North Dakota Natural Gas Hits Milestone: More Gas Than Ever Despite Huge Decline In Active Wells; Mike Filloon's Bakken Update -- Focus On Producers In The Bakken -- April 24, 2016

North Dakota natural gas industry hits milestone: 

Natural gas production from North Dakota reached an all-time high in February as flaring declined and gas output from oil wells in of the Bakken and Three Forks formations increased.

Gas production in February rose to 1.69 Bcf/d (48mn m³/d), up by 3 percent from January and about 1 percent higher than the previous record set in November 2015.

The amount of flared gas in February dropped to 11 percent, down from 13 percent a month earlier as processing capacity rose.

The Tioga gas plant increased its operational capacity to 84 percent, up by 5 percentage point from January.

Nearly all of the gas produced in North Dakota comes from the state's oil wells. But gas production grew despite a decline in producing wells.

The well count dropped at the end of February to 13,012, down by 129 from a month earlier.

See this post, also, natural gas, North Dakota vs Iran.

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Mike Filloon's Bakken Update

From Filloon:

• US oil production continues to decrease approximately 20K bbl/d each week although Gulf production continues to increase
• Producers had planned to increase production significantly from 2014 to 2015 but low oil prices pulled barrels from the market
• 2016 oil production from shale could see a much larger decrease year over year as increases may be seen from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Russia, Kuwait, etc
• U.S. small cap unconventional oil producers could shoulder the majority of the 2016 production cut if 2015 numbers were a preview

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Mezcal

I think I mentioned a few days ago that I have moved on to mezcal. It took several years for me to become comfortable with Scotch, and now that fad is over. Last year/this year I was determined to become comfortable with martinis, and now that fad is over.

I didn't have any alcohol for about a month while I went on a very restricted caloric diet. I'm at the first plateau in my weight loss journey and will probably stay at this level for several months, hopefully not as long as a year. Then I will begin the next phase in my weight reduction program.

Meanwhile, I am now trying to understand mezcal, after a recent article in The New Yorker. I only have on mezcal in the house -- I have no idea how critics rate it -- good, bad, indifferent -- but it is what it is: the label says "Mezcal' in huge 1.5 inch letters, with "Espadin-Joven" in three-quarter inch letters underneath. The label says it is "homemade by our own maestro mezcalero, in Matatlan, Oaxaca, Capital of Mezcal."

My first taste of mezcal: "hey, this is Islay scotch." Seriously. Others have had the same thought. I've had about half an ounce each of the last three nights mixed with various proportions of tequila and triple sec. Compared to the time it took me to become comfortable with understanding a martini, it appears that it will take considerably less time to become comfortable in my understanding of mezcal and margaritas.

I write all of that to say this: why I love to blog. One of my favorite other blogs is "Left Coast Cowboys," one of the better travel and food blogs. Some years ago the writer had an article on mezcal.