Oops! Hess Did It Again! An Orion Belt. Round 3.

For a full description of a Hess Orion Belt, click here.

Here is a very nice presentation by Hess regarding their multiple-well pads. 

This is really cool. Hess was granted six permits, again, to place six wells on one pad, this time in Robinson Lake, 21-T154N-93W, Mountrail County. They will go in the SWSE subquadrant and three horizontals, all long laterals, will go north; and, three will go south.

Specifically, the Frandson wells will go north into sections 21 and 16; and, the Trinity wells will go south into sections 28 and 33. I assume this is considered 2560-acre spacing which has generated a lot of discussion elsewhere. Some folks were concerned that a company was going to drill a 4-mile lateral on 2560-acre spacing, but obviously one can drill 2560-acre unit with standard "long laterals."

Specifically:

• EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-1, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-2, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-3, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-1, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-2, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-3, SWSE 21-154N-93W

For another discussion of a Hess multiple-well pad, click here. 

119!

Yup, a new record: 119!

That's how many active rigs there are in North Dakota, May 28, 2010.

I still think there may be as many as 125 rigs: a couple days ago when I checked all companies individually, I noted that about ten companies had decreased their active rig count by at least one rig. I assume most of those rigs were in the process of being moved to a new site and not "active."

The big players in the Bakken have all increased their rig count substantially this year (EOG, CLR, and WLL) while one of the bigger voices out there, BEXP, has not increased its rig count in several months: it remains at five. It is hard to believe that the company almost synonymous with the Bakken, Hess, has only six active rigs compared to 17, 14, and 12 for CLR, EOG, and WLL, respectively.

For a more complete listing, click here.

Another Natural Gas Play

Shell pays $4.7 billion to buy private natural gas company.

I have opined for the past year or so that I think something is going on in the natural gas industry. Some smart folks are investing a lot of money in natural gas when prices are at historic lows.

I have accumulated shares in natural gas companies since I first started investing in 1984. I do very little trading, very little selling. I simply include shares of these companies in my overall portfolio. Most of the companies in which I buy shares pay dividends which I reinvest in the same companies that paid them. It hasn't been a pretty picture these past few years, but I continue to accumulate those shares. Time will tell how this all works out but it is interesting to see these natural gas plays.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story about Shell's purchase is full of "bad news."  Be that as it may. 

118!

Yup, a new record: 118!

That's how many active rigs there are in North Dakota, May 28, 2010.

I still think there may be as many as 125 rigs: a couple days ago when I checked all companies individually, I noted that about ten companies had decreased their active rig count by at least one rig. I assume most of those rigs were in the process of being moved to a new site and not "active."

The big players in the Bakken have all increased their rig count substantially this year (EOG, CLR, and WLL) while one of the bigger voices out there, BEXP, has not increased its rig count in several months: it remains at five. It is hard to believe that the company almost synonymous with the Bakken, Hess, has only six active rigs compared to 17, 14, and 12 for CLR, EOG, and WLL, respectively.

For a more complete listing, click here.

As Usual: Peggy Noonan Got It Just Right

I never did like the administration's "we will keep our boot on the neck of BP" attitude. Not presidential. During a national crisis, "we" need to work together to solve the problem, and then go back and sort it out after the immediate problem has been solved.

But some prefer to shoot first and ask questions later.

"We pay so much for the government and it can't cap an undersea oil well!"

Yup, again, as usual, Peggy Noonan got it just right. And now the Feds want to hand over fracking regulations and oversight to the EPA.

For Investors: Dividend-Paying Dividend Stocks

This is an old site, so the share price and yields are not current, but it is a nice list for those interested in buying shares in energy companies paying nice dividends.

I should have posted this when the market was under 10,000, and the price of oil was in free fall. Some of these high-yielders would have been yielding even more.

It certainly is not all-inclusive. It does not include utilities which often pay pretty good dividends, and it doesn't include one of my favorites, EPD.