Supply Boom Upends the Oil Market -- WSJ; Cheap Natural Gas Gives New Hope To the Rust Belt -- WSJ

For the first story on oil: front page, section C (page C1), today's issue.

Google it.

I started the blog for a couple of reasons. One reason was to counter those who said the Bakken was a lot of hype. I suppose.

From the WSJ:

Suddenly, the world is awash in oil.

Forecasters say that in the fourth quarter, global oil output will top demand by more than 630,000 barrels a day (about the amount North Dakota produces). 

The WSJ attributes it all to "changes" in the Mideast, at least in the third paragraph. The article does not mention the Bakken; if it does, I missed it. But then this concluding paragraph:

Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citi Global Markets Inc., says the IEA's fourth-quarter estimate for global oil output is too conservative. He estimates the US along could increase production by 600,000 bbls a day. "It's the beginning of a big change," he said.

Yup.

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For second story, front page, yesterday's issue:

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa.—Three decades after being devastated by the closing of steel mills, this gritty river valley is hoping its revival will come from cheap natural gas.

The hope doesn't rest on drilling rigs, but on a multibillion-dollar chemical plant that Royal Dutch Shell is considering building here because of a flood of domestically produced natural gas.

Community leaders are touting the plant as the first step toward reviving a manufacturing industry many thought was gone for good. "I never would have expected that as a region we'd have a second chance to be a real leader in American manufacturing," Bill Flanagan of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, a regional business group, told a crowd of locals who came to hear about the chemical plant. "Suddenly we're back in the game."

It isn't just Beaver County reaping the benefits of cheap gas. Plunging prices have turned the U.S. into one of the most profitable places in the world to make chemicals and fertilizer, industries that use gas as both a feedstock and an energy source. And they have slashed costs for makers of energy-intensive products such as aluminum, steel and glass. 

Many, many story lines in this article.  "Suddenly we're back in the game" -- and will be just as suddenly back out of the game if the EPA regulates fracking. They don't have to ban it; just regulate it. And then it's back to coal.