Locator: 52135B.
Died overnight: Stacy Keach, November 11, 2026, age 85. Actor, embodied Hamlet and Mike Hammer. One of my favorites, Mike Hammer.
Investing:
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Headlines
CoreWeave: the stock may be back? And apparently Nvidia is showing some life.
RBN Energy: in today's blog, a North Dakota connection -- see below, way below.
Re-emphasizing: Qatar and US LNG --
RBN Energy: Qatar’s deals for U.S.-sourced LNG broaden its global market reach. Link here. Archived.
Qatar has long been a heavyweight in LNG production, but its
ambitions now extend well beyond supplying cargoes from its own shores.
With new deals in place to purchase U.S.-sourced LNG, a growing shipping
fleet and access to European import terminals, state-owned QatarEnergy
is assembling the pieces to become the world’s largest LNG trader.
That
could shake up a market where established portfolio players and
independent traders already face mounting competition. In a recent RBN
blog, the site looked at Qatar’s evolving strategy, why U.S. LNG figures so
prominently in its plans, and what its expanding role could mean for the
global battle for market share.
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $86.67. Up very slightly. No matter how hard the "makers and shakers" try to say things are better in the Mideast, that does not appear to reflect reality:
- American bombers moved out of England back to US due to security concerns;
- US Sec Treasury moved from own home to US military base due to security threats
- Qatar still under force majeure; can't meet LNG commitments; Poland's Orel becomes first buyer to cancel long-term Qatar LNG deal
- Siemens Energy more than triples dividend after record year (LNG turbine production)
- my hunch: the kinetic blockade and the economic blockade is working; hose blockades will stay in place for two more years before the Dems are able to send pallets of cash to Iran as a humanitarian response.
New wells reporting:
- Friday, November 13, 2026: 32 for the month, 98 for the quarter, 597 for the year
- Thursday, November 12, 2026: 32 for the month, 98 for the quarter, 597 for the year,
- Wednesday, November 11, 2026: 32 for the month, 98 for the quarter, 597 for the year,
- 41910, conf, Devon Energy, Owan Trust North 29-28-27F 3H,
RBN Energy: Marathon's decision to unload inland refiners shows the Gulf Coast is the place to be. Link here. Archived.
Marathon Petroleum is selling a pair of inland refineries — the
105-Mb/d St. Paul Park refinery in Minnesota and the 72-Mb/d Mandan
refinery in North Dakota (along with other assets) — to CVR Energy.
The
$4.2 billion deal, announced November 3, frees up Marathon to focus
investment on its substantial Gulf Coast refining network while allowing
CVR to nearly double its refining capacity.
In today's RBN blog, we'll
discuss how this transaction fits a broader trend of major refiners
increasingly pointing their investment dollars toward the Gulf Coast,
while inland refineries find new life with buyers who see synergistic
value where the others don’t.
Before
we dive into the details of the deal, let’s lay out what the recent
developments make clear — refiners want to be on the Gulf Coast. We’ve
covered this theme at length in our Future of Fuels
report (last published in July), which forecasts PADD 3 refining
capacity growing from 9.9 MMb/d in 2026 to 10.3 MMb/d in 2040, mostly
from continued refinery expansion projects and regional debottlenecking.
Valero’s plans to buy and restart the closed LyondellBasell Houston
refinery (see Still Not Dead)
will add to this forecast capacity growth. This contrasts with our
long-term view for other regions in the U.S., where domestic demand
declines and limited access to export markets lead to long-term capacity
rationalization (see Mixed Signals).
These expected declines are most severe on the West Coast because of
regulatory challenges, higher crude costs, a faster rate of demand
declines, and new supply coming in from other regions (see I Need More). Meanwhile, meaningful capacity reductions in the Midcontinent are not expected until after 2035.
Let’s
start with some background on the two refineries changing hands. St.
Paul Park (green refinery icon at upper middle of Figure 1 below), built
in 1939, is Minnesota’s oldest refinery, founded as Northwestern
Refining Co. by the Erickson family. It has been through many owners in
its 87-year-history. Ashland bought it in 1970; Marathon co-owned it
through the Marathon Ashland joint venture and took full control in
2005; then sold it to Northern Tier in 2010; and got it back in 2018
through the Andeavor acquisition. (Northern Tier was acquired by Western
Refining in 2016, which was, in turn, acquired by Tesoro in 2017;
Tesoro changed its name to Andeavor upon completion of the Western
Refining Acquisition.)
