First Time Unemployment Claims -- Four-Week Moving Average Highest Since November, 2010

Link here.

 The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, a better measure of underlying trends, rose 1,250 to 439,000 - the highest level since mid-November.

Additional Williston Housing Being Proposed -- Some Serious Numbers Here

Link here from Williston Herald (regional links break early and break often).

The Williston Planning and Zoning Commission voted Monday to recommend approval of a plan that will add nearly 1,500 housing units to town.

Granite Peak Development is proposing a 289.5-acre residential and commercial development on the corner of 26th Street West and 35th Avenue.

The proposal for Phase I would create up to 1,495 housing units.

A total of 1,240 units would be in R-4 Highrise Multi-Family and Townhouse Residential zoning.

An additional 90 units would fall under R-3 Lowrise Multi-Family and Townhouse zoning, along with 155 single-family homes.

I often have difficult following these stories, but 155 + 90 + 1,240 = 1,485.

If I have the numbers straight, I am "missing" 10 units. I assume these will be McMansions for those with mineral rights in Parshall, Sanish, or Alger oil fields.

North Dakota Could Be Ranked #1 in US For Its Business Climate -- CNBC

Link here.

Possibly #1 for BUSINESS climate. CNBC is still crunching the data, and the results won't be known for several weeks.

North Dakota won't reach #1 for meteorologic climate until 2105 or so, when global warming starts to kick in.

Still Another Story on Exploding Taxable Sales in North Dakota

This story has been reported several times by several different regional newspapers in the past few weeks, with each newspaper putting their local spin on the story.

This one is from Minot. (Regional links break early and break often.)

You can easily search the site for other stories on new records being set. Fargo was #1 in taxable sales in 2010, followed by Williston, North Dakota.

International Agency Appeals For "Release" of More Oil -- Hmmm -- Where is The Price of Oil Headed?

Link here.

The International Energy Agency’s governing board issued a statement during its regular quarterly meeting on May 19 appealing to suppliers to provide more oil to the market. IEA said it is prepared to use all tools at its disposal, which include releasing strategic oil reserves.

While the Paris-based agency did not name any particular oil suppliers in the statement, the world’s spare oil production capacity lies within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

IEA, considering oil market developments and their impact on the global economy, noted that oil prices stand at elevated levels driven by market fundamentals, geopolitical uncertainty, and future expectations and cited growing signs that the rise in oil prices since September 2010 is affecting economic recovery by widening global imbalances, reducing household and business income, and placing upward pressure on inflation and interest rates.

As global oil demand increases seasonally from May-August, there is a clear, urgent need for additional supplies on a more competitive basis to be made available to refiners to prevent a further tightening of the market, the statement said. 

Folks may want to look at the graph at this site and pay particular attention to supply vs demand in last half of this year (2011). That was posted two days ago. Something tells me the IEA request was not simply coincidental. 

More Global Warming Hits Wyoming -- Not a Bakken Story

Another three feet of snow -- three feet of snow -- will blanket higher elevations in Wyoming. Stretches of I-80 have been closed due to this storm.

Global warming theorists predicted more precipitation with global warming, but one would expect it would be rain, not snow.

This is the middle of May. Whether this is normal for Wyoming in the middle of May, I do not know, but it was newsworthy enough to hit the mainstream media.

American Eagle Energy Spuds First Horizontal Bakken Well -- SE Saskatchewan

Link here. I generally don't follow activity outside North Dakota, but once in awhile, I post "firsts" that are connected to the Williston Oil Basin / North Dakota Bakken.

American Eagle Energy has spud its first horizontal Bakken development well in the Hardy Field (Bakken Formation) of Southeast Saskatchewan. Proposed merger partner Eternal Energy Corp., as well as Passport Energy Ltd., are working interest partners in the well. The Hardy S 1A4-16-4B4-9-04-21W2 is the initial earning well for the farm-out agreement among the companies.

Eagle Ford (San Antonio, Texas) Could Overtake Barnett, Haynesville -- Not a Bakken Story

Link here. From Rigzone:

The liquids rich Eagle Ford shale play in southwest Texas may overtake the Barnett and Haynesville shale gas plays in Texas and Louisiana in terms of production, potentially becoming the largest producing shale play in Texas and the entire U.S., according to a recent report by London-based Evaluate Energy.

The Eagle Ford is currently dwarfed by its neighbors in terms of production, with the Barnett producing 877,000 BOE/d, the Haynesville producing 708,000 BOE/d and Eagle Ford producing 66,000 BOE/d in the fourth quarter of 2010. However, a recent surge in new wells suggests this all about the change, with horizontal drilling for both oil and gas in the Eagle Ford growing rapidly.

Deep in the story, I found this quite interesting:

EIA attributed the increase in gas resources to technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. "This is a welcome change because as little as 10 years ago, analysts and politicians said that the United States could not drill its way out of a natural gas shortage," EIA said.

Peak oil? What peak oil?

Updated Wells With IPs Greater Than 2,000 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

When I first started this blog, I devoted a page to wells with IPs greater than 1,000. Over time, that list became unwieldy: just too many wells with IPs of 1,000 or more.

I now only update the post of "great initial production numbers" with wells greater than 2,000 bopd as reported by the NDIC, in a press release, or a corporate presentation. Occasionally I list a well that has less than 2,000 bopd IP.

I have updated the list. Here are the most recent ones added to the list:

• 19433, 3,000, Denbury, Satter 44-34NWH, Siverston, Bakken
• 19651, 1,919, KOG, Koala 9-5-6-12H3, Wildcat, Bakken
• 19178, 2,300, BR, Stafford 13-34H, Blue Buttes, Bakken
• 19573, 4,117, Prima, Larson 41-30, Great Northern, Madison
• 17355, 3,909, BEXP, Cvancara 20-17 1H, Alger, Bakken
• 19513, 4,661, BEXP, Sorenson 29-32 2-H, Alger, Bakken
• 19410, 2,015, Ursa, Borseth15-22 1H, Wildcat, Bakken
• 18760, 2,240, BEXP, Brown 30-19 1H
• 19305, 2,640, Denbury Onshore, Hoffmann 149-98-1-12-1H, Siverston, Bakken
• 18924, 2,218, Slawson, Vixen Federal 1-19-30H
• 19301, 2,526, KOG, Koala 9-5-6-5H, Bakken
• 19036, 2,086, Oasis, Evans 5693 42-27H, Alger, Bakken, 47K in first 3 months
• 19398, 1,945, American Oil, Bergstrom 2-28H, Wildcat, Bakken
• 19437, 2,805, BR, Inga 24-12H, Haystack Butte, Bakken 
• 18744, 3,660, BEXP, Wright 4-33, Alger, Bakken
• 19539, 4,030, BEXP, Lloyd 34-3 1H, Poe field (nr Tobacco Garden), Rough Rider, Bakken, 36 stages 
• 19406, 3,761, BEXP, Knoshaug 14-11 1H, Wildcat, Bakken
• 19561, 2,305, BEXP, Gibbons, 1-12 1H, Wildcat, Bakken, sw of Williston, nr Fort Buford/Fort Union 
• 18675, 1,806, BR, Franklin 24-36H, Little Knife, Bakken, spudded 10/10; tested 1/11 
• 19442, 2,606, Newfield, Staal 150-99-26-35-1H, South Tobacco Garden, Bakken; 30K in 26 days
  19196, 2,395, Murex, Ventura 11-2H, West Bank, Bakken; spudded 8/10; tested 11/10; 45K in first four months. This well has an interesting production history.

32 More Wells Transferred from Anschutz to OXY USA

See NDIC's Daily Activity Report, 18 May 11, for list.

For Some Drillers, It Only Takes a Few Wells To Make A Huge Difference -- KOG -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

And this is one of those companies: KOG.

Reporting May 16, 2011:

• 19301, 2,526, KOG, Koala 9-5-6-5H

Reporting May 18, 2011:

• 19651, 1,919, KOG, Koala 9-5-6-12H3

Nine (9) New Permits -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report:

Drillers: WLL (2), Hess (2), Petro-Hunt (2), BEXP, Sinclair, Enerplus

Fields: Alger, Parshall, Bell, Gaylord, Manitou, Spotted Horn, Antelope, Eagle Nest

The Bell field permit is WLL's. Click on Bell field on the sidebar at the right.

Otherwise an unremarkable activity report.

Less Frequent Posts -- Busy With Family Activities

Due to family activities over the next few weeks, there will be significant less posting.  I will do my best to keep up with important news.