It is simply very possible that we have all been excited about the wrong formation. Wouldn't it be incredible if the three benches of the Three Forks became a bigger story than the middle Bakken?
To the casual observer/reader of the blog, it was just another routine day in the Bakken, but I don't think so. The Zenergy well, Filloon's blog that was written well before this well was announced.... and then look at the four QEP wells announced today.
If North Dakota does not hit 1 million bopd by the end of the year, it will not be because of the lack of what the roughnecks can do. Something else -- I don't know what -- would have to come along to keep us from getting to 1 million bopd. These wells coming off the confidential list are not trivial.
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A Note To The Granddaughters
If I had a song for the roughnecks, I would post it. This will have to do. There are probably many, many other versions/videos of this song that are much better, but this one includes Joy McKean who wrote the song.
Regular readers are aware that I just completed a trip from Boston to Dallas. I-90; I-84; I-81; I-40; I-30, EIEIO. I don't recall the truck-busiest stretch of interstate across the US, but I-40 between Knoxville and Little Rock has to be among the top ten. It was quite incredible.
The #1 branded truck: FedEx. I used to recall a lot of Wal-Mart trucks but not so many this trip. But it seemed FedEx trucks were everywhere. I didn't see many USPS trucks. One wonders if ....
One of the things I enjoy most about driving cross-country is driving among the trucks. I tend to drive at night for a number of reasons, not least of which, it's always a hoot to see how a lot of drivers have lit up their trucks.
I think the greatest thrill is watching a semi trailer that is, according to stenciled data on the rear doors, 14'10" in height racing under an interstate bridge at 80 mph -- and the bridge, according to a painted warning has a clearance of 14'11". You sort of hope a) the trailer was not mis-measured; b) the overpass was not mis-measured; and/or, c) the trucks tires were not over-inflated, adding an inch and a half to the height of the trailer.
Which begs the question: it seems that painting the clearance on the underpass is a "bit late." I would think it might be a bit more helpful to tell a trucker at least a mile in advance what the clearance is. At 80 mph, there is not a whole lot of chance that the trucker is going to stop his tractor-trailer just as he goes under the warning sign. LOL.
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In Arkansas, the governor was nice enough to have everyone "stop and smell the roses (actually smell freshly cut hay"). A ten-mile section of interstate was shut down for repair. A thousand trucks and ten cars came to a halt. And then we sat. And watched vehicles go by with no problem in the other direction on the other side. (Their delay was earlier, but of course we did not know that; we just saw vehicles speeding along, while we were standing still.)
The interstate was a east-west. Perfectly east-west, not southwest, northeast, or something in between. Either one was going east or one was going west. Of course, I was headed west, to Dallas. The minivan has a built-in compass, and I happened to glance at it. It said the minivan was going east. So there I am, stuck in traffic, no chance of escape, and then a realization that I was headed in the wrong direction.
When a brain-reality-disconnect hits like that, I always enjoy the process my brain goes through trying to reconcile the impossible. I could not possibly be going in the wrong direction. I had not recently gotten off the freeway. I had not passed this way earlier. Every rational bit of rationalizing said I was going west, but the compass which is never wrong said "E." And then as quickly as it said "E" it went back to "W."
Until this moment, I could not explain how this happened. I figured it had to do with quantum mechanics and statistics, or as others might say, sh*t happens. But just now, it came to me. It's a digital readout. I turned off the minivan while we were stopped. When the traffic started moving, I turned the car back on, and just at that moment, I looked at the compass reading, and it just happened to be re-booting/re-setting when the engine was coming back on. And in the process it ran through "E" before it came to "W."
And all this time, I thought it was quantum mechanics and entangled neutrons.
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One of the challenges flying high performance jets in the Air Force was spatial disorientation: body sensations tell the pilot he/she is heading "up" but yet the instruments tell him he/she is in a steep dive, as an example. At 500 mph, 10,000 feet above the ground, one does not get a lot of time to sort out whether your bodily sensations are correct or the instruments are correct. Flight surgeons and behaviorsal psychologists spend hours working with fighter pilots to convince them in those situations, trust the instruments. Easier said than done. Lots of memories.
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