Week 6: February 3, 2013 -- February 9, 2013

This was done fairly quickly; there may be broken links, wrong links, typos

Presentations
Karen Harbert's presentation at IPAA archives
The Bakken and the national GDP

National economy
Fracking responsible for narrowing US trade deficit 

News without links that was mentioned on several posts this past week
The WTI/Brent spread continues to widen

New national standard
"Acceptable" for wind farms to kill up to 15 bald eagles annually for 30 years; no slack for oil companies: one migratory duck -- criminal offense

Crude-by-rail
Enbridge pipeline system underused; rail taking oil from pipelines
CNBC segment on crude-by-rail
Another crude-by-rail terminal in Louisiana
Bakken strengthens with crude-by-rail shipment to Delaware

Most fun
Roughnecks have called it a day

Bakken operations
CLR testing the lower benches of the Three Forks formation
Decline rates -- original post
Decline rates -- another post
Decline rates and EURs -- another post
Decline rates and EURs
Explanation for 1600-acre spacing unit
Random data points from Whiting corporate presentation
KOG with a nice well
Bakken oil reaching California; new link added: price for Chevron California spot

Pipeline
Bloomberg suggests as much as 450,000 new miles of pipeline needed for crude and natural gas
Update on the Seaway reversal
Operators change their minds: WILL reverse flow of crude oil in nation's largest pipeline, the Capline

Records
On track for 2,641 oil and gas permits this year, compared to a projection of 1,959 permits this time one year ago.
$13,000/acre in North Dakota state lease sales

For investors only
Is "OXY" a sleeper? For investors only
Emerald signs agreement with private equity New York firm
Wall Street Interview Transcript (lede only): on the Williston Basin and the Permian
Riparian minerals belong to the state

Economic development
MDU-Calumet announce joint venture for diesel refinery in Dickinson area; follows on footsteps of Dakota Oil Processing refinery project near Trenton; another link to same story here
New jet service to Dickinson (United Airlines)
Update on bypass around Dickinson on the west side

Fracking
Halliburton develops non-toxic, environmentally-friendly fracking fluid

Idle Rambling

That story in the Williston Wire about the Enbridge pipeline system being underused caught my attention.  It may be accurate, but one needs to consider the source of that comment. Bloomberg reports the story. I don't remember if I had posted the story earlier; Bloomberg posted it back in January 16, 2013.

The source of the comment is a refiner who presented testimony to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC):

Flint Hills, which operates the 330,000-barrel-a-day Pine Bend refinery in Minnesota, filed the document with FERC as part of its opposition to a surcharge on the North Dakota system proposed by Enbridge.

The story also noted that BNSF plans to expand capacity to 700,000 bopd by the end of the year (2013), which has been previously reported.

In an earlier post, back in February, 2012, it was estimated there would be about 1.3 million bopd takeaway capacity by the end of 2013. It appears that expected increase did not include the current BNSF plans to increase capacity by 700K bopd.

From the linked Bloomberg article, about 50% of North Dakota crude is shipped by rail, and 40% shipped by pipeline. Enbridge can ship 210K bopd to its Clearbrook, MN, hub. Enbridge is constructing a new 225K bopd pipeline, the Sandpiper, to connect Bakken oil with its Mainline system in Superior, WI.