Sand Creek Town Center: Groundbreaking May 10, 2012

Link to Granite Peak website.

A conceptual drawing for the development shows two motels and a convention center as well as hundreds of thousands of feet of retail and restaurant space.

Back to 212 Active RIgs in North Dakota -- Record: 213

Amtrak To Use Apple iPhones to Check Tickets

Link here.

The number of industries that Apple is disrupting with the iPhone and iPad is growing by the day. Amtrak, the government-owned American passenger railroad company, has adopted the iPhone as a ticket scanner for its 1,700 conductors, reports the New York Times.

The phones will be in a case equipped with a barcode scanner, similar to the Linea Pro cases that Apple uses at its retail stores. The phones will scan barcodes on paper tickets, as well as digital barcodes on smartphones. The MBTA commuter rail in Boston is adopting a similar system for smartphone ticketing. 

Just wait until the airlines start using the iPhone scanners. Here we go!

Even Paul Krugman did not see this coming.

And speaking of Apple: this is what I'm holding out for -- an entry level $799 MacBook Air, 3Q12. If this is accurate, this will blow away the competition. $799? Two monthly car payments and one has a MacBook Air. Another $150 for the Microsoft Office software and that's it.

Another Blog To Visit --

Rory sent me this link: Hugh Hewitt -- this one on energy. Enjoy.

But once the price went from ten cents per “coke can” to twenty five cents oil entrepreneurs went to work.  In Canada, they started accessing oil so heavy it won’t flow.  It requires steam heating and processing before it is useful.  At the higher price of twenty five cents per “coke can” that is now profitable.  Canada comes just after Saudi Arabia in oil reserves; they just aren’t the easy-to-access sort.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves

I spoke with a guy developing some of these Canadian reserves.  He told me they spent a hundred and fifty million dollars building a road just to get trucks and equipment to an oil field.  But at the higher price for oil, entrepreneurs find a way and paying the cost of access is part of it.

Canadian oil producers now expect production to double in the next fifteen years. http://www.capp.ca/aboutUs/mediaCentre/NewsReleases/Pages/2011-Oil-Forecast.aspx

3,000 Men Living Together -- Dickinson-Area Proposal Would Result in One of the Oil Patch's Largest MAN Camps

Link here.

City leaders in Dickinson were presented plans for one of the largest worker facilities yet proposed for the oil patch, this one a 3,000-unit campus on the community's Energy Drive.

Accommodate International would use a "podular" construction method to build apartment buildings on a 44-acre tract. The company says the worker rooms are larger than at existing man camps and each has a private bathroom.

I wouldn't hold my breath. The hearings are going to be packed with faux-environmentalists.

Nine (9) New Permits; Seventeen Wells Come of Confidential List -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, May 7, 2012 --

Operators: OXY (4), Murex (2), CLR, Zenergy, WPX,
Fields: Banks (McKenzie), Rawson (McKenzie), Fayette (Dunn), Spotted Horn (McKenzie), Stanley (Mountrail)

OXY has permits for four wells on one padd in Fayette field.

Seventeen (17) wells come off "tight hole" status:

• 5579, 33, Ward-Williston, Engebretson 8-9, Madison (not a Bakken)
• 17623, DRY, BEXP, Wanner 25 1-H, Mercer
• 20525, DRL, SM Eergy, Waters 4-28H,
• 20636, DRL, BR, Brazos 24-34H,
• 20672, 2,499, Whiting, DRS Federal 24-24TFH, Park oil field; t11/11; cum 65K 3/12; see below
• 20685, 1,256, MRO, Ben Reckard 41-27H,
• 20746, 678, CLR, Jack 2-9H,
• 20881, 1,377, Whiting, Hagey 14-13XH,
• 21033, DRL, BEXP, Lloyd 34-3,
• 21053, 764, CLR, Richmond 1-26H,
• 21323, 125, Legacy, Legay Etal Bernstein 4-18H,
• 21352, 625, Samson Resources, Montclari 1-12-163-99H,
• 21401, 507, Whiting, Hattie Hagey 14-13TFX,
• 21459, 1,548, Denbury, Nelson 24-11NEH,
• 21509, DRL, BEXP, Forest 26-35 1H,
• 21600, 838, CLR, Rochester 1-24H,
• 21616, DRL, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Amelia Grace 7-6-158N-99W,

Producing well completed:

• 20816, 487, CLR, McGinnity 4-15H, 

* This is an important well; it's in the southwest part of the state where the Three Forks is said to "pinch out" from the Bakken.

Another Bakken Company Cites High Water Hauling Costs -- NOG

From NOG's 1Q12 earnings press release:

Production expenses were $6.5 million in the first quarter of 2012 compared to $2.0 million in the first quarter of 2011.  Northern Oil experiences increases in aggregate operating expenses as it adds new wells and maintains production from existing properties. On a per unit basis, production expenses per Boe increased from $5.65 per barrel sold in the first quarter of 2011 to $8.40 in the first quarter of 2012.  This increase was primarily due to increased costs associated with higher amounts of water hauling and disposal costs and workover expenses as wells are placed on to pumping units.

This seems to be a recurring theme. I first noted it in the CLR presentation in which the company said they were working hard to bring down these costs by adding more pipeline to takeaway water. 

Ethane at 4.5 Cents/Gallon --> $1.89/Bbl Oil -- RBN Energy

Link here.

On Friday, OPIS reported that Conway ‘Any Current Month’ ethane in E-P mix transacted at a low of 4.5 cents/gallon.  The average level for the day was 7.25 cents/gallon. Here’s the OPIS quote “Outright e/p mix for May supply weakened to an all new historical low, not only on an average basis, but also setting the lowest low ever for the product".

Let’s contemplate 4.5 cents/gallon for a few minutes.  That equates to $1.89 per barrel.  That’s got to be some kind of multi-decade record low for any hydrocarbon.  Converted to a natural gas equivalent it is $0.68/MMbtu.   All of a sudden June Natgas at $2.28/MMbtu looks pretty good.  The average daily E-P price of 7.25 cents/gallon just barely exceeds a buck in gas terms at $1.09/MMbtu.

Wind. Solar. Nuclear energy. Coal. Biofuels.

For search purposes: Lyondellbasell.