Thursday, October 14, 2021

North Dakota: A Gift To The Planet -- U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm -- But We Already Knew That -- October 14, 2021

Over at Yahoo!News: 

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, during a visit to the Energy & Environment Research Center at UND, said she believes North Dakota is poised to play a key role in addressing climate change.

Granholm visited Grand Forks on Thursday, Oct. 14, to tour the EERC with Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Gov. Doug Burgum. Following that tour, they held a discussion with energy company executives from across the state.

That discussion focused on the generation of clean power, but also on advancing to commercialization carbon capture utilization and storage technology (CCUS) — essentially stripping carbon from coal or other energy sources, and burying it underground. Energy executives said doing so will require expanded federal financial assistance.

Granholm said she doesn't view combating climate change with a silver bullet, but rather "silver buckshot." In North Dakota, that buckshot pattern hits several targets, including further rolling out wind and solar power, but also working to decarbonize fossil fuels.

And, then look at this:

Burgum said North Dakota "hit the jackpot of geology" because the state can store 252 billion tons of carbon underground in a carbon "sink." That amount, he said, equates to 50 years of national carbon production from energy generation, or 4,400 years in what North Dakota generates on its own.

Granholm agreed, saying: "You've got a comparative advantage, clearly in carbon capture and storage because of your geography," and called the storage capacity a "gift to the planet."

In May, Burgum announced an ambitious plan to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030. Burgum said since that announcement, investment from outside the state has poured in, to the tune of $25 billion for projects like carbon capture programs.

Trenton Lands One Of State's Largest Economic Expansion Projects To Date -- Source -- October 14, 2021

Locator: 10201GTL.

Tag: GTL Trenton 

Updates

November 16, 2021: update here. Williams County loan.

Original Post 

If this doesn't blow you away, nothing will.

Population of Trenton, ND: 372 people. 

Link here. 

Trenton, ND: a few miles southwest of Williston, ND.

Gas-to-liquids plant.

Canada-based Cerilon GTL.

But look at this, for little ol' Trenton: a $2.8 billion plant.

Will start with an initial 24,000 bpd of ultra-low sulfur diesel, and:

  • military-grade jet fuel;
  • naphtha,
  • Group III base oils

Construction to begin in early 2023.

Infrastructure already in place:

  • rail
  • pipeline
  • also has carbon sequestration opportunities

Company anticipates future construction phases and more facilities as part of  its overall vision for the complex.

“The Cerilon GTL complex has the potential to be one of the largest economic expansion projects in the history of North Dakota,” he said. “GTL facilities support the oil industry while reducing environmental impacts. The Williams County facility will be one of many expansions that make North Dakota a leader in carbon neutrality.”
If Governor Burgum had anything to do with getting this project in North Dakota, he needs to be declared governor for life.

Now, if he could only get the NDIC website working.

Closing Notes From Social Media Today -- October 14, 2021

EU green pass rules: vaccine mandates. Gonna get interesting. Google Italy's mandate to take effect tomorrow, Friday, October 15, 2021. Vaccines or test every two days, individuals paying for tests themselves. Huge fines if they show up to work without their green passes. 

Elections have consequences: remember, Resident Biden is "the boss" and all those federal departments work for him. Not lost on the military. Announced today:

US Navy will expel personnel who refuse Covid-19 vaccine by 11/28/21.

Global warming: China's president Xi will not attend COP26 Conference / Glasgow, Scotland. Something on which I can agree. Xi not going to be part of group think when it comes to global warming.

Oil & Gas Journal: the ongoing energy crisis has prompted a switch to oil that could boost demand by 500,000 bopd compared with normal conditions -- IEA. I think this is old news. This was posted about the time it was announced that OPEC would raise production by 400,000 bopd. I noted that the math was easy to do. WTI trading at $81.57.

Definition of spare capacity: the 30 / 90 rule. Able to increase production within thirty days to meet increased demand for ninety days (or something like that -- need to confirm).

Top video of the day: https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1448690344711819266.

Discipline? Shale producers likely to "forget" discipline at $85-WTI -- TotalEnergies CEO.

$746: per month. Average cost to heat US home this winter. The Guardian. That's average, so if you suggest you will be paying much less, someone else is paying much more. This is 30% more than a year ago. That's for natural gas. It will be even worse for heating oil. 

Reminder: Resident Biden canceled the Keystone XL; banned fracking / then slow-rolled leasing on federal land. 

Cushing: oil jumped Thursday as a US inventory report revealed the largest stockpile reduction at Cushing since June. 

Fracking: Halliburton will deploy an advanced, all-electric fracking solution in the Haynesville. 

Copper: inventories dropping fast. This is an interesting one. It was a throw-away line by some CNBC talking head the other day. Copper shortage being driven by .... telcos building out their streaming services to compete with ... outfits like Hulu over cable ... or something to that effect ... and then we have all those EVs ... which is all about copper. SCCO surged 6% today, and is up another 1% in after-hour trading.

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. 

NE ISO Alert; Two New Whiting Permits; Nine Permits Renewed; Hess Reports A Completed DUC But NDIC Provides No Data -- October 14, 2021

23andme: next Robin Hood stock? You heard it here first.  

Politics: not many things are decided unanimously

 ... but FDA advisers unanimously recommended Moderna booster. Mix and match may be better than sticking with original series. Exciting. Regardless where one stands on Covid vaccines, we have learned a lot. From an investor's point of view, never let emotions control investment decisions.

Virgin Galactic: the "Boeing" of space flight? Shares sinking after hours.

  • Jeff Bezos: 6
    • really takes you to space -- though barely
  • that Virgin Galactic fellow, what is his name? 0
    • really doesn't take you to space

CDC: dated their release with today's date but did not update the numbers. Link here. 

Harsh Thanksgiving: US Navy will expel personnel who refuse Covid-19 vaccine by 11/28/21.

Huge market today:

  • CNBC chartist says we may have seen the high for 2021 today;
  • and Jim Cramer said we saw the high for WTI earlier this week;
  • wow.

Clearing off the desk:

ISO NE: why I love to blog. Folks, I hope, have noted my increased frequent links to ISO NE -- a reader much more knowledgeable on this issue than I sent this note. It's a brief note because the reader is time-constrained but hopefully will expand on this later. The note:

At 15:00 Eastern Time, NE ISO issued alert relating to potential capacity shortage shortly (evening 'rush hour'). 2 nuke plants - Seabrook and Millstone (3?) have been down for, I guess, routine maintenance. 

That would take about 2,200 Megawatts offline. Next few hours could be ... interesting. The current hydro generation comes from ~60 tiny, mostly run of river old plants. The hoped-for Canadian input is looking to be shot down in coming weeks via ballot, as you have noted. I will follow up - hopefully - tomorrow.

Link to ISO NE.  

Holy mackerel, or holy lutefisk! The reader is correct. ISO NE just went "yellow." Cost of electricity is now well north of $100 / MWh. The mix:

  • nuclear: 10%
  • natural gas: 76%
  • renewables only 5%
  • which means New England is counting on expensive hydroelectricity from Canada: 9%
  • it's 5:00 p.m. on the east coast; the data lags by about an hour; one would expect peak demand over the next one to three hours;

Later, the reader added this about ISO NE:

Yes ... and the 'Day Ahead' pricing (dark grey tab in that upper right, real time chart) shows ~$120/Mwh for this time tomorrow.

The Day Ahead pricing actually comprises the vast bulk of the  contracted electricity amount/cost as the ISO folks ensure a set amount will be generated and the producers - bidding against one another, lowest winning - are prepared/committed to providing it at an already-known cost. 
The spot pricing (the default setting when one pulls up the site) is the difference between the contracted Day Ahead and the actual, real time market needs.
This can be seen in the very first, left top chart as the difference between the Green line (Day Ahead/Cleared) and the Orange line (actual, real time demand).

Speaking of New England, this may be the problem:

A Vermont farmer decided he was going to save the world from climate change, so he traded his tractor for a mule. 
He soon realized that feed for the mule cost more than fuel for the tractor. He decided to train the mule to eat less. 
Just when he got that damn mule trained to eat nothing it died. When neighbors asked him why his mule died he just said  "climate change."

Sounds similar to Covid. Motorcycle fatalities who test positive post-mortem for Covid -- to protect the pathologist -- are recorded as Covid deaths. 

Carl Icahn back in the news: Southwest Gas spiked over seven percent today. As Jim Cramer would say, "there's always a bull market somewhere." Nice chart action today:

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Back to the Bakken


Amazing: NDIC has been working on its IT user interface since July 14, 2021. Scout tickets not being updated. Map not being updated. No progress from the user's point of view. Three months for something that should have been resolved in a day or two. Is the CIO even in Bismarck, ND, working the issues? At home with Covid? Asking for a friend. 

Active rigs:

$81.45
10/14/202110/14/202010/14/201910/14/201810/14/2017
Active Rigs2916586759

Two new permits, #38617 - #38618, inclusive:

  • Operator: Whiting:
  • Field: Sanish (Mountrail)
  • Comments:
    • Whiting has permits for two Savannah TTT wells in NENE 26-154-92;
    • one well will be sited 351 FNL and 439 FEL and the other well will be sited 351 FNL and 469 FEL

Nine permits renewed:

  • Zavanna (4): four Galloway permits, all in SESE section 18-154-99, Williams County
  • MRO (3): an Arnew permit; an Archie permit, and, an Erbe permit, all in lot 1 section 6-144-96, Dunn County
  • EOG: a West Clark permit in McKenzie County; lot 2 secton 01-151-95;
  • Slawson: an Armada Federal permit in in NENE section 15-151-92

One producing well completed:

  • 37707, 2,297, Hess, EN-Johnson-155-94-2017H-7, Manitou, not updated by NDIC; again, no idea what's going on; interestingly enough, the well is sited in Manitou but the horizontal runs south into the Alkali Creek;
    • two adjacent pads, a six-well pad to the north, Manitou oil field; an eight-well field to the south, Alkali Creek
    • 28250, SI/AB, scout tickets not updated so I have no idea what's going on;
    • 28251, 683, off line 8/21; t11/14; cum 166K 8/21;

Weekly EIA Petroleum Report -- October 14, 2021

Is anyone paying attention:

  • total petroleum product supplied two years ago, 2019, save week as this week: 21.1 million bpd
  • this year, total petroleum product supplied this year, this report: 20.7 million bopd
  • and the US economy is not even close to being fully open, and the supply chain shortage is still a huge obstacle
  • how can one not be bullish?

Disclaimer: I am always inappropriately exuberant, always inappropriately bullish. This is not an investment site.

Link here.

  • US crude oil inventories increased by a whopping 6.1 million bbls:
  • US crude oil in storage now stands at 427.0 million bbls;
  • US crude oil imports average 6.0 million bopd; decreased by 1.0 million bopd; over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.5 million bopd (yawn)
  • refiners are operating at 86.7% (yawn)
  • distillate fuel inventories unchanged from previous week; 9% below the five-year average
  • jet fuel product supplied was up 53.5% compared with same four-week period last year;
  • but look at this -- is the economy back or what? total products supplied was up by almost 13% from the same period last year.  
    • total products supplied: 20.7 million bbls
  • so, let's look at the report that was released the same date, two years ago, 2019; link here:
    • total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 21.1 million bpd, up by 5.4% from the same period, 2018

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Delta Has Clearly Peaked

Except in a few states including Minnesota and Michigan.