Thursday, September 29, 2011

Every Action Has an Opposite and Equal Reaction -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Earlier this week I blogged about the moratoria on man-camps, suggesting unintended consequences.

Today, in huge letters across the top of the newspaper, The Williston Herald's lead story is about the rise in rent from $700/month to $2,000/month for senior citizen housing.
For most of the longtime tenants, like Mortensen – who has lived in the apartment for 20 years – the letter came as a shocking blow met with disbelief, amazement and a rising anger.

"I thought we might get a $100 raise but not that much," Mortensen said.

She and seven other senior citizens who live in the 30-unit complex met with the Williston Herald Wednesday to discuss their outrage over the situation – a situation that has left them feeling panicked, furious and, as Mortensen puts it, "homeless."

All of the seniors are in the same boat: They are on a fixed income of monthly Social Security checks, there are no other apartments available in the area and coming up with $2,000 per month for rent will be impossible.

"How do seniors pay for something like this?" said Donna Gilbert, who has lived at the complex for 23 years. "The city has it in their head that everybody should buy a house so they will stay here.
Interesting how things work out. Predictable.

Chaos is self-organizing.

Six (6) New Permits -- Four Wells Off The Confidential List Today -- Only One Reporting IP -- Others Probably Waiting to Be Fracked -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

These wells came off the confidential list today; three of the four were not completed (not fracked):
  • #19050, Whiting, Teddy 21-24TFH, Billings 
  • #19805, 1461, XTO, FBIR Stephen 31X-19, Dunn
  • #20366, Hess, GO-Foss Trust-156-97-3525H-1, Williams
  • #21327, Hess, SC-Jean 157-99-0904H-1, Williams
There were six new permits:

Operators: MRO (3), Dakota-3 (WMB), G3 Operating, and Samson Resources.

Fields: Reunion Bay, Mandaree, Strandahl, Paulson.

MRO has two new permits in Strandahl field (on the same pad) and G3 Operating has a new permit in Strandahl field. Busy, busy, busy.

Taxable Sales Up $1 Billion in North Dakota

Link here (regional links break early and break often). Firgures for 2Q11.
The latest figures cover the months of April, May and June, and they show a fourth consecutive quarter of above 25 percent growth over the previous year. The first quarter of 2011 was up 33.6 percent and the third and fourth quarters of 2010 were up 28 percent and 31.2 percent, respectively, over 2009.

“Anything over 20 percent or 30 percent is pretty remarkable,” Fong said. “It’s not just the west, and it’s not just oil.”
Data points (some numbers rounded)
  • Fargo: $590 million (represents an increase of 8 percent over 2Q10)
  • Williston: $535 million (represents an increase of 75 percent over 2Q10
  • Tioga and Stanley: each had increases over 100 percent year-over-year
I can't wait to see the county totals. It is obvious that Williams County will "smother" Cass County.

Enbridge To Add 800,000+ BOPD TakeAway From Cushing -- Huge Story -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and Enbridge Inc. today announced plans to design, construct and operate a new pipeline to transport crude oil from the oversupplied hub at Cushing, Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast refining complex.

Initially, the Wrangler Pipeline will have the capacity to transport up to 800,000 barrels per day (BPD) of crude oil and accommodate the constrained medium-to-light crude oil currently stranded at Cushing and priced at a substantial discount to the oil imports that account for most of the supply being used by Gulf Coast refiners.

The pipeline will also have the capability to handle additional supplies of crude oil arriving at Cushing from other North American producers. In anticipation of future increases in crude oil volumes delivered to the Cushing area, the joint venture partners will design the pipeline to be easily expanded.
Just for starters: 800,000 bopd, but can be scaled up. Huge story.  A bit "thank you" to "anon 1" for sending the link my way.

Meanwhile TransCanada XL lingers.

XTO Has a Nice Well -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA -- September 29, 2011

19806, 1,463, XTO, FBIR Bird 31X-19, Heart Butte, t8/11; cum see below;

Current Operator: XTO ENERGY INC.
Current Well Name: FBIR STEPHEN 31X-19
Field: HEART BUTTE
Spud Date(s):  3/29/2011
Completion Data
   Pool: BAKKEN     Perfs: 10643-20668     Comp: 8/10/2011     Status: AL  
Date: 8/14/2011     Spacing: 2SEC
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 8/14/2011     Pool: BAKKEN     IP Oil: 1,461 

****************************
The FBIR Stephen / FBIR Bird Wells

24084, 1,241, XTO, FBIR Stephen 31X-19G, Heart Butte, t8/13; cum 201K 1/20;
23885, 1,566, XTO, FBIR Stephen 31X-19H, Heart Butte, t8/13; cum 159K 1/20;
23884, 1,436, XTO, FBIR Stephen 31X-19D, Heart Butte, t8/13; cum 216K 1/20;
23883, 1,617, XTO, FBIR Bird 31X-19D, Heart Butte, t8/13; cum 245K 1/20;
23882, 1,817, XTO, FBIR Bird 31X-19H, Heart Butte, t9/13; cum 204K 1/20;

23881, 850, XTO, FBIR BIrd 31X-19G, Heart Butte, t9/13; cum 172K 1/20;
19806, 1,463, XTO, FBIR Bird 31X-19, Heart Butte, t8/11; cum 346K 1/20;
19805, 1,461, XTO, FBIR Stephen 31x-19, Heart Butte, t8/11; cum 320K 1/20;

****************************
New Pad To The West (noted 5/19)

As of 5/19, these well are all conf. Noted to be on drl status, 7/27/19:
  • 35849, drl, XTO, FBIR Stephen ... 19F; Heart Butte,
  • 35850, drl, XTO, FBIR Stephen ... 19B; Heart Butte,
  • 35851, drl, XTO, FBIR Stephen ... 19E; Heart Butte,
  • 35852, drl, XTO, FBIR Stephen ... 19A; Heart Butte,
  • 35853, drl, XTO, FBIR Bird ... 19F; Heart Butte,
  • 35854, drl, XTO, FBIR Bird ... 19B; Heart Butte,
  • 35855, drl, XTO, FBIR Bird ... 19E; Heart Butte,
  • 35856, drl, XTO, FBIR Bird ... 19A; Heart Butte,

Morning Links -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Big story here, on CNBC last night, WLL:
Although based in Denver, Whiting is the second largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale—one of the biggest oil finds in U.S. history. Whiting has 582,000 acres in the oil-rich Bakken and some exposure to other shales, too. Since having reported a disappointing quarter in late July, WLL has fallen through the floor. The day after it reported earnings, it lost 9 percent and has now fallen 38 percent.
Motley Fool: enjoy cheap oil while it lasts; specifically mentions KOG and CLR in the Bakken as companies to look at.

SeekingAlpha: another metric to value oil companies; WLL is on the list; as well as I can tell, it's a variant of the same metric I use: bbls of oil equivalent/share value (pretty obvious metric, but just one data point, of course)

And, in the Utica:
Chesapeake said 12 horizontal wells it drilled in Utica Shale--a deeply buried rock formation that lies below parts of eight states, from Tennessee to New York as well as parts of Canada—achieved strong initial production of natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons such as oil and ethylene, which fetch higher prices than natural gas.

Meanwhile, with/without links:
  • The government raised last quarter's GDP to 1.3
  • Fewer folks applied for unemployment beneftis; first time in recent memory below 400,000
    • Weekly applications dropped 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 391,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the lowest level since April 2 and the first time applications have fallen below 400,000 since Aug. 6.