What You Will Be Discussing Thursday Morning; Whiting Has Another Gusher -- 13 Days To Drill; Fifteen (15) New Permits; BR with Two Great Wells;

Jobless Claims

Link here. 

The Economy

"There's still a 100 percent chance the world heads into recession," according to Marc Faber ...

I don't know how one says there's "a 100 percent change that something is going to happen. That's not a "chance." That's a certainty. Oh, well. Semantics. He said this last autumn; apparently there is no "time frame." The prediction appears to be open-ended.

Oil futures

Approaching $100, 7:45 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, August 23, 2012. By the end of the day, the price dropped over a dollar, and closed in the $97 range.

Bakken Daily Operations Report

Active rigs now down to 190 189, down from 191 yesterday, and 190 this morning; this is a new "low" as we start going down the curve. My hunch: we level off at 175 rigs in North Dakota.

Wells coming off confidential list today, Thursday:

• 20840, 3,376, Whiting, Maki 41-33XH, Sanish, t2/12; cum 113K 6/12; middle Bakken; 30 stages; 2.6 million pounds; all sand; spudded November 28, vertical total depth on December 4 (6 days); total depth for the lateral reached December 12 (8 days later): 13 days from spud! Gas shows were reported as being very high at times.
• 20934, drl, Petro-Hunt, Anderson 152-96-35C-26-3H, Clear Creek, s2/12;
• 21361, 860, MRO, Kay Arnson USA 34-35H, Strandahl, t5/12; cum 13K 6/12;
• 21669, 133, OXY USA, State Jablosky 1-1-12H-141-95, Simon Butte, t2/12; cum 7K 6/12;
• 21781, 277, Baytex, Redfield 24-13-157-99H-1NC, Lone Tree, t2/12; cum 37K 6/12;

Wells released from the confidential list yesterday were reported earlier.

In addition, the following producing wells were completed:

• 22050, 2,806, BR, Kummer 41-30MBH, Blue Buttes, t5/12; cum 15K 6/12;
• 20447, 1,283, BR, Samuel 34-21H, Haystack, t11/11; cum 34K 6/12;
• 20162, 906, Hess, EN-Johnson-155-94-2017H, Manitou, t7/12; cum --

Fifteen (15) new permits in the Williston Basin:

• Operators: BEXP (4),  Samson Resources (4), CLR (2), G3 Operating/Halcon (2), Oasis, Crescent Point Energy, XTO
• Fields: Dollar Joe (Williams), Gros Ventre (Burke), Temple (Williams), Ambrose (Divide), Cow Creek (Williams), Strandahl (Williams), Good Luck (Williams)

Crescent Point Energy has a permit for a wildcat well in Williams County.

Energy and other links

RBN energy: low prices, inadequate takeaway, hinder development of Canadian natural gas shale
The Minneapolis Federal Reserve President may not have a clue but the head of the US Energy Information Agency understands the Bakken -- CarpeDiem 
SRE adds more natural gas storage capacity; already largest US natural gas storage company
Oil move is under way -- Market Watch
KOG to rally this autumn -- optionMonster

Updates

I've just updated Blue Buttes oil field (again). Go to June, 2012, commentary first, and then to original Blue Buttes posting.