DAPL "Approved" -- A Decade In Place -- May 22, 2026

Locator: 50847B.

Market: futures surging. BRKB might appreciate 5 cents today. 

*********************************
Back to the Bakken 

DAPL: US govt approves DAPL.

WTI: $97.61.

New wells reporting:

• Sunday, May 24, 2026: 52 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 309 for the year, 
• None.
• Saturday, May 23, 2026: 52 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 309 for the year, 
• 41752, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-3BH, 
• 41590, conf, Hess, EN-Trout-157-93-3130H-4, 
• Friday, May 22, 2026: 50 for the month, 150 for the quarter, 307 for the year, 
• 41453, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 33-28 XE 1H, 

RBN Energy:  oil and gas prices supercharge 1H26 E&P results. Link here. Archived.

Oil and gas markets don’t stay quiet for long. Just as upstream producers settled into a lower-growth, shareholder-return-focused era, a geopolitical shock in the Middle East and one of the coldest Eastern winters in years sent commodity prices sharply higher during Q1 2026. WTI crude surged on fears surrounding the Iran conflict, while Appalachian natural gas prices briefly spiked into double digits as freezing temperatures tightened supply across key consuming markets. In today’s blog, we chronicle a massive rebound in profitability and cash flow from a dismal Q4 2025 for the 38 E&P companies we cover.

Crude oil prices soared during Q1 2026, but only in the last month of the quarter, so higher realizations tell only part of the earnings story. At the same time, commodity markets strengthened while producers continued to grind down operating costs, cut impairment charges and maintain disciplined spending — allowing much of the price upside to flow directly to their bottom line. The quarter also reinforced how structurally different today’s upstream sector has become compared with prior commodity upcycles, with producers now far more focused on returns and balance-sheet durability than on rapid production growth. Importantly, most producers resisted the temptation to materially accelerate drilling activity, continuing the capital discipline that has defined the sector since 2021. The result was one of the strongest quarters for upstream profitability since the post-pandemic recovery, with Gas-Weighted E&Ps briefly taking center stage before what already appears to be another shift in momentum heading into Q2 2026.

We made several changes to our peer-group composition during Q1 2026 to better reflect the evolving strategic profiles of the companies in our universe. ConocoPhillips was moved into the Oil-Weighted peer group, while EOG Resources was reclassified into the Diversified E&Ps because of its increasingly balanced commodity mix and broader operating footprint. In addition, Diversified Energy and SandRidge Energy were added to the list, expanding our coverage of mature asset and natural gas-focused operating strategies.

The 38 E&P companies covered in this analysis saw profits surge in Q1 2026 as oil prices (gray line and right axis in Figure 1 below) climbed following the Iran conflict and Appalachian natural gas prices — a pivotal benchmark for our Gas-Weighted E&Ps — spiked during an unusually cold winter across the eastern half of the U.S. At the same time, the companies in our universe reduced overall costs by more than $1/boe. Pre-tax profits (blue bars and left axis) more than doubled from Q4 2025 to $13.67/boe in Q1 2026, the second-highest result since mid-2023. Realized prices increased 24% to $38.15/boe, while total costs fell 4% to $24.28/boe. 

Figure 1. E&P Financial Results, 2014-Q1 2026. 
Source: Oil & Gas Financial Analytics LLC

Another Texas Natural Gas Pipeline -- November 21, 2025

Locator: 49774EPD.

Link here. 

Ticker EPD:

Note: OKE is down 40% for the year; down 13% over the last six months.

***************************
The Book Page

The notes for this book at this site. 

Book for the weekend. Just arrived. Amazon. Published 2023. 

Author's bio. Something tells me this will be a history of Palo Alto of which few are aware. LOL. 

The author appears to be a bit farther to the left than Nancy Pelosi, and a bit crazier than Hunter S Thompson. This should be fun! 

US Natural Gas Pipelines -- The AI Connection -- The Large Data Center Build Out Will Depend On Natural Gas -- October 27, 2025

Locator: 49528NATGAS. 

The other day I mentioned with all the interest in natural gas and the large data center build-out, I needed to get re-acquainted with some of the jargon, particularly the US natural gas pipeline system.

Today/tomorrow, RBN Energy has an in-depth review / update regarding the Henry Hub.

Early in the blog:

Established in the 1980s near the now-defunct Texaco Henry gas processing plant, Henry Hub has been used as the basis for domestic gas deals for decades. Since 1990, it’s also served as the delivery mechanism for the third-largest commodity futures trading instrument in the world — the CME/NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas futures contract (behind only WTI and Brent crude). 

When we talk about Henry Hub, we’re really talking about Sabine Pipe Line (SPL) — a small, 150-mile, 235-MMcf/d interstate system in Southern Louisiana — and the 11 pipelines that connect to it in Vermillion Parish, LA. These include: Acadian, Columbia Gulf (CGT), Gulf South, Jefferson Island, Natural Gas Pipeline of America (NGPL), Sea Robin, Southern Natural (SONAT), Texas Gas, Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (Transco), Trunkline, and Bridgeline, an intrastate sister pipeline to Sabine. Most of these interconnects are bidirectional, and all but four (Acadian, Bridgeline, Jefferson Island and Sea Robin) are large-diameter, long-haul interstate pipelines. Depending on the combination of receipt and delivery points, these interconnects total as much as 3 Bcf/d of receipt capacity inside the hub and as much as 2.6 Bcf/d of delivery capacity. (For more on pipeline flows, see RBN’s Arrow Model, which breaks Louisiana and Texas into 11 regions and creates predictions for flows based on internal supply-and-demand fundamentals and the available pipeline capacity from one region to another.)

RBN Energy's "arrow model": link here. 

Over at x: link here.

An early article on this very subject, April 1, 2025: link here. 

Fortunately that April 1, 2025, article has been archived. 

An April 8, 2025, article on the Arrow Model: archived. 

Best Blog Of The Day -- Tea Leaves — Big Announcements With Regard To Large Data Centers About To Be Announced For North Dakota — May 18, 2025

Locator: 48647B.

Don’t forget that Doug Burgum, former North Dakota governor and one of the nation’s richest politicians, is in Trump’s inner circle. Williston is showing success with data centers; Fargo has to be salivating.

Fargo: a most interesting city in the US. IYKYK. The maps will eventually make sense:

A reader sent me a link regarding new natural gas pipelines in North Dakota, which we discussed some time ago. I'll provide the links down below.

Meanwhile, for folks following the AI industry and large data centers, I highly recommend using AI for tailored answers to one's specific questions.

Two specific questions I asked ChatGPT today:

• what are the largest AI data centers in the US; and
• what is meant by the different tiers (Tiers I through V).

With regard to the ten largest data centers in the US, I went down that rabbit hole. The DFW area (or as ChatGPT calls is, "Dallas") is #2 following "AI Alley" in Virginia.

"AI Alley" in Virginia refers to the Ashburn area, specifically in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, where a large concentration of data centers is located. This area, also known as "Data Center Alley" or the "Dulles Technology Corridor," is a major hub for internet traffic and is a critical location for the development and deployment of AI technologies.

One search led to this answer regarding the ten largest data centers in the US:

• Reno, NV, listed first
• Ashburn, VA, see above
• Secaucus, NJ
• Los Angeles
• Chicago
• Atlanta, GA
• Miami, FL
• Quincy, WA
• Bluffdale, UT
• Miami, FL (second time on this list

A much better question to ask ChatGPT: what are the metro areas in the US with the largest number of large data centers? The answer:

• Northern Virginia; "Data Center Alley"; "AI Alley"
• DFW, Texas
• Silicon Valley, northern California, across the bay from Oakland and south of San Francisco;
• Chicago
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Seattle/Quincy, Washington
• NY/NJ metro (Secaucus, Newark)

Next question to ask: is Fargo, ND going to be the home of large data centers, which, of course, pertains to the new natural gas pipelines being proposed in North Dakota, from the Bakken to Fargo.

The answer begins:

Fargo, D, is emerging as a potential hub for large-scale data center development, driven by its strategic location, robust infrastructure, and supportive policies. 

Then this: two unnamed companies, each with trillion-dollar market capitalizations, are exploring the development of AI-focused data centers in North Dakota. These projects could start with capacities between 500MW and 1GW, potentially scaling up to 5 - 10GW facilities.

From the East Daley link below:

One driver behind these projects could be data centers. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported last year that North Dakota had the fastest relative growth in commercial electricity generation from 2019 to 2023, largely due to data center buildouts. 

In the Data Center Demand Monitor, East Daley is only tracking four announced data center projects in North Dakota with estimated demand of ~82 MMcf/d (see map from the  Data Center dashboard). But developers will often approach multiple potential partners about large projects prior to their announcement, which may have spurred these open seasons. 

Fargo, in addition:

• intersection of two major US interstate highways;
• two major universities in the immediate area (yes, Grand Forks is in the immediate area)
• Grand Forks AFB, ND -- huge (google drones "Grand Forks AFB" -- see below)
• aeronautical school at UND, Grand Forks, world-renown
• excess energy -- natural gas from the Bakken
• huge, educated work force, scalable
• already established as a city that could become the AI center of the midwest
• least expensive electricity in the entire United States

Now, the two links to the new natural gas pipelines being proposed in North Dakota:

• from the blog, April 18, 2025; and,
• today's update, from Easy Daley, "The Daley Note." Archived here.

North Dakota data centers: link here.

• Williston, ND: 8
• Fargo, ND: 4
• Grand Forks: 2
• Bismarck: 1
• Ellendale: 1

South Dakota: 4

• all four in Sioux Falls, SD
  

*********************
Drones and Grand Forks AFB, ND 

From AI:

• Grand Forks Air Force Base (AFB) in North Dakota utilizes drones for various missions, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). 
• They operate RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) for these ISR roles. 
• The base also has a small UAS (sUAS) program for threat surveillance and deterrence, deploying small commercial drones. 
• Specifics of Drone Operations at Grand Forks AFB: RQ-4 Global Hawk: 
• The primary drone operated by Grand Forks AFB is the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a high-altitude, long-endurance ISR aircraft. 
• 319th Reconnaissance Wing: The 319th Reconnaissance Wing is the host unit and operates the RQ-4 Global Hawks. 
• sUAS Program: The 319th Reconnaissance Wing also has a small UAS program, deploying small commercial drones for various purposes, including threat surveillance. 
• Project ULTRA: Grand Forks AFB is also involved in Project ULTRA, a project that aims to enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations between the base and GrandSKY, an aviation innovation hub. 
• FAA Regulations and Local Flight Controls: Drones are allowed in North Dakota for recreational and commercial use, subject to FAA regulations and local flight controls. 
• Training: Grand Forks AFB provides formal training for RQ-4 pilots and sensor operators. Base-wide flying program: 
• The small UAS program at Grand Forks AFB is a base-wide flying program, with operators from multiple units. 
• Disaster recovery: The 319th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron also plans to implement drone use within their disaster recovery team. 

How important is the valley from Grand Forks to Fargo .... maybe we need to ask Palantir. Perhaps folks remember:

In 2022, a Chinese company, Fufeng Group, purchased land near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, raising concerns about potential national security risks. The 300-acre purchase, located about 20 minutes from the base, was intended for a milling plant. This purchase and similar ones have prompted federal regulations to restrict foreign ownership of land near U.S. military bases, including Grand Forks, according to the Atlantic Council.

Companies Competing For New Bakken-To-Fargo Natural Gas Pipeline -- April 18, 2025

Locator: 44836NDPIPELINE.

Updates

May 18, 2025: update, must-read.

Original Post

A reader brought this to my attention.

Links:

• Bakken Shale East, WBI
• Prairie Public Television; MSN;
  
• Intensity Infrastructure, competes with Bakken Shale East, WBI
• S&P Global;
  
  
  
  

This is how I understand it now.

Two companies are competing for an essentially identical project to move natural gas from the Bakken to the eastern border of North Dakota, both pipelines would be entirely "intrastate."

Neither project has begun moving dirt; neither company has permit approval for their projects; neither company has made a final investment decision (but I could be wrong). Both companies are in the process of getting commitments from suppliers to fill the proposed pipeline with natural gas.

MDU's WBI "Bakken Shale East"

• one project in toto
• announced in late 2024
• "open season" was to have been completed January 30, 2025
• total distance: 375 miles long
• would move 760 million cubic feet natural gas from the Bakken to eastern North Dakota

Intensity Infrastructure pipeline (with expansion, upwards of twice the size of the WBI BSE pipeline)

• one project, but in two phases
• first phase: "open season" just completed
• 136 miles: Bakken to McLean County (west-central North Dakota)
• original plan (42-inch, 1.5 Bcf/d)
• revised plan (36-inch, 1.1 Bcf/d expandable to 1.5 Bcf/d)
• second phase
• 208 miles: Mclean County to near Casselton, ND (Fargo, ND)
• "open season" announced to begin April, 2025
• total distance: 344 miles long

The reader's question: does an out-of-state midstream operator have any chance of beating MDU at this game? What's going on? Why does Intensity Infrastructure think it can beat out MDU? Again, this assumes I understand what's going on and I can certainly say I have no idea if I understand this correctly.

Keystone Pipeline Shut Down — April 9, 2025

Locator: 48446KEYSTONE.

Update

Saturday, April 12, 2025: Keystone operator says pipeline will be open "at reduced rates" by Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

Original Post

Link here.

The Keystone Pipeline was shut down yesterday after it ruptured in North Dakota, halting the flow of millions of gallons of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. and raising concerns of potentially higher gasoline prices. 

South Bow, a liquid pipeline business that manages the pipeline, said it shut down the pipeline after control center leak detection systems detected a pressure drop in the system. The company estimated that 3,500 barrels of oil were released and said the spill was confined to an agricultural field in a rural area, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Fargo. 

 “The affected segment has been isolated, and operations and containment resources have been mobilized to site,” the company said. “Our primary focus right now is the safety of onsite personnel and mitigating risk to the environment.”

Whoo-Hoo! Another Story Not Found On Bluesky -- Judge James Boasberg Dismisses DAPL Lawsuit -- March 29, 2025

Locator: 48389DAPL.

Prescient: this was posted early last evening, well before this story broke -- at least before I learned of the DAPL - Judge Boasberg story! Nailed it!

Who's the real president? 

• the real president? Trump? Stay tuned; JD Vance? Nope. Elon Musk? Nope.
• more and more it looks like the real president of the US right now is a federal judge -- and specifically it's Judge James Boasberg
  
• setting immigration policy
• setting deportation policy
• setting domestic spending policy
• setting international aid policy
• setting in-state pipeline policy 
• setting Gulf of America drilling policy
  

 ******************************************
DAPL: Free At Last! Free At Last!!

Link here.

Two huge wins for ET and the oil sector in North Dakota and US Big Oil in past month -- first 100 days of the Trump administration.

DAPL, Greenpeace, And $700-Million In Damages -- March 19, 2025

Greenpeace held liable for $700 million damages against Energy Transfer and DAPL. 

Locator: 48533DAPL.

Link here.

Jurors reached a unanimous decision in the Energy Transfer and Greenpeace civil lawsuit over the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

After two and a half days of deliberation, jurors unanimously found Greenpeace and its counterparts liable for damages against Energy Transfer in a historic North Dakota lawsuit.

Greenpeace was ordered to pay Energy Transfer and Dakota Access nearly $700 million in damages. Greenpeace was found liable for damages caused by trespassing onto Energy Transfer and Dakota Access' land, and for defaming them, creating a nuisance, conspiring against them, committing tortious interference and more.

This story has been on the periphery of my radar scope for the past two years. 

Social media comments over at x: link here.

 

Unleashing American Energy -- American Energy Dominance -- Trump -- US Crude Oil Exports -- February 15, 2025

Locator: 48565OIL.

Tag: Sentinel Midstream crude oil export SPOT EPD Enterprise Products

A reminder before we get to Sentinel Midstream, with regard to SPOT:

Today:  

RBN Energy's top ten prognostications for 2025, link here: 

6. No offshore SPM crude oil terminal will be sanctioned in 2025. 

We really hope to be proved wrong on this one, but it just looks like this is a case where the benefits do not justify the cost. Since 2018, numerous offshore single-point mooring (SPM) terminals have been proposed along the Gulf Coast to fully load a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) without reverse lightering.

Currently, only the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) can handle VLCCs but it is limited to two ships per month on average, far below the one per day a couple of the SPMs could manage.

The remaining projects — Energy Transfer’s Blue Marlin, Sentinel Midstream’s Texas GulfLink, Phillips 66’s Bluewater Texas, and Enterprise’s Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) — have faced regulatory hurdles but made progress, with SPOT receiving its U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) license in April.

Yet none have reached a final investment decision (FID) after nearly seven years of development. The problem is shifting market dynamics. Initially, U.S. crude exports to Asia (15,000 nautical miles from the Gulf Coast) justified VLCC efficiencies, but Europe now takes 45% of exports compared to 40% to Asia, driven by demand shifts due to the Ukraine war and declining North Sea production. The shorter 5,000-nautical-mile trip to Europe diminishes the economic advantage of VLCCs, making shippers hesitant to commit to long-term capacity deals for the SPM terminals. Granted there are still good reasons for one or more of the SPMs to be sanctioned. But it is more difficult today to get shippers signed up than it originally looked, and that’s a situation that will likely get worse before it gets better.

Also from April 25, 2024, also on the blog:

RBN Energy: Sentinel Midstream's Texas GulfLink emerges as serious contender in export terminal race. Archived.

In the race to build the next deepwater crude oil export terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, Sentinel Midstream’s proposed Texas GulfLink (TGL) is currently in second place in the regulatory race, behind only Enterprise’s Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) — and seems to be emerging as a serious contender. The plan offers some compelling attributes, including Sentinel’s status as an independent midstream player and plenty of pipeline access to crude oil volumes in the Permian and elsewhere. In today’s RBN blog, we turn our attention to TGL and what it brings to the table.

 From today:

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Recipes

Cooking rice. Grains.

New Natural Gas Pipeline Proposed To Take Natural Gas From The Bakken To Fargo, ND -- December 22, 2024

Locator: 44509B.

Tag: Bakken natural gas pipeline 

The headline was mentioned earlier on the blog. Here's the story from Geoff Simon this week:

Would move up to 760 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Increased Natural Gas Takeaway For The Bakken -- TC Energy, Kinder Morgan; Bakken Xpress Pipeline -- ND, MT, WY To Colorado -- Novermber 4, 2024

Locator: 48704PIPELINES.

A huge thank you to a reader for sending me this. Link here.

FERC this month cleared a pair of natural gas pipeline projects by TC Energy Corp. and Kinder Morgan Inc. designed to add Bakken Shale takeaway capacity with access to natural gas trading markets in Colorado.

A map of Kinder Morgan's Bakken Xpress Pipeline from North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming to Colorado, with key NGI spot prices for the region listed in a table.

Kinder Morgan’s Wyoming Interstate Co. LLC (WIC) would provide 300,000 Dth/d of firm transportation capacity along its system and three other pipelines in a project dubbed Bakken Xpress. Hess and Oneok Rockies Midstream LLC signed on as shippers during an open season for 430,000 Dth/d in 2023.

Under a certificate approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (No. CP23-543), WIC will lease capacity on TC’s Northern Border and Bison pipeline systems and Fort Union Gas Gathering.

Opening up the new route, FERC approved a certificate (No. CP23-544) that would allow TC to reverse the idled Bison pipeline originally built to transport gas from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming into Midwestern markets. TC’s Bison Xpress project would upgrade three Northern Border compressor stations (CS) and modify the Bison system to allow for bidirectional flows.

Fort Union and WIC would ship the Bakken gas further south to the Cheyenne Hub in Colorado.

Bakken Xpress was expected to be in service by March 2026, WIC said in its application.

The Future Of The Bakken -- September 19, 2024

Locator: 48333B.

Pipelines are occasionally tracked here.

Updates

September 20, 2024: The Daily Note. 

• the Bakken has three main NGL pipeline egress routes (Vantage, Elk Creek, and OKE Bakken) plus six fractionators in the basin that produce C3 and C4+.
• these NGLs are trucked or railed to local markets
• propane can also be injected in Alliance Pipeline to be processed at the Aux Sable plant in Chicago
• operators' rejection of Bakken ethane is reflected in the high heating content of gas flowing on Northern Border Pipeline (NBPL) to the Midwest
• in recent years, that heating content has increased on NBPL as inbound flows from western Canada have been displaced by ethane-rich gas from the Bakken
• but new projects are in the pipeline (pun intended)
• natural gas:
• TC Energy (TRP) has filed for the Bison XPress project to expand NBPL and reverse Bison Pipeline, adding up to 300 MMcf/d of swing egress from the Bakken
• Bison XPress opens the route from the Kurtz meter station in Morton County to the Buffalo meter in Campbell County, WY
• for Bakken NGLs,
• ONEOK's (OKE) Elk Creek expansion: will open 135 Mb/d of takeaway capacity for Y-grade (mixed NGLs) by 1Q26
• another 85 Mb/d of capacity will come online when Kinder Morgan (KMI) finished its planned conversion of the Double H crude oil pipeline to NGL service
  

Original Post

Three companies in the Bakken that fascinate me:

• COP (BR): acquires MRO -- link here. Still not a done deal. FTC has asked for more information; still expected to close by end of year, December 31, 2024.

Chord Energy: Oasis + Whiting, and now adds Enerplus. Closed May 31, 2024.

Devon to acquire Grayson Mill: to close by end of 3Q24 (September 30, 2024). 

Most Fascinating Energy Story Right Now -- Natural Gas Pipelines In Texas -- September 18, 2024

Locator: 48312DELA. 

Natural gas and natural gas pipelines are tracked here.

Natural gas: it all started with these two stories -- RBN Energy and Bloomberg/Javier Blas. The rabbit hole:

• DeLa Express, Wood, September 16, 2024;
• natgas pipeline, selected Texas; EIA, September 10, 2024;
• DeLa, Oil & Gas Watch, June 6, 2024;
• DeLa, KXAN, June 4, 2024;
• TETCO, wiki;
• Plaquemines, Oil & Gas Journal, April 17, 2024;
• December 15, 2024: Plaquemines up and running. Link here. 
  

DeLa: Delaware-to-Louisiana.

• 690-mile pipeline
• 300-foot-wide corridor
• 3,000 property owners to be affected: 3,473 tracts of land
• enough to meet the needs of a city the size of Chicago
• to begin operating in 2028
• "groundbreaking"

DeLa: across central Texas.

DeLa: Delaware-to-Louisiana 

Published: 16 September 2024.

Wood, a global leader in consulting and engineering, has been awarded the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a long-haul, large diameter liquids-rich natural gas pipeline project in the United States.

The DeLa Express pipeline project being developed by DeLa Express LLC, a subsidiary of Moss Lake Partners LP, is proposed to deliver liquids-rich natural gas from the Permian Basin of West Texas to the U.S. Gulf Coast and international export markets.

The pipeline project will act as a highway to supply the growing demand for natural gas and liquids, safely shipping critical energy to the largest demand markets, including the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) demand center in North America - Cameron Parish, Louisiana near the Sabine River Corridor.

The project is being designed for more than 2.0 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas and liquids transportation capacity, enough to supply the daily equivalent demand of the city of Chicago, Illinois.

Major natural gas pipelines: Texas to Louisiana.

WMB Pipeline -- Actually Two Pipelines -- In The News -- July 21, 2024

Locator: 48201WMB.

First pipeline: the Louisiana Energy Gateway project, LNG, Texas to Louisiana

• link here;
• link here;

Second pipeline: WMB's Southeast Supply Enhancement gas pipeline, from the Mountain Valley gas pipeline to customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast; same link as above;

**************************
Biden's LNG Export Pause -- 
Little To No Effect On US Exports

Link here.

Little to no effect and it simply made Biden look anti-US energy. Just to please faux environmentalists. 

MVP Update -- July 7, 2024

Locator: 48070NG.

Tag: pipeline.

SPGlobal, July 3, 2024: Appalachian Basin gas production hits four-month high as MVP flows rise.

Drilling down deeper, it appears that much of the recent gas production increase is coming from the Marcellus shale of West Virginia, located in the https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/070324-appalachian-basin-gas-production-hits-four-month-high-as-mvp-flows-rise. In July, Marcellus production from West Virginia has averaged nearly 9 Bcf/d, up from about 8.5 Bcf/d during the final week of June.

Recent production gains in Appalachia also come after EQT CEO Toby Rice in mid-June acknowledged publicly that the company had started bringing earlier-deferred production back online – a process that he said would be incremental.

Earlier this year, EQT announced one of the single largest gas production cuts by a US operator, saying it would reduce gross output by 1 Bcf/d in response to low prices. At the time, executives said the curtailment, which started in late February, would lower annual production by at least 30-40 Bcf.

EQT's announcement came just two weeks after Chesapeake Energy announced its own cut of a similar magnitude with a commitment to reduce 2024 output by 15% and lower capital spending by 20%.

Earlier commitments to cut gas production by EQT, Chesapeake and others came largely in response to low gas prices, which were hovering in the mid-$1 area at the time. In early May, though, gas prices rallied back above $2 and kept rising, ultimately topping $3 amid bullish momentum fueled by tighter market fundamentals. Now, with prompt futures prices still hovering in the mid-$2s, it seems likely that production in Appalachia, and elsewhere, could continue rising.

Mountain Valley Pipeline, wiki.

Permits first applied for: October, 2015. Would planning have started ten years earlier? 

Biden got 'er done.

Wiki page needs to be updated: says the "project developer expects the pipeline to be in-service by mid-year 2024."

Finally! It Took An Act Of Congress But President Biden Got 'er Done! No Fanfare, No Mean Tweets -- Just Governing The Old-Fashioned Way -- June 11, 2024

Locator: 47814PIPELINE.

Link here.

Full story here.

AP link here.

The $7.85 billion project has withstood weather delays, a maze of court and construction permit challenges and regulator scrutiny. It is designed to meet growing energy demands in the South and mid-Atlantic by transporting gas from the Marcellus and Utica fields in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Congress ordered that all necessary permits be issued for the pipeline last year as part of a bipartisan bill to increase the debt ceiling. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law last June. Among the key votes for last year’s sweeping legislation was U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia independent. Manchin has called the pipeline “a crucial piece of energy infrastructure” that is good for global supply and American energy security.

Three Pipeline Updates -- Enbridge, Trans Mountain, And Plaquemines -- Three For Three -- May 1, 2024

Locator: 47121PIPELINES.

Enbridge, Line 5: update. 

Trans Mountain: complete, ready to flow, dot a few more "i's" and cross a few more "t's" and call it a day. Link here.

Evangeline Pass Expansion: Louisiana/Mississippi. 

Affirmed by US Circuit Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit; unanimous three-judge panel in DC! Wow. Link here. Important case, had to do with emissions. KMI-backed project; will expand existing pipelines to feed more fuel to Venture Global's Plaquemines LNG export terminal in the Gulf of Mexico.

December 15, 2024: Plaquemines up and running. Link here.

From January 4, 2024:

RBN Energy: Michigan gives Line 5A a nudge, but pipeline still ensnared by controversy.

After a roughly three-year wait for a critical state permit, Enbridge’s Great Lakes Tunnel and Pipe Replacement project for its Line 5 pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan has taken a step forward. The Army Corps of Engineers’ permits for the tunnel project would seem to be the only major obstacle standing in the way of construction, but there may well be more challenges ahead. Like a few other oil and gas projects — namely, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) — Line 5 has become entangled in controversy, including local opposition worried that a spill would irreparably damage their surroundings and spoil the state’s natural resources. In today’s RBN blog, we take a closer look at the Line 5 project, its next steps, and the opposition it continues to encounter.

Wow, pat on the back. There are days that I think the blog is the best Bakken blog on the net. This is one of those days. Free, no ads, no subscriptions, no passwords.

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Chattajack

Older daughter Kiri has been officially entered into the 2024 Chattajack paddleboarding race. I think it's the largest race of its kind in the US, maybe the world. 

On-line application / registration "opened" at midnight, eastern daylight time, May 1, 2024 -- about nine hours ago. By 12:05 a.m. Kiri was registered. By 12:10 a.m. registration was closed; maximum number of participants had been reached. By 12:30 a.m., there were 136 on the "wait-list."

October 26, 2024, website.

Truly something special about this event. World-class athletes with beginners / amateurs alongside professionals.

If I recall correctly, May and I will set up "camp" at Raccoon Mountain Pump Station, about mile 18 on the Chattajack course.

Matterhorn Pipeline Update -- April 17, 2024

Locator: 47021PIPELINES.

Link to RBN Energy.

Permian E&Ps want to increase their crude oil production, but they are hemmed in — and at least a tad hesitant. As producers in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico know all too well, crude production growth can only happen if there is sufficient pipeline capacity in place to move not only the oil they extract, but also the massive volumes of associated gas that emerge with it. As we discussed recently in Come Dancing, takeaway capacity for gas is once again at the knife’s edge, and there really are no good alternatives to piping that incremental gas to market — for most producers, flaring at scale is no longer an acceptable. Luckily, there’s at least one gas-takeaway fix in the short-term: The greenfield, 2.5-Bcf/d Matterhorn Express gas pipeline will come online later this year.

But while Matterhorn will help, it’s likely to fill up quickly, meaning even more gas takeaway will be needed to keep crude production growing through the next decade. That may include the expansion of the Gulf Coast Express (GCX) system as well as installing some new pipes (See Come Dancing for our projections of new gas pipe capacity). Assuming that new gas pipeline capacity out of the Permian is added as needed, crude oil production growth in the basin will eventually drive the need for more takeaway capacity, especially to major Gulf Coast oil hubs. That growth could also drive the development of one or more of the new deepwater export terminals being planned off the Texas coast, which could spur additional pipeline capacity to feed those terminals.

Enbridge again:

Two companies are already stepping up their efforts to boost takeaway capacity, targeting their Permian-to-Corpus Christi pipe assets. Enbridge is planning to expand its 900-Mb/d Gray Oak crude oil pipeline by 120 Mb/d (see graphic at link). 

The company said the new capacity will be added in two phases that will conclude in early 2026. The current plan is notably less than the original announcement which was to add 200 Mb/d. That reduction could indicate that producers and shippers, whose commitments are critical in getting new pipeline capacity built, for one reason or another, are not yet compelled to sign up for capacity. 

In addition, it is our understanding that EPIC Midstream wants to add 300 Mb/d of new capacity to its namesake crude system (see graphic at link), although there are no timelines for it.

More on the Matterhorn natural gas pipeline here:

Let's see if my "rule of thumb" holds: my estimated cost -- $750 million. Unable to find FID cost.

Rambling -- January 21, 2024

Locator: 46614ARCHIVES.

If you are just tuning in, I must have posted a dozen or more blogs today. Some of them were pretty good based on a polling of the MDW focus group. I'm wrapping it up for tonight, which reminds me, I need to see if the weekly edition of  "Focus on Fracking" has been posted yet. Whoo-hoo! It has. The highlights:

Gasoline supplies are at a 101-week high, distillates supplies are at a 124 week high; December global oil shortage is at 2,280,000 bpd with OPEC's output 332,000 barrels per day below their reduced target. Natural gas prices drop 24%, the most in 2 years.

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Rambling

Link here.

With regard to "anything," I no longer know what's true, what's not true, who's telling the truth, who's not telling the truth, and everything in between. It's like the TV show of some years ago, "White Collar." And it's only going to get worse with generative AI.

That's true with "everything," but perhaps nothing more true than with news about the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Here's the January 13, 2024, update of the MVP as reported by Laurence Hammack of The Roanoke [Virginia] Times.  

I guess we will know by the end of March, 2024. But then again, maybe not.

Seeking the truth? The only way most of us seem to measure success is how we do in the market. Or if we are the owner of the most valuable NFL sports team. Here's looking at you, Jerry. I go back and forth with regard to Jerry Jones, but tonight, I'm on Jerry Jones' side. I know he doesn't care, but just thought I would mention it. On so many levels he did the right thing by not firing the coach. And I'm sure the quarterback is safe. Don't know about the offensive coordinator.

Speaking of which:

Personal investing: I mentioned earlier, on the blog, I think, that I've removed KMI from my portfolio and plan to sell all my KMI sometime tomorrow. 

If I did already post this on the blog, I said I would be using those proceeds to add to my position in OKE. The thought: they're about the same, but OKE has the edge, and getting rid of one (in this case, KMI) de-clutters the portfolio.

After some more thinking about this, I've decided to use those KMI funds to add to my position in DE, SCCO, or McDonald's. Right now, I'm favoring DE. It would not be consistent of me to add to my position in OKE: OKE is not in my bucket list any more. SCCO doesn't seem to have the MOJO that DE and/or MCD seem to have.

In other words, plenty of time to add to my position in SCCO and the record date for the next DE quarterly dividend is January 29, 2024, if I recall correctly.

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

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Again, all my posts are done quickly. There will be typographical and content errors in all my posts. If any of my posts are important to you, go to the source.

Sports: in the big scheme of things, I couldn't have asked for a better outcome with regard to the four NFL games this weekend. 

It would have been nice to see the Green Bay Packers win but they had a great season and in the big scheme of things, that outcome was fine; they will do fine. They made the playoffs and their former quarterback did not. 

I had no interest in the Philadelphia Eagles game. I forget who they played and except for some clips, I don't recall watching any of the game. 

The third game of the weekend (the first game today) was excellent. I was thrilled to see the Detroit Lions win but I would have been happy had the Bucs won. 

But, but, but ... the best game and the best outcome? Yeah, you guessed it. Taylor Swift's team. So many haters out there. That's why I'm glad her team won. LOL. And Taylor gets the last laugh. You know, that missed "last second" field goal must have been Tony Romo's best moment this weekend, and he called the game on whatever network the game was aired.

I was not listening to the audio but I understand that Tony said the following as the Buffalo Bills kicking team was coming on the field:

"The Chiefs lead by three.points. A field goal ties the game and a touchdown wins the game." 

I guess he was thinking of a fake field goal play, or he was talking to folks who are just now learning how points are scored in the NFL. LOL. You can catch his play-by-play over at twitter.

The market: the penultimate screen shot of the night. Look at the NASDAQ. Wow. WTI is "green" tonight but tomorrow is a Monday. WTI will open in the "red." LOL. 

Amazon: $12 / $40 = 30%. Without Amazon Prime, with shipping, cost would have been about $52 rather than $40. Just saying. At Sur La Table, "identical" product was $69 to $79 before tax, and I would have to drive across town in very cold weather to pick it up. Walmart's price about the same as Amazon's; maybe less (at Walmart).

Pacific Northwest Pipeline -- October 20, 2023

Locator: 45829NG. 

Wow, talk about a non-story. 

A waste of time.

Click bait.

I might provide links later. But probably not.