Friday, September 3, 2010

ERF: For Investors Only; Limited Relationship With the Bakken

Enerplus Resources, a Canadian company, is one of the high-dividend/high distribution companies I will invest in periodically. I haven't held it in quite some time; can't remember why I sold. I think it had something to do with changing tax law in Canada which resulted in sell-off. Since then, share price in a very narrow trading range; now near it's yearly high.

It's my understanding that ERF is treated like any other corporation by the IRS.

I sort of forgot about ERF until looking at companies in the Bakken, to see if I could find anything new.

ERF was featured at SeekingAlpha.com recently as a monthly dividend player. Some of you might be interested. It has a play in the Bakken: one rig currently active; drilling in Dunn County.

Bakken Market Basket

I apologize. My "Bakken Market Basket" is not working as I hoped it would work. When clicked on it, it only takes you to the "Yahoo!Finance" page where you have to sign in unless you have already signed in.

I'll look around for another way to accomplish what I want to do.

For now, this is a poor alternative, but it will be a page holder until I can find something that works.

Until I do, if you want to design your own Bakken Market Basket at Yahoo!Financial, you can simply cut and paste the following at the Yahoo!Financial site where you can build your personal portfolios. (I own no shares of Yahoo! or have any relationship with them.)


AEZ
BHI
CLR
COP (BR)
DNR (ENC)
EEP
ENB
EOG
ERF
HES
KOG
MDU
MRO
NFX 
NOG
OKE
OKS
OAS
QEP
SLB
SM
SSN
WHX
WLL
XOM (XTO)

Dry Hole (Nothing To Do With The Bakken -- Fortunately)

I have absolutely no idea what this is all about, but NDIC reports a "dry hole."

The well is in North Dakota, but not in the Williston Basin and not in the Bakken. It is located about 65 miles west of Fargo, North Dakota, on the extreme east side of the state. File number 4660 - that permit must have been granted back in the 1960's. It's a James E. Schulte well, Saar 1, NWSE 25-142N-60W.

My hunch. Someone just curious to see if there's oil underneath his house.

See daily activity report dated September 3, 2010.

Kodiak (KOG) Reports a Very Nice Well

18656, 2,035, Moccasin Creek 13-34-28-2H, SWSW 34-148N-93W, Dunn County.

Shorthand:

File number: 18656
IP: 2,035 barrels of oi per day
Spudded in section 34 and running north into sections 33 and 28, a long lateral.

Section 34 has five wells but most are long laterals going to neighboring sections. 17706 is a short lateral entirely within section 34.  #17706, Moccasin Creek 16-34-2H, had an IP of 604.

IP Reports: More Confusion -- The DNR/Encore Swenson Well

I must be misreading something; or, there may be a typographical error in one of the reports; or, there is really some crazy reporting going on with regard to IPs.

This regards the Denbury/Encore well, Swenson 131-33SWH in the Charlson oil field, file number 18433.

The NDIC file, the daily activity report dated August 17, 2010, reports an IP of 108 for this well.

In a press release, Denbury reported that his well had an IP of 2,355 boe; it averaged 1,090 boe per day during the first 30 days, and 873 boe during the first sixty days.

And then this, the production file from the NDIC dated August 14, 2010, showed an IP of 27 and yet the production numbers certainly suggested a much better well. The well produced 28K bbls of oil in the first 31 days, and 17K bbls in the second 30 days. I am not the only one who has noted this.

It's a short lateral.

More to follow.

146

Wow, I didn't expect this: a new record number of active rigs drilling in North Dakota -- 146.

Some time ago I opined that I thought we would stabilize at about 145 - 150, and then I saw the relatively sudden drop to about 137 active wells a few days ago, and thought we had topped out at 143.

So, now back up and blowing through previous high of 143.

But even more incredible: look back to earlier this year. In February, 2010, there were 95 active rigs in North Dakota. 95. Now, the year is not yet over (we have two or three great months of drilling before winter sets in) and we're up to 146 rigs. 

I haven't broken down rigs by all companies, but I assume a few of these are new companies coming into the Bakken.

Selected companies:
  • CLR: 19
  • BEXP: 8 (that's a significant increase from the four they had last year)
  • Slawson: 5
  • KOG: 2
  • Fidelity (MDU): still only 1
  • NOG: None (yes, I know: that's their business model)
A company new to me or I didn't recognize or missed before: Landtech Enterprises -- probably because it's drilling salt water disposal wells.

Reminder: Bakken Market Basket Link at Top Right

Over the past couple of years, readers have sent in some useful suggestions for this site.

Perhaps the best suggestion was placing a list of the ticker symbols and quotes for the companies working in the Bakken.

I did that several months ago and I find it very, very useful.

If you haven't seen it, and you are interested in this sort of thing, the list is located at the top right of the blog, "Market Basket."

A few minutes, the entire list, except for SM (St Mary Energy) was green.  And, just now, checking it one last time before moving on, every company listed -- every company listed -- was green.  KOG is showing the highest gain, almost 2.5%.