Sunday, June 17, 2018

Week 24: June 10, 2018 -- June 16, 2018

The NDIC site is still down; it's been down all weekend. The "comments" app for the blog may not be working.

But other than that things seem okay with the world.

Which reminds me, I better check my twitter feed. I can only imagine what President Trump is tweeting this morning. Actually I cannot.

I see the number of "Twitter followers" has increased. Thank you. As the Bakken hits new production records, I suspect that to continue (the number of Twitter followers) as well as the number of hits on the blog.

So, top stories from the Bakken this past week.

The top story, of course, was the announcement that North Dakota crude oil production almost hit an all-time record, two months earlier than predicted by the NDIC. Noted geologist Art Berman said this was not going to happen; Peak Oil Theory said it was impossible; and, Jane Nielson has never updated her post (at least the last time I checked) in which she said the Bakken was "a lot of hype"or something to that effect.

The top US energy story this past week: US gasoline demand hit an all-time record. Mostly due to the fact that Tesla production was delayed significantly.

The top international energy story: Venezuela starts importing oil. And on the same day that is announced, the price of WTI and Brent fall 2.5% to 3.5%, respectively. Just one more example, Venezuela doesn't matter any more with regard to global oil supply. Venezuela joins that list which includes Libya, Iran, Iraq, the North Sea, and Brazil. The only oil-producing countries that matter are Saudi Arabia, the US, and Putinstan.

But it is a fool's errand to predict the price of oilAnd here.

Other formations:
Politically and economically, the US, link here:
  • the GOP wants Trump; out-polls Obama, JFK, and Reagan
  • GDP estimate for 2Q18 jumps to 4.8%
  • unemployment rate at 44-year low
  • any connection between the first three bullets? It depends; it depends on which movie you are watching
  • the Bill (#MeToo) Clinton movie: it's the economy, stupid
Politically and economically, the EU, link here:
Technology:
Most ludicrous data point post this week:
  • the IEA estimates that global oil supplies are down to 58 days, four hours, and forty-eight minutes. I can't make this stuff up. But then again, we know that the earth will be 0.2 degrees warmer 100 years from now. By the way, did anyone note the huge Japanese volcano that erupted over the weekend? Lots of CO2 in that cloud, and lots of sunlight going to be lost. Could be a very cool summer.
Operations
CLR: all optimized completions now exceed 1.1 million boe EUR type curve
Random example of jump in production in two older Slawson wells
Another example of a CLR with a jump in production 
Is MRO getting ready to re-frack this well, or wells nearby?
Finally, 63 active rigs in North Dakota
Last weekend, fourteen wells came off the confidential list; twelve were DUCs; North Dakota oil production hitting new all-time records

Pipelines
The Keystone XL is no closer to completion than it was twelve years ago

Refineries
If there weren't already so many top stories, this would have been a top story: North Dakota grants an air quality permit for the refinery near the park despite 11,000 comments from out-of-state suggesting this is a huge travesty

Miscellaneous
Dickinson, Minot, and Marmarth, ND, were not on the USA Today list of least livable cities
Over 35,000 oil and gas permits have not been issued by the state of North Dakota
Great Britain facing a wind energy "drought"; will add a nuclear reactor
Very fitting: Miss Williston wins Miss North Dakota

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