Saturday, March 2, 2013

Week 9: February 24, 2013 -- March 2, 2013

Mergers and deals
Chesapeake to sell Bakken acreage -- unconfirmed 
Chesapeake to sell 50% interest in its Oklahoma play -- confirmed

Bakken operations
Oasis with four huge wells
Bakken wells taken off-line due to flaring
Well density patterns; fan-shaped
Anticipating the gusher

Media attention
The Bakken is a beast

Rail
RBN series on Bakken crude-by-rail terminals: part II
RBN series on Bakken crude-by-rail terminals: part I

Economic development
Midwest Motor Express expands in Rapid City, SD
MDU-Calumet ready to start construction; received air quality permit
Six-million-dollar hotel almost complete in coal country, North Dakota

Politics
Obama promises to expedite oil production in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota if his idea to sequester is killed

Odds and Ends

While looking for something else -- which if I find, I will post -- I came across this November 16, 2011, post. In hindsight, it's a pretty interesting, if not an entertaining, note. At the time I did not know it would become the story it is has become. Unless the president enjoys this sort of thing, and a narcissist might, the president has really seemed to box himself into a corner.

A rational individual might look back on this story and conclude that the president failed to read his far-left, faux environmental base correctly, when he nixed the Keystone XL permit.  He failed to see that the Keystone XL would become the "line-in-the-sand" for that fringe element. We haven't seen the phrase "throwing 'someone' under the bus" lately, but the tea leaves suggest the president is about to throw the last group along the parade route under the bus when he approves the Keystone.

ObamaCare will be the legacy of the president's first term. Approving Keystone XL 2.0 will be the domestic legacy of his second term.

Recessions come and go, so even if "we" fall back into recession, it won't amount to much more than an historical footnote.

I am unaware of anything that would yet qualify for a foreign policy legacy in his first term, and, of course, the second term is not even two months old.

Speaking of which (recessions), if "we" do fall back into a recession due to $5 gasoline (and I'm not saying we will see $5 gasoline again; "been there, done that," as some predicted), one might be able to trace the dots back to killing the Keystone. Such irony. [Had the Keystone been approved back in late November, 2011, and had TransCanada stayed on schedule, the pipeline would now be on-line. Canadian oil sands oil is trading for about $60/bbl; Venezuelan/OPEC oil is trading for about $110. ]

Google Rank: "Bakken blogs"
Saturday morning, March 2, 2013; 9:48 am
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7 comments:

  1. http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/energy-resources/Ewart+Feared+pipeline+bottleneck+arrived/8040055/story.html?__lsa=1d23-92e1

    "Canadian Pacific and CNR are also moving more than 100,000 rail cars loaded with oil per day..."

    I would not want to wait for that train to go through town.

    That number seems high. How many miles of unit trains is that? About 900 trains? If I was editor, I would check that one out.

    Anon 1

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    1. That's about right. At 100 rail cars/unit train -- 1,000 trains. So, 120 rail cars/unit train, a bit less. But, I have to agree. A lot of unit trains. That's probably how many Burlington Northern Santa Fe unit trains going through Nebraska on the way to Cushing, or points farther south.

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    2. A lot of full tanker car unit trains moving on the BNSF mainline track through Minnesota from Fargo to the Twin Cities then on east to Chicago. The empties heading northwest back to the Bakken for refilling. The pace will only pick up as production increases. By the time production reaches 1.5 million bod and with long haul pipeline construction lagging the mainline tracks will be very busy. That is only for crude then add the inbound supplies of well casings and silica sand and the wait time at RR crossings will go up dramatically.

      Got to love how North Dakota is keeping the east coast refineries in business.

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  2. YOur #1 as it should be!! Tube Jig. SD

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  3. Maybe #1 some days, but the Bakken Blog is also very, very good. Certainly more professional.

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  4. "Anonymous" suggested President Obama was correct to kill Keystone XL 1.0.

    I'm not sure what "anonymous" will say when President Obama then decides to approve it. "I killed it, but then I approved it."

    Seriously, this was not a question of right, wrong, neutral: "anonymous" missed the point. My point was that if the President now approves Keystone XL 2.0 he will be throwing his base, the left fringe, the faux environmental group under the bus. Right, wrong, or neutral, that's how SOME folks will interpret approving any new pipeline requiring the president's okay: throwing his environmental base under the bus. (That group is probably so small, realistically speaking, that throwing the group under a taxi would probably be adequate.)

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    1. Based on all the articles that are coming out across the internet, and based on comments to those articles -- many of them suggesting that the left fringe, the faux environmentalists -- are becoming unhinged, suggests that they know the president will approve the Keystone XL 2.0.

      I have mentioned that I don't listen to the president's speeches any more (nor do I read op-eds in the WSJ written by politicians of either party), but I will make an exception if it is pre-announced that the president will announce his decision on the Keystone XL 2.0 in a speech or press conference. I don't think he can simply "announce" his decision in a press release after the evening news on a Friday night.

      I wonder if Homeland Security is buying all that ammunition in anticipation of widespread civil disobedience when he throws his left fringe under the taxi.

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