Another Huge COP (BR) Archer Well; Fourteen (14) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; Houston Ship Channel Slowly Re-Opening

Active rigs:

	3/25/2014	03/25/2013	03/25/2012	03/25/2011	03/25/2010
Active Rigs	198	186	206	170	105

Fourteen (14) new permits --

• Operators: Hess (5), Emerald (4), Oasis (3), Whiting (2),
• Fields: Ray (Williams), Park (Billings), Pierre Creek (McKenzie), Fryburg (Billings), Robinson Lake (Mountrail), Siverston (McKenzie) Boxcar Butte (McKenzie), Beaver Lodge (Williams)
• Comments:

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

Wells coming off the confidential list Wednesday:

• 24491, drl, CLR, Durham 5-2H, North Tobacco Garden, no production data,
• 25831, drl, BR, Sunline 21-1TFH-4SH, Clear Creek, no production data,
• 26007, 2,592, BR, Archer 24-25TFH, Charlson, t2/13; cum --
• 26314, drl, XTO, Kanyer 11X-15A, Grinnell, no production data,

Comment: there may be no production data for these wells, but you just know the two BR wells will very nice wells.

Comment: For all the permits CLR has, and all the wells it drills, I am always surprised we see so few CLR coming off confidential lists, or so it seems. KOG and BR seem to be very, very active. XTO is active. Whiting, of course, is active. Oasis seems to come in spurts. Just idle chatter.

*********************

Houston Ship Channel Slowly Re-Opening; Queue 100 Ships

Reuters/Rigzone is reporting:

The Houston Ship Channel, a critical waterway for oil shipments, gradually began re-opening on Tuesday after a four-day closure that forced at least one big refiner to cut output and caused a backlog of over 100 vessels.

The Channel, which shut on Saturday due to an oil spill, has re-opened for all outbound ship traffic while the Intercoastal Waterway also has opened to eastbound traffic, but not westbound, the Coast Guard said around midday on Tuesday. Authorities had earlier allowed limited barge traffic to resume.

The unusually lengthy closure of the waterway, which connects the Gulf of Mexico to inland terminals and facilities, halted imports of crude to refiners that produce more than one-tenth of the country's fuel and delayed exports of some products. More than 100 large vessels, many of them oil tankers, had been queuing up on either side of the channel.

The Coast Guard said planes started flying the first of three flights over the affected area across Galveston Bay to determine the location of the spill of 4,000 barrels, or 168,000 gallons (636,000 liters), of heavy fuel oil after an oil barge and a cargo ship collided on Saturday.