Signs of A Lingering Global Warming: Mountain Marathon Canceled Due to Snow Not Melting -- Not a Bakken Story

Link here. Dateline: Missoula, Montana.

Some will say global warming "predicted" increase precipitation. Whatever.

Snow pack still too high to allow annual Montana ultra-marathon.

The race director of a 100-mile ultra-marathon foot race through the Flathead National Forest has canceled the event due to lingering snow on the route that he says would make the course too dangerous for runners and likely prevent anyone from finishing within the required 36-hour limit.

Brad Lamson said that portions of the course for the Swan Crest 100 have deep snow that is concealing signs that mark trail intersections.


He said he’s convinced the snow won’t melt in time for the event scheduled for July 29.

My hunch: it was warmer during the age of the Vikings when Greenland was discovered/named.

Another Job Killer in New Orleans -- NOT a Bakken Story

This story was printed back on April Fool's Day, 2008, about the job losses that will be incurred when the Space Shuttle program is scheduled to end. And, of course, we are now witnessing the last Space Shuttle flight.

The timing to shut down this program could not come at a worse time for the country with regard to the economic impact. Florida will get hit hard, but it is interesting to see where else the effects will be felt.

This paragraph caught my eyes:

The bleakest forecast was issued for the flagship Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where just 1,600 to 2,300 employees were expected to remain in 2011, a cut of up to 80 percent from its current 8,000 workers. The Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans was forecast to lose as many as 1,300 of its 1,900 jobs.

1,300 jobs; that is not trivial. 

The article went on:

Nationally, NASA said the number of full-time civil servants in its manned space program would fall to about 4,100 in 2011, a loss of about 600 jobs from this year. Including outside contractors, the number of jobs would fall to an estimated 12,500 to 13,800. About 21,000 are currently employed.

NASA said it could be more than a year before it has more dependable job forecasts.

So, let's look at more recent estimates of job losses, February 26, 2010:

Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles' retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.

That sum includes 9,000 "direct" space jobs and -- conservatively speaking -- 14,000 "indirect" jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center.

To put that in perspective: in the most recent jobs survey (for June, 2011), only 18,000 new jobs were created -- a horrendous report. When the July and August reports come out, we will begin seeing the loss of jobs due to shutting down the Space Shuttle program. These 23,000 workers are "in and around the Kennedy Space Center" and do not include numbers of folks affected across the nation, including the 1,300 in New Orleans, noted above. I assume there are more than a few jobs in Houston, Texas, directly affected by the program's demise.

Could the program be resurrected? Stranger things have happened. Advocates just have to think up a new name. My suggestion: put the word "green" in the program. And promise to use shovel-ready solar panel projects to provide energy for all ground-based support functions for the space shuttle.

WAWS -- HUGE Deal for Williston -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I was caught up in the politics and the debate between the quasi-government water project for the oil patch vs independent water suppliers, that I sort of forgot to think about what this means for Williston and the surrounding area now that the project has been approved.

Two things stand out:

• $150 million
• More than doubles the volume at the Williston water treatment plant

The Williston water treatment plant now becomes THE water treatment for much of northwestern North Dakota.

With all that is going on in Williston, it's easy to overlook these $150 million projects. Smile. 

It takes water from the Missouri, which will a) protect the aquifers elsewhere; and, b) stymie the US Army Corps of Engineers in their quest to charge a storage fee for water coming from Lake Sakakawea. I could be wrong on this last point, but hopefully not.

Hampton Inn, La Quinta Inn, Among 70 Building Permits -- Bakken, Dickinson, North Dakota, USA

Link here (regional link will break).

Patrick Giese, co-owner of the La Quinta Inn & Suites project on the old Pizza Hut lot near Interstate 94, said Thursday that plans are to break ground within the next ten days. Construction on the project is expected to last seven months, he said.

Hampton Inn & Suites owner and contractor Jeff Lamont said there were minor delays in construction at the location near Taco John’s due to the rainy spring weather, but the hotel is still on track for its October opening.

With regard to housing:

As construction continues on hotels in Dickinson to combat a recent housing shortage, officials said there has been equal interest in multi-family structures.

Seventy building permits were issued for multi-family structures in 2010, City Administrator Shawn Kessel said, adding that the definition includes facilities like duplexes and apartment buildings.

For Investors Only -- Bakken Investment Ideas for 2H11 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here (Michael Filloon at SeekingAlpha.com).

The list includes about a dozen companies, recommending most. The ones that will interest Bakken folks: BEXP, KOG, Samson Oil and Gas, Triangle, and Credo. Maybe others.

For the smallest players, a single well in the Bakken could make a huge difference.

For the big Bakken players (BEXP, WLL, CLR), these are the important metrics with which to compare: net acreage; utilization of their rigs (WLL seems best at this, or perhaps BEXP); first six months production from their wells (BEXP is best, but WLL also does nicely); increase in production (on a percentage basis) year-over-year.

For the multi-nationals in the Bakken, it's a lot hard to judge (due to their activity outside the Bakken) but some have a bigger percentage tied up in the Bakken than elsewhere (for example, EOG, Hess, Marathon vs XOM and COP.

For Investors Only -- Interesting Selection of Three Bakken Companies Worthy of Investing

Link here. (SeekingAlph.com)

Companies mentioned: OAS, KOG, and NOG.

Dickinson Population: 25,000 by 2015 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here (regional link will break).

For 2015, Dickinson officials are projecting a population increase of nearly 50 percent compared to the most recent figures released from the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the 2010 census report, Dickinson had a population of 17,787, but that number has continually been on the rise, City Administrator Shawn Kessel said.

“We believe we have grown quite a bit due to anecdotal evidence,” he said. “We are using a working census number between 20,000 and 21,000.”

2015 is about four years from now.  If Dickinson hits 25,000, I can only imagine what Williston, the heart of the Bakken, will hit.

Wow! Fantastic News! An "Emergency Road Project" On Way To Completion -- Not Even Shovel-Ready Earlier This Year, and Now Almost Complete

Link here (regional link will break).

Huge news, a very important road in the oil patch -- Highway 22 -- almost ready to be opened.

Highway 22 north of Killdeer is expected to be open this Friday after excess moisture and a landslide made the road a hazard in late May, one Department of Transportation official said.

DOT Dickinson District Engineer Larry Gangl said a temporary bypass about 19 miles north of Killdeer will be completed this week and car and truck traffic will be permitted on the unpaved two-lane road Friday.

The bypass project was in response to an exceptionally wet spring season that left the road sagging with crumbling pavement. 

I am impressed. I wonder who got the contract -- they must have been working 24/7. Again, I am very, very impressed. Amazing how a sense of urgency can help.

Mercy Hospital -- Williston, North Dakota -- Receives $4 Million From Helmsley Trust

Link here (regional link will be break).

Mercy Medical Center announced Friday that it has received $4,038,550 in funding over three years from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to improve oncology care and increase access to clinical trials at its Leonard P. Nelson Family Cancer Treatment Center.

The funds will help integrate new linear acceleration technology. This therapy delivers high-energy x-rays or particles to a specific area. The funds will also improve Mercy's capacity to provide image guided gadiotherapy. The availability of these new technologies will lessen the time of treatment for patients and allow them to receive the highest quality of care closer to home, according to a press release from Mercy.

Who woulda thought?

First It Was the State's Two Horse Racing Tracks, Now It's The Bars That Might Be Affected Due to Budget Gridlock -- Restaurants May Have To Sell $2 Soda Instead of $10 Wine

Now it's getting really serious.

First it was the big concern that the state's two horse racing tracks would be closed when the state government shut down to the budget impasse, and now it's the bars that might be affected.

Even bars and restaurants could start feeling the pain as state-issued cards that allow them to buy liquor begin to expire.

Across the state, some bars are facing the prospect of losing their lifeblood, alcohol.
The Liberty Restaurant and Bar in St. Michael, for example, might have to shut its doors when its supply of booze dries up at the end of the week.

"I have two options," said Norm Freske, the bar's general manager. "One, I can continue to serve food, obviously with no alcohol. Or we shut down."

The St. Paul Hotel stocked up on beer, wine and liquor before the shutdown. The hotel can't buy more, but general manager David Miller said it can hold out at least a month. "It's annoying more than anything," Miller said.

Restaurants could see profits drop if they have to substitute $2 glasses of soda for $10 glasses of wine.

When one reads the linked article, one gets the sense that there is no sense of urgency. I do not follow Minnesota politics, so I have no understanding of the personalities involved, but something tells me the guy in charge is not playing with a full deck.

"I feel like [Governor] Dayton has gone out of the way to mislead people about his compromise attitude," Pakieser said. He said a video is circulating on YouTube of Dayton imploring lawmakers in February to join him in pledging not to shut down the government, yet Dayton vetoed all major state agency funding bills Republicans passed at the end of the session.

"It just looks to me like he wanted to force a shutdown. ... He chose to spread maximum pain throughout the state government," Pakieser said.

It appears to me the state may end up deeper in debt after the shutdown than before.

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

Daily activity report, July 8, 2011 --

Operators: Hess (6), Samson Resources (2), CLR, Chesapeake Operating

Fields: Big Stick, Banks, Ager, and three wildcats

Hess is putting six (6) wells on one pad in the Alger, NWSW 16-156N-93W

Samson Resources will be putting two wildcats on the same pad in Divide Country, SWSE 11-163N-96W

Chesapeake has another permit in Stark County.

Of the three wells completed and reporting, Slawson had a nice well:

• 18575, 1,007, Slawson, Hunter Federal 1-8-17H, Mountrail

Whiting has temporarily abandoned a well with a fairly recent file number:

• 18005, TA, Whiting, Jones 44-35, Golden Valley

Temporary Spacing, Which Operator Will Drill In a Spacing Unit -- NDIC's New 1280-Acre Spacing Units -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Nice discussion regarding "temporary spacing units" in the Bakken, the NDIC's "new" 1280-acre spacign units and which operator is likely to drill on a unit. For newbies, the authority at the linked site is "Teegue." Period. Dot.

The Good, The Very Good, and the Ugly -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Three wells that came off the confidential at the end of the week:

• 19332, 1,105, XTO, Lonnie 31X-3, Hofflund, Bakken
  19553, 4, MRO, Lucy Fleckenstein 34-20H, Bailey, Bakken (that "4" is taken from the NDIC webpage)
  19584, 2,192, BEXP, Dave Arnson 8-5 1H, Todd, Bakken