RBN Energy
Early Access
Friday, 9/26/2025
Thursday, 9/25/2025
The popularity of weather derivatives has ebbed and flowed since their introduction in the late 1990s but trading activity has rebounded in recent years as the trading community has increasingly begun to reassess the need to hedge weather-related risks — everything from high temperatures and rainfall levels to power prices and cooling demand. In today’s RBN blog, we examine the role of weather derivatives, how they are used to hedge risk, and why they may be becoming increasingly important to the energy industry.
Analyst Insights
Analyst Insights are unique perspectives provided by RBN analysts about energy markets developments. The Insights may cover a wide range of information, such as industry trends, fundamentals, competitive landscape, or other market rumblings. These Insights are designed to be bite-size but punchy analysis so that readers can stay abreast of the most important market changes.
By Jeremy Meier - Friday, 9/26/2025 (3:00 pm)
US oil and gas rig count climbed to 549 rigs for the week ending September 26, an increase of seven rigs vs. a week ago and the largest gain since July according to Baker Hughes data.
By Jason Lindquist - Friday, 9/26/2025 (10:00 am)
Report Highlight: Hydrogen Billboard
Low-carbon steel that utilizes green hydrogen in the production process will be used in Microsoft data centers under an agreement announced this week with Swedish steelmaker Stegra.
Daily Energy Blog
Tuesday, 9/09/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
Hawaii’s electric and gas utilities plan to end their long-time reliance on oil and its by-products—gas on the islands is actually synthesized from naphtha—and to shift to LNG as their primary fossil fuel (in the case of Hawaiian Electric) or at least as a back-up fuel (in the case of Hawaii Gas). The key drivers are economy and environment, but there also has been a worry that one or both of Hawaii’s two oil refineries may shut down, leaving islanders “at sea” from a fuel-supply perspective. Today, we begin a look at the potentially rapid transition to LNG being planned in the Aloha state, and the significant challenges and costs involved in making the switch.
Monday, 9/08/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Located just east of the prolific Eagle Ford shale, production from the Eaglebine play has yet to take off. In good part that is because takeaway capacity is currently limited to trucks. All that is about to change with the new 60 Mb/d Sunoco Logistics Eaglebine Express pipeline due online by the end of 2014. And last month two midstream companies announced competing pipeline projects that would add as much as another 400 Mb/d of takeaway capacity in 2016. Today we review recent developments in the Eaglebine basin.
Sunday, 9/07/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
A couple of years ago in December 2012 we posted a blog in our Oh-Ho-Ho It’s Magic series covering the bigger Gulf Coast crude oil supply picture. At the time we wanted to provide a summary view of all the changing crude flows happening at the Gulf Coast. Back then the Seaway Phase 2 and TransCanada Cushing Marketlink pipelines from Cushing to the Gulf Coast had not opened up and there was over 50 MMBbl of crude stuck in Cushing inventory. Things are a lot different today. Today we break down the crude balance for the Gulf Coast - PADD (Petroleum Administration Defense District) III region since the start of 2011.
Thursday, 9/04/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
The shift from diesel to LNG (and sometimes CNG or field gas) as a fuel for drilling rigs and hydrofracturing pump engines is underway, and there is interest in having ships, locomotives and long-haul trucks run on natural gas from LNG too. But before investing in new or converted engines that can run on natural gas or on a diesel-natural gas blend, diesel and shipping fuel users need answers to three questions: What will it cost? How much will we save? And—this is important, too--is the LNG infrastructure sufficiently robust to support the switch?Today we explore the economic ins and outs of converting from diesel to gas, and describe the current state of domestic LNG supply infrastructure.
Wednesday, 9/03/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Enbridge expect their Line 9 reversal to be complete in October 2014. By the end of 2014 this pipeline will deliver 300 Mb/d of mainly light crude to two refineries in Quebec. But the Line 9 reversal will likely not have capacity to ship any crude for export – either from Canada’s East Coast or via the Portland-Montreal pipeline to Maine. Significant crude deliveries east of Quebec will have to wait for TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline in 2018. Today we explain why in the final episode of our series on feeding crude to eastern Canadian refineries.
Monday, 9/01/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Two weeks ago (August 21, 2014) Plains All American announced their proposed “Diamond” crude pipeline project from Cushing, OK to Memphis, TN that will feed the Valero Memphis refinery starting in late 2016. The new pipeline will provide more direct access from Cushing to supplies of the light sweet crude this refinery processes that are being produced these days in the Williston, Denver Julesburg, Permian and Anadarko basins. Presumably the Diamond pipeline will replace existing arrangements where crude is shipped up the Capline pipeline to Memphis. That development looks to be another nail in the coffin for the northbound Capline crude trunk route between St James and Patoka, IL. Today we discuss the proposal and its consequences for Capline.
Thursday, 8/28/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
Say “LNG” and the first thing that comes to mind for most of us is the potential for liquefied natural gas exports to Asia and other overseas markets. One of the hottest LNG markets right now, though, is domestic, and involves super-cooling natural gas into LNG and using it to power drilling rigs and hydraulic fracturing pumps, as well as ships, locomotives, and long-haul trucks. A number of small liquefaction plants have been operating for years in the US – most connected to peak shaving generation facilities but projects with capacity totaling more than 2 million gallons/day are under construction or being planned. Today we begin a new series examining the increasing use of LNG as a cheaper, cleaner alternative to diesel and shipping fuel, and the LNG production capacity being developed to keep pace with rising demand.
Wednesday, 8/27/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Enbridge is investing close to $9 billion between 2013 and 2016 in its Eastern and Light Oil Market Access initiatives. A major goal is to improve access for Enbridge shippers – particularly shippers of light shale crude from North Dakota, to refineries in the Midwest and eastern Canada. And by the end of 2014 refineries in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio as well as in Ontario will have better access to Enbridge crude. But even when the reversal of Line 9 in Ontario is completed and Enbridge crude can flow as far as Montreal, only about 300 Mb/d will be available for Quebec refineries to process. Today we continue our review of Enbridge eastern expansion plans.
Tuesday, 8/26/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
Heightened worldwide competition among LNG exporters is forcing a reality check on projects. LNG buyers, most of them in the Asia/Pacific region, are pressing for prices that more closely track natural gas value at the source—plus the known or calculable costs of liquefaction and shipping. Projects whose capital costs put their LNG pricing out of the money will not find the buyers they need to make their projects a “go.” The 16 or more LNG export projects under development in Western Canada are going through a winnowing process of sorts right now, largely because all are greenfield efforts and all but the smallest projects require new, expensive pipeline capacity to move their gas to port. Today in the third blog in our series on Western Canadian LNG exports, we examine the remaining field of contenders, including some floating or barge-based proposals that may gain an edge.
Monday, 8/25/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Looking out over the next year and a half to 2016, Houston crude storage capacity looks to be lower than necessary to meet operational needs. With continuing increases in pipeline crude streams headed into the area in the next six months, we could see supply disruptions with consequences for price volatility. Probable victims of these disruptions would be producers looking to find a home at Houston refineries for their production. The solution is to build more storage but the market is not yet sending alarm signals to that effect. Today we conclude our series on Houston storage capacity.
Sunday, 8/24/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Last week RBN co-hosted the “Surviving the Flood” conference with Turner, Mason & Company in Houston. The major theme of the conference was the expected timing and likely impact of a “Day of Reckoning” for the US oil market that could come any time between 2015 and 2020 depending on critical factors influencing market dynamics. If and when the big day arrives, and if export rules don’t change and refinery hardware is not upgraded, Gulf Coast light Louisiana sweet (LLS) crude could be trading at a discount of $15-$20/Bbl to international light sweet benchmark Brent. Today we discuss the day of reckoning and its critical influencers.
Thursday, 8/21/2014
Category:
Refined Fuels
Vacuum gas oil or VGO is one of those mystery products talked about by refiners but barely understood by those of us that are not engineers. However it is an important intermediate feedstock that can increase the output of valuable diesel and gasoline from refineries. Lighter shale crudes such as Eagle Ford can produce VGO material direct from primary distillation. Today we shed some light on this semi-finished refinery product.
Wednesday, 8/20/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
The Enbridge crude oil network is North America’s largest. Its original objective was to deliver western Canadian crude to refineries in the US Midwest. Many of those refineries like the 413 Mb/d BP Whiting complex south of Chicago have spent billions upgrading to process heavy Canadian crude. But the shale boom is adding significant volumes of light crude to the Enbridge system, particularly in North Dakota. So now the company is expanding capacity to get that light crude to market in eastern Canada and the US Midwest. Today we continue our coverage of Enbridge’s expansion plans.
Tuesday, 8/19/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) already has approved export licenses for nine LNG export projects in British Columbia that, if all built, would demand a total of up to 16 Bcf/d of Western Canada natural gas. Several other LNG export projects also are under development in BC. In reality, though, at most only a handful of all these projects will be financed and constructed. The BC government’s optimistic estimate is that five liquefaction “trains” with a combined gas throughput of 3.5 Bcf/d (to produce up to 25 million metric tons/year of LNG) will be online by 2023. The questions then are, what will it take for a project to advance, and which developers are making the most headway so far. Today, in the second of our Slip Sliding Away series, we start to assess BC’s top LNG export contenders, including a few late-arriving long shots that could surprise.
Monday, 8/18/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
The condensate potential of the Utica shale play in northeast Ohio continues to be talked up by producers drilling for oil there. Natural gas output in the Utica is doing pretty well on its own of course – part of the Appalachian Tsunami of production that includes the Marcellus play. Condensate in the Utica is still considerably less exciting with production topping out at 25 Mb/d in 2013 but fifty percent higher now (37 Mb/d in August 2014 according to the Energy Information Administration - EIA) as more processing infrastructure releases production from completed wells. Today we ponder prospects for shipping Utica production overseas.