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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Price of Oil: Supply and Demand (Not a Bakken Story)

"Six months ago, China had enough fuel on hand to meet more than 36 days of demand. Today, inventories would only meet 16 days, and that number is falling fast."

Source: Wall Street Journal

Highlights of Oasis Conference Call, 3Q10; Bakken, ND, USA

Comments from the November 9, 2010, earnings conference call via the Seeking Alpha transcript.

Oasis: became a publicly traded company on June 17, 2010; NYSE: OAS

On Friday, November 5, 2010, closed on a deal resulting in 16,700 net acres in Hebron prospect, just west of North Dakota in Montana; already producing; cost: approximately $50,000 ($3000/acre plus production of 300 bbls/day). To exploit this area, OAS has contracted a sixth rig which will be dedicated to this project area.

Standard OAS well: 10,000-foot lateral (long laterals) and 28 frac stages.

Average OAS well cost: $6.8 to 7.2 million.

Despite a record rig count in North Dakota, service costs are moderating and availability of crews is improving.

OAS has two, and on track to have a third, dedicated pumping service providers which should be adequate to match their drilling program with frac slots going into 2011.

Proppants: ceramics / sand: 65 / 35.

1,033 net potential locations in the Williston Basin.

With the recent Hebron acquisition, OAS now has over 300,000 net acres in the Williston Basin.

West Williston wells: resilient to WTI oil prices as low at $45 to $50.

Average price of Oasis oil sold for $66.42 last quarter, a differential of 13%; historically the Basin has about a 10% differential; again, partly due to takeaway constraints.

Lease operating costs were at $6.33/boe; down 38% from 3Q09.

Debt: goal to be completely out of debt by end of 2011.

Eight (8) New Permits-- Bakken, ND, USA

Operators: MRO (2), XTO (2), KOG, Newfield, Whiting, and EOG.

Fields: Big Bend, Bear Den, Lost Bridge, Poe, Truax, Sanish, and two wildcats.

On track for 1,620 new permits, calendar year 2010, North Dakota. 

Presentations by KOG and OAS

Two new presentations have been linked to this site.

Click on "Earnings Central" at the top of the sidebar on the right to bring you to new presentations on KOG and OAS as wells as several other recently linked presentations.

Potash Well Spudded

From Sirius Minerals  press release:
Further to the announcement of 19 October 2010, the Directors of Sirius Minerals Plc, the potash mining group, are pleased to announce that drilling has commenced on its North Dakota property.

Through the drilling programme being carried out by Schlumberger Water Services USA Inc ("Schlumberger") and North Rim Exploration Ltd ("NREL") a single exploratory hole is being drilled to a total depth of approximately 8,990ft (approximately 2,740meters). The drill core will then be sent to NREL's core facility in Saskatoon for detailed core descriptions and geochemical sample selection.  The samples will then be sent to and analysed at the Saskatchewan Research Council laboratory in Saskatoon. It is anticipated that the drilling, core logging and analysis will take approximately two months to complete.
FYI.

Chevron to Buy Natural Gas Company, Atlas Energy (Not a Bakken Story)

Chevron to acquire Atlas Energy, the largest natural gas company in the Marcellus. This is the third largest acquisition for Chevron in its history. It's also one of the top acquisition stories, regardless of sector, in 2010.

I still think the "big boys" know something about natural gas; there's just too much activity in a product that is priced this low and supply outstrips demand. Something's going on. 

Remember, Chesapeake recently said there would be no new big oil or gas fields to be discovered in the US. Maybe we're starting to see the majors getting interested in the existing fields (XOM bought XTO this past summer, closed July 25, 2010).