Another Housing Subdivision Breaks Ground in West Williston -- 2,295 Housing Units -- 5,000 New Residents -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here. Regional links break early.

The first shovels of dirt were turned Friday morning and work commenced on the new Harvest Hills Subdivision, a large housing and commercial project on the city's west side.

City officials joined with Granite Peak Development to celebrate the beginning of a project that will house thousands of residents upon completion.

Terry Metzler, North Dakota operations manager for Granite Peak Development, said Phase I of the project will fill 120 acres of the 289.5-acre, three-phase project.

"It will have 800-1,400 multi-family housing and apartment units and 155 single-family homes," Metzler said.

One word: incredible. 1,400 apartment unit and 155 single-family homes. Simply incredible.

Located on the corner of 26th Street West and 35th Avenue West, the final two phases will bring the final number of housing units to 2,295. In addition, commercial space for restaurants, a gas station, convenience store and office space will be provided as well as 40 acres for a new school and acreage for a park.

"You're look at probably a couple thousand housing units, you'll probably have around 5,000 new residents," Koeser said. "This is going to be a huge part of our community."

BEXP Opens 14,000 Square-Foot, Multi-Million Dollar Regional Facility in Williston -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

Brigham Exploration Co. CEO Ben Brigham told the Williston Herald that the 14,000-square-foot facility west of Williston is the company's first outside of Austin, Texas. He said it shows the company's commitment to the community.

The facility has office and shop space, sleeping quarters for executives who come to town on business, the pipe yard and a temporary housing camp for about 50 workers.

I assume this is just the first of several new regional headquarters for various operators in the Bakken. I mentioned that not long ago that it was just a matter of time before oil E&P companies started putting in regional headquarters in the Williston area. 

It Never Quits: Yet Another Story That Confirms That Saudi Unable to Make Up Shortfall

Update

June 28, 2011: I honestly can't remember if I posted my thoughts on why the IEA wanted oil released from global strategic petroleum reserves. I talked in broad terms (Saudis can't make up shortfall) but I don't remember how specific I got. 

Having said that, here's the reason: European refineries running perilously short of light oil, and Saudi couldn't make up the loss from Libya.

For comparison: some weeks ago the Williams County commissioners stopped all county road traffic "effective immediately." That "ban" lasted less than four days, and came to an abrupt end when the Tesoro refinery in Bismarck said it was making plans to shut down operations because it was running perilously close to running out of oil. Another phone call from the state government and Williams County commissioners called off the ban, saying that road repairs over the weekend were sufficient enough to return to "normal operations." Sure. 

Shutting down a refinery is not a simple process, and starting one back up is even less easy. There is no question in my mind that European refineries, particularly in France and Italy, were perilously close to having to shut down.

One can opine in generalities (supply not meeting demand) but one needs to get to the specific tipping point that resulted in the decision. The tipping point in this case: at least one refinery was getting ready to shut down just before the Europeans started taking their August vacations. Read the Minyanville article linked above. It is right on target.

The IEA wanted the US to support the decision even though it made no sense for the US to do so. Unless the strategic petroleum reserves outside the US were inadequate. Hmmm. Scary.

Original Post

Link here.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the decision by industrialized nations to release emergency oil reserves into global energy markets, saying on Friday that it was not a political move.

"It's really as simple as this: there's a war in Libya, costs between one and two million barrels a day in lost output, I think 140 million barrels off the market so far," he said in response to a question at Dartmouth College, where he spoke on a panel.

"Reserves exist to help mitigate those kinds of disruptions and we helped to organize a coordinated global international response to help ease some of that pressure," he added. [Of course, so would increased drilling, but that's another story, and an inconvenient truth for an administration that detests the oil industry.]

 Assuming you take him at his words, Saudi was not able to make up the shortfall from the Libyan "event" as they said they could. Remember, it was in March that the Libyan "event" began, and immediately Saudi said they could make up any shortfall.

I don't recall any news story that said Saudi was actually doing anything in March/April time frame, except stories that heavy Saudi oil was not what the Italian refineries wanted.

Then in May/June time frame OPEC met again, and disagreed about production. Saudi said they would increase production about one million bbls/day.

We have never gotten a straight story on how much Libyan oil was taken off the market; it was anywhere from 500,000 bbls/day to 1.5 million bbls (some said as much as 2 million which was laughable).

April - May - June is about 90 days. Geithner said 140 million bbls were lost due to Libyan "event."

140/90 = 1.55 million bbls/day.

I personally think that's high. I'm getting the feeling that even had there been no Libyan "event" the shortfall would have been about 500,000 bbls this summer for the European refineries had OPEC not increased production.

Flooding At Williston Possible -- Heart of the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

US Highway 85 south of the river, just after crossing the bridge has water almost up to the edge of the road. If this road were to flood, it would be a huge challenge for the oil industry.

Link here.

Hallesy was also asked what would trigger action to protect U.S. Highway 85 south of Williston, where Missouri River water is nearly to the road.

Hallesy said he was told by officials from the state Department of Transportation that actions to protect the road would be triggered "once the water touches the white stripe" on the edge of the road. [That seems a bit late to me.]

When I was there a couple of weeks ago, I thought "we" had been through the worse, but now I'm not so sure having seen the snowpack in the Rockies that has yet to melt.