Still Traveling, Posting Less, Thank Goodness for Freedom of the Internet

I am still traveling and have less time to post.

All I can say is "thank goodness" for the Drudge Report, perhaps the best aggregator of daily news. It's my feeling, and I know I'm wrong, but the report helps keep the government in check. I think the TSA policy on internet surfing that lasted less than 24 hours is a great example. Without widespread dissemination, this policy would have slipped through the cracks. As it is, I don't think it was reported in mainstream media.

Result: network evening news loses 1,000, 000 viewers last year. Folks know they aren't getting the full story from these networks.

There is a very nice alternative to the Drudge Report from what I hear (the Huffington Report) but I seldom access it, so I can't say for sure.

McDermott Approves Spin-Off of Babcock & Wilcox

This will be of no interest to 99.995% of my readers, but because I hold McDermott I thought I would link this story here for future reference.

Otherwise, ignore this post.

Babcock and Wilcox will trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol BWC. The distribution of shares is expected to occur on July 30, 2010, for those holding McDermott on July 9, 2010. McDermott shareholders will get on BWC share for every two McDermott shares.

Trivia on Daily Activity Report, July 6, 2010

I have said this numerous times: for all the activity in the North Dakota Bakken, we sure aren't seeing many results of wells on the daily activity reports.  Yesterday's report (July 6, 2010) had no new wells reporting.

However, the number of permits just keep coming. In that same report, a "new" company (at least for me) has a permit: Wesco has a permit in Bicentennial field in McKenzie County. In addition, American has a permit for yet another wildcat well, again in Williams County. American just reported a good well in this area. And Whiting has two new permits for two wells on one pad in the Sanish oil field. It is quite incredible how many wells can be drilled in the Sanish and the Parshall.

The Bakken Shale Discussion Group has a number of new reports posted, however. Once again, a new Hess well is not impressive.

New Whiting Presentation, July, 2010

New Whiting presentation. I have not had a chance to look at this but will do so later. Still traveling.

Fracking Trivia from Belfield, ND (USA)

From Belfield, ND:

A Belfield woman could soon see up to 400 hydraulic fracturing tanks on her property after Stark County Commissioners approved a conditional use permit during a meeting at the Stark County Courthouse, Tuesday morning. Located about three miles south and one mile west of Belfield, the permit application was filed by Missouri Basin Well Service, Inc., and Eugenia Deitz, the landowner. The permit was approved to park 400-barrel upright tanks, oilfield frac tanks, flat bed trailers, tanker trailers and other equipment, according to the application. “It’s 400-barrel tanks, but we’d never have that many,” said Dave Wanner of Missouri Basin. “It’s possible you could have, but odds are it’d be just a couple hundred frac tanks sitting on there, but they’re 400-barrel tanks ” The space would serve strictly as a storage site.

Okay, I'm confused. Is it 400 tanks, or umpteen 400-barrel tanks? Either way, it's quite a story.