Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Random Update Of Natural Gas Prices: Global Vs US; How Did That Renewable Energy Work Out?

Natural gas prices:
  • United States: $4
  • Canada: $2
  • Germany: $11
  • United Kingdom: $10
  • Japan: $17
An op-ed in Investor's Business Daily:
The media aren't paying much attention, but in recent weeks Europe has decided to run, not walk, as fast as it can away from the economic menace of green energy.
That's right, the same Europeans who used to chastise us for not signing the Kyoto climate change treaty, not passing a carbon tax and dooming the planet to catastrophic global warming.
In Brussels last month, European leaders agreed to scrap per-nation caps on carbon emissions.
The EU countries — France, Germany, Italy and Spain — had promised a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030 (and 80% by 2050!).
Now those caps won't apply to individual nations. Brussels calls this new policy "flexibility." Right.
More like "never mind," and here's why: The new German economic minister, Sigmar Gabriel, says green energy mandates have become such an albatross around the neck of industry that they could lead to a "deindustrialization" of Germany.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said earlier this year that over-reliance on renewable energy could cause "a problem in terms of energy supply" — and she's always described herself as a green politician and a champion of these programs. But green dreams have collided with cold economic reality.
Green programs aren't creating green jobs but green unemployment at intolerable double-digit rates. The quip in economically exhausted Europe these days is that before we save the planet, we have to save ourselves. Now European leaders are admitting quietly that they want to get into the game of fracking and other new drilling technologies that have caused an explosion of oil and gas production in the U.S.
A big "thank you" to a reader for sending the link. It is not a Drudge Report link and it is not a Fox news link, but from a fairly respectable business publication. 

Calumet Shipping More Oil By Rail, Lake Superior

Another incredible North American energy story -- and at the end of the day, it's all about the Bakken.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:
In 2012, Calumet Superior LLC built a $10 million train-loading oil terminal across the street from its refinery on the south edge of Superior, adding 18,000 feet of new track.
Calumet now is loading about 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil per day by rail, said refinery manager Kollin Schade.
“This was never intended to be a major part of our operations,” Schade said during a recent tour. “But if we have customers that have a need, we can help fill that.”
Calumet’s effort is part of a national trend spurred by oil production outpacing pipeline capacity. In 2008, 9,500 carloads of oil moved on major U.S. railroads. By 2013, that had risen to more than 400,000 carloads. Each car holds between 590 and 630 barrels of oil, about 25,000 gallons.
Nationwide, the increase in oil moving by rail has spurred increased problems, including derailments, oil spills and serious fires. More oil spilled from railroad cars in 2013 — 1.15 million gallons — than in the previous 37 years combined, according to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Calumet is the partner with MDU (50/50) building the new refinery west of Dickinson.

I believe that refinery should be operational by the end of the year (2014) -- conceived, approved, and built in less time than it took the US State Department to issue the recent environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL. And that's why North Dakotans don't want the Feds involved in approving oil and gas permits. There, now I've said it. For the umpteenth time.

By the way, back to the story at the top -- about Calumet shipping oil by rail: only rail has this flexibility; pipelines cannot do this -- turn on a dime, depending on the market.

Six (6) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; EOG Reports A Huge Well

Active rigs:


2/5/201402/05/201302/05/201202/05/201102/05/2010
Active Rigs19118220216590

Six (6) new permits:
  • Operators: CLR (2), OXY USA (2), Enduro, Denbury Onshore
  • Fields: Crazy Man Creek (Williams), Cabernet (Dunn), Mouse River Park (Renville), Cedar Hills (Bowman)
  • Comments: the Denbury Onshore permit is for a re-entry in CHSU 41-35SHR
Wells coming off confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Five (5) producing wells were completed: 
  • 23813, 510, Triangle, Steen 149-101-13-24-2H, Antelope Creek, t1/14; cum --
  • 24547, 2,607, Statoil, Greenstein 30-31 4H, Camp, t1/14; t1/14; cum --
  • 24633, 1,073, Statoil, Blanche 27-22 2TFH, Painted Woods, t1/14; cum --
  • 25905, 1,073, CLR, Jefferson 3-17H1, Crazy Man Creek, t1/14; cum --
  • 25768, 479, CLR, Pierre 4-21H1, Dollar Joe, t12/13; cum 6K 12/13;
Wells coming off confidential list Thursday:
  • 23061, 1,206, EOG, Bear Den 23-2019H, Spotted Horn, Three Forks, 44 stages, 8.9 million lbs sand, 4 sections; the sundry form said the "Bakken" was fracked, but the "Summary" said 8,995 feet of lateral was drilled in the Three Forks; max gas was 7,175 units; the sundry form said 1280-acre spacing unit, but the NDIC scout ticket said 4 sections, the NDIC map clearly shows that #23061 is sited in section 20, and section 20 is spaced only for 2560-acre spacing, according to the NDIC GIS map, the horizontal is not yet shown; #23061 is on a 4-well pad; the earliest well on that pad was spaced for 640 acres (not shown by the map); #23063, also on the pad, was spaced on 2560-acres , t8/13; cum 128K 12/13; more data here;
  • 24254, drl, HRC, Fort Berthold 152-93-7D-6-3H, Four Bears, no production data,
  • 24407, drl, Hess, BB-Budahn 150-95-0506H-5, Blue Buttes, no production data,
  • 24772, 417, Petro-Hunt, Tande 154-94-29D-20-4H, North Tioga, t12/14; cum 3K 12/13;
  • 26000, drl, Oasis, Kelter 7-1H2, Eightmile, no production data,
*****************************************

23061, see above, EOG, Bear Den 23-2019H, Spotted Horn:

DateOil RunsMCF Sold
12-20133177239462
11-20132757615892
10-20131854015200
9-20132994727502
8-201318917347

I-98, The Syndicated Series

I-98
The Pilot

a syndicated television series spanning one decade, 2040 - 2049
Chronicles from The Bakken
Starring Samuel "Oilman" Goshwin & Liam Nikolai Gjorkstad
with occasional appearances by Archie McCool

initial funding from Apple Prairie Broadcasting  
and 
matching grant money from The Legacy Fund
and 
continuing support from viewers like you.

In this week's pilot episode, Liam and Samuel are the first to arrive on the scene of a derailed WBR&C unit train with 329 tank cars filled with Bakken light sweet crude oil and one beer tank car filled with a light, frothy pilsner. Fortunately only four of the tank cars were completely off the track, resting pretty much on their sides, with minimal evidence of rupture. A catastrophe, apparently, had been averted by the new crude-by-rail regulations put in place some years earlier, which were amended regulations to the expanded regulations to the original regulations that were first promulgated back in 2015 after the Casselton disaster. No one was injured in the Casselton disaster but Mrs Johnson who lives in New York City and has a friend of a sister whose cousin lives in Fargo was still having nightmares about the whole thing, and, well, you know, it's called "hazardous material" for a reason. The Casselton disaster was back in 2013, coming on 30 years ago now but a lot has changed.

For one thing, there is I-98. The six-lane interstate with a toll bridge across the Red River of the North was the first new interstate in almost fifty years when it was first completed, back in 2035. The traffic out of Minnesota necessitated a widening of US Highway 2, and the governor said there was enough Legacy Fund money to build the "dog darn" thing with state money, rather than waiting for the president's "shovel-ready-jobs" team to get around to doing the environmental impact study.

In fact the Informed headline back in 2020 said just that:
"Let's Just Build The Dog Darn Thing -- Governor Harold Hamm, Jr."
The toll bridge across the Red River of the North was not needed for financial reasons (two days' worth of Bakken royalties paid for the entire interstate from St Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Bainville, North Dakota) but Minnesotans were used to paying taxes and fees. A bridge without a toll for a Minnesotan would be like a heroin addict entering a rehab center. Going "cold turkey" was not a pleasant sight (nor a pheasant sight, for that matter), and that was something North Dakotans did not want to see happen to their neighbors to the east, a strange sort of folk but, nonetheless, a race that spoke a language similar to their own.

The new interstate would have been completed in 2029 but the Devils Lake Dam  -- the official name of the dam was the Senator Byron Dorgan Memorial Dam Built With North Dakota Legacy Fund Money in Bold Letters was too long, so most people just called it the Devils Lake Dam -- burst when the highway was being built, sort of like the stock market that crashed exactly 100 years earlier. Some said the dam lost structure integrity due to earthquakes caused by fracking in the Turtle Mountains. There was no reason to be fracking in the Turtle Mountains; there was no oil there, but the Saudi-North Dakota Consortium Oil Company (SNDCOC -- pronounced snod-cock, by some) was testing nuclear fracking.

Some called it the Devil's Lake Dam (rather than the Devils Lake Dam) but when talking no one heard the apostrophe anyway. Jim Anderson, professor emeritus, North Dakota state history, NDSU, is still arguing it should be called Devils' Lake Dam, citing Native American history that it was supposed to have been called Lake of the Spirits or The Spirits' Lake for short, but that, too, was water under the bridge, or better said, water over the dam. It is what it is. And it was a lot of water over that dam. Stopped construction on the I-98 for three years. There was some federal case that came out of that, a court case arguing whether it was the burst dam or the damn asphalt that killed them three migratory ducks.

Liam and Samuel were thinking about all of that when they came across the WBR&C derailment, this one south of the Rugby Country Club. The state had built the new interstate along the WBR&C track so that it would be easier for television crews from national networks, like CBS and ABC and MSNBCAl Jazeera to get closer to the derailments. The faster these crews got in and got out, the better it would be for the state. The networks had hoped to use drones for aerial footage, cutting down expenses, but UND's School of Unmanned Aeronautics (paid for with money from the Legacy Fund) had an annoying habit of flying into out-of-state drones. There was some question whether it was being done on purpose. Legalization of marijuana had made the problem worse in the eyes of some public officials (mostly Republicans), but most of the "one toke over the line" drone pilots didn't see a problem. Of course, they didn't see much of the drones either once they (the drones, not the pilots) took off. The UND drones were just the opposite of homing pigeons. They seldom came back.

The old BNSF track was still there to be found in some places, if one looked hard enough, but much of that track was replaced when Warren Buffett got tired of all the negative publicity, and changed the BNSF name to Warren Buffett Rail and Coca-Cola Enterprises. When he died, that is when Mr Buffett died, his successor Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook fame, thought WBR&C was a better fit (a lot fewer letters and only one special character) for mobile advertising on GlobalFaces.

Some thought that Warren, had he lived longer, was going to drop the "rail" from Warren Buffett Rail and Coca-Cola Enterprises, thinking that the source of derailments was the fact the tank cars were riding on rails. Yes, Warren was a sprightly 108 years old when he died, but a little senile. He was found unconscious in the bathroom with a bottle of Coke in his clenched fist. Prior to the autopsy there was a lot of talk about old age being the cause of his death, but the coroner said it was unwise to jump to conclusions. The talk then switched to straining.

Liam and Samuel weren't thinking about Warren Buffett or WBR&C or the Legacy Fund, though. They were just thinking about Devil's Lake. In their Lamborghini. It was late August.

Liam: "I still think it should be Devil's Lake."

Samuel: "Wrong. Devils Lake is easier to spell if you're using an iPad."

Liam: "Hey, look, another WBR&C derailment."

Samuel: "Looks like only three oil tank cars left the rails this time."

Liam: "I think you are correct ... one,... two....three,... no I think there's a fourth...."

Samuel: "That's a beer tank..."

Yes, it was easy to forget that when the ethanol bubble burst (shortly after Al Gore died) North Dakota farmers had to replace all that corn with something else. And they did. With a vengeance. Hops. Lots of hops.

Liam: "Yup, that's a beer tank.

Next week's episode: Liam asks Samuel if he is crying over spilled beer. 

Montana Update

From The Fairfield Sun Times:

In Richland County, two Bakken Formation wells were completed.
  • Slawson Exploration Company Inc., Hercules 4-2H, two laterals (14,250 ft; 14,191 ft); IP of 422
  • Continental Resources Inc., Alice-Thomas HSU, 20,716 feet; IP of 294.
In Roosevelt County, two Bakken Formation wells were completed.
  • Oasis Petroleum North America LLC, BrianM 2958 43-10H, 20,300 feet; an IP of 251.
  • Continental Resources Inc., Foxx 1-6H, 20,515 feet an IP of 492.
In addition, CLR was issued permits for five more wells in Richland County.

A reminder:
  • Roosevelt County is just across the state line, west of Williams County.
  • Richland County is just across the state line, west of McKenzie County.

For Your Calendar -- THE Spring Event

From The North Dakota Petroleum Council website:
  • April 1, 2014 – One Million Barrel Party at Neset Consulting in Tioga, ND
This may simply be THE event of the year. I hope one of the regional newspapers covers the event.

Let's Do The Weather ... Breaking News -- 900,000 Lose Power In Midwest, Northeast Due to Global Warming

Breaking news -- 900,000 lose power in midwest, northeast due to global warming, climate change, extreme weather. TD Waterhouse is reporting:
Almost 900,000 homes and businesses were without power in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast early Wednesday following severe snow and ice storms overnight, according to local power companies.
The hardest hit state was Pennsylvania with over 640,000 customers out Wednesday morning. Other affected states were Maryland, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Jersey, Kentucky, Delaware, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana and New York. 
A link from Drudge ... IceAgeNow is reporting that 4,406 record low temps were set in January, 2014, due to global warming, climate change, extreme weather. And the fact that it was winter, and that the earth quit warming 18 years ago.

The Billings Gazette is reporting:
Classes have been cancelled and most of the Montana State University Billings campus will be shut down through Thursday due to a weather-related natural gas shortage.
An MSUB news release said Chancellor Rolf Groseth decided to cancel class and close the campus offices beginning Wednesday and continuing through at least Thursday due to a gas shortage spurred by the recent cold snap that's struck much of the U.S., including Billings.
Another record-breaking month for Duluth, MN. Duluth News Tribune is reporting:
They found it in a little-known statistic of “winter with most days where the temperature dipped below zero.”
So far this winter, the temperature has dropped below zero on 50 different days. We aren’t at the record yet, only in 11th place. But we are on pace to break the record, forecasters said Wednesday. The record is 59 days with below zero temps set in the winters of 1958-59, 1916-17 and 1874-75.
Duluth also could set the record for the most consecutive days with the daily low temperature below zero. As of Wednesday, that streak sat at 17 days in a row. The record is 22 days in a row set in 1936 and 1963.
Meanwhile, in Midland, TX, MRT.com is reporting:

A layer of soft snow blanketed streets and vehicles, and icicles formed on eaves Thursday morning as record-setting temperatures dipped into the teens.
The Permian Basin region is no stranger to frosty weather. Two arctic blasts shut down major roadways and sparked widespread power outages late last year, and Midlanders woke up Super Bowl Sunday to snowy scenes out their windows. 
On Thursday, the low exceeded 1989’s record single-digit temperature by only four degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But the high in 1989 was 28 degrees, earning Thursday’s high of 21 a low-high temperature record
“We broke that one pretty easily,” said NWS meteorologist Andrew Arnold, noting this year’s fickle weather is nothing out of the ordinary.
Unless you're a warmist.

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

I just rode my bike against a strong, strong north wind in 28-degree (Fahrenheit) weather, about a six-mile ride, I suppose. I had warm gloves on but not roughneck-winter-North-Dakota gloves and by the time I reached the Grapevine, TX, library, my hands were pretty cold. First aid courses came in handy; went to restroom and warmed them using cold water first, never using hot water.

I can type pretty well now. Felt nauseous for maybe fifteen minutes (the feeling is gradually going away), but no chest pain, so all's well that ends well, as William used to say.

A reader noted this with regard to Texas, cold, and wind:
... on Monday morning only 17 percent of ERCOT’s wind capacity (1,782 megawatts of the approximately 10,400 megawatts of wind capacity) were operating at that time.  According to Fuel Fix, this means that "on Monday [wind] only contributed about 3.2 percent of electricity used during peak demand…"

It is obviously a judgment call whether 17 percent of capacity and 3.2 percent of total generation is indeed “massive quantities” of wind or merely middling amounts.
And then this little bit of trivia. According to wiki, Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. Glad to know it's there when you need it. NOT.

***********************************
A Note to the Granddaughters 
For The Archives

CNS News is reporting:
Dr. Don Easterbrook – a climate scientist and glacier expert from Washington State who correctly predicted back in 2000 that the Earth was entering a cooling phase – says to expect colder temperatures for at least the next two decades.
Easterbrook’s predictions were “right on the money” seven years before Al Gore and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for warning that the Earth was facing catastrophic warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide, which Gore called a “planetary emergency.”
“When we check their projections against what actually happened in that time interval, they’re not even close. They’re off by a full degree in one decade, which is huge. That’s more than the entire amount of warming we’ve had in the past century. So their models have failed just miserably, nowhere near close.
And maybe it’s luck, who knows, but mine have been right on the button,” Easterbrook told CNSNews.com.
For the next 20 years, I predict global cooling of about 3/10ths of a degree Fahrenheit, as opposed to the one-degree warming predicted by the IPCC,” said Easterbrook, professor emeritus of geology at Western Washington University.

Another Random Look At Some Huge Bakken Wells

The problem with the Sanish (and the Parshall) oil field(s): not enough superlatives to describe the wells. (Except for the most recent one of those that have been completed, all of these wells were already at my "Monster Well" page.)

A reader alerted me to these wells, all in the same section in the Sanish oil field, starting with:
  • 25164, 768 (see below), Whiting, Hauge 41-3H, t5/13; cum 129K 12/13 
The others:
  • 17912, 2,581, Whiting, Sorenson 11-3H, Sanish, middle Bakken, 18 stages, ~ 3 million lbs, t2/10; cum 665K 12/13;
  • 25176, 327 (see below), Whiting, Murray 13-3H, Sanish (this is a "short" lateral); t8/13; cum 33K 12/13;
  • 18109, 2,409, Whiting, Tollefson 44-10H, Sanish, ~ 2 million lbs, F,  t9/09; cum 517K 12/13;
  • 25331, loc, Whiting, Viola Pennington 11-3H, Sanish, 
Note that the well drilled in 2009 is still flowing without a pump, according to NDIC (paperwork can be delayed; pumps not always reported in timely fashion)
*******************************************

The first year for this well,
  •  25176, 327 (see above), Whiting, Murray 13-3H, Sanish (this is a "short" lateral); t8/13; cum 33K 12/13:
BAKKEN1-2011311596716399444916044924606
BAKKEN12-2010311740416847457959274402090
BAKKEN11-2010301883419467479986819237885
BAKKEN10-20103120758204365221238112046273
BAKKEN9-20103020917217685961208011840180
BAKKEN8-201031244502362967615917015855
BAKKEN7-201031267912761874915869109244883
BAKKEN6-201030290812948186816806167460
BAKKEN5-201031337363348210371906118849150
BAKKEN4-2010303812937153140822561225010
BAKKEN3-20103145440459502244234741278210630
BAKKEN2-201010163131495310630727707257

  • 25164, 768 (see above), Whiting, Hauge 41-3H, t5/13; cum 129K 12/13:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN12-201331192631935914120633178042769
BAKKEN11-201328189801875964013573135180
BAKKEN10-201331260952682961118293172041027
BAKKEN9-201330229382271056913021129610
BAKKEN8-201329136121319811473276775495
BAKKEN7-201331132151304995463548435449
BAKKEN6-201327929393571704428104231
BAKKEN5-201322607158674162372503693

Correct, As Usual

Yesterday when I was posting the "new" poll regarding the Keystone XL, I opined that this issue will be decided politically. The Keystone has been studied ad nauseum and the scientific studies are complete.

Unbeknownst to me when I wrote that post yesterday, The Daily Kos was reporting the very same thing: former energy secretary has stated the obvious -- "the Keystone XL is a political decision." Duh.

The op-ed at the Kos tells me why the president won't approve the Keystone. Even the Kos cannot separate science from fantasy.

Random Look At EOG, Whiting Operations In Parshall Field

EOG has five rigs actively drilling in Parshall oil field, all outside the reservation. Whiting also has a rig in the same area as the five EOG rigs. I thought it would be interesting to see what the existing neighboring well to the new well was doing in each ase. So here goes. Each well below is in the same section as a well that is currently being drilled by EOG or Whiting in the Parshall.
  • 17539, on the same pad as two new wells, 1,200, EOG, Austin 14-18H, one section, t11/08; cum 500K 12/13
  • 16977, on same as as one new well, 2,625, Whiting, Lee State 44-16H, one section, t5/08; cum 450K 12/13
  • 19182, about 3,500 from new wells, 812, EOG, Austin 107-31H, one section, t10/10; cum 104K 12/13;
  • 16991, on a separate pad from two other two-well pads in this section, EOG, 1,383, Wayzetta 9-03H, one section, t7/08; cum 774K 12/13;
  • 17040, near a new two-well pad, 1,239, EOG, Austin 26-36H, one section, t11/08; cum 392K 12/13;
  • 16973, on a separate pad from a 2-well pad and a 3-well pad in this section, 1,252, EOG, Wayzetta 2-14H, one section, t6/08; cum 319K 12/13;

For Investors Only

Sixteen companies announce increased dividends or distributions including Otter Tail and SandRidge Mississippi Trust II.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Apple captures almost 20% of global PC and tablet market in 4Q13 to lead pack. Lenova (Chinese) in second place; Samsung in third; Dell in distant fifth. Top five all increased sales except HP with dropped back slightly.

Wednesday

Active rigs:


2/5/201402/05/201302/05/201202/05/201102/05/2010
Active Rigs19018220216590


RBN Energy: the night the lights almost went out in Texas -- the Polar Vortex.
The “polar vortex” of 2014 dipped far south enough to impact power markets in Texas. On Monday January 6th, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) came dangerously close to initiating rolling blackouts as power demand increased due to record low temperatures and unexpected generation unit outages. Real time electricity prices spiked to over $5,000/ Megawatt Hour (MWH). The close call served as a sobering reminder for Texas regulators of the ongoing debate over how the State will meet future power generation requirements. Today we detail the “polar vortex” event and explain the implications for Texas power.
The Wall Street Journal

It was interesting (a word I overuse) to hear NPR put the spin on the CBO analysis that said ObamaCare would result in a cut in the labor force. My own comments: a) ObamaCare will be good for investors; b) those leaving the labor force due to ObamaCare, according to CBO, are leaving on their own, not due to employers, so they must be happy; c) the nation will need those new job openings for the new wave of immigrants. If at the end of the day, ten years from now, everyone is happy with ObamaCare, then we all win. I'm most excited for investors: they will be the real winners, as businesses cost shift their health care expenses. My biggest fear is that union members may be most affected. New accessions to the military will probably not have it as good as current members, retirees. The Wall Street Journal's lead story was on the CBO / ObamaCare story.

The SENATE passed "a" farm bill.

The CBO estimated that this year's deficit would be the lowest since 2007.

Whiting, Hess, and Marathon face minor fines for failing to correctly "label" Bakken oil headed for rail.

Michigan has plans for its $1 billion surplus: spend it on schools.


Target data breach went on longer than thought. Wow, the news keeps coming out in drips and drabs on the Target security breach. I still shop at Target (rarely) and will never use a credit card there.  At least not until they get their new "chip" security cards.
Target Corp's big holiday data breach wasn't quite over when the company originally said it was over. In testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Target Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan said the company has learned software on another 25 checkout machines continued to steal payment card data three days after Dec. 15, the date by which the discounter had said the malware was removed from its system.
Those machines—which remained infected because they were temporarily off line when Target first removed the malware—added fewer than 150 compromised credit and debit cards to the 40 million already thought to have been stolen from customers between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15. But the leakage shows the complexity of purging the malicious software from checkout lanes after it spread across Target's 1,800 U.S. stores.
The demise of the "small-box" store. RadioShack to close 500 stores.

Time Inc will lay off 6% of its global staff.

Wow, Chrysler's Ram 1500 EcoDiesel earns 28-mpg rating.

Toyota expects to report record net profit.

BP's earnings decline 25%: hit by lower refining margins and income lost from asset sales as it tries to recover from the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Natural gas futures jumped nearly 10% yesterday on expectations another wave of "global warming" to hit mot of US later this week.

Las Vegas jackpot: three years ago, a man named Josh Anderson bought 36 distressed lots near Las Vegas for about $90,000 each. Now, a new home on each of those lots is about to hit the market with a price tag of $5 million. It takes money to make money.

The Los Angeles Times

CVS, the nation's number 2 drugstore, will end tobacco sales.

I'm shocked! I'm shocked! Obamacare patients are having trouble finding doctors. Not quite true. They can find doctors; they just can't find doctors who will accept Obamacare. Big difference.

*****************************
A Note to the Granddaughters

Two notes, actually. The first is a short note on bicycling yesterday in Grapevine, Texas. It was a bit cold (for someone used to south Texas heat) but really no complaints because there was no wind. I had forgotten my gloves at home; I knew it would be impossible to find gloves in Texas, but I was able to find an adequate pair at a gas station. I'm looking at buying a new bicycle at Grapevine Bicycle Center. They sell KHS bikes, and the "bang for the buck" is incredible.

The second note is on the novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I tried reading this book when it was on the bestseller's list. I remember starting it, but quickly put it down; I did not care for it. I think the Scandinavian names turned me off; it was hard to keep track of the "players." But after seeing the movie for the first time last week, I was eager to try again. The movie was incredible. As noted earlier, I think Meryl Streep stole "best actress award" from Rooney Mara that year. Meryl Streep simply did a "cover" of Margaret Thatcher; Rooney had to invent an entirely original character, had to agree to degrading scenes which she accomplished, maintaining her dignity and self-respect. I am haunted by her and her character; I have no feelings for Meryl Streep/Margaret Thatcher.

The book is very good; much better than I remember it. In fact, after the first few pages, I don't recall reading any of the book before. The movie is quite different from the book; in this case, the movie might be better than the book. Salander (Rooney's character) has some dialogue that might be a big longer in the book than it was in the movie; the movie dialogue is "Salander." The book dialogue, not so much. I am blown away by how the director and his staff could put this book on the big screen. They did an outstanding job. It would be sad if they (David Fincher, Rooney, Daniel Craig) did not do the second and third but to the best of my knowledge that is still under discussion. The Swedes did release the trilogies in 2009.

The book had mixed reviews from American critics. I think the subject matter was too difficult for some of them; the original title of the book was Men Who Hate Women. The critics, if I remember correctly, did not have any trouble with In Cold Blood.

So, Where Are We ...

....

Airline suspends flights into / out of Jamestown, cites pilot storage.

Producing mineral acres in the Bakken Sanish are going for $40,000/acre.

For newbies, a quick look at what we know about the Bakken:
  • the Bakken is the largest continuous reservoir of oil ever found in the lower 48; light, sweet oil
  • after the 2013 USGS Survey, officials doubled the size of the Bakken/Three Forks: 7.3 billion bbls recoverable; could be as much as 11 billion bbls recoverable
  • one trillion bbls of original oil in place (OOIP) -- other estimates
  • 8 wells/1280-ace spacing unit: 24 billion bbls recoverable oil
  • 16 wells/1280-acre spacing unit: 50 billion bbls recoverable oil
  • EURs: 400,000 to 1,000,000 bbls
  • 10,000 feet deep; 10,000-foot laterals; total "depth": 20,000 feet; 30-stage fractures; 3 million lbs proppants; sand and/or ceramics; EOG is doing huge fracks: 60 stages; 10 million lbs sand only
  • $10 million/well historically; costs coming down; maybe $8.5 million/well in 2014; some lower
  • 100,000 bbls in 6 months to 3 years; will produce for 25 to 39 years
  • 2,000 permits/year; drilling/completing about 2,000 wells/year; on track for 2,900 permits in 2014
  • 2,000 wells/year x $10 million/well; $20,000 million/year drilling = $20 billion/year drilling
  • 7,000 active wells in North Dakota; 980,000 bopd; 100 bopd/well (California with about 60,000 active wells); North Dakota #2 in US production, behind Texas
  • 190 active rigs (range 180 - 195) 
  • high density spacing; Oasis will drill 21 wells in one 640-acre section; 42 wells/1280-acre spacing in better Bakken
  • Middle Bakken; four benches in the Three Forks; the Three Forks will increase the OOIP estimates by about 60% (compared to the Middle Bakken only); the Three Forks through the Bakken, but seems to extend beyond the periphery of the middle Bakken prospect;Whiting tends to refer to the upper Three Forks in its northern ops area as the Sanish; Whiting tends to refer to the upper Three Forks in its southern ops area as the Pronghorn Sand 
  • fracking a new well improves production of a neighboring, existing well ("halo effect")
  • North Dakota daily production: at this link, click on the "Director's Cut" at the very top
  • 2012 Bentek study suggests 2.2 million bopd; 3 billion cf natural gas/day 
CBR continues to expand: new rules, regulations won't be in effect until 2015 at the earliest

Oil: $98. Longest, sustained period of "high-price" oil ever.

Keystone XL 2.0 South is on-line, Cushing, OK, to the Texas gulf coast

US State Department green lights Keystone XL; President Obama has not yet read the report; see poll

Tesoro announces open season on new in-state Bakken crude oil, storage system (minimum storage, one million bbls)