Top Stories of 2011 -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Top Story of the Year:

• USA: net exporter of oil; first time in six decades

The world

• US #1 in natural gas production; surpasses Russia.
• Canada withdraws from Kyoto Protocol

The nation

• US setting oil export record

Most exciting operator in the Bakken in 2011: KOG

• In-depth look at one of the most exciting oil companies in the Bakken: KOG.
• The KOG/BTA deal
• KOG: acquires 50,000 net acres; to raise almost $1 billion 

Most surprising story of 2011:  

• Statoil buys BEXP 

Best well:

• Whiting's Record TFS well

Most exciting production prediction:

• EURs of 1,000,000 possible in the Bakken

Bakken oil field story of the year:

• Corral Creek -- Huge New One-Unit Oil Field -- The Bakken

Most surprising formation of the year:

• The Madison

Biggest story in takeaway capacity (3):

• Focus on Enbridge
• The Keystone XL Killed (as proposed)
• Bakken boom fuels rail boom

Investment Story of the Year:

• $3 billion in natural gas infrastructure in North Dakota

Record bonus paid per acre:

• $14,000/acre in southwestern North Dakota -- a new record

Most hypocritical story of the year:

• Minnesota: no qualms about destroying golden eagle, hawk habitat

Expanded List of Top Stories of 2011

The Short List
Weeks 34 - 52

The Bakken: production

• Tesoro to increase diesel production: big headline, little increase.
• Six great Oasis wells.
• Six great Oasis wells. 
• EURs of 1,000,000 possible in the Bakken  
• Three notable wells reported in past ten days: Charlotte, Tarpon, and Hagen
• 75,000 more wells to be drilled in the Bakken 

The Bakken: fields

• Corral Creek -- Huge New One-Unit Oil Field -- The Bakken 
• Unitizing Little Missouri State Park

The Bakken: formations

• The Sanish vs the Pronghorn (formations).
• Taking another look at the Madison
• The Madison
• Three additional pay zones below the upper Three Forks

The Bakken: wells

• The new Hagen/Madison well in Red Wing Creek; near Watford City
• Four-well pad approved for inside Williston city limits 
• Huge Harry Stroh well; Fayette field update.  
• Petro-Hunt with cluster of six wells in Four Bears 
• Slawson's Armada well -- 120,000 bbls in one year 
• Whiting's Record TFS well
• The first 2560-acre unit well -- MRO 
• BEXP: 10 wells on a spacing unit coming
• WMB well: 20,000 bbls in 14 days; not fracked

The Bakken: operators

• Biggest news story of the week: pipeline company to invest $145 million in new rail transport
• Triangle Petroleum getting more active; sits in the core Bakken
• Hess getting its mojo back: another 6-well pad
• Statoil/BEXP report great IPs on a 3-well pad in the bull's eye of the Bakken; Statoil buys BEXP
• Six-stage frack results in huge Bakken Whiting well
• BEXP's 5-well pad
• Continental Resources Drilling Deeper into the Three Forks

The Bakken: crude by rail

• Bakken boom fuels rail boom
• Tesoro to ship oil to the west coast; $50 million+ project
• Crude-by-rail; Louisiana sweet crude prices
• Crude-by-rail, update; Reuters factbox on CBR; Railroad hub at Zap; Update of crude-by-rail 
• Dickinson crude-by-rail update

The Bakken: takeaway capacity

• Focus on Enbridge 
• Enbridge to increase pipeline capacity
• Enbridge to reverse flow of oil from Cushing; Keystone XL killed

The Bakken: investments

• $3 billion in natural gas infrastructure in North Dakota
• $1.5 to $2 billion/month going into the Bakken
• Oil industry pouring $2 billion/month into western ND.
• Another hotel (Value Place) breaks ground in Williston
• Motel 6 opens in Williston, December 2, 2011. 
• Whiting to build operations center in Watford City; Power Fuels doing same 
• Missouri Basin Well Service to build headquarters in Watford City 
• New Oasis complex west of Williston  
• Update on ONEOK's Garden Creek, Stateline I and II; more on ONEOK in North Dakota; expansion of the Hess natural gas plant in Tioga; update on LNG industry in western North Dakota;
• $1.2 billion for western ND roads.
• Industrial park update, Williston, North Dakota ; and here.
• Photos of the new Baker Hughes "SuperSite" going up west of Williston
• Peter Kiewit subdivision breaks ground; 2,500 new units; 289 acres

The Bakken: taxable sales receipts

• Williston taxable sales surge past Fargo's; second quarter in a row

The Bakken: fracking

• New fracking company in town: Liberty Liberty Oilfield Services
• One inch of water from Lake Sakakawea will provide enough water for fracking for two years in the Bakken
• Halliburton's clean fracking
• Case study in re-fracs 
• Halliburton to add 11,000 workers

The Bakken: miscellaneous records

• $14,000/acre in southwestern North Dakota -- a new record; full auction results here
• Longest EOG horizontal in the Bakken?

Hypocritical Stories From the Bakken

• Almost, North Dakota: We Don't Want A Bunch of Men Living in a Building All Together -- Unless They're Monks or Construction Workers.
• BLM fast-tracks golden eagle and whooping crane killing. Wind turbines: license to kill
• Minnesota's dirty oil industry.
• Minnesota: no qualms about destroying golden eagle, hawk habitat 
• Federal govenment to okay killing of whooping cranes

Other top ten lists coming out of the Bakken

The Williston Herald: a very, very disappointing list (mostly negatives, and mostly trivial)

• 1. Rising rent raises anger 
• 2. Parks and Recreation sales tax increase
• 3. "The Storm": white out cases black out
• 4. Legislature approves $1 billion for oil patch infrastructure
• 5. Spring and summer flooding
• 6. ND oil field deaths; injuries up in 2011 (any denominators; any analysis?)
• 7. Booming western North Dakota receives national attention
• 8. Williston Basin Energy Fest
• 9. Rig count hits 200
• 10. Fire west of town (no reports of hazardous material; no deaths; impressive fire, but not even in my top 1000)

With this list, the local newspaper should have put the passing of Williston's renowned band leader Virgil Syverson as one of the top ten stories, perhaps replacing #10 and moving it nearer the top