Some Dots To Connect -- Sort of Related to the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

As usual for this site, some numbers rounded -- 

First dot: North Sea tax grab blamed for record slump in UK oil and gas production -- four days ago

UK natural gas production in the third quarter of 2011 slumped to the lowest level since records began in 1996, ... This also represented the largest year-on-year quarterly decrease ever seen, ... down 30 percent year-over-year ...

Oil production fell 20 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, the largest annual quarterly drop since reporting for oil began in 1995.

Total UK energy production fell by 20 pecent in the third quarter, the biggest year-on-year fall recorded since the data for the entire sector was first compiled in 2000.

Industry body Oil & Gas UK suggested the surprise imposition of a £2bn-a-year tax hike in the March Budget contributed to the greater-than-expected decline.

Second dot: Brazil ready to double oil output -- ten months ago

Petrobras is set to rapidly increase in size in relation to Brazil’s economy as it prepares to double domestic oil production through the development of its recently discovered huge “pre-salt” fields, said Jose Sergio Gabrielli, chief executive.

Brazil’s national oil company, which plans to invest $224bn in capital expenditure by 2014, will need to issue a further $30bn-$40bn in debt during the next three to four years, Mr Gabrielli said. The plans also envisage a more than 50 per cent increase in refinery output.

“Right now Petrobras’ investment is around 2 per cent of Brazilian GDP and the supply chain as a whole should be somewhere around 7-8 per cent of Brazilian GDP now,” Mr Gabrielli said in a briefing with foreign journalists. “As we plan to grow faster than the Brazilian economy, this proportion (Petrobras’ share of gross domestic product) should increase.”

Third dot: Brazil overtakes UK as sixth largest economy -- earlier today

Fourth dot: France bans hydraulic fracking for oil and gas exploration -- earlier this summer

Fifth dot: British economy will surpass French economy by 2016 -- earlier today

Group predicts the British economy will overtake France -- ranked fifth this year -- by 2016.

Sixth dot: actions have consequences. Some say this is the first rule of life.