Yet One More Huge Project -- Williston, Bakken, North Dakota, USA

This will be the biggest apartment complex in Williston (to the best of my knowledge). From the hard copy of the Williston Herald.

Data points:

145 apartment units
1, 2, and 3 bedroom units
Four building-complex: approx 35 units/building; three stories each
On-site fitness center; on-site community center
Joint venture between Brutger Equities (St Cloud, MN) and Investors Real Estate Trust of Minot (IRET)
Expected to be completed by spring, 2012

More information can be found at brutgerequities.com.

Truly Incredible: America's Poverty Rate Hits 50-Year High

Update

Upset. Now, how is The New York Times reporting it? "... unknown gains seat ... " at least it's above the fold.

Original Post

Link here.

In a grim portrait of a nation in economic turmoil, the government reported that the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million — the most in at least half a century — as 1 million more Americans went without health insurance and household incomes fell sharply.

The poverty rate for all Americans rose in 2010 for the third consecutive year, matching the 15.1% figure in 1993 and pushing many more young adults to double up or return to their parents' home to avoid joining the ranks of the poor.

The president's name was not mentioned in this particular article. Ya gotta wonder.

Yup, hope and change.

And to think that opening the energy resources of this great country ....

A talking head on CNBC put it succinctly: he does not understand why the administration is willing to pay $300 billion (or whatever it is) to despotic leaders of OPEC and at the same time "bang" relentlessly on the American domestic oil industry, and industry that provides millions of jobs and untold billions in for the economy.

I have to agree; it doesn't make sense. Unless your goal is to destroy America. 

Oil Surges to 5-Week High

Despite the IEA's forecasts of weaker oil demand, the WTI soared past the $90 mark for the first time in more than a month on Tuesday. Crude gained $2.02 to settle at $90.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The intraday range for light, sweet crude was $87.81 to $90.52 a barrel.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency cut its global oil demand by 200,000 barrels a day for 2011 and by 400,000 barrels a day for 2012. 

Yup.

Size of the New Baker Huges Building in Williston? -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

100,000 square feet for the industrial portion.

50,000 square feet for the office building.

Photo here.

NASCAR To Be "Televised" On the Net -- Obviously Not a Bakken Story

Don alerted me to this: 9 of 10 NASCAR "Sprint to the Finish" races will be available on the internet.

For those who have followed the Bakken but not paid much attention to reality entertainment like NASCAR racing, here's a bit of a primer:

NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

When the Bakken Drilling Quits (Thirty Years From Now), They Can Always Go Back to the Madison -- North Dakota, USA

Elsewhere, "AmericanOilND" asked for past six months production for well #2836. As noted, that Madison well has produced almost 2 million bbls of oil (and easily over 2 million when adding in the natural gas produced)

That got me to wondering. It is the general consensus that the EUR of the average Bakken well will be 603,000 bbls, producing from 25 to 35 years.

I was curious how the other Madison wells did in the Clear Creek oil field, now that most of the wells drilled in 1961 time period are now permanently abandoned. Here are the results (file number, status, cumulative oil as of this month's NDIC report):

• 2850 pa 71K bbls
• 2882 dry
• 5955 dry
• 2764 a 76K bbls
• 2836 a 1,949,817 bbls
• 2893 pa 37K bbls
• 2903 pa 538,643 bbls
• 2944 pa 461,411 bbls
• 2737 a 965,968 bbls
• 2763 pa 1,040,609 bbls
• 2787 pa 1,242,603 bbls
• 2252 pa 463,594 bbls
• 2365 pa 356,535 bbls
• 2593 pa 399,342 bbls
• 2594 pa dry
• 2982 pa 19K bbls
• 2144 pa 613,246 bbls
• 2797 pa 288,801 bbls
• 2726 pa120,833 bbls

There were a few clunkers in there, but 7 of the 19 were above 500,00 and all but perhaps six paid for themselves, with most of them of them doing very, very well.

The clunkers pull the average way down, but let's say you had a formation that had not clunkers, e.g., the Bakken. One can easily see where this exercise leads. The average Bakken well might have a EUR of 603,000 bbls, but can you imagine how good the good wells are going to be to pull the average up to account for the poorer wells?

2836: Almost 2 Million Barrels of Oil Since 1961 -- Still Producing; A Madison Well

Elsewhere, "AmericanOilND" asked for past six months production for well #2836. This is the production. See below table for background.

MADISON	7-2011	31	372	364	4841	0	0	0
MADISON	6-2011	30	258	282	5574	177	177	0
MADISON	5-2011	25	199	154	4422	643	643	0
MADISON	4-2011	24	271	267	3591	650	650	0
MADISON	3-2011	23	201	186	3811	549	549	0
MADISON	2-2011	26	139	149	4038	471	471	0
MADISON	1-2011	31	186	223	4229	645	645	0
MADISON	12-2010	31	358	362	4939	735	735	0
MADISON	11-2010	30	348	330	400	577	577	0
MADISON	10-2010	31	227	212	4996	595	595	0

This is another good example of why oil companies are excited about the Bakken, and why I remain inappropriately exuberant about the oil industry in western North Dakota.

File # 2836 is a Madison well:
NDIC File No: 2836     API No: 33-053-00479-00-00     CTB No: 401995
Well Type: OG     Well Status: A     Status Date: 3/16/1961     Wellbore type: Vertical
Location: SWSE 23-152-96     Footages: 510 FSL 1980 FEL     Latitude: 47.964485     Longitude: -102.9274
Current Operator: PETRO-HUNT, L.L.C.
Current Well Name: CCMU 04
Elevation(s): 2421 KB     Total Depth: 9306     Field: CLEAR CREEK
Spud Date(s):  2/6/1961
Casing String(s): 9.625" 622'   5.5" 9243'  
Completion Data
   Pool: MADISON     Perfs: 9243-9306     Comp: 3/16/1961     Status: AL     Date: 3/16/1961     Spacing: U
Cumulative Production Data
   Pool: MADISON     Cum Oil: 1949817     Cum MCF Gas: 1845365     Cum Water: 1397987
Production Test Data
   IP Test Date: 3/16/1961     Pool: MADISON     IP Oil: 463     IP MCF: 751     IP Water: 0

For newbies, how to read the above:

The pool: a Madison well. The Madison is one of the legacy formations in North Dakota. It is one of the formations that has been reliably producing since oil was discovered in 1961.

Spud date: they started drilling 2/6/1961 

Oil field: the Williston Basin is made up of hundreds of administratively apportioned oil fields; the Clear Creek field is one of them.

Note the cumulative water: 1.4 million bbls. There is generally not a lot of water associated with a Madison well, so this suggests that they are using water injection: pushing large amounts of water into the well to force the oil out; the water will come back up with the oil and have to be trucked away for disposal.

Natural gas: this well has also produced about 1.8 million thousand cubic feet of gas.  The "M" in "MCF" stands for "thousand). A "thousand million" is a billion, so in this case it has produced about 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas. The conversion rate for "barrels of oil equivalent" for natural gas is about 6,000. Dividing 1.8 billion by 6,000, one gets: 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent, a not inconsequential amount if natural gas brought a decent price, which it doesn't.

Status: "AL" means "artificial lift" -- a pump.

Two million bbls of oil and this well is still pumping. It has met the criteria for a stripper well, and if granted that status, is granted a significant tax break. State taxes are essentially cut in half when a well is deemed a "stripper" well. 

And on top of all this, Clear Creek is a great Bakken field, also.

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

Daily activity report, September 13, 2011 --

Operators: Samson Resources (2), MRO (2), XTO, Zenergy, Hess, BEXP, and Legacy

Fields: Dollar Joe, Rosebud, Fotthills, Black Slough, Reunion Bay and two wildcats.

Legacy and Zenergy each have one wildcat.

MRO has two permits for a 2-well pad.

A few good wells were reported today:

• 19666, 1,028, MRO, Elk Creek USA 33-12H, Dunn County
• 19693, 722, ERF, Danks 17-44H, McKenzie (Sanish)
• 19820, 843, Whiting, Dietz 21-17TFH, Stark

Comments:

• MRO continues its string of very good wells; a big difference from some months ago
• Whiting has a very nice TFH well in Stark

Ten (?) New Posts Late Last Night -- Probably Not Much Posting During the Day -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

It's difficult to find time to post during the day right now; I'll do the best I can.

However, I did post about ten new posts last night, and updated older posts.

I'm watching the daily active rigs: we're at the all-time high of 201, and a) the weather is great; and, b) the 3-day weekend is behind us.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see a nice daily activity report out of NDIC yesterday. A lot of new permits yesterday were reported, but no new wells.

Someone asked why they would be laying track for crude-by-rail oil loading facilities an an oval/circle like they are doing just outside of Trenton. Last night I drove by both that facility and the one at Dore. The Dore facility is a linear layout and the length of the train was huge, and, of course, blocking a lot of railraod crossings used by local farmers. One more reason for the oval layouts.

By the way, did you all note this line in the most recent "Director's Cut"?

The idle well count dropped significantly to 816 wells in July, but normal is 450, indicating a continuing backlog of over 350 wells waiting to be fracked. 

He also mentioned that with pipeline, truck, and rail, takeaway capacity easily meets production.

New Director's Cut -- September 12, 2011 -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

Production hits all-time high in North Dakota:

• Jul, 2011, oil: 423,550 bopd (all time high)
• Jun, 2011, oil: 384,809
• July producing wells: 5,756 (all-time high)
• June producing wells: 5,558

Permitting

• July, 2011: 136 (all time high: 245, 2 Nov 10)
• June, 2011: 138

Pricing

• July, 2011: sweet crude, $103.91
• June, 2011: sweet crude, $94.69
• Back of envelope calculations: July, 423,550 x 90.60 = $38.373 million; June 384,809 x 91.69 =$35.283 million.

Director's comments:

The idle well count dropped significantly to 816 wells in July, but normal is 450, indicating a continuing backlog of over 350 wells waiting to be fracked. Crude takeaway capacity is more than adequate. The number of wells drilling on federal surface in the Dakota Prairie Grasslands is down to 4. For the first time that I can recall, the director did not mention the EPA and fracking guidelines/regulations.

Rigs

• 20,000-foot capable rigs: over 90% utilization rates
• 7,000 or less-capable rigs: less than 50% utilization rates

For the Truckers -- and For Those Who Pull Over to the Side of the Road to Let Them Pass

Looking At the World Through a Windshield, Bill Kirchen

White Line Fever, Merle Haggard

Williston City Commission Meets Tomorrow - September 13

Watch for a request for another hotel.

Does anyone have any firm update regarding that huge plot of land that is being developed just north of Mercy Hospital, north of where they are building the new Hampton Inn and Suites? I can tell you what the city is being told but it sounds vague. I'm curious what Willistonites are hearing before I print what little I know. It's zone for commercial property.