Beautiful, Balmy, Bakken Day -- Weather Storm Warming For Next 24 Hours -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

If things go as scheduled, this will be my last full day in the Bakken for awhile. Sad face. Tomorrow I fly out of Williston's international airport on a direct flight to Boston. Just kidding. I have a layover in Denver. 

Another beautiful day in the Bakken, 34 degrees or so. No breeze to speak of, so it feels even warmer. We are being told there is a weather storm warning for the next 24 hours with blowing snow, perhaps as much as four inches of falling snow, and a low of 11 degrees. So, we'll see. You may remember that the National Weather Service will no longer be reporting wind chill temperatures. The official reason is that it confused folks; the real reason is that wind chill temperatures put a chill on the "sky-is-falling" global warming alarms. A 60-degrees-below-zero wind chill just does not jive with global warming.

I see that TCOP is up $1.67, solidly over $100, in futures market today. We'll know in a few minutes where the price of oil is headed today.

I just updated "New Wells Reporting," a carryover from yesterday; nothing exciting to report, and unless you have absolutely nothing else to do, I would not bother going to the link. 

Elsewhere, they are talking about the "production life of a Bakken well."  It's 34.5 years. Some wells will be economically productive for 50+ years; some for 25 years, but the average will be 34.5 years. That is based on critical analysis of the current 5,000+ wells still producing in the Williston Basin, some of which have been producing since the late 1950's. I'm waiting for Dufus to weigh in. Algorithms to calculate the horrendous Bakken decline rate versus the economic viability of the Bakken wells can be deduced from corporate presentations of the past two years regarding the Bakken. Note the free fall in economic viability that occurs when the EPA bans fracking.

Speaking of which, I'm sure you all saw the press release from yesterday regarding EPA's stance on regulating fracking. If you parse the phrases very closely, you will note the EPA is saying exactly what Lynn Helms has been saying. One can infer from the press release that the EPA is only concerned about the diesel used in fracking wells in frigid North Dakota weather. That's why it will take the EPA four years (or more) to write the 500-page (or more) definition of diesel. By the way, note the titles of the EPA officials contacted: "Director of Ground Water and Drinking Water"; and, "Director of Drinking Water Protection Division."  Apparently, the "Director of Ground Water Protection Division" was unavailable for the conference call. I assume the three work for the "Executive Director of Well Water, Ground Water, Drinking Water, Safety and Protection, and General Harassment of Big Oil Division (WWGWDWSPGHBOD as it is known in DC).

So, 8:32. Let's see what TCOP is doing: up $1.21. Solidly above $101.

Good luck to all.

And, I just noticed: the snow has started to fall. A nice light snow, just covering the ground now. 

8:51 a.m. Up $1.71.

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Another dot to connect when answering the question why did the president kill the Keystone XL project? Some argued that this was a slap in the face of one of America's closest allies and friends. It turns out that the president's world view is that all 190 countries are equal, none should get special treatment.

Obama’s latest gaffe also raises questions about his overall approach to the Special Relationship. This has been a presidency that has significantly downgraded traditional US alliances, from Britain and Israel to eastern and central Europe, while appeasing brutal enemies like Iran as well as strategic adversaries such as Russia. All too often, Washington’s allies have been taken for granted, and even undermined. As a senior State Department official put it in 2009, in the eyes of the current administration: “there’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

The "latest gaffe" refers to the president's response to the sacking of the British Embassy in Tehran in which he said it was the "English Embassy." Wow. No wonder Newt will let the president use his teleprompter in any debate; Newt wants to give the president a level playing field.

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Memo to self: file under "Unintended Consequences." San Francisco's new city ordinance enacted to stem the sale of McDonald's Happy Meals will: a) encourage the sale of McDonald's Happy Meals; b) provide an extra ten cents for every Happy Meal sold to McDonald's favorite charity (their own); and, c) will, in the end, make more money for McDonald's. Money is fungible. That extra ten cents going to charity is ten cents that won't have to come from somewhere else. 

As a rule, I don't care for lawyers. In this case, I will make an exception to the in-house lawyer who thought of this. 

By the way, this is the way it works: a) kids have started their Happy Meal toy collection and want to continue it; b) kids will ask their parents for the toy; they don't care what comes in the bag as long as they get the toy; c) parents will ask for the Happy Meal, thinking that's where the toy is; it isn't; d) McDonald's server will tell them (and the signs will tell them) that San Francisco requires the parents to first plunk down ten cents for the toy; and, e) then they can order the Happy Meal. 

To poke a real stick in the left eye of the San Francisco council, McDonald's should advertise a promotion in which a parent buying a toy for ten cents will get a Happy Meal at discount (yes, a discount of ten cents). And then put the two items -- the Happy Meal and the ten-cent toy -- in two different non-biodegradable paper containers for the San Francisco landfill. Although I suppose San Francisco dumps their garbage into the ocean halfway between Los Angeles and Tokyo.

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Yesterday I posted a note about American Airlines filing for bankruptcy. Today Boeing -- who makes the planes for American Airlines -- says filing for bankruptcy is good for business. Now that AA has filed for bankruptcy, AA will now have more money to buy more planes. Only in America.