Week 50: December 13, 2015 -- December 19, 2015

Updates

December 20, 2015: the biggest under-reported story this past week has to do with record imports of crude oil and record storage of crude oil in the US, and that record crude oil is still well below maximum capacity. 

Original Post

 

There were several big stories this week, all of which were anti-climactic. First, the Fed raised "rates" for the first time in seven (7) years -- or as the press says, "for the first time in almost a decade." The Fed raised "rates" a quarter of a percent. And the sun came up in the east the next morning.

The other big news story: President Obama, for some inexplicable reason, repealed the ban on US crude oil exports. Oh, that's right: that was part of a $1.1 trillion spending bill with "goodies" for everyone. President Obama personally thanked the GOP leadership for expediting the bill, which some are calling the Pelosi-Reid Spending Bill For 2016.

The stock market finished the week in free fall, and WTI was around $34 on the television crawler. By the way, I don't think this is being reported strongly enough: the degree to which a county like Saudi Arabia is dumping equities to raise cash.

ISIS (or as President Obama says, ISIL) declared war on Saudi Arabia.

Operations
EOG reports one of the best (maybe THE best) Bakken well: 250K in less than 5 months; more on that well here
Halcon reports a well that produced 10,000 bbls over four days
Random update of QEP State wells with interesting observations

Fracking
DUCs -- Rigzone analysis 

Bakken economy
West Fargo and Williston to receive largest chunk of state's educational grants 
The Williston Wire with several big stories