Genscape launches Bakken pricing

06.05.16. Genscape has launched a daily price assessment for Bakken crude located in the most evolved trading hub in North Dakota.
The Beaver Lodge hub is situated between wellhead production and pipeline and rail transport access from the Williston Basin, the producing basin for Bakken crude. The Bakken Beaver Lodge assessment aims to represent transparently the value of the incremental Bakken barrel with this transport option.
The Bakken spot market is comprised of two main modes of takeaway capacity: crude-by-rail and pipeline. Crude-by-rail emerged in 2009 as a way to send land-locked production to destination coastal markets. Since, pipeline capacity from the Bakken region has expanded substantially. North Dakota producers seek flexibility in sending barrels to market, using pipeline capacity as a first option and rail in times of arbitrage incentive.
While a Bakken crude spot market developed over the last five years at Clearbrook, MN, (junction between Enbridge’s North Dakota Pipeline system and the Enbridge mainline system), Clearbrook is removed from the producing basin, and has only pipeline connectivity. Genscape says the Bakken Beaver Lodge assessment is poised to represent the value of the spot barrel as close to the wellhead as possible, with flexibility for these multiple transportation options.