The collapse in crude oil prices that resulted from the Saudi-Russian price war in March — made only worse by the oil demand-depressing effects of COVID-19-related shelter-in-place orders — has begun to exact a toll on U.S. crude supplies. The Bakken, America’s #3 oil-producing basin, is a prime example of how quickly the price downturn has begun to negatively affect oil supplies as uneconomic wells there have been shut in and oil-focused drilling has ground to a near standstill. The spillover effects on the Bakken’s associated gas supplies have been just as dramatic with a sharp reduction seen since April as oil well shut-ins began to accelerate. The decline in these natural gas and NGL supplies to date provides a stark example of how quickly gas balances may be shifting in the region and may also be creating an opening for long-suffering Canadian gas exports. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at how Bakken oil supply declines are beginning to impact its gas supplies.
The Crude Voyager is a weekly analysis of U.S. Gulf Coast loading activity that explains the ebbs and flows of crude loadings, destinations, and geopolitical issues impacting U.S. exports. It outlines the major paths for laden tankers hauling U.S. crude all over the world and reflects the change in tanker departures to the main regions that consume U.S. crude.
Crude oil supplies from the Bakken have been a prime example of how the Shale Revolution has changed America’s oil supply equation. Once considered a backwater for its low productivity and sleepy oil supplies, the Bakken Shale, covering parts of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, has risen in the past decade to become the third-largest oil producing basin in the U.S., after the Permian and the Gulf of Mexico. Monthly production data for North Dakota and Montana from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) pegs February 2020 crude oil production at just under 1.5 MMb/d (Figure 1). About 97% of that total comes from North Dakota, so any discussion of Bakken oil supplies essentially means focusing on North Dakota.
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About the song
"Closing Time" was written by Leonard Cohen and appears as the fourth cut on Cohen's ninth studio album, The Future. An elaborate video was made for "Closing Time," featuring Cohen and his then-girlfriend Rebecca De Mornay, along with his backup singers Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen. The video won a Canadian Juno Award for Best Music Video in 1993. Cohen also won a Juno Award for Best Male Vocalist the same year, about which he had to say, "Only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win Vocalist of the Year."
The Future was recorded at various studios in Montreal and Los Angeles between January and June of 1992 and released in November 1992. It was written and recorded during the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. With a running time of over 59 minutes, it was the longest Cohen album to that date. The album went 2x Platinum in Cohen's home country of Canada, which translates to 200,000 copies sold. Approximately 225,000 copies have sold in the U.S. to date. Multiple personnel were used in the making of the album. Along with Leonard Cohen on vocals, programming, sax and violin, there were four guitar players, three bass players, eight keyboard players, four drummers, four horn players, 12 backing vocalists, a choir and an orchestra. The album was produced by Leonard Cohen, Steve Lindsay, Bill Ginn, Leanne Ungar, Rebecca De Mornay and Yoav Goren.
Leonard Cohen was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist. He released 15 studio albums, eight live albums, five compilation albums and 44 singles. He published 16 collections of poetry and two novels. Cohen has won two Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is a recipient of a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. Cohen died at the age of 82 at his home in Los Angeles in November 2016.
