Random Update Of Statoil Russel Well In Painted Woods -- April 20, 2018

The well:

• 19930, two frack/IP (see below), Statoil, Russell 10-3 1H, Painted Woods, cum 286K 2/18;
• first frack: 5/22/11 -- 2,670, 36 stages; 4 million lbs; large/small ceramic
• second frack: 8/11/17 -- 82, 1.9 million lbs, all mesh

For newbies: this is an important data point/random well update. The Bakken is now in the manufacturing phase. Bakken wells:

• will be drilled
• some will go immediately into production
• some will be fracked/completed later (DUCs) -- within two years
• once completed, Bakken wells will:
• have pumps installed
• undergo work-overs (think roto-rooter)
• undergo mini-re-fracks
• be re-fracked: standard re-fracks; high-intensity re-fracks
• taken off-line while neighboring wells are fracked/re-fracked
• come back off -line once work on neighboring wells is completed
• be remotely "managed" for production
• will produce for 35 years (source: NDIC) 
• with "current" EURs of --
• less than 500,000 bbls: poor wells
• 500,001 - 750,000 bbls: "okay" wells for those with low expectations
• 750,001 - 1,000,000 bbls: expectations for Bakken wells on the fringe
• 1,000,001 -- 1,500,000: expectations for Bakken wells inside the fringe
• > 1.5 million bbls: currently not much said about EURs greater than 1.5 million bbls ...

#19930 is a good example of a fairly mediocre well simply undergoing a very small re-frack -- few stages (it was a long lateral) and very little proppant and it was all mesh, relatively inexpensive to re-accomplish. By the way, this well is the only one in this drilling unit and is located on the fringe.

Wow, Wow, Wow! I Did Not See This Coming -- Legacy Fund Deposits Drop Significantly In April, 2018, After Seven Months Of Increasing

Link here.

Another First For The Expanded Panama Canal -- Making Panama Great Again! -- April 20, 2018

This has always been a burr under my saddle. I always thought the NY TImes article was a bit racist, suggesting the Panamanians attempt to widen the canal would go awry. The original post and updates are at this link.

Today, from Bloomberg: a first for the Panama Canal -- three LNG tankers crossed in one day. Wow.

Three liquefied natural gas tankers sailed through the Panama Canal on the same day this week, marking a first for the newly expanded waterway and highlighting the booming global gas trade.

All three ships -- Gaslog Hong Kong, Gaslog Gibraltar and Clean Ocean -- entered the canal on a staggered basis from the Pacific side Tuesday and had completed their crossings by early Wednesday, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. A representative for the canal authority confirmed the tanker moves.

The crossings underscore how the LNG trade has surged worldwide as new export facilities from the U.S. to Australia rumble to life and buyers in Asia boost their demand for the fuel. Since the canal completed a $5 billion expansion almost two years ago, traders and terminal developers have been closely watching the authority's ability to accommodate the jump in tanker traffic.

And more:

Dominion Energy Inc.'s Cove Point LNG terminal -- the second to send U.S. shale gas overseas -- started commercial service this week, roughly two years after Cheniere Energy Inc. opened up its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana. Thus far, Sabine Pass has shipped more than 300 cargoes to 26 countries.

As of March, the Panama Canal has seen 134 LNG vessels pass through it this fiscal year, according to a statement. Though this marks the first time three ships made the transit in one day, two ships have made the journey in 24 hours more than a dozen times.

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Exonyms and Endonyms

From wiki:

An exonym or xenonym is an external name for a geographical place, or a group of people, an individual person, or a language or dialect. It is a common name used only outside the place, group, or linguistic community in question.

An endonym or autonym is an internal name for a geographical place, or a group of people, or a language or dialect. It is a common name used only inside the place, group, or linguistic community in question; it is their name for themselves, their homeland, or their language.

For instance, "Germany" is the English language exonym, "Allemagne" is the French language exonym, and "Deutschland" is the endonym for the same country in Europe.

Japan is an exonym. The Japanese names (endonyms) for Japan are Nippon and Nihon.

And now the dots start to connect:

Before modern styles of romanization, the Portuguese devised their own. In it, /zi/ is written as either ii or ji. 

In modern Hepburn style, iippon would be rendered as Jippon. 

There are no historical phonological changes to take into account here. Etymologically, Jippon is similar to Nippon in that it is an alternative reading of 日本. The initial character 日 may also be read as /ziti/ or /zitu/.

Compounded with /hoɴ/ (本), this regularly becomes Jippon. Unlike the Nihon/Nippon doublet, there is no evidence for a *Jihon.

Wow. There you have it. It appears the Portuguese, before the "modern styles of romanization," provided the direct link to the exonym: Japan.

One can stop here, but wiki continues:

As mentioned above, the English word Japan has a circuitous derivation; but linguists believe it derives in part from the Portuguese recording of the early Mandarin Chinese or Wu Chinese word for Japan: Cipan (日本), which is rendered in pinyin as Rìběn (IPA: ʐʅ˥˩pən˨˩˦), and literally translates to "sun origin". Guó (IPA: kuo˨˦) is Chinese for "realm" or "kingdom", so it could alternatively be rendered as Cipan-guo. 

The word was likely introduced to Portuguese through the Malay Jipang. Cipangu was first mentioned in Europe in the accounts of Marco Polo. It appears for the first time on a European map with the Fra Mauro map in 1457, although it appears much earlier on Chinese and Korean maps such as the Gangnido. Following the accounts of Marco Polo, Cipangu was thought to be fabulously rich in silver and gold, which in Medieval times was largely correct, owing to the volcanism of the islands and the possibility to access precious ores without resorting to (unavailable) deep-mining technologies. 

The Dutch name, Japan, may be derived from the southern Chinese pronunciation of 日本, Yatbun or Yatpun. The Dutch J is generally pronounced Y, hence Ja-Pan.

Update On The Pennsylvania Laurel Pipeline -- April 20, 2018

Updates

Later, 3:52 p.m. CT: this is pretty funny. Earlier today, I guess about 7:20 a.m. I wrote the following note (below the screenshot) about the "coolest tweet so far today." I thought it was a somewhat ridiculous item and considered deleting it, but there wasn't much else going on, so I left it alone. My thought was this: if President Trump feels that the high price of oil/gasoline could threaten his presidency/re-election, he would take steps to increase US production. LOL. Now this headline from oilprice.com (link here): 

Original Post

Coolest tweet so far today: President Trump says oil prices are "too high" and blames OPEC. I don't suppose Trump can do much about OPEC. Some say he can affect the price of oil with his actions in the Mideast (think sanctions on Iran). Perhaps, but having said that, this was my immediate thought: there's been a lot of talk recently about the possibility of a recession in 2019. Oil at $100 / bbl could certainly make that possibility more likely. Something tells me President Trump would prefer not to end his first (last?) term with the US in recession. If he thinks the price of oil could be a problem for the US economy, my hunch he will do what he can to support the US oil and gas sector. I don't think he can actually do much, but his administration certainly won't do anything to slow the oil and gas sector. In the big scheme of things, all this talk is probably a "wash," but it pleases me that the president is talking about this rather than talking about sports.

By the way, speaking of global supply of oil. Two things just off the radar scope: a) Libya looks to be in trouble again; b) the already-horrendous situation in Venezuela is apparently getting worse. Oil workers are said to be fleeing the sector under the military officer that has just been appointed to run Venezuela's oil sector.

SLB: earnings in line. SLB's first-quarter earnings almost doubled; soared 90% to 38 cents/share with revenue up almost 14% to just under $8 billion. North American revenue jumped 52% year-over-year while international revenue dipped slightly (think Russia?).

Making America great again: China catches "new wave" of ethane cracker projects. Will use US shale natural gas as feedstock. US shale gas. Link over at Rigzone.

[The] scope of work includes a process design package, heater engineering and technology license for two ethylene plants, each with a 1,250-kiloton per annum capacity, at Lianyungang’s petrochemical facility in China’s Jiangsu province.

According to CB&I, the ethylene plants will be the first such facilities in China that crack 100 percent ethane feed. The company explained that having this capability will represent a “new wave” of ethylene projects fed by U.S.-sourced shale gas.

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Back to the Bakken

Where Fracking Is Always In Fashion

Active rigs:

$67.94↓	4/20/2018	04/20/2017	04/20/2016	04/20/2015	04/20/2014
Active Rigs	59	49	28	92	188

RBN Energy: Buckeye Partners' revised plan for the Laurel pipeline.

For a couple of years now, Buckeye Partners has been working to advance a controversial plan to reverse the western half of its Laurel refined-products pipeline in Pennsylvania to allow motor gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to flow east from Midwest refineries into the central part of the Keystone State. Some East Coast refineries that have relied on Laurel for 60 years to pipe their refined products as far west as Pittsburgh have been fighting Buckeye’s plan tooth and nail, arguing that it would hurt their businesses and hurt competition in western Pennsylvania gas and diesel markets — and refined-product retailers in the Pittsburgh area agree.

Now, after a state administrative law judge’s recommendation that Pennsylvania regulators reject Buckeye’s plan, Buckeye has proposed an alternative: making the western half of the Laurel Pipeline bi-directional, which would allow both eastbound and westbound flows. Today, we consider the latest plan for an important refined-products pipe and how it may affect Mid-Atlantic and Midwest refineries.

"The Kraken" Pads -- Epping Oil Field -- April 19, 2018

Note: production data for these Kraken wells is tracked here. 

NDIC reports permits for two Kraken Operating pads in Epping oil field. If I'm not misreading the permits, one "The Kraken" will run five horizontals from the north to the south in the same two sections as another "The Kraken" which will run six horizontals from the south to the north in those two sections.

The graphic:

The wells: pending (April 17, 2018; April 18, 2018, daily activity reports) --

• 34806, 929, Kraken, The Kraken 13-24 5TFH, Epping, t11/18; cum 189K 11/19;
• 34807, 1,423, Kraken, The Kraken 13-24 4H, Epping, t11/18; cum 246K 11/19;
• 34808, 828, Kraken, The Kraken 13-24 3TFH, Epping, t11/18; cum 165K 11/19;
• 34809, 1,684, Kraken, The Kraken 13-24 2H, Epping, t11/18; cum 200K 11/19;
• 34810, 2,154, Kraken, The Kraken 13-24 11TFH, Epping, t11/18; cum 300K 11/19;

• 34793, 616, Kraken, The Kraken 24-13 6H, Epping, t10/18; cum 212K 11/19;
• 34794, 550, Kraken, The Kraken 24-13 7TFH, Epping, t10/18; cum 149K 11/19;
• 34795, 1,139, Kraken, The Kraken 24-13 8H, Epping, t10/18; cum 279K 11/19;
• 34796, 1,556, Kraken, The Kraken 24-13 9TFH, Epping, t10/18; cum 144K 11/19;
• 34797, 1,253, Kraken, The Kraken 24-13 10H, Epping, t10/18; cum 195K 11/19;
• 34798, 1,023, Kraken, The Kraken LE 24-13 1TFH, Epping, t10/18; cum 197K 11/19;

The completed wells to the east, in Brooklyn oil field, are CLR's Mildred wells.