Page 7 - NorthAmOil Week 28

NorthAmOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT NorthAmOil
Enbridge delays Mainline open season
NORTH AMERICA
PIPELINE operator Enbridge has reportedly delayed the start of an open season to solicit bids for capacity on its Mainline system. e news was reported by Reuters, which cited three anon- ymous market sources. e reason for the delay has not yet been given.
e open season was previously scheduled to begin in mid-July, lasting for two months. One of the sources told Reuters the start of the open season was expected to be pushed back about a week from July 15.
e Mainline system carries crude from Western Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. Four pipelines extend the system beyond Superior, and the system also connects to other pipe- lines that provide access to more markets. e current average annual capacity on the Mainline system is roughly 2.85mn barrels per day (bpd). Enbridge is planning to con- vert the Mainline from a common carrier sys- tem, in which shippers submit monthly bids for capacity, to one that is mostly contracted for 8-20 years.
Enrbidge hopes that locking shippers into long-term contracts will allow it to capitalise on delays to competitors’ pipeline projects. It is also aiming to secure future cash ow at a time when market access is a major cause for anxiety among Canada’s producers.
is plan has led to concern among smaller shippers that they could be excluded by being unable to meet Enbridge’s volume require- ments for the Mainline system. But the pipeline operator said on June 10 that it had lowered the minimum required volume commitment by nearly two-thirds, to 2,200 bpd from 6,000 bpd previously.
e changes to the Mainline system are sub- ject to approval by the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB), and would take e ect in 2021.
“We have been in discussions with interested shippers and are working to accommodate to their needs. We anticipate holding the open sea- son soon,” an Enbridge spokeswoman, Tracie Kenyon, said in an emailed statement to Reuters when asked about the delay.™
PERFORMANCE
Gulf production comes back online after hurricane
GULF OF MEXICO
OIL production has resumed in the Gulf of Mex- ico during the past week, a er almost 73% of it went o ine owing to Hurricane Barry forming in the region.
By July 18, Barry had been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone and had dissipated over the continental US.
According to estimates from the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), based on data from company reports, 1.38mn barrels per day (bpd) of oil were o ine as of July 14. BSEE also estimated that around 62% of natural gas production in the region, or 1.71bn cubic feet (48.6mn cubic metres), had been shut in by that day.
BSEE said personnel had been evacuated from 283 production platforms, accounting for 42.3% of the 669 manned platforms in the Gulf, at the height of the shut-ins on July 13-14. By July 15, some personnel had already started return- ing to the platforms.
It can take several days for full production to resume in the Gulf a er a major storm leads to shut-ins.
Among those returning staff to evacuated platforms on July 15 were Anadarko Petroleum, BHP Group, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and
Royal Dutch Shell.
Most re neries in south-eastern Louisiana
kept running through the storm except for Phil- lips 66’s 253,600 bpd Alliance facility, which the company began restarting on July 15.
Domestic crude stocks are predicted to decline this week as a result of the storm. e US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release data on this week’s crude stockpiles on July 24. is week, the EIA said that crude stock- piles in the week up to July 12 were down 3.1mn barrels, having been forecast by analysts to fall by 4.2mn barrels. is marked the h consecutive weekly decline in US crude stockpiles, with a fur- ther fall anticipated next week.™
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