Welcome to the "new" Million Dollar Way

Things seem to be a bit quiet in the oil patch.

Note the dates for the earnings call for Bakken companies. NOG has already reported. WLL will report tomorrow; the rest November 5 - 6. NOG missed analysts' expectations but had a great report. (Note: I assume there are very few analysts following NOG, as compared to, oh let's say GOOG, so the expectations are more likely to be off. Law of large numbers.)

BEXP's recent share offering seems to have gone very well, but I haven't paid much attention, so I don't know for sure. KOG announced it is also offering up to 10,000,000 new shares. KOG has 100 million shares outstanding, so this is not particularly huge dilution, especially considering what BEXP has done recently.

There are two ways to raise money: bank loans and stock offerings. Maybe more on that later.

It appears oil has hit a new trading range, $78 - $82. Short term I could imagine oil dropping again if the dollar strengthens, but I still feel the long-term trend is higher. Regardless, if oil stays above $65 the Bakken will remain active.

The most interesting news in the oil patch for me was the announcement that a Korean company will buy Harvest Energy Trust (HTE), a Canadian shale oil trust. I invested in HTE a couple years ago for the dividend; have since sold. For me, that represents another data point that Asia is buying hydrocarbon resources wherever they can, while they're cheap (while western world looks toward much more expensive solar and wind energy -- perhaps more on that later).

After a complete overhaul of this site, things are starting to fall into place.

Daily updating of "new" wells reporting is probably of the most interest, as well as "wells to watch." The IPs have been very nice, averaging over 500 bbls/days, but we have not seen any IPs greater than 2,000 bbls/day in quite a long time. EOG has 76 wells on the confidential list; and, most of these appear to be coming off the list between now and February, 2010.

If your enthusiasm for the Bakken weakens, check out some of the really good wells still producing. I think there is more to come.

Good luck to all.