RBN Energy

Crude oil production in the Bakken Shale, which slumped after the 2014-15 crash in oil prices, has increased by more than 50% in the past three years, and now tops 1.5 MMb/d. Just as important, producers in the core of the crude-focused play in western North Dakota have been ratcheting down their drilling-and-completion costs and making plans for continued production growth in 2020. Also, midstreamers are addressing a gas processing capacity shortfall that had threatened to slow drilling activity; in addition, some of them are developing crude oil takeaway capacity, including the planned Liberty Pipeline to the crude hub in Cushing, OK. Today, we begin a series on the Bakken’s expanding network of smaller-diameter crude pipelines and their role in further improving the shale play’s economics.

U.S. shale oil production and exports have contributed to global oversupply in recent years, which, in turn, has amplified pressure on OPEC to implement production cuts to keep crude oil prices from collapsing to untenable levels. That’s led to an agreement among most OPEC countries and nearly a dozen other non-member producing countries — together known as OPEC-Plus — to limit production, an accord that’s remained in place since January 2017. However, oversupply conditions now are also prompting U.S. oil and gas producers to pull back on their planned capital expenditures for 2020, suggesting a slowdown in U.S. production growth later this year and into 2021. Recent global oil supply and demand forecasts by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and OPEC itself suggest that such a slowdown, if it materializes, could present a window of opportunity for OPEC-Plus to relax its quotas and potentially reclaim some of its lost oil market share, at least for a time. Today, we examine what the recent changes in monthly data from IEA, EIA and OPEC indicate about potential shifts in the OPEC versus non-OPEC oil supply and demand balance and what that could mean for OPEC’s role in meeting global demand.

The Denver-Julesburg Basin in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming has been producing crude oil for many decades now, but there were only a few crude gathering systems there until just the past three or four years, which were marked by a rapid ramp-up in production associated with the Shale Revolution. The development of these systems was spurred by producers’ desire to more efficiently and cost-effectively transport increasing volumes of crude from their new horizontal wells to new and expanded takeaway pipelines. The gathering systems have been built and added to over time by a combination of entities –– producers themselves, midstream affiliates of producers, and independent midstream companies, many of them backed by private equity. Today, we discuss highlights from our new Drill Down Report on D-J Basin crude oil gathering systems.

Transporting crude oil from the lease to refineries and export docks is like a long-distance relay race. The crude oil gathered from several wells is handed off to shuttle or takeaway pipelines, which then pass it on to regional crude hubs like Cushing, OK — from the hubs, crude is transferred to still other pipes. To get the relay going, the developers of crude gathering systems work closely with their takeaway pipeline counterparts to figure out the most efficient way to effect the first baton pass. Today, we continue our series on crude-related infrastructure in the Rockies’ Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin with a look at Outrigger Energy’s existing and planned gathering systems, and their connections to Tallgrass Energy’s still-expanding Pony Express takeaway pipeline.

Occidental Petroleum’s recent acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum made Oxy the #1 producer in the Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin and gave it a majority stake in Western Midstream Partners, which owns crude-gathering and other midstream assets in the D-J, the Permian and the Marcellus. While Western Midstream’s gathering focus had been on helping Anadarko meet its own midstream needs, Oxy sees the partnership taking on a broader role as a provider of gathering services to third parties as well. Toward that end, Oxy and Western Midstream a few days ago announced a series of agreements designed to allow Western Midstream to operate as an independent company. Today, we continue a series on crude-related infrastructure in the D-J with a look at Western Midstream’s gathering and related assets owned in part by the basin’s largest oil, natural gas and NGL producer.

For the first time since late September 2013, the ratio of crude oil to natural gas (CME/NYMEX) futures on Friday hit 30X. That means the price of crude oil in $/bbl was 30 times the price of natural gas in $/MMBtu. Such a wide disparity in the value of the liquid hydrocarbon versus the gaseous hydrocarbon has huge implications for where producers will be drilling, the proportion of associated and wet gas that will be produced, the outlook for NGL production, and a host of other energy market developments. The ratio has been moving higher for the past couple of years, and recently has been boosted by the combined impact of increased tension in the Middle East (higher oil prices) and a warm winter so far in many of the largest gas-burning population centers in the U.S (lower gas prices). But it’s pretty likely that the trend will be with us for the long term. So today, we’ll begin a series that looks at the implications of this price relationship.

Negative Permian gas prices. Wall Street sours on all things energy. E&Ps and midstreamers forced by capital markets to tighten their belts. Infrastructure coming online just as production growth is slowing. Oil, gas and NGLs totally dependent on export markets to balance. The list goes on. Just as producers and midstreamers came to terms with a new normal for oil and gas prices, this new round of challenges hit the market in 2019. And it is going to get a lot more complicated as we enter the new decade. There is just no way to predict what is going to happen next, right? Nah. All we need to do is stick our collective RBN necks out one more time, peer into our crystal ball, and see what 2020 has in store for us.