What We'll Be Talking About Tuesday Morning -- Eighteen (18) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Updates

September 14, 2012: I suggested this strike would end by Friday of the week it started. Looks like I wasn't too far off the mark. I thought the political backlash against the teachers -- despite what they say -- would be too great.

September 11, 2012: 40 percent of Chicago's public school teachers send their children to private schools. They know best. At least we know why these teachers need an increase in pay; the cost to send kids to private schools has increased significantly over the years; public pay is not keeping up.

A Little Perspective Here

I never want to hear that roughnecks and Bakken truck drivers are paid too much. Chicago teachers go on strike because they won't accept a 16% pay raise over four years; they are already the highest paid teachers nationally; their average pay -- average is -- $79,000. Which means some of those teachers are earning well in excess of $100,000 before benefits, and they work 9 months / year, with generous vacation time during the school year: every federal and state holiday; no overtime; Thanksgiving 4 days; Christmas (or whatever they call it now) 2 weeks; spring vacation at least a week, probably 10 days. Their rooms are climate-controlled; I'm sure "snow days" are liberal, and you just know sick leave is very liberal. And I can bet they are out the door at the end of the school day faster than the students. No, don't tell me the Bakken roughnecks and truck drivers are paid too much. Finally, we see some perspective. The Bakken oil patch workers earn every bit of their pay if high school, middle school, and elementary school teachers in Chicago are averaging -- averaging -- $79,000 BEFORE benefits. And they go on strike because they can't accept a 16% pay raise. I sure hope the Chicago property owners enjoy paying their property taxes because they're going to get a chance to pay more.

So, it's either going to be a very, very short strike, or a very, very long one. By the end of the week, we will see whether parents are willing to take the strike in stride or whether they will let their city leaders know they want it over NOW. If the Chicago electorate supports the teachers, this will drag on long enough to possibly result in the loss of an entire school year.

On the other hand, if parents let their city leaders know that they will all be voted out of office if the teachers aren't back to work by Friday, it will be a short strike.

My hunch is the teachers won't be able to take the political heat, the popular backlash. The union leaders will push to keep the strike going but by Friday, they will be back in school "while negotiations continue."

This is a travesty at all levels. If this is still going on during the first presidential debate, it will be interesting if the moderator asks the question of the two nominees. My hunch is that the liberal media bosses won't let the question be asked. The question, of course: do you support the teachers who have gone on strike, who feel that $100,000 annual pay for 9 months work is not enough?

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Bakken Operations

Active rigs: 192

Eighteen (18) new permits:

• Operators: BEXP (6), BR (6), Fidelity (4), Whiting, CLR,
• Fields: Dickinson (Stark), Rosebud (Williams), Painted Woods (Williams), Zenith (Stark), Westberg (McKenzie), Alger (Mountrail), Stanley (Mountrail), Ukraina (Dunn), Sanish (Mountrail)

Wells coming off confidential list over the weekend and today reported earlier.

In addition, five producing wells reported IPs:

• 21142, 1,020, Oasis, Horse Creek Federal 5004 42-35H,
• 21489, 8,231, CLR, Antelope 4-23H, 
• 21488, 1,357, CLR, Antelope 2-23H,
• 21960, 1,220, MRO, Vance Strommetn 21-13H, 
• 22182, 463, CLR, Opee 1-23H, 

I'm quite sure #21489 is an error; most likely 823 bbls, but we'll see. Unfortunately the well file is not yet available at the NDIC web site that would show the source data. It has to be an error, but on the other hand, the gas units reported were very, very high ( I read very few summaries, but enough to know that these are very high numbers): "Gas shows were consistent through the drilling of the lateral, with background gas averaging 1,400 units at a 9.4 mud weight. Trip gases reached 10,000 units at the end of the lateral. Just below the gamma marker four and a half feet below the target zone was a very small zone that had good shows having background gas reaching nearly 2,600 units.

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