What You Will Be Talking About Wednesday Morning; Fifteen (15) New Permits; Four Nice Wells Reported;

Fourth year in a row: another $1 trillion deficit for the US
ObamaCare has not even kicked in yet
link here
almost every union and almost every state (except North Dakota) got waivers to opt out of ObamaCare for now


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The Bakken: Daily Operations Report

Another big construction project in Williston to start next week: re-surfacing 2nd Street West from west side of town to Main Street; this is main thoroughfare for this side of town; will require flaggers and pilot cars; goes past the busy CENEX station; goes past the very, very busy Williston water depot;

Active rigs dropped another four, down to 193 this Wednesday morning, a new recent low. 

Wells released from confidential list today:

• 20621, 3,591, BR, Blue Ridge 14-21TFH, Keene, Three Forks, t5//12 cum 3K 6/12;
• 20624, 2,087, Oasis, Wrangell Federal 5602 43-11H, Bonetrail, t3/12; cum 26K 6/12;
• 21093, 436, QEP, MHA 6-05-06H-149-90, Deep Water Bay, t7/12; cum --

Fifteen (15) new permits, the Williston Basin, North Dakota:

• Operators: Whiting (8), Hess (3),  Continental (2), Newfield, Corinthian
• Fields: Sanish (Moutntrail), Keene (McKenzie), Antelope (McKenzie), Cedar Hills (Bowman), Norwegian Creek (Billings), Dickinson (Stark), Ranch Coulee (McKenzie), Dutch Henry Butte (Stark), North Souris (Bottineau)

Whiting is permitting a lot of "Pronghorn Sand" wells in Stark County.

For newbies, 15 new permits is very impressive.

Wells released from the confidential list yesterday were reported earlier.

197 active rigs in North Dakota Tuesday. This is a new "short-term" low.

Producing wells completed:

• 19597, 1,052, Newfield, Obenour 150-99-28-33-1H, South Tobacco Road, t3/12; cum 36K 6/12;
• 21959, 1,200, MRO, Elizabeth Strommen 24-12H, Killdeer, t7/12; cum --
• 20671, 1,279, Sinclair, Martens 2-6H, Sanish, t12/11; cum 45K 6/12;
• 21985, 1,422, SM Energy, Kirkland 4-18H, Croff, t6/12; cum 16K 6/12; 

Maybe it's just me, but the IPs seem to be getting better over time. There are a lot of wells waiting to be completed/fracked, but they seem to be fracked pretty soon after they come of the confidential list if they haven't been completed. So, although there may be a backlog of fracked wells, the wait is not as long as it was a year ago. At least that's my perception.

North Dakota: the "miracle" continues

North Dakota and Ohio Lead the Nation in "Coincident Indexes"

Coincident indexes are composite index measures based on four individual variables that summarize the current economic conditions in each state in a single statistic. The four state-level variables in each coincident index are: a) nonfarm payroll employment, b) average hours worked in manufacturing, c) the unemployment rate, and d) inflation-adjusted wage and salary disbursements. 

From CarpeDiem, several data points, including this one:

Over the last six months, North Dakota's increase of 4.29% in its state coincident index was the highest in the country, followed again by Ohio at 2.92% and then by Massachusetts at 2.61%.  The increase in the national index from February to July was 1.28%.

Highest in the country. I wonder if the president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis caught that?

Headline: more US jobs lost if Japan Joins President Obama's Trade Pact 

A study released on Tuesday warned the United States could lose 2,600 auto industry jobs and thousands more in the broader economy if Japan is allowed to join a proposed free trade pact at the center of President Barack Obama's trade agenda.

Par for the course.

Energy Links

RBN Energy: explaining the art of distribution of natural gas liquids
Independent stock analysis: various links for oil and gas
The US economy cannot handle $4 gasoline -- talking head; sees release of SPR oil; sees correction in oil price, regardless, based on how I interpret his commets

For investors only (see disclaimer)

OAS: one of three mid-growth stocks mentioned in this SeekingAlpha article
Déjà vu all over again: CLR remains the perfect stock -- Motley Fool
Enbridge's economic moat widens: Morningstar at SeekingAlpha (a twofer)
Greece asks for more time (says "more time" does not mean "more money") --

 Of course they will be given as much time as they want, as long as they don't get more money; Germany is tired of hearing about Greece (and so am I)