion?
.

Texas: Hyperdrive -- May 6, 2017

This story has been posted numerous times on the blog in the past few months: the incredible build-out of the LNG export industry along the Texas - Louisiana gulf coast. Now, a short summary, a story brought over to Investor Village:

NG export projects planned for Texas' coast could have a total economic impact of about $145 billion of dollars and create thousands of jobs if approved by federal regulators, according to an industry group courting support for the proposed ventures.

Texans for Natural Gas said in a report that seven LNG export projects proposed or under construction in the state could raise $20 billion or more in tax revenue, create more than 135,000 jobs and have a total economic impact of roughly $145 billion. In addition to regional benefits, projects like the Freeport LNG export expansion could slightly reduce the U.S. trade deficit, the group said.

Roughly a third of U.S. LNG export projects are planned for Texas, which along with Louisiana has a natural gas pipeline network that can feed liquefaction and export terminals along the Gulf Coast. Freeport LNG Development LP's Freeport and Cheniere Energy Inc.'s Corpus Christi LNG export projects are both under construction, and the Exxon Mobil Corp.-linked Golden Pass project recently received the last of its major regulatory permits. Three export projects for Brownsville, Texas, are in review at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as is the Port Arthur LNG export terminal proposed to be constructed along the Sabine-Neches Waterway.

US LNG export terminals are tracked here.

***********************************

ROYGBIV: Now Comes YinMN Blue

Update

September 14, 2017: the name of the new color crayon is "bluetiful."

Original Post

 

Crayola will be phasing out "dandelion yellow" this year. I bought several 24-count Crayola boxes as an investment since these will probably become priceless once "dandelion yellow" is completely phased out. See image below of current 2-pack available from Amazon.

At the time of the announcement, Crayola did not say what color was going to replace "dandelion yellow." They have now made the announcement that it will be shade of blue but the actual color has not yet been named.

There were a flurry of stories yesterday about this new blue crayon. From USA Today: Crayola's newest crayon color is a shade of blue that was just discovered.

A brilliant blue color, discovered accidentally by Oregon State University chemists, will soon be the newest addition to Crayola’s box.

The crayon color, inspired by the blue pigment known as “YInMn” blue," is the replacement for the recently retired Dandelion crayon. The vibrant blue was discovered by Oregon State University chemists who were heating up chemicals in hopes of finding new materials that could be used in electronics. In what the university calls a "serendipitous discovery," one of the chemical mixes came out of the furnace a striking blue. The "YInMn” moniker comes from the elements that comprise it: yttrium, indium, manganese and oxygen.

“With the discovery of YInMn brand new pigment, who other than Crayola would be best to bring it to life?” said Leena Vadaketh, Crayola’s VP of Research & Development, North America.

Wiki, of course, has a more complete story. 

The new crayon will arrive just in time for Christmas, 2017. It will get its new name after September, 2017, and the crayon will be available soon thereafter.

LNG Liquefaction Projects -- Three "Models" -- RBN Energy -- April 30, 2017

RBN identifies three categories of existing and new LNG liquefaction facilities:

• first-wave, tried-and-true: building and/or expanding at existing sites; current sites with multiple 4.5- to 5-MTPA trains
• second-wave, smaller scale projects; some at greenfield sites; others at existing sites: multiple 1- to 2-MTPA trains to serve incremental needs of existing customers
• third-wave: new, huge projects that would require huge infrastructure CAPEX, including perhaps hundreds of miles of new pipeline

*****************************
Global Warming Across The Nation This Weekend

Snow in Gillette, WY; Denver, CO; southern Minnesota; and now, Goodland, KS where the forecast is for "snow, the snow could be heavy at time. Total daytime snow could reach 7 - 11 inches (accumulation)."

Goodland, KS? On I-70 just inside Kansas, east of Denver. Pretty far south to be getting this kind of snow this time of year, I would suppose, but then I've never been to Goodland, as far as I know.

***************************

For Dyed-In-The-Wool Anglophiles

I don't know if you need a subscription to access this essay; I got to it easily without logging on (unless the site "remembered" "my computer"): a very queer family, indeed. 

This is a typical essay in London Review of Books: something I would never imagine reading, but when I did, I found it fascinating; a very long essay; and, about a very, very obscure subject.

First thoughts after reading the first half: Emily Dickinson; Little Women, Virginia Woolf; the Brontës.

From the essay,

Arthur 'A.C." Benson became a housemaster at Eton, a fellow and then master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, ... edited Queen Victoria's letters ... wrote a series of reflective works on the nature of life and happiness that sold in the hundreds of thousands. He was twice incapacitated by severe depression, and only in those years broke off writing the diary he kept from the age of 35 until his death at 63. At more than four million words in 180 volumes, it is the longest known to be in existence.

Texas In Hyperdrive -- Focus On Corpus Christi -- April 28, 2017

A pdf will download: http://www.morningstarcommodity.com/Research/corpus-christi-new-permian-window-on-the-world-FINAL.pdf

Hyperdrive, Game-Changing: Exxon Mobil And Saudi Plan Multi-Billion Dollar Ethane Cracker Near Texas Gulf -- April 20, 2017

With regard to this story, note this bizjournal headline: shale gas was key factor in landing game-changing Exxon Mobil plastics plant. Link here. Data points:

• natural gas from Eagle Ford shale was key in landing this project in Texas
• joint venture: Gulf Coast Growth Ventures; XOM; and, Saudi Basic Industries
• 1,400-acre site (in this article; elsewhere said to be 1,300 acres)
• Eagle Ford's proximity to rail, highway, and deep-water port
• to be operational by 2021

Data points: AP

• Saudi partner: Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp
• Portland, TX -- just north of Corpus Christi
• 1,300 acres
• $10 billion
• product: polyester, anti-freeze, plastic bottles
• "thousands of jobs"

Also at Rigzone:

• one of 11 proposed projects that XOM announced in conjunction with its 10-year $20 billion Growing the Gulf initative
• 1.8 million tonnes per year of ethylene
• "thousands of jobs during construction"
• 600 new, full-time jobs; 3,500 indirect jobs once completed
• the company anticipates more than $22 billion in economic output during construction and a $50-billion-plus economic impact during first six years of operation

Growing the Gulf Initiative

• overall should produce more than 45,000 jobs
• 12,000 of those jobs: full-time; average salary of $100,000/year
• throughout coastal Texas and Louisiana

More on Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp here.