Price of WTI Crude Oil Jumps 9.22% -- February 22, 2011

I don't think we will see this again any time soon: the price of WTI crude oil jumps 9.22 percent in one day. You may want to take a photo of the graph on the sidebar at the right.

This occurred during the situation in Libya with widespread calls for the removal of their leader, Moamer Kadhafi.

The price of WTI crude oil rose soared from $86.20 to $94.15 on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. The previous day, Monday, was a US holiday, markets were closed but there was electronic trading in the oil market.

The New York Stock Exchange suffered a 180-point drop.

Mac Keyboard Symbol Shortcuts

Yesterday in one of the comments, a couple of us were trying to figure out how to use the Mac keyboard to print a "cent" sign.

I figured it out by trial and error. Yes, I knew I could have found it by googling but it was more fun using "trial and error."

But, a big thank you to a reader for sending in a link for "Mac Keyboard Symbol Shortcuts."

Here it is:

http://www.usingmac.com/2007/12/12/100-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-for-creating-symbols

I will link it at the "Data Links" tab at the top of the blog for future reference.

For no particular reason:
I Don't Want To Talk About It, Rod Stewart and Amy Belle

Eight (8) New Permits -- Anschutz With a Dry Hole -- North Dakota, USA

Producers: Whiting (2), CLR, Denbury, XTO, BTA, True Oil LLC, and Zenergy.

Fields: North Fork, Red Wing Creek, Truax, Park, Sanish, Haystack Butte, Epping and Mandaree.

Several wells off the confidential list, some of which have been previously reported. Notable:

• 19355, 3,159, WLL, Sikes State 43-16H, Sanish field
• 18638, 2,184, Denbury, Franchuk 44-20 NWH, Murphy Creek
• 19066, 1,779, American Oil and Gas, Hickel 15-35H, Ray
• 19221, 1,466, Whiting, Ness 21-3H, Sanish
• 18766, 1,392, Encore, Fettig 24-22H, Squaw Creek

American Oil and Gas has had some great wells in the area west of Ray, north of the highway.

Anschutz did have a dry hole:

• 19711, DRY, Anschutz, Ralph Tormaschy 1-5-8H-142-96, Manning oil field; the daily activity report suggested that this well was drilled to a depth of 2,100 feet; we may not have heard the end of the story regarding this well. This well sits on a pad with a second well. More discussion here.

Libya and US Oil Companies

Reuters reports the following crude output as a total of worldwide production:

• ConocoPhillips: two (2) percent of COP's worldwide production comes from Libya
• Marathon:  nineteen (19) percent of MRO's worldwide production comes from Libya
• Hess: eight (8) percent of HES' worldwide production comes from Libya
• Occidental: less than two (<2) percent of OXY's worldwide production comes from Libya

For Investors: HEK

THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER UPDATED.

FOR ARTICLES ON HECKMANN --> NUVERRA, CLICK ON THIS LINK

Updates

February 22, 2011: Heckmann buys PowerFuels out of Watford City. 

Original Post

I was looking for something else and ran across this: HEK.

Heckmann Corporation as profiled in Minyanville.

According to the company's profile at its website:

Heckman Corporation was created to buy and build companies in the water sector. On January 30, 2010, we completed our 50-mile water disposal pipeline in the Haynesville Shale which can treat and dispose up to 100,000 barrels of water per day. The new pipeline and our network of disposal wells are operated as wholly-owned subsidiary, Heckmann Water Resources Corporation. The completion of the pipeline makes us one of the largest handlers of produced water in North America. On February 9, 2010, we announced our joint venture with Energy Transfer to provide turnkey water infrastructure, gathering and treatment solutions for complicated water flows in the Marcellus and Haynesville oil and natural gas fields. 

To the best of my knowledge HEK is not yet in the North Dakota Bakken.

Are Movers and Shakers Missing an Opportunity of a Lifetime? -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

The Bismarck-Mandan Development Association (BMDA) held its annual meeting last week, Thursday, February 16, 2011.

Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, was the keynote speaker.

This is the synopsis of Harold Hamm's remarks made at the meeting:

The magnitude of the current oil play, quite frankly, is staggering.  Mr. Hamm made it very clear that this is not a short two or three year oil boom and then a big bust.  His projections would see drilling activities continuing in excess of 20 years, followed by years of supporting production activities.  Mr. Hamm suggested that there will be some 48,000 wells drilled in North Dakota’s western oil patch in that period of time. In his remarks, Mr. Hamm encouraged people to think in the long term related to the investments which will be made in the State of North Dakota.  In a large part to date, there has been a strong reservation by both the public and private sectors to make some of the infrastructure investments which are critical to the long term growth of the oil and gas industry in North Dakota.  Many still carry the memories of the boom and bust of past oil plays in North Dakota.  Based on Mr. Hamm’s assessments and those of others, it would appear oil development will be a serious part of the North Dakota’s future economy and a major part of this country’s search for independence from foreign oil.

(The conclusion expressed in the last sentence seems to be somewhat of an understatement. Is there a suggestion of ambivalence by the writer? Does the writer represent the Association?)

The BMDA is not the first to use the adjective "staggering" in describing what is going on in western North Dakota. I used that adjective back in March, 2010, after reading the Bakken report in the February 26, 2010 - March 4, 2010, issue of the Rocky Mountain Oil Journal.  

Mr Hamm is not alone in his opinion. The "Basic Analysis of the Bakken" (also linked on the sidebar at the right) written by North Dakota academic experts, says that drilling will continue through 2030 and production will continue through 2100.

Events in the Mideast the past few weeks suggest that the issue of access to oil is not going to go away any time soon.

You can view the PowerPoint presentation made by Harold Hamm to link to the BMDA if you follow the link above (same one here).

When one reads the synopsis above, and reviews Mr Hamm's slide presentation, one almost gets the feeling that there are concerns in the oil patch that a lack of strategic thinking and action by the movers and shakers in North Dakota could result in a less then optimum outcome with regard to future Bakken development. 

Maybe I'm reading too much into the presentation, but I do get a feeling that Mr Hamm sees an urgency others are not seeing. Or an opportunity.

Maybe that would be a better way to end this: I get a feeling that Mr Hamm sees an opportunity for North Dakota that others may not be seeing.

Truck Activity to Triple on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation Over Next Two to Three Years

This story is about the truck traffic and the need for road work and highway safety, but there are a number of data points that suggest just how busy the oil patch in North Dakota will be these next two years.

It is being reported that 2,500 trucks are on the road every day in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation but that number will triple over the next two years.

It is being predicted that there will be 200 to 400 more wells on the reservation over this time period.

Truck traffic will not decrease until a) the wells are completed; and, b) more pipelines are put in place.

(Remember, links to regional websites break early and break often.)