Thursday, July 12, 2012

Early Morning Energy Links

Link to Independent Stock Analysis.

RBN Energy: The Sunoco, Carlyle, and JPMorgan Philadelphia refinery.

Fifteen (15) New Permits -- Whiting Has a Great Well -- Paid For Itself In Five Months -- Oh, No -- Friday the Thirteenth -- Daily Activity Report -- July 13, 2012

Daily activity report, July 13, 2012 --
  • Operators: Hess (4), Petro-Hunt (3), BR (3), CLR (2), BEXP (2), Whiting
  • Fields: Arnegard (McKenzie), Blue Buttes (McKenzie), Brooklyn (Williams), Stockyard Creek (Williams), Clear Creek (McKenzie), Truax (Williams), Alexander (McKenzie)
Wells coming off confidential list today:
  • 18969, drl, Petro-Hunt, Fort Berthold 148-95-27A-34-1H, wildcat, s1/12;
  • 19249, PNC, Abraxas, Fedje 3-14, Duperow, not a Bakken well; 
  • 20828, 2,456, Whiting, Frank 24-7TFH, Bell, t1/12; cum 130K 5/12;
  • 21425, 1,105, Denbury Onshore, Johnson 43-27ENG, Murphy Creek, t5/12; cum 6K 5/12;
  • 21554, drl, QEP, MHA 1-31-30H-150-91, Heart Butte, s1/12;
  • 21572, 495, CLR, Lucille 1-9H, Viking, t5/12; cum 11K 5/12;
  • 21814, drl, BEXP, Cheryl 17-20 1H, Banks, s1/12;
  • 22061, drl, BEXP, Anderson 28-33 2TFH, Alger, s1/12;
  • 22155, 553, CLR, Lansing 2-25H, Banks, t5/12; cum 20K 5/12
  • 22496, PNC, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Aldag 35-36-164N-100W;  West Ambrose
Producing wells that were completed: one --
  • 21047, 975, CLR, Sodbuster 155-99-6-7-1H, Epping, t4/12; cum 25K 5/12;

Note: permits for two more Brooklyn wells.

EOG Bucking The Trend With Short Laterals in the Bakken -- Filloon

Another nice analysis by Mike Filloon.

A 20-stage frack for a short lateral is like a 40-stage frack on a long lateral. 

Filloon: XOM's Completion Design and EURs

Another great analysis by Mike Filloon.

For newbies, a reminder that XOM is in the Bakken.

iPads: a Fad -- Union Chief, Southern California -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

I wasn't going to post this story.

I saw the front page headline on a newspaper yesterday while riding my bike along the Pacific coast, south Los Angeles. I changed my mind (about posting this story) when I overheard a young girl at Starbucks this morning-- she appeared to be six years old, first grade, or maybe as old as eight years old, third grade, carrying her iPad (without a cover) and telling her friend she also had something "... with16 gigabytes." I just heard the last part; I did not catch to what she was referring.

So, I thought it interesting to read that one educator in Manhattan Beach, California, felt it was a mistake [same link as above] to be providing iPads for middle school students in his/her district.
At Manhattan Beach Middle School this fall, the iPad will be as ubiquitous as the old-fashioned spiral notebook.
That's because the school is the first in the South Bay - and the latest among a small but growing group of schools statewide - to adopt a one-iPad-per-student model.

Administrators and some teachers tout the one-to-one model as a bold leap into the future - one that embraces a more interactive approach to learning, as well as takes a step toward eliminating the need for paper and possibly even backpacks.

But the leader of the teachers union is not nearly as enthusiastic, saying the district is pouring a lot of money into a fad, when teachers haven't received a raise in years. And a teacher survey indicates teachers are divided on the program.
It's hard to believe that this is the first school in the South Bay that will be using this model. But I digress.

I didn't this last year, but until recently I had been substituting for a middle school and a high school in San Antonio, Texas. The juniors and seniors were provided net tops two years ago for the first time, and it is my understanding that the school will move to iPads this next year (maybe they already have them) (due to the cost savings, ease of use, downloadable books, and apps).

So, while the city of San Francisco will ban Apple computers (and I assume iPads), the rest of the country moves on. And, again, I digress.

It is incredible how heavy the backpacks are that middle school students are carrying these days, and with all that weight, they are limited to a dozen books. With an iPad, the weight is nominal and the books (many of them free) are literally limitless.

The iPad won't eliminate teachers. Quite the contrary: iPads may save jobs. There is a huge cost savings when a school district switches to the tablet rather than the computer. Fewer IT personnel are needed to manage a tablet-centric system; there are no new operating systems to purchase or to load; no programs to load from a floppy; risk of viruses are minimized; the list goes on.

If I were teaching on a full-time basis, I would assign one or two students in each class to be responsible for managing the iPad calendar and lesson plans for the students. In fact, my hunch is that there will be many volunteers, just as there were volunteers to erase the "chalk" board at the end of the day when I was in school.

OXY in the Bakken Updated

With the news starting to get around that OXY is cutting back in the Bakken, I've updated the numbers at "OXY in the Bakken." Some of the OXY wells are on the confidential list, but IPs were released in earlier daily activity reports.

A reader sent me this link earlier this a.m.: OXY reducing Bakken rig count.  I posted the news back on June 19, 2012.

Also, this link was also sent to me by a reader this a.m., an article which I believe I linked some time ago.

For the record, my database (which may differ slightly from NDIC's database) shows that 61 permits were issued to OXY USA in 2011 and 22 have been issued to OXY USA so far in 2012 (for North Dakota, obviously).

Unemployment Benefits -- Unexpected Drop -- Analysts

Remember: the magic number is 400,000

First time applications dropped 26,000; seasonally adjusted, 350,000.

Lowest in four years; lowest since March, 2008.
A Labor Department official noted that part of the drop might be due to some auto manufacturers breaking with tradition and keeping their plants open during the first week of July to meet demand.

Many auto plans normally close during that week to retool for new models.

"It seems like the Labor Department is pretty adamant that this is more of a wonky seasonals adjustment than something we need to put too much stock in," said Michael Hanson, U.S. economist at Bank of America-Merill Lynch. "The underlying trend in claims is probably still in the 370,000 range."

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 9,750 to 376,500. That is still a significant drop, although the average is only at its lowest since May.
A little bit for everyone.

Data for 4Q11 "New Wells Reporting" Updated

Not much new information was added, but a few wells on DRL status have now reported IPs. I updated total production for a few of the wells just to get an idea of what production has been six months out. Nothing particularly interesting. Link here.

Nine (9) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA -- July 12, 2012

New permits:
  • Operators: Hess (3), CLR (3), BEXP (2), Whiting
  • Field: Last Chance (Williams), St Demetrius (Billings), Big Butte (Mountrail), Alger (Mountrail), Antelope (McKenzie)
Whiting has a permit for a wildcat in Golden Valley County.

CLR has a permit for a wildcat in Billings County.

Wells coming off confidential list:
  • 21447, 228, Samson Resources, Dove 19-18-162-96H, Juno field, t5/12; cum 2K 5/12;
  • 21878, DRL, BEXP, Groethe 27-34 1H, Squires field, s1/12; cum 1K 5/12;
  • 22139, DRL, XTO, Christiana 21X-6G, West Capa field, s1/12; cum 16K 5/12;
Two permits were canceled:
  • 19249, PNC, Abraxas, Fedje 3-14, Williams
  • 20568, PNC, Axness Farm 158-101-24D-13-1H, Williams

Keystone XL and Enbridge

Updates
July 12, 2012: ENB reviewing NTSB findings on 2010 spill, but no comments yet and no new information.
Original Post
I can't decide whether to post this story. It's an old, old story.

The reason it caught my attention is that a journalist for the LA Times actually admits in print that he had never heard of Enbridge until yesterday, and in less than 24 hours he's become an authority on oil pipelines.

I will save the draft of this post, and decide later whether to post it.

If nothing else, one more nail in the coffin for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Enbridge shares are selling at 52-week highs.

Energy Links at ISA and RBN Energy

Link to Independent Stock Analysis.

RBN Energy: relationship between current power demand and status of natural gas storage.