San Bernardino May Just Save Itself -- And Then Again, Maybe Not

Regular readers know MDW tracks municipalies in a bit of fiscal trouble. It seems the mainstream media seldom provides timelines and thus the need for tracking, at least at some superficial level.

San Bernardino, California, was added to the list July 11, 2012. 

Today, an update at the LA Times:

Saying it had little choice, the San Bernardino City Council voted to cut $26 million in spending in an effort to keep the bankrupt city from dissolving and being governed by the county.

The city is already in bankruptcy proceedings and facing a $45.8-million budget shortfall. The $26 million in cuts will help the troubled city stay afloat.

The austerity plan is a required step in the federal bankruptcy process. It freezes vacancies in the Police Department even as the city deals with an increase in violent crime. The Fire Department’s overtime budget also was slashed by 35%.

And then this:

At Monday’s hearing, Councilman Chas Kelley blasted the budget-cutting plan for being shortsighted and not addressing San Bernardino’s long-term financial health, which he said depends on attracting business and expanding the middle class.

The California middle class voted to increase taxes on itself to help pay for a bullet train to nowhere just a few weeks ago. Somehow that doesn't seem to be a recipe for expanding the middle class. Perhaps expanding the struggling class. The 47% that some presidential candidates will never reach.

Cue up Connie Francis.

Oh, by the way: San Bernardino has oil, too, but California's green policies aren't helping:

“Such inattention to California’s resources may be popular in wealthy precincts of Silicon Valley, San Francisco and west Los Angeles, but the state’s green approach has helped place traditionally manufacturing-oriented communities such as Oakland, east Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Stockton in deep distress,” Kotkin writes. “Despite central California’s vast deposits of oil and gas, unemployment rates in some oil-rich areas there are over 15 and sometimes even 20 percent.”  -- Breitbart, July 16, 2012.

For folks who say North Dakota is booming because the state is "lucky" to have oil: that's only part of the story. One has to do more than build wind farms, solar farms, and bullet trains to nowhere.

ONEOK Won't Go Forward With Bakken Crude Express Pipeline

Updates

Later, 9:38 pm: with the news below in the original post, it will be interesting to see how this next one goes -- Oneok Partners LP is holding an open season for its previously announced 600-mile Bakken NGL Pipeline, which will transport unfractionated natural gas liquids from the Bakken shale in the Williston basin to an interconnection with its 50%-owned Overland Pass Pipeline in northern Colorado. Oneok expects the 60,0000-b/d pipeline—now under construction—to enter into service in first-quarter 2013.

 

Original Post

Link to press release here.

ONEOK Partners, L.P. today announced that it did not receive sufficient long-term transportation commitments during its recently concluded open season for the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline.  As a result, the partnership has elected not to proceed with plans to construct the pipeline.

“Despite the robust outlook for crude-oil supply growth in the Williston Basin in the Bakken Shale, we did not receive sufficient long-term commitments under the terms we needed to construct the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline,” said Terry K. Spencer, ONEOK Partners president. 

“While we are disappointed with the results of the open season, we remain committed to serving Williston Basin producers for their natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude-oil infrastructure needs. We still believe the Bakken Crude Express has a competitive advantage over other competing projects due to its proximity to the route of our Bakken NGL Pipeline currently under construction and other ONEOK Partners natural gas liquids pipeline corridors,” Spencer added.

This is quite a turn of events. 

Eleven (11) New Permits; Wells Coming Off Confidential List Wednesday, Including Another CLR Brooklyn Well;

Bakken Operations

Active rigs: 184 (steady)

Eleven (11) new permits --

• Operators: Hess (4), CLR (2), Whiting (2), Fidelity, XTO, Oasis,
• Fields: Blue Buttes (McKenzie), North Tobacco Garden (McKenzie), Cottonwood (Burke), Grinnell (Williams), Alger (Mountrail), Sioux (McKenzie)
• Comments: None

Wells coming off the confidential list were reported earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Producing wells completed:

• 21800, 1,584, Petro-Hunt, Fort Berthold 152-93-9C-10-1H, Four Bears;
• 21801, 1,206, Petro-Hunt, Fort Berthold 152-93-9C-10-2H, Four Bears;
• 22147, 55, Hess, AV-H Osborn-163-93-0508H-1, wildcat, up near the Canadian border, just a bit more than one mile south of the border; north of Williston;

Wells coming off confidential list, Wednesday:

• 22169, 795, Whiting, Solberg 14-12PH, Bell, t6/12; cum 32K 9/12;
• 22396, 479, Hess, EN-Dakota S-155-94-211609H-4, Manitou, t10/12; cum --
• 22679, 822, CLR, Helena 3-7H, Brooklyn, t10/12; cum --; very nice well for the Brooklyn
• 22801, 983, Hess, HA-Link-152-95-3526H-2, Hawkeye;

Random Article: Tea Leaves and Future US Energy Policy

Well, maybe not tea leaves, but rather hors d'oeuvres as new senators start learning about US energy.

I haven't had a chance to read the article in its entirety yet, but want to get links posted as soon as possible.

For archival purposes.

But for now:

One area of potential disagreement is natural gas exports. ConocoPhillips  sends liquefied natural gas to Japan from a terminal in Kenai, Alaska. The company’s license expires in March.

Wyden has said he’s concerned the U.S. could be trading away a competitive advantage of cheap energy by allowing more exports. The U.S. Energy Department is reviewing at least 15 applications to build export terminals.

Alaska’s situation may be unique, he said. If not exported to Asia, the fuel just may sit unused in the state because it can’t reach the continental U.S., Wyden said.

The New Politics of Energy Abundance -- SeekingAlpha.com

Link to SeekingAlpha.com.

I haven't had a chance to read the linked article carefully yet, but there appear to be a number of interesting story lines.

For now: a table at the linked article provides data on various sources of electric generation measured in billions of kilowatt hours of electricity:

	2006	2012E
Coal	1,991	1,484
Natural Gas	816	1,316
Wind	27	140
Nuclear	787	790

The data alone provides some insight where we've been and where we might be headed. For example, I don't see solar mentioned.

TAM International Setting Up Bakken Regional Headquarters in Dickinson; Supports Fracking Operations

Link to Dickinson Press.

Slowly but surely TAM International is increasing its presence in the Bakken.

The oil field product distributor is beginning its North Dakota infiltration with swellable packers, devices that isolate fracked sections of a horizontal well, increasing oil production and decreasing water flow, Bakken Regional Manager Mike Dion said.

“In the Dickinson office we’re going to have (swellable) packers, case hole packers, which are used in the drilling aspect to assist in cementation of the earlier stage casing compartmentalization,” he said. “We’ll also have what we call a posi-frack straddle tool that allows customers to go in there without having to run any type of packers in (the well).”

Link to TAM International website. 

Who we are:

• We are an independent oilfield service company providing inflatable packers, swellable packers, and downhole products
• and services to the oil and gas industry. 

Where we are:

• Headquartered in Houston, Texas, TAM provides technical support, products, and services from offices in the US, the North Sea area,
• Middle East, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Africa, and Canada.  Our subsidiary offices are in Calgary, Canada; Aberdeen, Scotland;
• Perth, Australia; and Bogota, Colombia. View our contact list for a complete record of TAM locations. 

Corporate structure:

• We are a privately held company with over 300 employees worldwide.

Export - Import Terminals -- LNG

This page under construction. Over time it will be filled in. Pay no attention to it now. 

Natural Gas

Export - Import Terminals

US Export Terminals

Cheniere Energy

• word on the street: Sabine Pass export terminal project is moving forward ahead of plan. Further, the firm’s first Sabine Pass liquefier is ahead of plan by 6 months, with the second liquefier tracking ahead by 11 months; posted November 28, 2012

Pacific Northwest LNG, British Columbia

Petronas Carigali Canada Ltd. and Progress Energy Resources Corp., Calgary, owners of what they have now named Pacific Northwest LNG, said Dec. 4 they have moved the project to pre-FEED following a successful feasibility study.

To be built on Lelu Island, off the Hecate Strait in the District of Port Edward, BC, the plant will initially include two, 3.8-million tonne/year (tpy) trains with expansion capability for a third.

If Canadian authorities approve the acquisition of Progress by Petronas, throughput of natural gas at Pacific Northwest LNG will increase to 6 million tpy/train. Only a few weeks ago, Canada denied the acquisition but negotiations are apparently proceeding

Import Terminals

Sweden

• second import terminal, announced, November, 2012; $60 million; 60 mi north of Gothenburg;  30K cubic meter storage; complete by early 2014; with truck filling station;
• first terminal, completed, 2011; Nynashamn; 20K cubic meter storage;
• midscale LNG plant, 2010; Risavika, near Stavanger; supplies Nynashamn, new Gotheburg terminal announced in 2012
• Note: Gothenburg is one of northern Europe’s largest ports of export, the company said. It is in an “emission control area,” where stricter sulfur emission limits will apply in January 2015

Random Data Point: Bismarck Growth

Don noted this interesting data point, regarding the population of Bismarck, from recent story in The Bismark Tribune regarding increased waste management costs.

We’ve seen 50 miles of new streets in the last 10 years,” he said. “Back in the mid-1990s, we were around 60,000 people. Today, we are over 80,000 and we project to be over 100,000 by 2020. There are state and federal regulations that we have to abide by. All these things are driving the expense of the [waste management] operation.”

It would be interesting to hear more, specifically, what is driving a population growth from 60,000 to over 100,000 in just 25 years, of a small capital city in a remote state in the middle of fly-over country. Certainly not just oil. Or is it?

Oil Service Equipment: New and Refurbished

This was sent in as a comment, but because some folks don't read comments, I will often re-post them as stand-alone posts.

We have 2 manufacturing facilities in the Ft. Worth, Texas area where we are building pressure pumping equipment.

We are building....

• Mountain movers
• T-belts
• Acid transports
• Liquid gel transports, DOT 412
• Gel silos/tanks
• Pressure vessels/silos, ASME Code tanks and non-code
• Turn-key bulk cement plants/sand plants

We refurbish...

• Bulk cement plants
• Bulk cement transports
• Body load cementers
• Single/twin cemnters
• Frac units
• Kill trucks
• Blenders
• Acidizers
• Mud mixing skid units
• Coil tubing assist trailers

Please let us know if we can be of help to you..thank you.

Brent Ottmers...214-236-6244...Cell

[Note: this was modified slightly from the original comment for easier reading; if any errors in transcribing, let me know.]

North Dakota State's Oil Royalties: Random Update

Random data points from The Bismarck Tribune, November 26, 2012, data as of the end of the fiscal year, July 31, 2012:

• the state: $1.1 billion in royalties since 2007
• 90% of the state mineral acreage is privately owned
• the state has 1.2 million acres in the oil patch region
• almost two-thirds of these 1.2 million acres has a well or will have a well within 5 years
• this past year: royalty income exceeded leasing income (huge)
• 2,089 wells on state land: nearly a five-fold increase from just four years earlier
• $192.1 million in royalty revenue for last fiscal year
• currently: state royalties running at $20 million monthly
• lease revenue dropping
• a record $294 million in lease revenue in fiscal 2010
• $125 million in lease revenue in fiscal 2011
• oil trust fund, benefiting ND schools, has doubled to $2.2 billion
• the state owns 1.2 million acres (noted above); 1,925 square miles; one-third of the land is leased; one-third is leased and producing; one-third yet to be leased (but much of that is outside the better Bakken)
• sweet spots yet to be leased: 287 acres in Williams County (92,000 state-owned acres); 272 acres in Divide County (72,302 acres)

With regard to the oil trust fund benefiting ND schools, currently at $2.2 billion:  approximately 140,000 school-age children in ND (between 4 years - 18 years) --> $16,000/student; does not include property taxes for schools; nor does it include the universities; nor does it factor the number of students not attending public school, but going to private schools, or home-schooling.

Mapping Your Well At Google Maps

For newbies.

Someone asked about mapping Bakken wells.

Lots of options.

One method (previously posted):

If you have the GPS coordinates, simply "cut and paste" the coordinates into Google Maps.

For example, #22405, conf, Hess' BW-Hagen-149-100-1522H-1, is in Ellsworth oil field.

I highlight the GPS coordinates: Latitude: 47.731730     Longitude: -103.463448

Cut and paste all of that into Google maps, and then delete the words (latitude and longitude) and place a comma and a space between the first number and the second number (be sure to keep the "minus" sign."

It will look like this: 47.731730, -103.463448

Click on the little magnifying glass and the map will take you to the site. You can zoom in, zoom out, satellite view, etc.

If you don't have the GPS coordinates, let me know; for onesies and twosies, I can provide those numbers. I get the GPS coordinates from "Basic Services" at the NDIC web site, but I assume they are readily available elsewhere.