Four (4) New Pemits -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, June 16, 2011 --

Drillers: CLR (2), Oasis, and Whiting.

Fields: Dollar Joe, Jim Creek, Camp, and Sanish.

Of course, it is Whiting with the permit in the Sanish, its cash cow.

Six wells came off the confidential list, and only one reported an IP. The other five were waiting to be completed; they had all reached "total depth."

The one that reported was a nice XTO well:

• 19910, 949, XTO, Ernest Federal 31X-19, Dunn County

NDIC has issued 787 new permits this year, putting the state on track for 1,720 new permits for calendar year 2011. This is down a bit; earlier this year -- just last month (May 3, 2011) the state was on track for 1,760 new permits.

The Permitorium Continues -- Alaska -- BLM Doesn't Want To Lease Where Best Oil Prospects Are -- June 16, 2011

Updates

June 21, 2011: Someone asked what the definition of "permitorium" is. A moratorium is an explicit acknowledgment that something is at a standstill. A "permitorium" is the same thing as "slow-rolling" the gullible. The authority lifts the "moratorium" in theory, but continues to keep the moratorium in place by obfuscation, bureaucratic delay, double talk, impossible demands,  imposing financial fees and/or penalties, and/or threats of crushing lawsuits if "i's" are not dotted or "t's" are not crossed.

Original Post

People smarter than I am can perhaps figure out all the nuances of this article, but the headline (Obama administration objects to the US House bill to expedite oil development in Alaska) doesn't surprise me.

The Obama administration today said a proposal from House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) to expedite oil and gas leasing and energy infrastructure permitting in an Alaska reserve could force federal regulators to flout environmental laws and includes a costly, redundant resource assessment.

The proposal includes a "costly, redundant resource assessment"? Since when has anyone in Washington, DC, objected to a costly, redundant resource assessment?

But it's obvious the permitorium continues.

Mike Pool, deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management [who oversees drilling activities there] said the bill's requirement to hold lease sales in the areas most likely to produce commercial oil and gas and set permitting deadlines could undermine the agency's public land management process, including the National Environmental Policy Act.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense to bureaucrats: to hold lease sales in the areas most likely to produce commercial oil and gas. I can't make this stuff up. The oil and gas industry is being "slow-rolled."

More evidence that the industry is being slow-rolled:

"We have a permitting problem, we don't have a leasing problem," Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) said, pointing to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to deny a bridge proposal by ConocoPhillips to access its lease in NPR-A.

The decision was remanded late last year by the agency's Pacific Division. [I can't make this stuff up.]

The Army Corp said it is waiting to receive more information from the company on the "logistical probability of directional drilling" for a project that would involve a pipeline underneath the Colville River and a "roadless" drill site. No timeline has been set to issue a decision on the remanded permit.

And for many the slow-rolling no longer matters. There are other places to go. There are at least four domestic basins/fields that will keep oil E&P busy for decades: the Williston Basin Bakken in North Dakota and Montana; the Alberta Basin Bakken in Montana, the Niobrara in Wyoming/Colorado; and, the Eagle Ford in south Texas.

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For newbies, when you hear legislators in Washington say that oil companies are not drilling on their current leases, making them (the legislators) unsympathetic to oil industry's requests for more opportunities to drill, the legislators are forgetting to tell you the rest of the story: the oil companies can get their leases (and start paying for them) but they can't get a) the permits to actually start drilling; or, b) permits to put in roads or bridges to access their leases. Senator Murkowski is correct: it's a permitting problem, not a leasing problem. What a racket.

Bakken Briefings -- London, England -- Enercom's Oil and Gas Conference

Link here.

This is really quite exciting: go to the link and you can immediately click on several presentations, including those of BEXP, Primary Petroleum, Triangle Petroleum, Magnum Hunter, and Penn Virginia.

A huge "thank you" to Stan for alerting me to these presentations.

The Williston Basin Oil Patch Lost a Great Pioneer This Past Sunday -- "Buck" Scheele -- June 16, 2011

Link here. This is a regional link and will break early.

I believe this is only the second time I have posted an "obit" on a pioneer in the Williston Basin oil patch.

I never met Mr Scheele, but in a way I feel I had met him many, many times.

Whenever I was home, my dad and I would go out driving in the evenings, exploring the area around Williston. Three out of four nights we would end up northeast of Williston (hopefully I have my directions straight), and we would pass Mr Scheele's home. My dad pointed out his house to me every time we went by, and told me the story of Mr Scheele's work in the Williston oil patch.

Mr Scheele's home sat on a high spot, but not a bluff, just northeast of Williston, overlooking the Little Muddy River. I found it interesting that he could have afforded to live anywhere in the world (I'm thinking Florida or Arizona) but he chose to stay in Williston. It speaks volumes about his love for the oil patch.

Dad mentioned WISCO. I must have passed the WISCO building out on the "Million Dollar Way" (the source for the name of this blog, by the way) a million times while growing up in Williston. It was a non-descript building to me, just another industrial building -- but -- and I hope I'm not wrong on this -- painted orange and black which just happened to be the colors of our high school. (I could be confusing it with another operation, but I'm sure someone will correct me.)

This is the crux of his oil story, from the Williston Herald (same link as above):

James Richard “Buck” Scheele was born in a dugout in rural Mobridge, S.D., on June 6, 1934. He was raised by his mom, Coral, and his aunt and uncle, Jack and Alberta Strong.

At the age of 17, Buck hitchhiked into North Dakota with a saddle and a $50 bill. He intended to work the oil rigs for the winter and then go back to ranching in South Dakota. He started roughnecking in 1952 and was soon hired on with Casper Rental Tools and soon became manager. Buck started hauling in his own tools and brought in the first set of power tongs to the Williston Basin. He eventually hooked up with the Pitman brothers and worked for them until the three pooled their resources to buy a little company called WISCO in 1967.

In 1980, Buck bought out the Pitman brothers and proceeded to run one of the largest privately owned oilfield service companies in the Williston Basin.

He sold the service to Omni Energy earlier this year on April 15, 2011.

Dad had two or three stories about "Buck" but I assume they are personal and will not post them. But they all had to do with Mr Scheele's generosity and philanthropy and/or his association with the church. I think Dad really admired Mr Scheele.

Both Dad and Mr Scheele were born and raised in South Dakota under similar situations. I guess their birthplaces were a bit different: Mr Scheele was born in a dugout; my dad's family was living in a tar paper shack when he was born.

I would have missed this story had my brother not sent it to me. It means a lot to me that I finally "met" Mr Scheele after hearing my dad talk about him so much, at least three out of four evenings whenever I visited Williston. I haven't talked to Dad since last Friday night; that's why I didn't hear it from Dad first.

I'm sure he will tell me all about the memorial service when I call.

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This is about the only information I could find about WISCO on the web after a short search:

Williston Industrial Supply in Williston, ND is a private company categorized under Oil Field Equipment, Rental or Leasing. Our records show it was established in 1967 and incorporated in North Dakota. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $20 to 50 million and employs a staff of approximately 50 to 99.