Interesting Slide From Recent Denbury Presentation -- February 22, 2018

Link here.

The Cedar Creek Anticline (CCA) is located in Montana, just across the state line from the very southwest corner of North Dakota. (It extends a bit into southwestern North Dakota.)

According to slide 10 of 23 of the company's presentation, Denbury has 600,000 acres in several plays across the United States, including in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Mississippi. Among those plays, their Mission Canyon-Pennel play in the CCA (southeast Montana) is the most promising (highest probability of success among its many plays; high productivity potential).

Slide 11 of 23 is most interesting. In the CCA, Denbury reports a successful Mission Canyon, de-risking a multi-well follow-on program.

Their successful well was a short lateral (4,800 feet) that required no fracking (typical for Mission Canyon wells in North Dakota, but usually vertical wells). The well had a 30-day IP rate of 1,050 bopd; a preliminary EUR of 400,000 bbls oil but will be updated when sufficient production history is established. The graph:

The follow on wells appear to be in Montana but some folks in southwestern North Dakota might be able to see the rigs and/or from their back porches.

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The Art Page

Mom, dad, Sophia and her two sisters (Sophia is in the middle):

Wow, WTI Jumps -- Up Almost 2% -- Flirting With $63 -- Also Exxon On The Move -- February 22, 2018

Note: initially unable to access NOG press release reporting guidance, but it looks like it may be good news. Shares up 8% before the close; down 2% after hours.  Here's the press release (link here):

• Northern raises 2018 annual production guidance and now expects a 16 - 20% increase over 2017
• year-end 2017 proved reserve volumes increased 40% year over year from 54.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (“boe”) in 2016 to 75.8 million Boe
• the SEC PV-10 value of year-end proved reserves increased 100% year over year
• fourth quarter production increased 22% year over year and 9.3% sequentially to 1,540,237 boe. Production averaged 16,742 boe per day in the fourth quarter
• fourth quarter oil differential was $3.51 per barrel, an improvement of $2.71 per barrel compared to the third quarter
• Northern added 16.9 net wells to production during 2017 and ended the year with an additional 18.3 net wells in process
• adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $48.5 million. Northern’s adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $6.6 million, or $0.10 per diluted share. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $23.8 million, or a loss of $0.37 per diluted share, primarily due to a non-cash mark-to-market loss on its hedge portfolio. [I don't know, yet, what analysts forcast NOG's earnings to be for 4Q17.]

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First, Exxon: could make Beaumont the largest refinery in the US -- being reported by oilprice.com. Data points:

• Beaumont Refinery currently processes 365,00 bpd; produces 2.8 billion gallons of gasoline annually
• Exxon could expand the capacity for the Beaumont Refinery to between 700,000 bpd and 850,000 bpd
• this capacity would be higher than the current largest refinery in the US, Motiva's Port Arthur refinery, at 600,000 bpd; North America's biggest refinery

Much more at the link.

Now, back to WTI: $62.73 near the close of the normal trading day in the US. Tomorrow, for those turning into CNBC you could hear the phrase, "63-handle for WTI."

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Back To The Bakken

Active rigs:

$62.73↑↑	2/22/2018	02/22/2017	02/22/2016	02/22/2015	02/22/2014
Active Rigs	56	43	39	127	187

Two new permits: 

• Operator: WPX
• Field: Squaw Creek (McKenzie)
• Comments:

One permit canceled:

• WPX: one Hackberry permit in McKenzie County

No permits renewed.

No producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed.

Wow, This Happened Quickly -- EQT To Spin Off Midstream Business -- February 22, 2018

Updates

Later, 7:05 p.m. CT: speaking of "Rover" -- this just in -- moments ago from ArgusMedia -- 

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) said its Rover natural gas pipeline will not reach completion until the second quarter, up to three months later than its earlier estimate. Delay due to a regulatory issue which has since been resolved.

Later, 6:44 p.m. CT: see first comment --

Regarding EQT ...

The acquisition of Rice will not only enable much longer laterals (there are NO geometric, pre-set drilling units in Eastern states. Contiguous acreage is invaluable for efficiency), Rice's recognized drill skills will be a huge boost for the new company.

The article mentioned the 1.9 Bcfd Mountain Valley pipe coming online this year - one of 2 opening up the south.mid Atlantic to vast gas supplies (the other being the Atlantic Coast pipeline).

Another massive pipe - Mountaineer Xpress - is under construction and - at 2.7 Bcfd - is almost as big as the well recognized Rover.

This time next year, Appalachian Basin output will soar.

Original Post 

Story at ArgusMedia, EQT:

• largest natural gas producer in the US when it acquired Rice Energy last year
• acquisition resulted in proven reserves of 21.4 Tcf of natural gas equivalent
• sold 3.2 Bcfe/d by end of 4Q17
• the acquisition hastened the spin-off
• EQT Midstream Partners will merge with Rice Midstream Partners
• result: will become the third largest gathering footprint in the US

See link for more numbers.

Another investing opportunity while waiting for the Saudi Aramco IPO.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make investment or financial decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. If this is important to you, go to the source.

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@Tesla Charts

These charts are coming out of nowhere, several every few hours; not sure how one can do so many of these charts so fast. Oh, that's right. This is Tesla.

Trump's Coal: It's What France And Italy (And Germany) Want; What's In Your Barge? -- February 21, 2018

By the way, while you read this article, note that the "Big Chill" will hit Europe starting early next week, maybe as early as this weekend. It could be epochal, as they say.  

Over at the sidebar at the right, I link the "big stories." From there, you can navigate to "Europe at a tipping point." There one can track how the energy picture in the EU is getting messier and messier; more and more hypocrisy as France, Germany, and Italy are importing record amounts of coal from the US. See below.

From that linked "Europe at a tipping point":

July 29, 2017: a trifecta --

• did anyone see this coming? Europe relying on coal.
• EU caught in bold-faced lie? EU spokesman lied about increased coal use in the EU.
• the dots are connecting faster than expected; the gap will keep getting wider ... sooner than expected

Now, today, a coal update for 2017:

From The Washington Times:

As France, Germany and Italy chastised President Trump for rejecting the Paris climate accord in June and mocked the U.S. for turning its back on the environment, their nations were busy importing record amounts of American coal.

The U.S. last year produced 773 million short tons of coal, 45 million more than 2016. That was the largest year-to-year increase in nearly two decades.
But that didn’t equal increased use at home, with more coal than ever heading overseas.

Indeed, the U.S. consumed 719 million short tons of coal last year, a drop of 12 million from 2016.

Total exports in 2017, however, shot up to 95 million short tons, a 58 percent increase over the previous year.

About 31 million short tons of that went to Asia, nearly double the amount from 2016. China alone imported 2.8 million short tons through September 2017 — a wild increase over the previous year’s 205,000.

Total exports to Europe reached 40 million short tons — 13 million more than in 2016.
Some of the most fertile markets in Europe are nations with leaders that have been the most outspoken in bashing Mr. Trump for pulling out of the global Paris climate pact, an Obama-era agreement that the current administration says unfairly punished the U.S. while letting major polluters such as China off the hook.

Chief among the critics has been French President Emmanuel Macron. Among other instances, Mr. Macron in December mocked Mr. Trump by launching the “Make Our Planet Great Again Awards,” a spin on the president’s famous campaign slogan. He gave grants to U.S. scientists to continue their research in France and said his country was leading the way in clean energy and carbon emissions reductions.

Through September 2017, France imported 1.5 million short tons of American coal — double the amount in 2016.

Through September, Germany imported 3.4 million short tons, compared with 2.5 million in 2016.

Italy brought in 2.2 million tons of U.S. coal during the same period; in 2016, it imported just 1.3 million.

Thy hypocrisy is getting tedious. 

Random Look At MRO's 4Q17 Presentation -- February 22, 2018

The other day we mentioned a 30-day IP record in the Bakken, taken from the 4Q17 MRO earnings call.

From that same presentation here are two more Bakken-specific slides from the MRO presentation.

Capital budget for North Dakota (26% x $2.4 billion = $600 million):

 

MRO's core areas in the BakkeN: Mymidon, Elk Creek, Hector, and Ajax: