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Welcome to the Spring edition of the Stillwater Newsletter! We have had a productive winter which ended with a great annual meeting this month. Stillwater's annual meeting is the time of year when all of our associates come together from all over the country to discuss the direction of the company. It's a lot of smart people in one room for one day developing great ideas. In the latest edition we let you in on some of the new things we're cooking up. Michael Bloch gives us a great example of why new Upstream projects need to be reviewed with a Downstream perspective. Mark Pilcher delivers his first white paper in a series on Liquefied Natural Gas. The March Bubble Map shows how pipelines are helping to ease the Mid Continent bottleneck. And Dave Hackett is at the AFPM Annual Meeting.
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Upstream Commercial Support: A Simple Example for Design of Export Facilities
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by Michael W. Bloch Often when Upstream projects are under development, it is difficult for designer engineers to see beyond a specific set of capital investment goals. It is important that new Upstream projects be reviewed with a Downstream perspective in advance of making decisions, reviewing draft development plans and commercial agreements, or agreeing to preliminary or final terms and conditions. The following is an example of the problems that arise when Downstream issues are unknown or not considered. An engineer designing export facilities for a new 15 kbd West African crude production project thought he could save capital investment and accelerate cash flow by designing the export facilities to export 500 kb cargoes on AfraMax tankers. This was problematic from several commercial perspectives: - Standard size export cargoes in West Africa are 1000 kb which are typically loaded on SuezMax tankers on a one port basis or on VLCC tankers on a two port basis.
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| What is LNG? |
by Mark Pilcher LNG has been in the news a lot lately. Political opponents have been waging a propaganda war over the economic benefitsand the environmental impact of LNG exports from the U.S. LNG has been described as a clean transportation fuel alternative to diesel, and as an environmental Trojan Horse. More recently, LNG has been touted as a geopolitical tool in a revived Cold War. LNG is not a household term, nor is it widely understood outside of the small international community of technical and commercial experts who produce, store, market and transport it around the world. This is the first in a series of articles in which we will discuss LNG: - What is it?
- How is it produced?
- Where is it produced?
- How is it stored and transported?
- How and where is it consumed?
- How is it sold?
- What is the future of LNG as a transport fuel?
Read more...
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The Spring Bubble Map: Pipelines Help Ease the Bottleneck
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 The latest Bubble Map shows the Bakken discount has narrowed considerably since we last checked in. On March 20th Bakken at Clearbrook, MN was posted at $4 under WTI. The WCS discount has also narrowed to $19 under WTI. On the Gulf Coast, the LLS premium to WTI has shrunk to $3 over while Maya's discount has widened to a $12. The Brent-WTI spread has narrowed with Brent priced $7 over WTI. On the West Coast, the ANS premium has narrowed to $7 over WTI and San Joaquin Valley Heavy dropped to $1 under WTI. Read more...
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Stillwater Associates is a transportation energy consulting company. We help our clients understand how fuels get from the source to the service station. If your company is in need of expert advice, please let us know.
Sincerely,
David J. Hackett, President
Stillwater Associates LLC |
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We use Facebook to share interesting transportation energy articles, studies, and events. If you are a regular Facebook user, check out Stillwater's page.
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Dave Hackett to talk about CBR at AFPM Annual Meeting 
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Dave Hackett will deliver a presentation entitled The Effect of Crude by Rail on Refining and Logistics this Tuesday at 10:30 am at the AFPM Annual Meeting. If you're there, be sure and let Dave know your take on CBR. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
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Meet Michael W. Bloch, Associate 
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Michael W. Bloch is our newest associate and comes to us after his retirement from ExxonMobil last year. Michael is a highly experienced commercial operations and planning advisor with more than 37-years experience at Mobil Oil and Exxon Mobil. Michael has led diverse teams of professionals to new levels of success in a variety of highly competitive markets within the oil industry.
We're so excited to have Michael on the team. He is located in Northern Virginia and is one of the few Stillwater Associates not named Dave.
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Coming Soon! Transportation Fuels Logistics 101
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Do you know how crude oil is delivered to the refinery? How about what it takes to refine a gallon of gasoline? Or how gasoline gets from the refinery into your tank? Coming in 2014, Stillwater is offering Transportation Fuels Logistics 101. This web-based seminar is designed to educate folks outside the industry on how the Transportation Fuels supply chain functions. An excellent opportunity for policy makers, attorneys, and renewable fuels start-ups to understand the basics! |
Please visit the TFL 101 page to learn more. |
| Brand New Service: Upstream Commercial and Logistical Support | |
Often when Upstream projects are under development, it maybe difficult for design engineers to see beyond a specific set of capital investment goals. Once plans and decisions are made, or agreements finalized, they are impossible or very costly to change. Careful review and advance planning can insure good results. Stillwater provides a Downstream perspective to Upstream clients in the process of making these important decisions. We advise clients on various aspects of new project development in advance of making these decisions, reviewing draft development plans and commercial agreements, or agreeing to preliminary or final terms and conditions.
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