Friday, August 15, 2014 -- Photograph Of New 5-Lane Bypass Southeast Of Watford City

Active rigs:

	8/15/2014	08/15/2013	08/15/2012	08/15/2011	08/15/2010
Active Rigs	194	185	203	191	142

RBN Energy: mud.

A quarter million dollars for mud?  Mud for a single horizontal well can cost that much and more.  As horizontal well laterals keep getting longer, they need that much more mud.   So the $10 billion drilling mud fluids business is growing fast.  The industry has a unique supply chain, with production, storage and distribution infrastructure that rival other aspects of the oil & gas drilling business.  But you don’t hear a lot about mud.  It is one of those unsung heroes of the shale revolution, getting little attention in industry press or the investment community. But producers know they can’t do their job without just the right mud formula.  Today we begin an in depth look at drilling mud fluid and its importance to shale drillers.

Update on 5-lane bypass southeast of Watford City. Photo sent by reader (huge thank-you). The 5-lane bypass should be completed by mid-October. Hard to believe how fast things move in the Bakken.

Don tells me: Knife River, a division of MDU, got the contract for this bypass project. Their Fidelity division should have run a natural gas pipeline under the right-of-way (under/along the bypass).

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Europe At A Tipping Point

Pricing Itself Out of the Energy Market

I track "Europe at a tipping point" here.

Don sent me this story. Time Magazine is reporting:

With industrial production stagnant, mass unemployment still a problem, and inflation on a downward trend, economists such as The New York Times' Paul Krugman worry that Europe is turning into Japan.

The former second largest economy in the world has spent over 20 years in a deflationary depression, a spiral of falling prices which encourage people to sit on cash, causing prices to plunge even further. Europe — with its aging population — has similar demographics to Japan, too, worsening the likelihood that it might end up in the same trap.

That might be bad, but it's still a lot better than total collapse — which is what was widely feared in 2011 and 2012 when government interest rates rose drastically in countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal over fears about the sustainability of their sovereign debts.

Under the euro, countries don't control their currencies, so they run a real risk of running out of money. The architects of the euro system, such as Romano Prodi, knew that this would be a problem, but decided that they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

Three things the article doesn't mention:

• the cost of energy (double to triple that of the US) and the reasons why
• regulations that stifle hiring (once hired, almost impossible to fire)
• why work? free medical care, monthly government stipend for unemployed = living wage, great beaches

If I recall correctly, much of Spain's sovereign debt can be traced back to ill-made renewable energy decisions. But, you know, if those windmills and solar panels can replace all the natural gas that Russia sends to Europe, things should be hunky dory.