What We Will Be Talking About Thursday; WPX Has a Huge Well On The Reservation;

NOTE: several "articles" posted last evening have been put on "draft" status since they did not relate directly to the Bakken. They will be re-posted later this morning (Thursday, September 20, 2012).

RBN Energy: Refinery margins.

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Two wells coming off confidential list Thursday:
21219, 401, WPX, Black Hawk 1-12H, Moccasin Creek, t6/12; cum 58K 7/12; 31K in first month (unknown number of days of production); 25K in second month)
21618, 504, CLR, Blaine 1-33H, Rainbow,  t6/12; cum 15K 7/12; 9K in first month (unknown number of days of production); 6K in second month)

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And Some Things We Won't Be Talking About

Google wind-turbine job cuts tied to expiration of tax credit.

New layoffs at Siemens AG's DE +0.82% wind-power factories in the U.S. mark the latest retrenchment in the wind industry caused in part by the looming expiration of a federal tax credit. 

Siemens, a global leader in wind-turbine manufacturing, said Tuesday it would eliminate more than 600 positions, or about 37% of its U.S. wind-turbine-manufacturing jobs. The cuts include 407 jobs at its Fort Madison, Iowa, blade factory and 146 at a factory in Hutchinson, Kan., that makes nacelles, or housing, for the turbines' generators and gears. Additionally, Siemens said 330 temporary positions added to help with busy times earlier won't be renewed. 

Current U.S. law gives wind-power producers a tax credit of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, a subsidy that keeps wind energy competitive with other methods of generating electricity. The tax credit is set to expire at the end of the year. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is pushing to extend the credit, while many Republicans say the cost—an estimated $12 billion through 2022—is too high. In the past, the credit has been renewed for one- or two-year periods.

The cost is peanuts in a country with a $16 trillion deficit. On "dollar-basis" alone, the tax credit is a non-issue. The problem: wind energy currently has no redeeming value. It is also impressive that "only" 2.2 cents/kwh is all that is needed to incentivize the industry.