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Monday, March 7, 2011

Seven (7) New Permits -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Producers: Petro-Hunt (3), BTA, Baytex, CLR and EOG.

Fields: Epping, Parshall, Antelope, Ambrose, and three wildcats.

Petro-Hunt has two wildcats: both are in Williams County.

The CLR wildcat is in McKenzie County.

Thirteen wells came off the confidential list over the weekend. Except for a BEXP well with an IP of 2,347, not much of interest. The 13 wells that came off the confidential list were reported here earlier today

Another "Oil for America" well came off the confidential list today but no production information; still DRL status. Read more about it here

Of the 13 wells that came off the confidential list, eight did not report any production numbers yet; many of them are probably waiting to be fracked.

Idle Political Chatter: Nothing To Do With The Bakken; Best To Avoid It

While I'm waiting for the daily activity report to come out, some interesting data points:

1. The US deficit for the month of February, 2011, was $223 billion.  Last month, the US spent 223 billion more dollars than it took in. That was last month. Seven days ago. How big is $223 billion. I don't know, but it was more than the deficit for the entire calendar year, 2007, under President Bush II. The most ironic thing about that news report that the mainstream media has not yet picked up on: February is the shortest month of the year. Thank goodness it wasn't a long month. I can only imagine how much more money would have been spent had there been 31 days.

2. The current administration has decided to re-start the trials at Gitmo. This is the same administration that promised to close Gitmo. Oh, well. I didn't have a dog in that fight; didn't care where they held the trials. I didn't even care if they held trials. Most of those folks have been imprisoned longer than some of our own nasty home-grown criminals.

3. ObamaCare? Not to worry. Get a waiver. Health and Human Services has issued more than 1,000 waivers to unions, corporations, and states who cannot afford the price tag. At this rate, there won't be a need to repeal the bill. Everyone will be waived. [Update: this was originally posted March 7, 2011. On March 8, 2011, it was reported that the state of Maine was given a waiver.]

4. SecDef Robert Gates has promised the US that Americans will remain in Afghanistan for at least another five years or so. This was the same administration that promised us that we would be out of Afghanistan by 2014. At least as far as I understood the political rhetoric. But we're there for another five or six years. Oh, yeah, they're considering a "no-fly" (i.e., declaring war) on Libya.
"In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined, as General MacArthur so delicately put it."


EPA, Greenhouse Gases, Refineries, Oil at $105 and Gasoline --> $4.00

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
US Environmental Protection Agency regulation of refineries’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could drive many US refiners out of business by placing them at a significant disadvantage to foreign gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel suppliers, National Petrochemical & Refiners Association Pres. Charles T. Drevna said on March 4, 2011.

“Our nation’s petroleum refineries remain one of the last internationally competitive segments of the American manufacturing base,” he said in a letter to Gina McCarthy, EPA’s assistant administrator for air and radiation, which NPRA submitted to accompany its oral testimony at the agency’s listening session on its effort to implement GHG regulations under the Clean Air Act. EPA has said that it formulated the regulations in response to a 2007 US Supreme Court decision saying that it had the authority and obligation to do so.
One can move gasoline around the globe just as easily as oil. 

It's just a matter of time before we will be buying gasoline from China to fuel our Chinese-made automobiles.

It will be interesting to see how our representatives and senators handle this one. If price of gasoline was inexpensive and heading down, it would be one thing, but with gasoline expensive and trending up, it will be interesting to see how the votes go.

I lost interest in these political battles a long time ago but I assume some readers will be interested in the story. With regard to refineries, I don't have a dog in that fight. However, with regard to ocean-going tankers, I do have a dog in that fight.

SM Well On Fire -- March 7, 2011 -- Jaynes 16-12H -- #20022 -- Arnegard/Watford City -- Boots and Coots -- No Deaths/Injuries

Updates
Note: most regional links break early and break often.

March 18, 2011: the fire is out. Minimal issues. In the big scheme of things, this amounts to a bit of prolonged flaring. Some fast thinking by personnel at the site when the fire broke out prevented any injuries or death.

March 10, 2011, afternoon: clean-up has started at site, even though fire continues to burn. Article notes that this is the third fracture-treatment accident in past seven months.
Canadian-based Sanjel was conducting the failed, highly pressurized fracture treatments at this Arnegard well and another one near Killdeer.

At Killdeer, some 2,250 barrels or about 100,000 gallons of fracture fluid and oil were recovered. At one in November at a Whiting Petroleum well near New Town, fluid recovery was reported in excess of 5,000 barrels.
March 10, 2011: Fire-fighting equipment reaches well fire site. The story was posted at 4:47 p.m. yesterday, March 9, 2011, but I did not see it yesterday. Saw it for the first time this a.m.
Boots & Coots, owned by well services giant Halliburton, will put a stack on the burning well to direct the fire upward, bolt the stack down and then close valves on the stack to stop the fire. The fire is expected to burn several more days.
March 9, 2011, evening: I am unable to find any update regarding this fire. I assume it is still burning and will do so until oil well specialty fire fighters arrive on scene to put it out.

March 9, 2011: Williston Herald headlines it as a "blow-out" but the story calls it a failed valve that was leaking oil and steam, giving workers an opportunity to flee before it started on fire.
The McKenzie County Sheriff's Office received a call at 2:26 a.m. Monday of a leak involving steam and oil from a well.

The well was in the completion process. It is located eight miles north of Arnegard off of McKenzie County Road 18.
By strict definition of "blow-out," this would fit the first definition of a blow-out:
1. an uncontrolled flow of gas, oil, or other well fluids into the atmosphere or into an underground formation. 
It appears not to fit the second definition, commonly referred to as a "gusher."

March 8, 2011: Almost no new update today in the regional newspaper. At midday today, the well continues to burn as far as I know. Lynn Helms, director, NDIC, suggests that the fire will not go out by itself. Boots and Coots is on its way up from Texas with specialty oil well fire fighting equipment. Helm made the interesting statement that there is no such equipment here in North Dakota. Wow. Biggest oil field in America right and perhaps the most active, and no specialty fire-fighting equipment. Something tells me Boots and Coots will be setting up shop somewhere in Williston before this is all over.

Original Posting

Link here. The Jaynes 16-12H well, file number #20022, SM Energy, still on confidential status.  It appears there are about 8 tanks on the pad. No frack trucks in the area that I could see, but the well was quite a ways in the background. Hard to see much, but I did not see a lot of equipment there. No rig on site. My hunch: well has been drilled and was waiting to be fracked. About 10 miles northeast of Arnegard, North Dakota; or 9 miles northwest of Watford City.

[My hunch was wrong: occurred during late stages of cracking. Video too far away to see equipment. Link here.]

The links won't remain long; regional sites break links often and quickly.

Probably more video for next 24 hours.

Update: if you go to the link above and drill back to "news" you can get more current video. No injuries or deaths, human or livestock. Boots and Coots is on the ground; sounds like the fire may go on for awhile. A broken valve was noted; before it could be fixed, explosion and fire. At least that's what I understood.

The "James L. Taylor" Video -- North Dakota, USA



The video:

Directed and Produced by Nick Taylor, My Home in North Dakota music video was shot in various spots in western North Dakota the summer of 2010.

From Nick Taylor at the YouTube site:

"I would like to thank everyone who was a part of making this project a reality! I had such a great time hanging out and enjoying the ND outdoors with you all!

I would like to dedicate this video to my grandpa Jim. (James L. Taylor 1918 - 2010)

Thanks to:
My grandpa - inspiration
Adam Taylor - songwriter
Mike Endrud - Dobro
Kent Taylor - background vocals
Luke Taylor - airplane for aerial footage
Mike Dwyer family - Harvest operations
Will Rice - young boy in farm scenes
Nick Ybarra - kiteboarding/aireal footage filming
Rowdy Lund and Corey Schultz - Longboarding
Jeff Tschetter - Wakeboarding
Eric Anton and Josh Keller - Wakeboard boat
Alex Quale - Boat driver
Rory Sanford - use of filming boat
Gary Scarta - Blue Buttes hike
Available at iTunes."

My Home In ND can be purchased on ITunes NOW!

BEXP Reports Another Nice Well: Roger Sorenson 8-5 1H -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

19070, 2,345, BEXP, Roger Sorenson 8-5 1H, Alger, Bakken.

But that's about all the good news. Of the 13 wells that came off the confidential list over the weekend, eight (8) of them only reported "DRL" status. Apparently they are still waiting to be fracked, and no production data is available.

A second "Oil for America" well was released from confidential status over the weekend, but still no production data:
  • 19272, DRL, Oil for America, Wolf 29-1, Wildcat, Lodgepole
The first "Oil for America" released was the Zastoupil:
  • 19258, 75, Oil for America, Zastoupil 22-1, Wildcat, Lodgepole; well status - IA, 3/11.
Interestingly enough, I did not think the Lodgepole wells required horizontal fracking so their delay in releasing production figures is interesting.
From the well file, the Zastoupil was drilled in slightly less than five (5) days.  The depth was about 9,651 feet. The NDIC report notes that 75 bbls of oil were produced over one day, in March, 2011. This well is on 160-acre spacing.

Other than the spud date of September 6, 2010, and 160-acre spacing, there was no other pertinent information regarding the Wolf well.

EOG Completes Public Offering: 13.57 Million @ $105.5 = A Tidy Sum

Link here.

$1.432 billion.
HOUSTON - EOG Resources, Inc., today announced that it has completed its previously announced public offering of 13,570,000 shares of common stock, including 1,770,000 shares issued upon full exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option, at a public offering price of $105.50 per share. EOG's net proceeds from the offering of approximately $1.39 billion (after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses) are expected to be used for general corporate purposes, including funding of future capital expenditures.

173: New Record

Number of actively drilling rigs in North Dakota: 173.

Triangle Petroleum Begins Public Offering of 16.5 Million Shares

Link here.

An over-allotment of 15 percent is authorized. Yeah, they'll issue 19 million shares.  This essentially double the number of shares outstanding. They currently have 22 million shares outstanding.