Eight (8) New Permits -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Producers: Burlington Resources (4), Whiting (3), G3

Fields: Elkhorn Ranch, North Fork, and Strandahl

The three Whiting wells are in different sections in Elkhorn Ranch, Billings County. They will all be Three Forks wells. Billings County is immediately west of Stark County where Whiting is setting up what I call "Whiting Bakken South."

The four BR wells will all be on the same pad in North Fork; two horizontals will target the middle Bakken and two horizontals will target the Three Forks.

There were also three very nice wells reported in the daily activity report today:

• 18576, 1,190, BR, Concord 24-10H, Dunn County
• 19389, 1,936, BEXP, M. Olson 20-29 1-H, Williams County
• 19438, 756, Anschutz, Fisher State 1-21-16H-142-97, Dunn County

In today's daily activity report, Oasis released the new names of 14 wells. All 14 wells, in Williams County and McKenzie County, were "Federal" wells; the "Federal" has been removed.

In addition, another 15 wells were released from confidential status. These have been reported elsewhere. 

It's Menards! -- To Williston, North, Dakota -- Bakken, USA

Update here, August 10, 2011. This page will not be updated in the future; future updates will begin with the August 11, 2011, posting.

Link here.

Data points:

• Casper, Wyoming,-based Granite Peak Development has a commercial development project
• 200-acre Sand Creek Town Center, north along 35th Avenue off US Highway 2
• Menards will be first occupant of this development project
• Menards: 200,000 square foot facility on a 16.5 acre parcel 
• Construction to begin this summer; open in 2012
• 130 full-time and part-time jobs

I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E.

Wow, Wow, Wow -- If This Story Doesn't Speak Volumes About Future of Wind -- Not a Bakken Story

A Chinese company, Sinovel Wind, contracts with American Superconductor Corp for electrical components for wind turbines. It turns out that Sinovel Wind is AMSC's biggest customer.

Today it is being reported that Sinovel Wind will not accept deliveries of contracted components from AMSC. Sinovel Wind says it needs to reduce its inventory before it can accept its contracted shipments.

[AMSC stock plummeted today, down 45% after the market closed / extended trading hours. AMSC was trading at $25 yesterday; this evening it is down to $14.]

The last paragraph of the story should have been the lede:

China's wind market, which has been a stable source of growth for AMSC for the last few years, is slowing down and is expected to be flat in 2011.

OK, so that's one story. Wind energy is dead in China.

Wind Farm Canceled in North Dakota

That brings me to the second story, which has already been posted. This story made headlines this week:

Xcel will cancel its 150-MW wind farm in southeastern North Dakota following a single e-mail from the US Fish and Wildlife Department.

GE Is Rapidly Diversifying Into Oil and Natural Gas

That brings me to the third story, which has been reported in several posts over the past few months:

GE, a major supplier of wind turbines, is rapidly diversifying into fossil fuel.

Even as the price of oil is hitting new records, countries and companies are moving away from wind.

Castro To Drill For Oil in the Gulf -- Not a Bakken Story

Link here.

Cuba says it will begin drilling five oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico this summer (2011) in hopes of locating enough crude to justify the costly exploration.

Too much irony here. Just some thoughts (all tongue in cheek):

• 5: the number of wells Cuba plans to drill this summer.
• 6: the number of permits SecInt Salazar has issued for the Gulf since the moratorium.  
• What if the Cuban pools communicate with pools inside American jurisdiction? Oh, well.
• Will Cuba use the new Salazar-safety standards? Unlikely. Lost in translation.
• If there's a Cuban oil well spill, do the oil slicks flow back to Cuba or up to Florida?
• Will the President fly down to Cuba, like he did to Brazil, and promise assistance in drilling for oil?
• Will BP move to Cuban off-shore if unable to get US permits? 

Just saying.

"Big Box" Store Coming To Williston -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

It's Menard's.

I have a ton of stuff to post right now, so more on this later, but this is huge.

Link here.

Data points:

• Casper, Wyoming,-based Granite Peak Development has a commercial development project
• 200-acre Sand Creek Town Center, north along 35th Avenut off US Highway 2
• Menard's will be first occupant of this development project
• Menard's: 200,000 square foot facility on a 16.5 acre parcel 
• Construction to begin this summer; open in 2012
• 130 full-time and part-time jobs

I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E.

New Survey of Non-Bakken Recoverable OIl in the Williston Basin Requested -- North Dakota, USA

The USGS accomplished two surveys in the Williston Basin in 2008.

• One survey was of the Bakken pool.
• The other survey was of the non-Bakken pool. 

The results:

• The Bakken survey, 2008: 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil
• The non-Bakken survey, 2008: 200 million barrels of recoverable oil

Today it is being reported that US Senator Hoeven of North Dakota is asking for the USGS to re-accomplish that non-Bakken survey of the Williston Basin.

The  USGS in its 1995 survey estimated there was 150 million bbls of recoverable oil in the Williston Basin (I am not sure if that included or did not include the Bakken pool; that was before the 2000-Bakken boom that began in Elm Coulee, Montana).

Regardless, thirteen (13) years later, in the 2008 USGS survey of the non-Bakken formations in the Williston basin, the USGS estimated there were 200 million bbls of recoverable oil in non-Bakken Williston oil basin.

The estimates between 1995 and 2008 were not all that different -- they were certainly within the same ballpark as estimates go in the oil industry. It's hard to believe that after thirteen years of new technology (particularly hydraulic fracking) and thirteen years of new data (core samples, seismic data), the estimates between 1995 and 2008 were so similar.

The recent excitement in the Tyler formation alone suggests a new survey is needed. But before the survey is accomplished, let's see a few new Tyler wells with new technology. That might help the USGS surveyors. Also, maybe we should wait to see what the Canadian drillers can do with the Bottineau County Spearfish wells.

Pondering Results of Marathon's Bakken Wells -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Elsewhere someone has asked about the results of Marathon wells in the Bakken.

Murphy Creek oil field provides some head-to-head data.

By the way, one of the milestones I watch carefully for individual wells, is how fast they get to 100,000 bbls. It appears "all" Bakken wells can reach that milestone in less than 36 months, but some of the better wells will hit that milestone in the first year.  My personal benchmark for a great Bakken well is 100,000 bbls by 18 months of production, and my benchmark for a really great Bakken well is 100,000 within the first year of production.

Just for the fun of it, there are some nice data points at "Monster Wells."

About Those $9,000/Acre Tracts in Zenith Field, Another Dot To Connect -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Remember that story I posted just a couple days ago about Empire Oil paying $9,000 for five tracts of mineral acres in Zenith oil field? Instead of repeating all that, I will just recommend for those of you interested to go back to that post.

I've updated it with another possible dot to connect.

Yes, my oily cup overfloweth.

Budget Impasse? -- Divine Intervention and Deus Ex Machina -- Not a Bakken Story

This reminds me of a Greek tragedy.

For those fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have studied Latin, deus ex machina is a well known device to end a tragedy (as in theater).

Today, President Obama has scheduled a 10:15 a.m. EST meeting with Congressional leaders in an attempt to avoid a shutdown of the government. Close reading of the reports coming out Washington these past two weeks suggests that the ending has has already been written. [Update, 1:10 p.m. EST: no deal was reached at the White House meeting.]

Congressional leaders have been hammering this out for the past month or so, but it appears an impasse has been reached. The White House has now, like deus ex machina, invited leaders to meet with President Obama in attempt to change the ending. 

Having said that, the following caught me eye:

The shutdown talk could merely be posturing before the 10:15 a.m. meeting between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, or it could be a sign that a deal may be out of reach for the time being.

"I don't know if we will need divine inspiration or divine interjection into this matter, but whatever it might take, I hope people of good will can come to an agreement," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said.

I guess whether you call it "inspiration" or "interjection" is up for discussion, but "divine" is agreed upon.

*******

For all of you who have plans to travel overseas this summer, I hope you have your passports. The passport office will be one of the offices affected. However, government checks will continue to go out like clockwork. Something tells me the EPA meetings will go on as scheduled.

Fracking Backlog As Much As Four Months -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Based on "DRL" status of wells coming off the confidential list these past few days suggests that it is not unusual for well completions to be delayed by as much as four months or longer due to fracking backlog.

Wells that were spudded in October, 2011, are now coming off the confidential list and many of them remain in DRL status because they have not been fracked. The list is updated daily at this post.

More Housing in Dickinson Area -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Stark County zoning board approved a 10-acre mobile home park southeast of Dickinson. However, the same board "pulled" a request for a Dickinson-area man-camp due to lack of inadequate information.

Link here.

Megaload Arrives In Billings Area Today -- Not a Bakken Story

The ConocoPhillips megaload has finally reached the Billings area. What a great story.

This is the first of two new cokers to be installed at the COP refinery in Billings, Montana.

It caught my eye simply because of the controversy about allowing loads of this size travel down public highways.

Some data points:

• 300-ton load
• Originated in South Korea
• Barged 300 miles up the the Columbia River to Lewiston, Idaho
• Exciting movement over Lolo Pass, Rocky Mountains (memorable quote by observer: "Hey, it's not as big as I thought it would be.")
• Idaho environmentalists tried to stop the movement across Idaho
• Montana environmentalists tried to stop the movement across Montana
• One more megaload waiting back at Lewiston; that second megaload should reach Billings by June, 2011

Emmert International did a fine job moving this first megaload.

One can track updates here.

Hess Now Listed As Operator Of the Tracker Wells -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Apparently Hess is now listed as the operator of the Tracker wells it acquired last year. A mineral rights owner noted that the operator of a well that formerly named Tracker as the operator is now listing Hess as the operator.

Hess closed the deal on acquiring TRZ Energy on December 29, 2010.