What We Will Be Talking About Friday; Wells Coming Off Confidential List

Oil futures up almost $2.00 [Friday, 6:30 a.m]. The hypocrisy is glaring: if "speculators" push the price of oil up, the media is all over the issue; but let the Fed do it by printing more money, and no one seems to mind. I suppose this is the difference: no one knows how the "speculators" are manipulating the market; but it's easy for everyone to understand why the price of oil jumped with the recent Fed action. On another note, for investors, one of the oldest adages in investing: don't fight the Fed.

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Without question, the #1 topic will be whether we will see profit taking Friday, but at the moment, oil is up about two dollars [Friday, 6:30 am], in futures, but as my daughter says, "futures mean squat."

************************* The growth of the rail industry in North Dakota: story at Minot Daily News:

• crude unit train facilities are served by BNSF at the following stations: Stanley, Tioga, Dore, Eland, Epping, Trenton, Republic and Manitou;  two more should be fully operational by end of 2012 -- Fryburg, Berthold
• see CBR at the "Top Ten" lists at the sidebar at the right
• here are apparently two facilities at Berthold, one north of the station; one south of the station. The Enbridge CBR facility is south of the station; a Sand Source Services operation is north of US Highway 2.
• a Canadian Pacific Railway CBR facility is up and running near Van Hook
• it's not just CBR but also frack sand-by-rail (FSBR)

************************ Wells coming off the confidential list Friday:

• 8317, 109 (Red River), Encore Energy, Wegman 11-30, Horse Creek; this is an old Red River well that has already produced a total of 274K bbls of oil, and is still producing about 300 bbls/month from the Red River; it is located in Horse Creek, and is located about 16 miles east of the Montana border, and two miles north of the South Dakota border; on March 18, 2012, Encore applied to re-enter said well and drill a short lateral; I don't see any new information; the most recent production is still only from the Red River and probably relates to the "old" vertical well;
• 21335, 466, MRO, Marky Sveet 34-21H, Strandahl, t6/12; cum 6K 7/12; 
• 22238, 878, ERF, Knucke 149-92-19C-18H, Heart Butte, t7/12; cum 115K 4/13;
• 22374, 320, Whiting, Quale 21-30, wildcat; a Red River well; t6/12; cum 29K 4/13; (not bad for a directional Red River well)

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Others are saying the same thing:

• in the long term, what the Fed is doing could very possibly end up creating a financial disaster; but,
• right now, the 1%-ers, the wealthy, are doing very, very well; investors are seeing their assets grow in value; paper profits; but, 
• the "man-on-the-street" will see the price of gasoline and groceries rise
• the gap between the haves and the have-nots will simply increase (so, what else is new?)
• someone once said in a financial crisis, either the investors will win or the "savers" will win; right now, investors are winning; "savers" are losing

Pretty simplistic? See welcome/disclaimer for this blog. You know, this seems a lot like "trickle-down" economics.

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For investors only:

• OAS and KOG: SeekingAlpha.com; and this was written before today's wild ride; 
• Several Bakken-related stocks, including HK which is of significant interest right now; 
• Many stories easily found and many more with QE3 driving share prices of gold and oil higher

For newbies only:

• Horizontal drilling and fracking overview: RBN Energy.