Morning Links -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Big story here, on CNBC last night, WLL:

Although based in Denver, Whiting is the second largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale—one of the biggest oil finds in U.S. history. Whiting has 582,000 acres in the oil-rich Bakken and some exposure to other shales, too. Since having reported a disappointing quarter in late July, WLL has fallen through the floor. The day after it reported earnings, it lost 9 percent and has now fallen 38 percent.

Motley Fool: enjoy cheap oil while it lasts; specifically mentions KOG and CLR in the Bakken as companies to look at.

SeekingAlpha: another metric to value oil companies; WLL is on the list; as well as I can tell, it's a variant of the same metric I use: bbls of oil equivalent/share value (pretty obvious metric, but just one data point, of course)

And, in the Utica:

Chesapeake said 12 horizontal wells it drilled in Utica Shale--a deeply buried rock formation that lies below parts of eight states, from Tennessee to New York as well as parts of Canada—achieved strong initial production of natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons such as oil and ethylene, which fetch higher prices than natural gas.

Meanwhile, with/without links:

• The government raised last quarter's GDP to 1.3
• Fewer folks applied for unemployment beneftis; first time in recent memory below 400,000
• Weekly applications dropped 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 391,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the lowest level since April 2 and the first time applications have fallen below 400,000 since Aug. 6.