Beautiful, Balmy, Big Sky Day in The Heart of the Bakken -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

Wow, did you all see this? American Airlines just declared bankruptcy. Cost of fuel too high. You think fuel is high now, wait until the EPA shuts down the Bakken. "They've" already shut down the Keystone XL.

The bankruptcy announcement is such a non-story I did not find it at Yahoo!Financial, but buried in the Drudge Report.

American was the only major U.S. airline that didn't file for bankruptcy protection after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The last major airline to file for bankruptcy protection was Delta in 2005.

American says labor-contract rules force it to spend at least $600 million more than other airlines.

Original Post

At 25 degrees today, or something like that, it feels much warmer than yesterday: no breeze today. Wow, it's a beautiful day. It's going to be very difficult to leave the Bakken.

I see we are starting at 197 active drilling rigs today; it looks like the folks are starting to pack it in, waiting for that EPA shoe to drop. It's been a nice run. We've been as high as 204 rigs, and with such beautiful weather one would expect the number of rigs to increase, especially since most companies earlier this year announced that they were going to increase the number of rigs by the end of 2011.

Big Sky Country. That's a Montana state trademark, but I think we're close enough to the state line to be able to say we have "big sky" here also.

I stopped by my favorite store at the corner of 1804 and the east bypass (yes, Williston has a bypass on the east side of town also). I honestly did not know one could buy stun guns. My favorite note of the day: on the counter at Scenic Sports (gas station, sports shop, fast food, convenience store, natural history museum, all rolled into one) -- "Do Not Place Your Minnows On the Counter. Thank You." And then a smiley face. The counter is covered with "bounced" checks. The bounced checks are from two folks -- one individual has not less than ten (10) bounced checks, totaling more than $800. One check was for $127. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, same on me. I think I know on whom I would use one of those stun guns.

I see the price of oil is up another $1.05 today, nearing the century mark again. The buyers of oil know what the price of oil will be when the Bakken is shut down. It isn't going to be a pretty picture.

The usual inane 30-second sound bites on CNBC this a.m. The news reader said that house prices declined another 4% this past quarter, but, and this is the inane sound bite, "but at least it wasn't as bad as the same quarter last year when home prices were down 6%. Well, hello. House prices can't fall a whole lot more. The talking head said house prices were down 75% in Detroit from ten to twelve years ago. Well, that was ten to twelve years ago. A lot has happened since then.

Hey, speaking of exploding cars, how much is a Chevy Volt worth these days.

Some of you, no doubt, received this in your e-mail today. This was in the e-mail of a co-worker (yes, I occasionally do things that appear to be "working") she received today, and I quote it in full, the first paragraph:

Susan Johnson,  (made up name to protect the co-worker, but not even "Dear Susan,")
Your mobile service device isn't just a convenient way to access your Capital One (raised R) account. It's also a way to win a 2012 Chevy Volt plus $5,000 cash or an iPad2!.

The note continues but that was enough for me.

My co-worker said she will choose the iPad2. They have a new house and the garage is attached.

I cannot make this stuff up. Let's see, just the comparison between the iPad2 and the Chevy Volt would have been interesting, but Capital One (raised R) had to throw in $5,000 in cash, I guess, to cover new garage expenses.

Hey, speaking of beautiful, balmy, Big Sky country, coming into work at sunrise today, a beautiful, shiny, black, brand-new, Warren Buffett unit train heading west into Williston, paralleling 1804. What an incredible site. You know this fracking ban: maybe having Warren Buffett on our side will turn out to be a godsend. Deus ex machina. My eighth grade Latin teacher taught me that. He taught me a lot of things. He was one of my 23 favorite teachers in Williston, and he was the best Latin teacher in town. Incredible. My German teacher also taught student driving. The Germans are very, very good driving instructors. Mr Berg's students are the few drivers in this country that can still parallel park. "You vill pull up to the parked car in front of the open space. You vill come to a complete stop...." Warren is going to lose a lot of money if the EPA shuts down fracking.

Well, oil is up $1.35. That would be WTI spot price on the television crawler. Let's see what the "real" price of Bakken is -- the Louisiana sweet: wow, up almost $2.00 from yesterday at $111.220. That was easy (raised R). Go to the top of the blog, click on "Data Links," and scroll down to Louisiana sweet crude.  

By the way, as a reminder, I turned off "comments." I couldn't keep up with monitoring the comments coming in. The comments were important: a) I knew folks were reading what I was writing; and, b) folks were correcting my mistakes.

So, as a reminder, if you read something at this site that seems wrong, it probably is. Fact check by going to "wiki."

Yesterday Don caught my error saying that if you turn west south of Alexander you will end up in Watford City. Actually, if you turn west south of Alexander you will end up in a wheat field. If you are in a(n) SUV you will probably get to Fairview, unless you run into an old Madison well first.

Yes, for newbies, there was life before the Bakken. It was called the Madison. And the Madison will rise again when the EPA shuts down fracking.

Current favorite on our radio stations:

Fish, Craig CampbellI assume the truckers and roughnecks are looking for girlfriends who love to fish.