Twenty-One (21) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; Fifteen (15) Wells Come Off Confidential List Wednesday

Update

Later, 7:27 p.m. Pacific Time: regular readers have noted the (unexpected?) increase in the number of rigs in North Dakota over the past few weeks. Today, it was noted that there were no new completions this past week in Montana (as reported by The Fairfield Sun Times. One wonders if some of the "new" rigs in North Dakota might have been brought back over from Montana. Just thinking out loud.

Original Post

Active rigs:

	1/7/2014	01/07/2013	01/07/2012	01/07/2011	01/07/2010
Active Rigs	190	180	200	163	77

RBN Energy: I normally post these in the a.m. I completely forgot to do it today, and it was a very good one. This is Part 6 of their series on Canadian crude oil storage.

TransCanada currently owns just over 1 million bbls of crude storage at Hardisty that is used to stage operations on the existing 580 Mb/d Keystone pipeline to the US. With two huge new pipelines planned to originate at Hardisty – the 830 Mb/d Keystone XL (still awaiting Presidential approval) and the 1.1 MMb/d Energy East potentially coming online in the next four years, the company is rapidly expanding Hardisty capacity. At the same time Gibson Energy and US Development Group are building a 120 Mb/d rail terminal close by to Hardisty that will give Canadian producers the option to bypass pipeline congestion. Today we describe these companies’ infrastructure plans. [Note: originally the Energy East pipeline was said to have a capacity of 850,000 bopd; now it is up to 1.1 million, according to RBN Energy.]

There is so much in that article, this is just one small, but very interesting snippet:

In August (2013) Gibson announced a partnership with US Development Group (USDG) – a Houston based rail logistics developer – to construct a unit train crude-by-rail loading facility about 3 miles from the Hardisty storage hub. Gibson will build a pipeline connecting their Hardisty East expansion terminal to the new Hardisty Rail Terminal. Served by the Canadian Pacific Railroad’s North Main Line, the terminal will provide producers with a rail alternative to ship their crude to Canadian and US markets (see map below). The Hardisty Rail Terminal will be able to load up to 120 Mb/d onto two unit trains with 120 railcars each. Loading facilities will consist of a fixed loading rack with 30 railcar positions and a unit train staging area capable of holding up to five unit trains. The Hardisty Rail Terminal is targeted to begin operation in the first quarter of 2014. Term contracts with four customers for approximately 100 Mb/d underpin the investment.

Twenty-one (21) new permits --

• Operators: KOG (6), Fidelity (6), OXY USA (4), EOG (2), XTO (2), Whiting,
• Fields: Poe (McKenzie), Bear Den (Dunn), New Hradec (Stark), Little Knife (Dunn), Heart River (Stark), Parshall (Mountrail)
• Comments: Whiting has a permit for a well in Stark County;

Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right. 

For newbies, one generally expects to see anywhere from 3 to 5 wells come off the confidential list on any given day. Seeing 15 wells coming off the confidential list tomorrow is some kind of "record," I suppose.

Wells coming off the confidential list tomorrow:

• 23069, 412, CLR, Victoria 1-20H, Ukraina, t9/13; cum 9K 11/13;
• 24253, drl, HRC, Fort Berthold 152-93-7D-6-4H, Four Bears, no production data,
• 24408, drl, Hess, BB-Budahn 150-95-0506H-4, Blue Buttes, no production data,
• 24984, drl, Statoil, Jack Cvancara 19-18 6H, Alger, no production data,
• 25358, 1,519, XTO, Lundeen 31X-9C, Garden, t10/13; cum 19K 11/13;
• 25428, drl, Hess, EN-Nelson 155-95-3328H-5, Alkali Creek, no production data,
• 25614, 73, Murex, Trina Diane 15-22H,  Fortuna, t8/13; cum 24K 11/13;
• 25633, drl, Samson Resources, Comet 2635-3H, Ambrose, no production data,
• 25668, drl, Mountain Divide, Olson 2-11S-1H,  Fortuna, producing, first full month looks great for Fortuna oil field;
• 25766, drl, CLR, Madison 4-28H1, Dollar Joe, no production data,
• 25793, 1,119, HRC, Njos 157-100-28B-33-2H, Marmon, t8/13; cum 42K 11/13;
• 25886, drl, BR, Blue Ridge 34-31TFH, Keene, no production data,
• 25891, drl, Blue Ridge 44-31MBH, Keene, no production data,
• 25960, drl, BR, Archer 44-25TFH, Charlson, no production data,
• 25993, 27, Legacy, Legacy Et Al Berge 13-6 2H, North Souris, a Spearfish well, t9/13; cum 7K 11/13;

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A Note to the Granddaughters

As far as I know, our granddaughters are the only two girls in the western world who do not have any Barbie dolls. Do not ask how I stumbled across this song: I do not recall ever having heard it, much less ever seeing the video. My younger adult daughter tells me this is a classic, and now I note it has over 106 million YouTube views.

For the roughnecks, then:

Barbie Girl, Aqua

If you are even listening to this song, and I feel bad for you if you are, you must read about it at wiki. Note three things:

• Danish-Norwegian group (think Statoil); this song went to #1 everywhere (except US, #7)
• one of the most annoying songs ever -- Rolling Stone
• this is the thirteenth best selling single -- ever -- in the UK

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Flashback

Back on January 8, 2008, I posted this on my Yahoo!Calendar: 

Boone Pickens said oil will trade in $150 range, July 8, 2008, just as oil was falling; it fell $8 in two days; down to $131. But he says oil will stay in $150 range; and he says if supply/demand balances out, could see $100 oil in two years (2010).