1284 Acres on 1280-Acre Spacing -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Update

A big "thank you" to all who responded.  The best answer: the earth is not flat.

I was sent the following link: search section, township.

I am very familiar with this link (EarthPoint) but haven't used it in awhile except to check out an example:  when you go to the link, for example, and type in North Dakota, 5th Meridian (for all of the North Dakota Bakken), and then type in T148N-R49W, section 22, you will see that this "640" acre section is, in fact, 617 acres.  Just one more reason why probating minerals is so expensive.

Original Post

NDIC now posts the number of acres "drained" by a particular well. It's a great addition.

Elsewhere, they are asking why a 1280-acre unit has a well that actually has 1,284 acres. I think the "answer" the folks are positing is missing the mark. It seems pretty obvious to me but I will wait to see what others say.

The first response was that the NDIC had made an error. That is certainly incorrect. The NDIC is not in error here.

Fracking Fluids Now Being Posted -- Texas

Link here.

The Texas Railroad Commission's (TRC's) new rule requiring oil and gas producers to disclose the chemical used in hydraulic fracturing takes effect Wednesday.

The new rule is applicable for all wells that are hydraulically fractured for which TRC has issued a drilling permit on or after Feb. 1.

Under the new rule, companies must register the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing fluids at FracFocus.org. Some producers, including Chesapeake Energy, have already been disclosing hydraulic fracturing chemical information at the website, which launched in 2011.

Generally speaking, most states follow the lead of the Texas Railroad Commission. 

Update for Billings County

Done quickly; errors may be present; needs to be formatted.

Permits issued in 2011:
48 permits
Only one has reported IP:
20308, 654, Hess,

Permits issues in 2010:
19050, no data, Whiting
19875, 230, CLR
19882, no data, Whiting
19815, no data, Whiting
19612, 25, Whiting
18625, 368, Whiting
18650, 258, Whiting
18652, no data, Whiting
18759, 1,557, Whiting
19003, No data, CLR
19100, 342, Whiting
19135, 639, Whiting
19248, no data, Whiting
19294, no data, Whiting
19370, no data, Whiting
19416, no data, Whiting
19417, no data, Whiting
19441, 2,196, Whiting
19469, no data, Whiting
19648, 816, Whiting
19687, 1,919, Whiting
19755, no data, Whiting
20015, no data, Whiting
20121, no data, Whiting
20131, no data, OXY USA/Anschutz
20174, no data, CLR


Permits issued in 2009:
18033, expired, XTO
18149, 141, Encore
18216, No data, Williston exploration
18270, DRY, Sequel
18502, 331, Whiting
18540, No data, Whiting

Seven (7) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, February 1, 2012 --

Operators: MRO (2), Zenergy, CLR, Murex, Whiting, Slawson

Fields: Sanish, Van Hook, Bailey, Assiniboine, Hay Creek

CLR has a wildcat in Billings County.

Three wells released from "tight hole" status; two completed; neither particularly remarkable.

Three wells released from "tight hole" status because their permits expired (XTO [1] and Crescent Point let two permits in Divide County expire).

Two wells on DRL status report an IP, including:

• 20199, 1,318, Murex, Bradley mark 35-26H, Bakken, McKenzie County

Permits in January, 2012 -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

I recorded 168 permits issued by the NDIC for the month of January, 2012. That puts us on track for about 2,000 new permits this year.

By producer:

• CLR: 18 new permits
• Whiting: 13 new permits

By county:

• Dunn: 34
• McKenzie: 37
• Mountrail: 34
• Stark: 10
• Williams: 34

There is a lot of talk of expiring leases this year, now that we are into the fifth year of this Bakken boom, which I say started in 2007.  I am sure we will start to see anecdotal evidence of this but in the big scheme of things it won't amount to much.

Every day, I update my data base of wells reporting IPs. I generally do not have to open up the database of permits in 2009 (or before). Most of the updates are for permits issued in 2011 and in 2010, and even those in the latter are dwindling in number. It is very, very unusual to have to open up the 2009 database to record a new well.

Operators appear to be very "current" on their permits.

Why Words Matter -- Absolutely Nothing To do With the Oil Industry

Update

When the note below was posted, I was not aware of the rest of the story. This is very interesting.  Below I note that GM sold only 603 Volts in January. Well, it turns out, the Nissan Leaf fared not much better, having sold only 676 Leafs in January, down from 954 in December.

Also, this is very interesting:

GM sold about 7,700 in 2011, below GM's target of 10,000. GM abandoned its sales target of 45,000 for 2012 last month, saying it would match "supply to demand."

"Supply to demand." --- Almost sounds like they are ready to phase this automobile out.

And:

Reuss said that when GM restarts production in February at its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant, it will build Volts in a "very reasonable" volume. He said there is some pent-up export demand.

Nissan, in the article, is said to be looking to double sales of Nissan Leafs this year.

Original Post

Don sent me a couple of notes today.

In one he noted that Ford pickup sales increased eight (8) percent in January; a good barometer for the economy.

In another note, Don said GM's USA sales declined six (6) percent in January, and sold 603 "coal burners."

This was my reply to the GM sales figure:

You know, if you are a bean counter at GM, they have to be asking, why are we spending all this money on a losing proposition, that even the dealers don't want, and has now become the punching bag of vehicles in the US?  [The CEO's phrase, "punching bag," not mine.]

It's interesting: Japanese auto companies beat the American car companies on "quality" some years ago.

Now, the quality is less of an issue. 

The new issue could certainly be "relevancy" or "vision" and when Americans start associating "punching bags" with GM, the company had better take that perception seriously.

When I think GM, I think "punching bag"/Volt. 

And that's why the GM CEO, #1 salesman for this government-owned company, never should have used that phrase.

For Investors Only: Is Statoil the Perfect Stock -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Link to Motley Fool here.

If This Is Global Warming in North Dakota --- I Don't Hear a Lot of Complaints

Link to this Dickinson Press story.

The newspaper reports on a very mild January just completed and a forecast for a very mild first 10 days in February.

I took a long walk this a.m. in Boston; it is very, very mild; a great day to take a walk.  Actually, it was last night when I was taking another walk when I got to thinking about "global warming."

A lot of one's thoughts about any issue has to do with one's personal experience. I'm thinking of the school advisory coming out of McGrath, Alaska (school stays on regular schedule down to 49 degrees below zero) and my own experiences growing up in Williston. I remember walking to school in weather that had a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero.

I remember one day, in first grade, it must have been 20 degrees below zero and all of us little "South Park" look-alikes were standing, huddled, in front of the elementary school (at that time, part of the high school complex) shouting in unison, "let us in, let us in."

We were freezing; we had walked to school and had arrived five to ten minutes early.

I remember vividly a school official coming out and telling us all to go home and come back in ten minutes when the doors would open. I think he "yelled" at us. We were so loud, he had to yell. He said that we had arrived too early and it was our own fault that we were standing out in the freezing cold.

So, we all turned around, and like a "flock?" of colorful penguins trekked back (toward) home. We were all afraid to actually go back home where our parents would yell at us for being back in the house, so we just went to an open field, and continued to freeze, estimating the ten minutes. Even if we could tell time, we had no watches, and even if we had had watches, no one was going to roll up a parka sleeve to see what time it was. Assuming the hands were even moving in weather so cold.

So I digress. The point I was going to make -- and I'm amazed I still remember the point -- when you grow up in extremely cold weather, it's hard to get excited about stories that say the temperature of the earth is going to increase 0.6 degrees over the next century.

But if you are the urban elite where you never experience such cold, but notice that the glaciers are not as big as they were twenty years ago when your folks took you on the annual European tour, you start to get concerned that, "OMG, the earth is heating up."

Didn't someone once say that where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.

And growing up in North Dakota, I sat in some miserably cold weather.

I do remember sitting behind the prettiest girl in second grade, though. Maybe that's why I came to school ten minutes early.

Baker Hughes' Minot Super Site -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

I am being told that the Baker Hughes super site in Minot is being expanded. Now up to 150,000+ square feet and building a third building.

It is my understanding there are three BH super sites in North Dakota: Williston, Dickinson, and Minot. I said that BH complex in Williston is the biggest building in Williston but was told the Wal-Mart is bigger in square feet. In volume, the BH super site might be bigger; I don't know, but it is about three stories tall compared to one floor for Wal-Mart. Regardless, the BH super site is one heck of a large building.

205: New Record for Number of Active Rigs Drilling in North Dakota -- In the Dead of Winter

205 active rigs drilling in the Williston Basin: in the dead of winter.

500 More Folks Who Will Vote to Keep Hydraulic Fracking

"Anon 1" sent me the link to this story in which Halliburton is building a $20 million plant, employment for 500 people, to support the hydraulic fracking industry.

When completed, the site will employ more than 500 employees. Interested job seekers can find more information at www.gohalliburton.com. The company said it will look to hire for a variety of positions.

The news about the sand terminal is not surprising, given the jacked-up drilling activity in the Denver Julesburg basin thanks to the Niobrara play.

Sand is a key component in in the fluids used for hydraulic fracturing. It is pumped into wells under pressure to fracture rock and free gas and oil deposits. Horizontal drilling is now dominating the hydraulic fracturing process.

The Halliburton terminal will be constructed on 54 acres Halliburton in the Great Western Industrial Park, which recently had Denver-based Broe Group become the lead developer.

Global Warming Hits Central Europe -- Scores Dead Due To Cold -- Nothing To Do With The Bakken

Red sent me the link to this global warming story.

A severe and snowy cold snap has killed at least 48 people across central and eastern Europe.


Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that the number of people who died of hypothermia in recent days reached 30.

.... a "very well-established" area of high pressure in Scandinavia and western Russia that was keeping mild air in southern Spain and northern Africa for the "extreme cold."

In Poland, at least 10 people froze to death as the cold reached minus 26 C (minus 15 F) on Monday.