This May Be The Only Thing Bigger Than the Bakken

A big "thank you" to Don for sending it my way.

http://www.youtube.com/v/WgdIE2t8QkM?

Also, note that the computer at the very beginning is an Apple. Just saying.

How Big Is The Bakken? Compare These Three Cryo Plants With Others Around the World -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

This is ONEOK's Stateline 1 natural gas processing plant northwest of Williston. It is being built by Linde and should be on-line sometime in 2012. ONEOK's Garden Creek cryo-natural gas processing plant northwest of Watford City came on-line in 2011.

Original Post

Tonight, while checking out some wells northwest of Williston, we ran into a industrial park under construction. The location is about 14 miles west of Williston on US 2, and then four miles north on the Grenora Road. It looks like it's about 80-160 acres in size, and it could be as much as 320 acres (one-half mile by one mile). The fences are up, top soil moved, stadium lights in place, and some initial pipeline in place, and that's about it. For an explanation from the company on what is going on, go to this link (a PDF file, and look at slides 79 - 91).


Linde Processing Plant Site Northwest of Williston: One of Three Such Sites in the Williston Area. Bakken, North Dakota, USA

There is no sign saying what is going up there, but there is this sign on one of the on-site modular buildings:

Linde Processing manufactures cryogenic gas processing plants. I don't follow that technology, so I don't know whether the sites in the Williston area are noteworthy or not. But, below is the list of the cryogenic processing plants Linde has completed since 1997. Note that in all locations there has only been on plant; in the Williston area there will be three. Note the size of the Williston plants: 100 MMscfd compared to 16 MMscfd in Texas; 6 MMscfd in Israel; and, 60 MMscfd in Los Angeles. Even where there are 100MMscfd plants, there is only one plant, but in the Williston area there will be three. In addition, the Bakken is known as a "oil" field, not a "natural gas" field. So here's the list:

2012 Stateline II, ND
100 MMscfd cryogenic
gas processing plant, incorporating LPP's
CRYO-PLUS™ technology.

2012 Stateline I, ND
100 MMscfd cryogenic
gas processing plant, incorporating LPP's
CRYO-PLUS™ technology.


2011 Williston, North Dakota
100 MMscfd cryogenic
gas processing plant, incorporating LPP's
CRYO-PLUS™ technology.


2010 Port Arthur, TX
16 MMscfd
Liquid Recovery Unit, incorporating LPP's
CRYO-PLUS™ technology.


2005 Haifa, Israel
6.2 MMscfd FCC Off-gas
Liquids Recovery Unit.

2001 Fort McMurray, Alberta
107 MMscfd ethylene recovery

2001 Bayway Refinery
Refining facility in Port of New York and New Jersey
Where the process was invented
48 MMscfd design for
ethylene recovery with full product
fractionation.

1997 Los Angeles, CA
63 MMscfd refinery off-gas
unit utilizing LPP's Cryo-Plus™ technology.

Augustana Vikings Hosting University Minnesota - Duluth -- Channel 26 -- Now

Obviously this is not a Bakken story, but I just happened to catch my alma mater, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, hosting UM-Duluth in Augie's season football opening game. Early in the second quarter, UMD leads 7 - 6.

Pretty incredible. Who would have ever thought Augie would get national exposure playing football.

Random Photos of Ross and Emerald Wells -- Two-Well Oasis Pad -- Northwest of Williston -- Bull Butte -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Watching over his namesake, the Bull Butte oil field, facing toward a rig that is spudding the first of two wells on an Oasis two-well pad.

Meanwhile, a couple miles due east is another Oasis two-well pad, for the Ross well and the Emerald well, two signs:

Two flares:

Two pumps:

Two rows of tanks (six tanks for each well):

Ross and Emerald, Oasis two-well pad, northwest of Williston, in Bull Butte oil field. 

Starting to get a bit dark by the time we got done taking pictures this evening. And yes, the bull was still there, standing guard over his field.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Modernizing Railroad Bridge Across River Between Fargo, ND, and Moorhead, MN -- Why North Dakota Is Booming; Why Minnesota, Wisconsin Are Failing

Link here. Video at link.

The railroad bridge just north of Veterans Memorial Bridge is under construction. Workers are replacing the wooden bridge with steel and concrete. The work, which will go on 24 hours a day until Sunday morning, will be loud as the steel is pounded into place.

The scuttlebutt is that Amtrak requested the new steel and concrete bridge to replace the wooden bridge in anticipation of mass migration of Minnesotans west into North Dakota to escape high taxes and worsening business climate and increasing unemployment. Just saying. I could be wrong on that; unreliable source.

And then this story explains why North Dakota is booming, and Minnesota/Wisconsin are failing. Places in Minnesota/Wisconsin are placing moratoria on projects that aren't even planned while North Dakota is booming.

Goodhue County on Tuesday imposed a one-year moratorium on any silica sand operations in the county, a move that could slow the mining boom in the Mississippi River valley.

About 100 residents opposed to the mining packed a meeting in Red Wing Tuesday night, successfully urging that commissioners delay issuing any mining permits while they study the consequences of the operation on nearby communities.

Last year, a Midland, Texas, drilling company purchased 155 acres of woods, cornfields and bluffs two miles south of Red Wing near a small housing development and up the hill from Hay Creek, a protected trout stream. It also has acquired land for what may be a transportation facility on the Mississippi near Frontenac.

Silica sand has become a valuable commodity in recent years because it is crucial to an oil- and gas-extraction technology called hydrofracking, which is transforming the domestic U.S. energy business.

Sand mining, however, has aroused local controversy in recent months as Red Wing-area residents organized around an effort for the moratorium. "We were elated and relieved" the board approved it, said Jody McIlrath, a member of the citizens group opposed to the mining operation.

The companies that need the sand will go elsewhere. My hunch is that they will find sand in North Dakota.

Motels Under Construction in Williston -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I am aware of the following three four motels under construction in Williston:

• Holiday Inn: next to the airport with "all" the other motels; the structure is pretty much complete; interior work now needs to be completed
• Hampton Inn and Suites: next to the hospital; top soil has been moved and staked
• Motel 6: frame, I believe, is up; it's northwest of the bypass; not as far along as Holiday Inn but well ahead of Hampton Inn
• Add: Best Western on the north side of Wal-Mart Super center. They have already poured the foundation. They said it will be a 100-room motel, and plan to expand another 50 rooms next year according to the Williston Herald (see first comment below). The link is pretty cool, but will change over time.

See previous update of status of motels, with photos, June 8, 2011.

Three (3) New Permits -- Marathon With A Nice Well -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, September 6, 2011 --

 

Operators: Whiting (2), Slawson

 

Fields: Robinson Lake, Murphy Creek, and Whiskey Joe

 

No wells released from the confidential list, but about sixteen confidential wells released from "tight hole" status, the vast majority with no data (not completed); some with pretty good IPs:

• 17816, 663, XTO, Cleo 31X-5, Williams County
• 19740, 646, CLR, Syracuse 1-23H, McKenzie County

And one very nice well, again, a Marathon well:

• 19839, 1,311, MRO, Windy Boy USA 12-35H, McKenzie County

Whatever Happened To the Storage Fee the US Army Corps Was Going to Charge -- And Then the Floods Came -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Earlier this year, the US Army Corps of Engineers said they were going to charge a "storage fee" for folks who took the water from the Missouri River for fracking. That was before the flooding.

I would suppose that Minot folks who were flooded have a legitimate claim against the US Army Corps of Engineers now that the corps could not keep their stored water inside the banks.

"You" can't have it both ways. Either it's their stored water or it isn't. And if it is, they are responsible for any damage it causes.

That and 65 cents will buy you a cup of coffee at McDonald's in Williston.

Denbury's September, 2011, Corporate Presentation -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Barclay's Conference.

What the oil companies can do with an old field is pretty impressive. Slide 5 of the presentation: EOR recovers almost as much oil as primary and secondary production.

EOR: enhanced oil recovery -- CO2 EOR
Second production: water flooding
Primary production: drilling with/without fracking

The Bakken represents almost a third of DNR's 2011 CAPEX.

New Wells Reporting Today -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

As a reminder I post results of new wells here.

I am surprised at the paucity of information so far today.

It appears the fracking backlog has not improved; of three wells coming off the confidential list today, only one was completed. The other two have moved to the DRL list.

Again, Marathon Oil reported a very nice well:

• 19839, 1,311, MRO, Windy Boy USA 12-35H, Antelope, Bakken

A year ago or so, the general consensus was the MRO couldn't get an IP above 400 - 500. In the past several months, MRO has had a run of very nice wells.

 

 

 

3Q11 Earnings

All 3Q11 earnings will be reported at this page; link will be on sidebar at the right, under "Earnings Central."

Earnings Calendar.

HAL: income jumps 27 percent; 94 cents; in-line; expectations; estimates: 87 to 96 cents; analysts expect improvement of 13 cents over previous quarter's results (81 cents). The company said costs increased for materials, logistics and labor in North America, and project delays in Iraq and the Libyan rebellion slowed down its international operation.

NFX: profit miss; huge disappointment; I am quite surprised; great wells; transcript;

NBL: results; earnings jump 905; wow, $1.31/shre diluted, well above the $1.23 expected; expectations; $1.04, a decline of 18% from last year; down from recent estimate of $1.23; transcript;

SLB: misses by three cents;

LINE: 10/24

EPD: 10/25

NBR: beat expectations by 4 cents; net income 25 cents vs loss last year; about 3/4 of company's North American income is from oil-related operations, compared to about a third in 2009; 75 percent of its US land rigs are on long-term commitments;

QEP: beat by 9 cents; revenues rose 51% y-o-y

NOV: beat by 9 cents; earnings call transcript;

COP: profits down y-o-y but easily beats consensus; taxes a problem;

HES: production/profits/share price all down; production loss in Libya partially offset by the Bakken;

OXY: 48% increase;

XOM: sneak peak;earnings soar;

CVX: 10/28 (before opening); consensus, $3.35/shr; comes in at $3.92/sh; earnings more than double on higher oil;

SM: reports huge earnings;

BEXP: 10/31

GEOI: beat Wall Street's expectations;

WMB: misses, revises; sales up; transcript;

MPC (Marathon Petroleum): wow, wow, wow. Profits quadruple. Transcript.

MRO (Marathon Oil): net earnings fall 42 percent. Hmmm.

EOG: wow. Transcript.

MDU:  earnings of $63.8 million, or 34 cents per common share, compared with $60.8 million, or 32 cents per common share for the third quarter of 2010.

BHI: misses by 2 cents; revenues up 27%; Rigzone: earnings shine

Revenue for the third quarter 2011 was $5.18 billion, up 27% compared to $4.08 billion for the third quarter 2010 and up 9% compared to $4.74 billion for the second quarter 2011.

Chad C. Deaton, Baker Hughes Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "The third quarter was a record revenue quarter for Baker Hughes.

WLL: awesome; transcript;

CLR:  forecast, 67 cents; actual: $2.44 per diluted share; production up 48% year-over-year; up 27% sequential quarter; transcript;

GMXR: 11/03

DNR: Consensus estimate is calling for profit of 29 cents a share, a rise from 13 cents per share a year ago. Wow. Earnings of 69 cents vs 7 cents year-over-year.Transcript.

CHK: results here; $1.23 vs $0.75;

KOG: 15 cents vs 0 cents year-over-year; 9 cents on derivative management if I read it correctly;

OAS: 11/07; preliminary guidance; report: 110% increase in production year-over-year for 3Q; 72 cents/share (on derivatives) vs loss; transcript;

USEG: profitable 3Q11;

DBLE: 11/09

AXAS: 11/09

NOG: sneak peak -- average analysts: 22 cents; actual: 46 cents;

VOG: positive earnings on record production;

HP: 11/17

WFT:

ENB: transcript; earnings;

SSN:

RIG: not good news;

ERF:


ERF:

WHX: Aug 16 - Aug 21

The "New Stealth" Shale Play -- An Encore Play -- Not a Bakken Story

Update

According to the Western Shale event coordinator (see below), "the new stealth" is a generic term for emerging shale plays that have not hit the mainstream oil and gas media. So, "ignore" the original post below, except maybe as a reminder where Denbury might also have some additional holdings. I don't follow DNR closely enough to know how this all worked out.

Update to the update:

This is why I love the blog: here's an update sent in from Don on the Tuscaloosa play:
http://tuscaloosatrend.blogspot.com/2011/05/denbury-announces-tms-joint-venture.html (dated May 5, 2011)

Given our planned activity in our CO2 EOR operations in the Bakken and the relatively short period of time before leases were going to expire, we decided to seek a joint venture partner to continue testing the Tuscaloosa marine shale. We have entered into an agreement with a joint venture partner covering approximately 100,000 acres of the Tuscaloosa marine shale acreage that had not yet expired.

From RIGZONE, June 11, 2011: The Tuscaloosa Marine shale play, which covers 2.7 million acres across central Louisiana and southwest Mississippi, could emerge as the next big shale oil play. To put the 2.7 million acres in perspective, the four major oil-producing counties in North Dakota (Williams, Mountrail, McKenzie, and Dunn represent 9,032 square miles, and at 640 acres/square mile, works out to about 5.8 million acres in just those four counties. Including the rest of western North Dakota where the Bakken and Three Forks would probably double the 6 million acres to about 12 million acres. (Back of envelope calculations.)

Original Post

The "New Stealth" is "new" to me. From a message board:

Welcome to America’s newest “stealth” shale play. Encore reported that it has been amassing, over the past two years, a large acreage position in southern Mississippi and the Florida parishes of Louisiana. The company now holds a hefty 208,000 net acres in this emerging play. Here’s perhaps the most intriguing part – it’s oil, not gas. To be clear, the play is not entirely unknown – as early as 1997, an article published in the Houston Geological Society Bulletin by professors at Louisiana State University estimated resource potential to be a colossal 7 billion barrels (42 Tcfe). However, to our knowledge Encore is the only public E&P company to actually drill in this play in recent times, and initial results are encouraging.

The company has drilled two horizontal wells here thus far. The first, drilled out 1,500 feet, has been producing continually for the past seven days at a rate of 150 to 200 bpd. The second, drilled out 3,100 feet, was recently completed, and the company is awaiting production results. Our initial take is that this play could look tantalizingly like the Bakken, though of course we want to make it very clear that results here are extremely early, and economics are not yet established. Encore, of course, is a major player in the Bakken itself, with 178,000 net acres, but the company’s acreage in the Tuscaloosa play is even larger.

Update to that update: Halliburton frac trucks have arrived, June 6, 2011.

Western Shale's North American Shale Plays Conference, Denver, January 11 -13, 2012

The Emerging North American Shale Plays, the 2012 edition of Western Shale 2011 conference, is scheduled for January 11 - 13, 2012, in Denver, Colorado.

The conference will bring together geologists, E&P companies, field service companies, infrastructure providers, investors, consultants, government officials and environmental & permitting experts, lawyers, land owners and brokers, and other oil and gas experts. This event is tailored for those, who are looking for solid information in order to make sophisticated investment and strategic decisions to profit from emerging oil and gas plays across North America.

According to the one-page notice, the emerging North American shale plays include: the Niobrara, the Appalachian shale, the California shale, the Texas shale (presumably the Eagle Ford), Canadian shale, and New Stealth.

The "New Stealth" is "new" to me, also. From a message board:

Welcome to America’s newest “stealth” shale play. Encore reported that it has been amassing, over the past two years, a large acreage position in southern Mississippi and the Florida parishes of Louisiana. The company now holds a hefty 208,000 net acres in this emerging play. Here’s perhaps the most intriguing part – it’s oil, not gas. To be clear, the play is not entirely unknown – as early as 1997, an article published in the Houston Geological Society Bulletin by professors at Louisiana State University estimated resource potential to be a colossal 7 billion barrels (42 Tcfe). However, to our knowledge Encore is the only public E&P company to actually drill in this play in recent times, and initial results are encouraging.

The company has drilled two horizontal wells here thus far. The first, drilled out 1,500 feet, has been producing continually for the past seven days at a rate of 150 to 200 bpd. The second, drilled out 3,100 feet, was recently completed, and the company is awaiting production results. Our initial take is that this play could look tantalizingly like the Bakken, though of course we want to make it very clear that results here are extremely early, and economics are not yet established. Encore, of course, is a major player in the Bakken itself, with 178,000 net acres, but the company’s acreage in the Tuscaloosa play is even larger.

I do not know if these two are one and the same.

The agenda for the Emerging North American Shale Plays include:

• Maximizing oil and natural gas liquid in the Niobrara
• Appalachian, California, Texas, Canada, New Stealth
• Water solutions

I have not seen the registration packet, so I assume this is only an early notification. One can check out the 2011 conference at their website.

Transport Differential Between Rail and Pipeline -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

This was sent to me as a "cut and paste" from a message board:

Focused on the Bakken. EEP remains squarely focused on the Bakken, especially due to its sizeable and attractive presence in the area. EEP has begun expanding its Bakken program (North Dakota system) to add another 120 kbbl/d in capacity by 2013. With a significant amount of oil moving via rail at approximately double the cost of pipe transport ($8-$10/bbl), management sees opportunity here.

This is at odds from earlier stories that suggested price to ship oil by rail was coming down significantly and that the differential was closer to a couple of dollars. Of course, to some extent, crude-by-rail is subject to the price of diesel used by the locomotives.

Crude-by-rail provides most flexible way of transporting Bakken oil, if not necessarily the most efficient.

A Shovel-Ready Project Perfect For Stimulus Funds -- Natural Gas Pipeline Along The Hard-Hit Gulf Coast

Someone noted that "we" never seem to see stimulus funds going to projects that really do hire construction folks for shovel-ready jobs (even the president laughed about "shovel-ready" jobs in America).

In this case,

Enterprise Products Partners L.P., Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P., and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation  today announced an agreement to design and construct a new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will originate from Skellytown, Texas, and extend approximately 580 miles to NGL fractionation and storage facilities in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

The new Texas Express Pipeline (TEP) will help producers in West and Central Texas, the Rocky Mountains, Southern Oklahoma and the Mid-continent maximize the value of their natural gas production by providing additional takeaway capacity and enhanced access to the Gulf Coast NGL market. Initial capacity on TEP will be approximately 280,000 barrels per day (BPD), which can be readily expanded to approximately 400,000 BPD.  

Later this week we will hear a lot about the need for federal government to pump in more stimulus money for construction projects. I doubt there will be any money for energy pipelines. More likely, "we" will see regulations and EPA policies making these projects more difficult to complete.