Mid-County Newsletter MCnewsletter-fall14

YOU’RE IN y r t n u C o Mid-County Fall INSIDE: PAGE 2 - 3 2014 MESSENGER PAGE 4 - 5 Energy Agronomy PAGE 6 Auto Truck & Tire Center Fall 2014 • Vol. 26 www.midcountycoop.com Where our energy comes Back in 2008, I wrote an article on where our energy products come from. The basics have not changed, but the Bill Reimers supply, storage, and General Manager [phone] transportation issues [email protected] have. What has not changed in the past six years, is that we still have the two main refineries in the Twin Cit- ies that serve the Upper Mid-west, the Pine Bend, refinery which is owned by Flint Hills Resources (Koch), and St. Paul Park refinery, which is now owned by Northern Tier Energy (who also owns Super America Stores). The Pine Bend refinery gets most of itscrude oil from Canada. One of the new crude pipe- lines runs through southern Carver County. The St. Paul Park refinery gets most of its crude oil from Western Canada and North Dakota. Refined gasoline and diesel fuel not only comes from the two refineries, but is also delivered to us through pipelines. The pipe- line terminals we use are Mankato and Min- neapolis, but there are also several other pipeline terminals throughout Minnesota. As I write this, the state is experiencing several outages at the pipeline terminals; this brings in trucks from hundreds of miles away who come to the Twin Cities to get gas and fuels. That causes us to wait in line for several hours to get loaded. Once harvest is complet- ed things usually go back to normal. Propane (LP gas) has been the hot topic in the last year for a couple of reasons. One, is the demand increase we experienced last year, and the other is the reversal of the Cochin Pipeline that originated in Canada. The Cochin provided 38 percent of the pro- pane in Minnesota. It also supplied propane to North Dakota, Iowa and Indiana. The pipe- line used to bring Canadian propaneSouth, now it is shipping condensate North to the tar sands of Canada. Condensate is thinner crude oil that is mixed with thicker crude oils ,allowing it to flow better through pipelines. Current alternatives to source propane now depend largely on rail. Some of our suppliers have added or expanded rail terminals. One rail site we will source propane from is near St. Cloud. Rail is not the total answer, and that could lead to an entire article on its own, but it is one of the keys to having a reliable sup- ply. Another very important effort has been made to add propane storage. It starts at the terminals, then the transport companies, then suppliers, like us, and finally at the end user. Nothing can compare to a pipeline, but if we all take the necessary steps along the sup- ply chain, we will be able to overcome these obstacles. Mid-County has been addressing and pre- paring for the storage and transportation changes we have experienced the last few years. We have already increased propane and fuel storage. We are also assessing how much additional fertilizer and seed storage we will be adding in the near future, as well as increasing our trucking fleet to handle the seasonal loads. We recently finished our annual audit. Even with the challenging year we experienced weather-wise, we will still show earnings com- parable to last year. For a full report, please join us at our Annual Meeting Friday, Dec. 12 at the Norwood Young America Pavilion. As always, I appreciate your comments and suggestions to make your coop better. If you would like to see maps of the two main pipelines that serve us, you can go to Magellan pipelines at www.magellanlp.com, and NuStar Pipelines at www.nustarenergy.com ANNUAL MEETING - Friday, Dec. 12 • NYA Pavilion Lunch at 12:00 pm • Meeting at 1 pm AGRONOMY 700 Lake Street West, Cologne, MN 55322 [phone] 700 Lake Street West, Cologne, MN 55322 [phone] COLOGNE 710 Lake Street West, Cologne, MN 55322 [phone] Hwy. 212 & Hwy. 284, Cologne, MN 55322 [phone] [phone] • 888-466-3700 • 700 Lake Street West, P.O. Box 177,