This was a front page story at Yahoo!Finance today. I have no idea what the point of the story is, but there are two possibilities (discussed down below).
Yahoo!Finance is reporting:
It's no secret that North Dakota has been in the middle of an oil boom since about 2008, but a new chart from the North Dakota Industrial Commission, Department of Mineral Resources, shows just how steep the increase has been.
It is a lot of oil, to be sure, but even with this recent explosion in production North Dakota is in just third place nationally. Texas produces a staggering 2,220,000 barrels per day, and the rigs that operate in the U.S. Federal Offshore region account for another 1,389,000 barrels per day. North Dakota currently accounts for about 10% of all U.S. crude production.
What do you think? About 75% of North Dakota's crude oil is transported out of the state via truck and railroad, limiting the amount that the state can extract at any given time due to weather and capacity constraints. Is more pipeline capacity the answer?This line caught my attention:
It is a lot of oil, to be sure, but even with this recent explosion in production North Dakota is in just third place nationally.Just third place? I thought North Dakota was in second place.
I guess someone has moved the goal posts: up until this story, North Dakota was ranked #2 among the states, but now the "powers-that-be" have added "US Federal Offshore region." It's nice to see the production of the US Federal Offshore region posted, but it was a surprise, to say the least.
My hunch is that this was "politically" motivated. There's been a lot of news lately that the huge increase in US production has been from non-Federal leases. It only makes sense that the White House would call reporters and remind them that the US Federal Offshore region is #2. [It would have been too obvious to ignore Texas.] It's generally agreed that the president has a thin skin and he's probably tired of being told his offshore oil production is not keeping pace. And if it was not the White House making the call, the other likelihood is the reporter is pro-administration and has added this new wrinkle.
Also, the story was very, very short, and out of the blue it raises the issue of takeaway capacity: truck, rail, or pipeline. Strange story.
Maybe it's a two-fer. The reporter gets to put a plug in for President Obama's Offshore oil production, and will also get a feel for pipeline support -- a most important metric. There must be a huge amount of discussion inside the beltway whether to approve another pipeline, the Keystone.
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For newbies, a lot of media outlets are very, very busy and looking for "filler" or stories. A lot of these media outlets do not have their own reporters, again driving the need for "filler" stories. The more I look at this story, and then noting the link to a White House site, I just get a feeling the whole thing was planted by the White House, or by a reporter very, very friendly to (or an apologist for) the administration. The "press release" is sent out and then media outlets looking for filler pick up on it.
The Bakken is getting a lot of press. Every day there are stories about how much oil is coming out of North Dakota, now accounting for nearly 12% of US production, while at the same time there are more and more stories coming out that report oil production from Federal leases is not keeping pace.
Something about this very, very short news story with no new news making the front page of Yahoo!Financial just does not ring true. And out of the blue, to ask about the need for a new pipeline. No, something is very, very strange about this article.
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For Obama apologists this will be a tough graph to interpret, but look at it for a minute. Speaks volumes:
This graph says it all. From The Energy Collective. Production from "Obama fields" continues to decrease; production from non-Obama fields has picked up momentum year-over year.
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I'll certainly be glad for the NDIC website to get back up and running; it will give me less time to think of conspiracy theories like the above.
Looks like it's amateur hour (or day at ndic).
ReplyDeleteLetting the site be this dysfunctional for this amount of tome without some type of description of the "problem " and an estimate of when access will be restored is incompetence on display .
I am an apologist for the NDIC. I am among the first to throw my support behind the NDIC. From my perspective they do a wonderful job.
DeleteBut in this case, I have to agree with you, 1000%. The site went down late Friday night, and there has been no explanation. I don't expect an explanation in the first 24 hours, but it would be nice.
But when a "professional" site goes down for more than 24 hours, with or without an explanation, it certainly suggests exactly what you have said. It certainly is frustrating, to say the least.