OXY USA: 15 rigs, January, 2012; 13 rigs, February, 2012, but company says it expects to have 6 rigs by end of 2012;Newfield has three (3) active rigs at the moment, in North Dakota. That is in line with their June presentation when they said they would operate a 2 - 4 rig program in the Bakken.
Dr. Lyle Dennis founded GM-Volt.com and was perhaps the single most influential fan of the Chevy Volt. Dr. Dennis earned a spot on GM’s Volt Consumer Advisory board in part thanks to his advocacy and the fact that he put together a buyer list of 54,632 people in 97 countries that helped convince General Motors that the Volt was viable.But now, reality, after just 14,000 miles, Dr Dennis is trading in his Chevy Volt for a Ford C-Max Energi.
Dr. Dennis cites the fact that the Volt only has 4 seats, whereas the C-Max Energi has 5. With a wife and three kids, the Volt is just not realistic for his family — an underwhelming reason to switch for such a strong advocate, and losing a vocal supporter could hurt GM.More:
In a blog post on GM-Volt.com covering Dr. Dennis’ transition, he is quoted as saying: “I am grateful to GM for launching the plug-in revolution, and I have enjoyed my two years of Volt driving. Change however is an inevitable fact of life.” He continues to mention that several key players who pushed for the Volt have since left GM, in some cases for competitors like Fisker.The Ford alternative:
Continuing with its Ford C-MAX Energi’s fuel-efficiency figures, FoMoCo announced today that the plug-in hybrid MPV gets an EPA-rated 620 mile range on a single tank and a single charge. It tops its closest competitors the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid and the Chevrolet Volt, each of which return 540 miles and 380 miles respectively.And seats five, apparently.
Oil insiders now count the four-year-old field as one of the big three US oilfields, alongside the Grandaddy Permian Basin in West Texas and North Dakota’s massive Bakken field. The first North America shale play, the Barnett Shale west of Fort Worth, took 19 years to develop into a broad commercial success.Otherwise, not much more than an article one might find in a blog.
Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling practice that is growing exponentially. It has been credited with the discovery of large pools of previously unreachable resources. It often involves the injection of large amounts of hazardous chemicals into the ground. As a result, it has led to widespread fear and accusation of environmental contamination to water reservoirs. Solazyme's application describes a cost-efficient, biodegradable additive that can be used in the production for greener alternatives.It's my understanding that the single fracking fluid of most concern is diesel. The linked article does not specifically state if this additive replaces diesel, if it works in very cold temperatures, and/or if it addresses all EPA concerns with regard to chemicals.
After August’s discussion, some were worried the Commission would put restrictions on hotels coming into the city and obstruct free enterprise. “Do you start limiting just hotels?” asked Comfort Inn Manager Melissa Johnson.
“Or are there other businesses you’re concerned about over-growing as well?” Data compiled for the meeting showed that Dickinson has 17 hotels with 1,332 rooms with another 10 in various stages of planning that would add more than 1,000 rooms.
Other Midwest cities studied by the city in the 30,000 to 50,000 population range had four to 18 hotels in with 166 to 1,600 rooms. Dickinson at the 2010 Census clocked in at 17,787 people. The city believes it has surpassed 20,000 based on billings and other data, and is projected to hit 40,000 in the coming years.It would be interesting to see the list of "other Midwest cities" that were studied.
On the evening of December 12, 2005, ConocoPhillips and Burlington Resources Inc. announced they had signed a definitive agreement under which ConocoPhillips would acquire Burlington Resources Inc. The transaction has a preliminary value of $33.9 billion.
This transaction is expected to close on March 31, 2006, subject to approval by Burlington Resources shareholders at a special meeting set for March 30, 2006. Under the terms of the agreement, Burlington Resources shareholders will receive $46.50 in cash and 0.7214 shares of ConocoPhillips common stock for each Burlington Resources share they own. This represents a transaction value of $92 per share, based on the closing of ConocoPhillips shares on Friday, December 9, 2005, the last unaffected day of trading prior to the announcement.COP is one of Warren Buffett's ten largest holdings in Berkshire Hathaway.
Last summer, Berkshire Hathaway purchased shares of Phillips 66 stock over and above what it received when the company was spun off from Conoco. Since the spin-off, Phillips has outperformed its former parent company and major indexes. Since mid-July, Phillips has gone from around $32 per share to today's $45.15. In addition to refineries, the company conducts many of the marketing operations for Conoco, including the branded "76" gas stations.
So far, Phillips 66 looks like another win for the Berkshire money managers and further evidence that they have what it takes to deliver shareholder value.PSX shares are rising significantly today. [Disclaimer: this is not an investment site; make no investment decisions based on what you read at this blog.]
ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, is Buffett’s ninth most bullish investment, as it accounts for a little over $1.6 billion of his 13F portfolio. Since its split, the upstream portion of the company has traded in tight range of $56-$57, as its second quarter net income fell year-over-year.
Conoco has also reportedly ended its operations in the Caspian Sea, which was expected to have between 9 and 16 billion barrels of oil, whilst selling its stake in LUKoil. While it appears that investors don’t like the company’s new streamlined look, bargain-hunters – Buffett included – may find it attractive.A significant element of share price of an oil company is its proved reserves.
A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), the electric car battery maker that received a $249 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to make a debt payment that was due yesterday.
The filing may fuel further political debate over government financing of alternative-energy and transportation businesses. Federal grants and loans to companies including A123, Fisker Automotive Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. have drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans following the September 2011 bankruptcy filing of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC two years after it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department.The company's automobile business assets were sold to Johnson Controls, I believe.
After several years of booming, oil development in the Bakken oilfield in North Dakota is leveling off. Plus, constant advances in drilling technology have prompted oil companies, including Anadarko and Devon Energy and servicing companies such as Schlumberger, to turn their attention to Converse County, giving some who left the area for work elsewhere an opportunity to return home.
“A friend of mine who used to work for Schlumberger now works for a company out of Buffalo and he is out in North Dakota. And he heard that they are going to try to bring him back for [Powder River Basin], so he’s hoping to come home. Supply companies like that have been beginning to move back from North Dakota to the PRB,” Kristiansen said.A big "thank you" to a reader for sending this link.
Natural gas processing plants are being built or expanded at a feverish pace. At least 90 projects are in the works around the U.S., expected to add more than 15 Bcf/d of capacity according to the latest Bentek NGL Facilities Databank numbers.
How do the economics of these investments work? We know that it is a lot more complicated than a simple frac spread. But does that mean the calculations must be exclusively the purview of engineers armed with gas plant optimization models?
Heck no. Anybody, even an MBA with a spreadsheet, a few standard factors and a gas analysis can figure out how a gas processing plant makes money. So to prove that point today we’ll dive one more time into natural gas processing economics to understand how the composition of an inlet gas stream is converted to outlet streams of natural gas liquids and residue gas.WSJ, p. A17: Infostructure is the new infrastructure. Excellent piece of writing.
In today's economy there are three big problems with the conventional case for infrastructure spending ...
... the first is that nothing is shovel-ready any more ... NIMBY ... by the time a project is approved, the recession is ancient history...
.... the second problem ... government contracts are gold-plated ... drives the cost ... to levels at which potentially sensible projects make no sense ....
... and third problem is more fundamental ... the challenge isn't to move more meat; it is to move more information more effectively, and to re-engineer business practices and social organization to take full advantage of the extraordinary efficiencies that the Internet affords...
... Gov Jerry Brown defends California's indefensible high-speed rail boondoggle by arguing that without it, increased demand for travel along the Los Angeles-San Francisco corridor will lead to choked highways and hopelessly congested air corridors.That's not where the 21st century is taking us. The faux-environmentalists in California should have defeated this boondoggle; the money would have been better spent on info-infrastructure.
