Week 30: July 22, 2012 -- July 28, 2012

Human interest stories:

• Mining sand in Wisconsin
• Fracking, sand, jobs: fracking sand operations have doubled in Wisconsin
• Job seekers from all 50 states have inquired about the Bakken
• Industrial revolution: the Bakken
• A tale of two cities: Fremont, CA, and Williston, ND
• A reminder: don't come to the Bakken without a plan
• All roads lead to the Bakken
• North Dakota's winter wheat crop will be quit nice
• Development in Williston: another apartment unit; 12-movie screen complex, MainStay Suites to open in autumn, 2012;

Oil field updates

• Hebron: CLR looking at 70+ wells in this small field
• Flurry of activity in Heart Butte
• Beaver Lodge field updated: oldest field in the Williston Basin

Data

• August hearing dockets

Operators

• Newfield to add a fourth rig in 2013; three pilot programs to test spacing
• OXY increased production in 2Q12; most of the production from the Bakken 
• Are OXY's IPs improving?
• CLR putting oil into storage, anticipating higher prices
• Hess doubled Bakken production year-over-year
• ONEOK to build a fourth 100 million cubic feet per day natural gas facility - perhaps top story of the week?

Education

• Natural gas primer, RBN Energy

Firsts

• Bakken crude being shipped to the Gulf Coast by barge
• Ceramics manufacturing plant in North Dakota?

Projections

• Bakken to 2 million bopd in 2025, Bentek Energy study
• 800,000 bopd -- soon? - possibly top story of the year?