Record $200 Million Gift to University of Southern California -- Not a Bakken Story

Link here.

The University of Southern California will announce Wednesday its largest donation ever, a $200-million gift from alumnus David Dornsife, the chairman of a large steel fabricating company, and his wife, Dana.

The Dornsifes' donation will go to USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the university's biggest academic unit, without restrictions on how it should be spent.

As a single donation, it beats USC's previous record of $175 million from "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, given in 2006, to build a new home for the university's film school, which he attended.

David Dornsife, 67, is chairman and majority owner of Herrick Corp., a Stockton-based firm that has fabricated steel for many of the signature skyscrapers and civic projects in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities. The privately held company has plants in Stockton and San Bernardino, as well as Texas, Mississippi and Thailand, and employs about 2,000 people.

In another life I attended USC.

OPEC Can Increase Prices; Can't Decrease Prices -- New Paradigm Shift

This is really, really interesting.

It echoes exactly what was said on this post some time ago.

OPEC can no longer do much to lower oil prices; about all it can do is increase prices.

OPEC can decrease production which, all things being equal, will push oil prices upward.

On the other hand, it appears OPEC has lost significant ability to push prices downward by increasing production

For one, very few OPEC members have the capacity to increase production at the flip of a switch -- and the most important of them, Saudi Arabia, has already done so, analysts said.

OPEC says it holds around 6 million barrels a day of spare capacity, “which could quickly be made available to the market,” the organization said in a document recently posted on its website.

Several analysts, and even the U.S. Department of Energy, however, dispute that number.

The DOE’s Energy Information Administration Tuesday estimated OPEC spare capacity will fall to 4.1 million barrels a day this year from 4.4 million barrels in 2010, followed by a further decline to 3.1 million barrels a day in 2012.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said OPEC spare capacity is likely to have dropped below 2 million barrels a day given the developments in Libya, even accounting for Saudi Arabia’s recent boost in production. 

For those who thought this would be over in a week, the Libyan thing is now in its third week, and the Libyan leader has not yet been thrown under the bus. Figuratively or literally.

EOG Has a Nice Well -- Van Hook -- Just East of the River -- Parshall Oil Field

It looks like EOG has a nice well:

• 18038, 806, EOG, Liberty 5-24H, Van Hook, Bakken; short lateral; this looks like a very good well; 71K in first five months; west Parshall field right on the east side of the river.

Looking at the GIS map server, EOG has a lot of activity right in this area, including some long laterals under the river.

Eleven (11) New Permits -- North Dakota, USA

Producers: EOG (3), Anschutz (3), Whiting, OXY USA, North Plains, CLR, BR.

Fields: Dimond, Willmen, Wildrose, T.R., Spotted Horn, Upland, Westberg, and Murphy Creek.

It appears the three EOG wells will be on a single pad in the Spotted Horn field.

Three wells were released from confidential status; reported under new wells reporting (see sidebar at the right). Unremarkable.  One of the three is still in DRL status; no IP.

Six wells had a change in operator, from Ward-Williston to WW Oilfield Services, LLC. The "WW" suggests a relationship with Ward-Williston.

And, yes, "T.R." is the official name of one of the Williston Basin oil fields. It is about 28 miles northwest of Dickinson, North Dakota, as the bald eagle flies if it has a schedule to keep.

North Dakota is on track for 1,830 new permits this calendar year (2011).

California: Environmentalists Kill Jobs Project. Now: "We Never Meant to Kill The Project"

Complicated story, not worth going through the details, see the link.

Bottom line: CVX wanted to refurbish an old refinery in Richmond, California, a couple of years back. Environmentalists sued. CVX stopped plans. Now city leaders cry, "we never intended to kill the project.

Chevron's stalled plan to retrofit its Richmond refinery could be revived, more than a year after a bitter legal battle with environmentalists brought construction to a standstill.

City leaders are encouraging the oil company to apply for a new permit or an amended one this year to jump-start the project. The opponents wanted guarantees that pollution won't soar, but no one wanted the project to die, officials said.

"Cleaning up old refinery equipment, providing jobs and making the refinery more efficient and safer has been a common goal all along," Vice Mayor Tom Butt said. "There's really been no change in the ultimate objective."

The City Council last week unanimously approved a resolution encouraging Chevron to resubmit its plan, with Councilman Nat Bates absent. City Manager Bill Lindsay is expected to meet with Chevron to develop a permit process and timeline.

With EPA threats to tighten regulation of greenhouse gases emitted by refineries, and oil over $105, CVX may not be really, really interested in going back to the table any time soon.

Comment: why doesn't Richmond put up some wind turbines? We all know that if CVX / city come to agreement, the environmentalists will bring suit again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. This is not rocket science. This is California.

Spain Acquires Acreage Off the North Slope of Alaska -- No, Not a Bakken Story

Even as the US domestic oil industry continues to get hammered by the administration, the Spaniards acquire oil-rich acreage off our north slope in Alaska.

The estimated minimum exposure of this investment for Repsol, including amounts to be paid to its partners and the cost of exploration to be carried out over several years, amounts to $768 million. The start of exploratory work is scheduled for next winter. 

The North Slope of Alaska is an especially promising area for Repsol as it has already shown to be oil-rich and carries low exploratory risk. This acreage also helps increase the company’s presence in OECD countries. In the United States, Repsol has already successfully explored for and developed hydrocarbons production in the Gulf of Mexico.

I can't make this stuff up.