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
Sunday, 8/17/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Changes, expansions and reversals of the existing logistics system that supplies crude to 2.5 MMb/d plus of refining capacity in Houston have allowed refiners to expand output and process more crude than ever before. But there is still another 1.5 MMb/d of pipeline capacity coming into Houston by the end of 2015 and the decline in waterborne imports has reduced system flexibility. One company’s plans to build out over 17 MMBbl of crude storage in salt dome caverns south of Houston could alleviate some of the storage capacity challenges. Today we discuss the proposal.
Thursday, 8/14/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
A quarter million dollars for mud? Mud for a single horizontal well can cost that much and more. As horizontal well laterals keep getting longer, they need that much more mud. So the $10 billion drilling mud fluids business is growing fast. The industry has a unique supply chain, with production, storage and distribution infrastructure that rival other aspects of the oil & gas drilling business. But you don’t hear a lot about mud. It is one of those unsung heroes of the shale revolution, getting little attention in industry press or the investment community. But producers know they can’t do their job without just the right mud formula. Today we begin an in depth look at drilling mud fluid and its importance to shale drillers.
Wednesday, 8/13/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
Exporting large volumes of Western Canadian gas as liquefied natural gas (LNG) would help resolve the region’s growing gas glut. The government of British Columbia has set a goal of having three major LNG export facilities in operation by 2020, and already is counting the money it expects to make in LNG-related taxes. But while more than a dozen liquefaction/export projects are under development in BC, none of them is a sure thing yet, and LNG sales and purchase agreements with utilities and others in the Asia/Pacific region have been slow in coming. Today we begin a series that considers whether our northern neighbor’s chance to supply gas to Japan, China, and South Korea may be Slip Sliding Away.
Tuesday, 8/12/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Enbridge own and operate the longest liquids pipeline system in North America extending from Fort McMurray in Alberta to Montreal in Eastern Canada and south through the US Midwest to Freeport on the Texas Gulf Coast. Although the major purpose of the pipeline is to deliver heavy western Canadian crude, it also carries light crude to eastern Canada and the US Midwest. Projects underway that are expected to be completed at the end of 2014 will expand flows of light crude to the east by 400 Mb/d. Today we continue our series reviewing the Enbridge initiatives with the Light Oil Market Access (LOMA) projects.
Monday, 8/11/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
Natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has been falling for 15 years, hurt first by hurricane-related rig damage, then more recently by the side effects of the BP/Macondo disaster, the on-shore sale boom, and the resulting sag in gas prices. But GOM gas production is about to uptick, due largely to two big, long-planned oil and gas projects finally coming online. Is the upcoming increase in gas production in the Gulf the first sign of resurgence, or is it the energy-sector equivalent of a “dead cat bounce.” In this blog, we consider what is ahead for gas production in the GOM.
Sunday, 8/10/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Houston area refineries are currently operating with about a third less onshore storage (measured in storage days) than comparable refineries in other regions. Waterborne crude imports help to alleviate the challenges that this constraint can cause. But Houston is importing less waterborne crude nowadays – down by 0.5 MMb/d since 2011 to just under 1 MMb/d and that number will continue to fall as US production increases. When you add the challenges of handling crude quality issues, including apotential new requirement to segregate certain types of condensate, the storage shortfall looks even worse. Today we continue our analysis of Houston area crude storage.
Thursday, 8/07/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
After a WSJ story broke in late June that the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) had permitted the export of condensates by Enterprise and Pioneer, a good number of additional export requests were received by the agency. Then a couple of weeks ago, Reuters reported that the BIS had put a “hold” on the approval of any more requests, implying that potential condensate exports were in limbo. Turns out, as we understand it, there is no limbo – it is nothing more than an administrative process that takes time for any of these requests while the applicant is providing additional supporting information that the BIS requires. There has also been misunderstanding in the industry about the process of receiving BIS approval for exports. But in fact, approval is a fairly straight forward process of having BIS agree that your product should be classified as something designated EAR99 and assigned a CCATS number – for Common Classification Automatic Tracking System. Today we explore this process and what it takes to get condensates approved for export.
Wednesday, 8/06/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Eastern Canadian refineries are importing record volumes of light US crude - 263 Mb/d in May 2014 according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). By the end of 2014, pipeline reversals and expansions to the Enbridge network will increase the flow of light crude to eastern refineries from Western Canada and North Dakota. The result could be even more imports from the US. Today we continue our series reviewing the extent and impact of Enbridge projects to move crude east.
Tuesday, 8/05/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
The New England states and ISO-New England, which manages the region’s electric grid, are taking steps to keep the lights on during polar vortex events until new natural gas pipeline capacity through New England comes online. They also are making progress on an effort to have electric customers pay to help support new pipeline capacity developed specifically to serve gas-fired units. But while new gas-fired generation is being built in the region to replace older coal (and nuclear) capacity being retired, gas’s role in New England electricity production may well be stymied by a push to import large amounts of eastern Canadian hydroelectric power. Today we examine how New England is playing gas against hydro, and how the outlook for gas consumption by generators may be less bullish than some think.
Monday, 8/04/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
A study released yesterday (August 4, 2014) by the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) details the final results of work they commissioned to extensively sample and test North Dakota crude oil. The goal was to establish the quality characteristics of Bakken crude oil to determine if it is more risky to transport by rail than other crudes. The results show Bakken crude to be similar to other light sweet crudes, to be consistent across the producing region and that it meets all the current hazardous materials transportation requirements. Today we review the report’s findings.
Sunday, 8/03/2014
Category:
Natural Gas Liquids
US natural gas liquids (NGL) production is growing fast, and surplus volumes are moving to export markets. NGL production from natural gas processors increased from 1.7 MMb/d in early 2009 to 3.0 MMb/d this year (2014), and it is expected to continue growing to 4.5 MMb/d by 2019. Despite the important role of NGLs, these markets are not well understood, both due to their complexity and the unique aspects of their production, transportation, storage and use. One of the most misunderstood aspects of NGL markets – the extraction of NGLs from natural gas, is the subject of RBN’s latest Drill-Down Report. In today’s blog we’ll look at highlights of the report which reviews the basics of natural gas processing, current NGL markets, an outlook for NGL production, the health of NGL processing as measured by the Frac Spread, and a detailed review of RBN’s gas processing economics model.
Thursday, 7/31/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
The polar vortex events this past winter provided a jolting reminder to New England’s electricity sector that natural gas transmission infrastructure in the increasingly gas-dependent region needs further expansion. A comprehensive plan to ensure reliable electric supplies to Red Sox Nation for years to come is not yet in place, but more near-term fixes are being implemented and the elements of a long-term plan—new gas pipelines and new hydroelectric imports chief among them--are taking shape. Today we provide an update on gas-electric issues in New England.
Wednesday, 7/30/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
Ever since US crude production began to increase in 2009 after 40 years of decline from its peak in 1970, refineries have been processing higher crude volumes. This summer (2014) crude processing volumes have been higher than at any time since the Energy Information Administration (EIA) began keeping records in 1982. Abundant supplies of reasonably priced crude in all regions as well as low refinery fuel costs are giving US refiners good reason to crank up their output. So much so that in the Midwest refinery output reached over 100 percent of capacity early in July. Today we describe the refining bonanza and how things might change in the not too distant future.
Tuesday, 7/29/2014
Category:
Natural Gas
For gas producers in Appalachia, this has not been such a good summer for basis – the price they get for their gas versus the benchmark at Henry Hub, LA. Basis in the eastern part of the Marcellus has been particularly weak, with negative differentials extending into New York. Even at some West Virginia points like Dominion South, producers have faced ugly basis for the past few months. But there are some points that have been relatively immune, including Columbia Gas TCO, which has been hanging in there at pricing pretty close to Henry. Even when parts of the Dominion South and TCO pipeline systems are on top of each other. Why are basis differentials in the Appalachian Mountains hopping around all over the place? Today we look into why some Northeast prices have taken a hit and others have not.
Monday, 7/28/2014
Category:
Crude Oil
The current capacity of incoming crude pipelines into the Houston refining region is about 1.4 MMb/d. By the end of 2015 that will have more than doubled to 2.9 MMb/d. Add to these flows crude railed into new and developing unloading terminals as well as barges of Eagle Ford crude from Corpus Christi in south Texas and the prospects for congestion build up. Foreign waterborne imports into Houston are falling as pipelines supply more refineries but in the process a lot of floating storage flexibility is being lost. Today we describe the Houston crude distribution system that could be overwhelmed by the new flows.