Wells Coming Off The Confidential List Friday

• 22432, 250, WPX, Paul Peter Coffee 35HC, Moccasin Creek, a great well; t10/12; cum 32K 12/12;
• 23068, 2,454, BEXP, Liffrig 29-50 5H, Alger, a nice well; t12/12; cum 17K 12/12;
• 23087, 395, CLR, Norfolk 3-1H, North Tobacco Garden, a nice well; t12/12; cum 12K 12/12;
• 23266, drl, XTO, Mariana Trust 12X-20H, North Fork, no production data;

*************************

22432, 250, WPX, Paul Peter Coffee 35HC, Moccasin Creek, a great well; hooked up to a natural gas pipeline:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
12-2012	14228	7120
11-2012	17720	1711

23068, 2,454, BEXP, Liffrig 29-50 5H, Alger, a nice well, hooked up to a natural gas pipeline:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
12-2012	16530	6083

23087, 395, CLR, Norfolk 3-1H, North Tobacco Garden, a nice well; hooked up to a nice pipeline:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
12-2012	12068	22203

Miscellaneous Thursday Night Notes

Many of these stories were sent in by readers. Thank you.

Gulf to shut down: Bloomberg is reporting that faulty bolts manufactured by GE must be replaced in deep-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. This is going to be very, very, very costly for the operators.

North Dakota farmers' wish list: If you want to see how North Dakota farmers are spending their money (high prices for commodities, oil royalties, pipeline easements, eminent domain for new roads/bypasses), check out Titan Machinery. Thanks, Don.

OXY USA: At an earlier post I mentioned that OXY USA may just be a "sleeper" among the majors. I've been hard on OXY USA with regard to the Bakken but elsewhere OXY USA is doing some interesting things. Information suggests they are buying up a lot of acreage in the Monterey Shale, California. Recently, I noted the Cline Shale in Texas: interestingly enough OXY USA has a significant presence there also. MyWestTexas.com is reporting that Centurion Pipeline will reactivate, expand Cline Shale pipeline.

Efforts to delineate and develop the Cline Shale play has prompted one pipeline to expand its system to accommodate the increased production.

Centurion Pipeline, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, has announced plans to reactivate and expand its existing pipeline system in the play. It will be capable of transporting crude from Coke, Irion, Mitchell, Sterling and Tom Green counties to Centurion's terminal in Colorado City. From there, shippers can either transport crude to Cushing, Okla. or to the Gulf Coast via the BridgeTex Pipeline, which is expected to go online in mid-2014.

As I noted earlier, OXY USA may deserve it's own stand-alone post.

The Niobrara: Don sent me the link to Bonanza Creek's most recent presentation, February, 2013. Two slides to look at:

• slide 9: IRRs for various basins; look how Bakken/TFS compares to other oil fields (near the bottom)
• slide 12: the three benches of the Niobrara and two additional payzones 

 Big oilfield-services companies are poised for a reawakening. -- Rigzone.

DOI: 38 million acres in Gulf of Mexico up for grabs. -- Rigzone.

Statoil 'On Track' To deliver 2.5 million bbls of oil per day by 2020. -- Rigzone.

However, Statoil CFO Torgrim Reitan cautioned in a presentation to analysts in London that the firm expects production this year to be lower than that achieved in 2012 for a variety of reasons including divestments and uncertainty about the resumption of production at the In Amenas facility in southern Algeria, which was the subject of a terrorist attack in January. -- but no mention of the Bakken. 

Williston Wire -- The Most Interesting Story: CBR Taking Bbls Away From Pipelines; Enbridge Pipeline System is Underused; Think Again Whether Keystone XL Is Key To ND Bakken

Headlines only; no links. It is easy to subscribe to the Williston Wire.

North Dakota #1 in job creation. Not a surprise.

Governor Jack Dalrymple signs $720 million road bill.

The North Dakota Pipeline Authority released a new map that indicates the locations of twenty-two (22) crude oil loading facilities in North Dakota. One can find the map at the "Maps" page at the Pipeline Authority website: www.northdakotapipelines.com.

Ceres Global Ag Corp, an agriculture investment firm, is building a $90 million Canadian export hub at the North Dakota border to expand shipping capacity for grains and crude oil into the US.  The 1,500-acre facility in Northgate, Saskatchewan, will be linked to BNSF Railway's US network. k

Granite Peak, Cogen Energy to build a joint crude oil unit train loading facility along BNSF Railway's mainline at Granit Peak's Casper Logistics Hub near Casper, WY: soorage and lodading.

Bakken oil hits the East Coast; previously reported at the blog.

Enbridge's North Dakota pipeline system has been underused for the past three months as railroads move more oil out of the Bakken shale play. Enbridge's plans to expand its pipeline network out of the Bakken won't stop railroads from taking business. "This trend is not temporary. Rail transportation is becoming mrore competitive and will continue to take barrels away from the Enbridge North Dakota system." [Comment: I remember a few months ago "anonymous" sent in a comment that crude-by-rail was a temporary phenomenon and once pipelines were in place, CBR would decline. Just saying. Times are a'changing.]

Montana releases new energy infrastructure map. The map can be accessed through the Montana Commerce website. When you get to the link, left sidebar, "Information," then click on "Resource and Infrastructure Maps."

This was posted previously; nice reminder: Sonic Drive-In Coming To Williston. My last hamburger in Midland-Odessa a year or so ago was at a Sonic Drive-in. Just saying.

And many more stories that have been posted at the blog.

MDU and Calumet Announce Diesel Refinery Joint Venture

Company's update on the progress of this project, undated but must be near completion. 

Yahoo!Finance is reporting that:

MDU Resources Group, Inc.  and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. today announced that they have formed a joint venture to develop, build and operate a diesel refinery in southwestern North Dakota. The joint venture will be called Dakota Prairie Refining, LLC.

MDU Resources Group’s participation in the joint venture will be through its wholly owned subsidiary, WBI Energy, Inc.

The facility will process 20,000 barrels per day of Bakken crude oil. Construction could begin this spring, and is expected to take up to 20 months. The plant will be located on a 318-acre site located west of Dickinson in Stark County, N.D. It will employ approximately 100 people. Hiring and training of operating personnel is expected to begin in 2013. The plant will employ its own plant manager and management team, who will report to a governing board composed of representatives of WBI Energy and Calumet.

An earlier post will help you locate the new site on Google maps and its relationship to a crude-by-rail oil loading terminal.

Reuters reports the story, also. 

"Construction of the refinery could begin this spring and is expected to take up to 20 months," the two companies said in a statement, adding that the engineering and plant designs were in their final stages.

Oil production in North Dakota has jumped to 730,000 bpd from just over 100,000 bpd in 2006, primarily due to Bakken output, making it the second-largest oil-producing state after Texas.

The abundant supply has depressed crude prices, reinvigorating business for refiners that can access the crude, primarily in the Midwest.

Diesel demand in the state has soared along with shale development due to huge consumption by trucks coming to and from the Bakken fields, prompting a company called Dakota Oil Processing in 2011 to announce plans to build and operate an identically-sized refinery also producing just diesel in Williston, about 100 miles north of the Dakota Prairie plant. A 20,000 bpd refinery is modest, and only two refineries of such a size have been built and opened in the United States in the past 35 years - both in Alaska.

Update, added February 8, 2013, 10:03 a.m.:

For newbies: anything indented following a linked article is a "cut and paste" from the linked article. It is not my original writing. It is from the linked article.

I point this out because someone noted that the last paragraph above (in the indented portion) implies that Dakota Oil Processing was "late" to the scene, coming in after MDU-Calumet began the process of building a diesel refinery in North Dakota.

In fact, it was just the opposite to the best of my knowledge. I happened to meet, entirely by accident, one of the early program managers for the Dakota Oil Processing plan for their Trenton (near Williston) diesel refinery. DOP was one of the early ones to notice that diesel was in very, very short supply in the Bakken.

So, for the record, and for the archives, it is my understanding that DOP led the way for a diesel refinery in the Bakken.

By the way, I think the blog reflects that, also: stories about the Trenton refinery were posted a lot earlier than the MDU refinery story.

And, of course, somewhere in the mix is the Fort Berthold refinery which has been on the drawing board since General Custer first rode through the area.

Eleven (11) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Bakken Operations

 
Active rigs: 184 (nice; up)

Eleven (11) new permits --

• Operators: CLR (4), ERF (2), Petro Harvester (2), EOG, Whiting, Oasis
• Fields: Columbus (Burke), Parshall (Mountrail), Sanish (Mountrail), Mandaree (McKenzie), Hayland (Divide), North Tioga (Burke)
• Comments: see below

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

Testing the lower benches of the Three Forks formation:

The four (4) CLR permits are for section 1-160-96 in Hayland oil field in Divide County. This now makes twelve (12) new permits for CLR Tangsrud wells. See original Tangsrud / Hayland oil field post.

Soybeans: More Good News For North Dakota

First, some background. North Dakota ranks 9th in US state rankings for soybeans (2011 data).

Now this: worldwide shortage of soybeans, a 48-year low:

Dry weather and shipping delays in South America are boosting demand for soybeans from the U.S., the world’s largest grower and exporter, and producing the tightest inventories in almost five decades.

Stockpiles will shrink to a nine-year low of 130 million bushels on Aug. 31, before the next U.S. harvest, according to the average of 31 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Reserves will total 4.2 percent of demand, the lowest since 1965, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. The USDA will update its estimates tomorrow.

And so it goes. 

A Reader's Comment on CLR, Decline Rates, EURs

The following came in as a comment to another post from a reader. I was simply going to link the comment for those who might not see comments, but the comment was so well done, I thought I would place it here as a stand-alone post for wider coverage.

For CLR, the company that started developing the Cedar Hills Red River continuous dolomite with horizontal drilling in Bowman County almost 30 years ago, just keeps chugging along. Nothing flashy.

When Leigh Price offered there may be over 500 billion barrels in the Bakken I’m sure there was much skepticism. Today Harold Hamm says 80% more than that. Also something that has made Cedar Hills successful is the results of secondary recovery. CLR once again has a lot of experience in this area but has made no attempt on this effort in the Bakken that I am aware of.

They are still advancing their position with drilling and fracing as witnessed by the wells listed below in sections 28 and 29 of 146/96. The Bice 1-29H was one of the first TF wells drilled by CLR. The Bice 2-29H was part of an effort to determine if there was communication between TF and MB. The Hartman 1 and 2 were drilled about 1 ½ miles to the east of the Bice wells with Hartman 3 and 4 located between the earlier drilled two sets of wells.

I have no background or education to comment on the information below but looking at the data makes for some interesting head scratching. After three (3) years Bice 2 and Hartman 1 are almost ½ way to your estimated recovery. Hartman 3 and 4 are off to a much better start.

16943 TF Bice 1-29H completed 5/9/8 IP 516 BO 1st 30 days approx 8,600 cum to date 124,817
17530 TF Hartman 1-28H comp 11/10/09 IP 780 1st 30 days approx 15,600 cum 174,702
17884 MB Bice 2-29H comp 12/21/09 IP 147 1st 30 days (over 3 mo) approx 15,000 cum 188,404
21524 MB Hartman 2-28H comp 5/16/12 IP 732 1st 30 days approx 17,100 cum 86,181
23212 TF Hartman 4-28H comp 11/14/12 IP 1,656 1st 30 day approx 28,566
23213 MB Hartman 3-28H comp 11/13/12 IP 1,703 1st 30 days approx 29,711

I have full confidence in CLR’s estimated recovery rates. I am confident that when they have some fully drilled out units and introduce secondary recovery the recovery rates will go up and the decline rates will go down. Just as they have done in Cedar Hills.

Those better IPs really are impressive (Hartman 3 and 4 compared to Hartman 1 and 2, Bice 1 and 2). 

Enquiring Minds Want To Know -- Random Notes From Another Planet -- Page 3

Click here for page 5
Click here for page 4

Click here for page 2

Click here for page 1

March 1, 2013: after this post, I will be starting a page 4 of this highly popular segment of the MillionDollarWay. This should get everyone's attention. The site is actually inside Williston city limits according to the NDIC GIS map servers, in the northwest corner of Williston, and the northwest corner of section 15-154-101.  I believe this information is not new: this BEXP site has been discussed before. But it will be very, very interesting to follow. It appears Google maps now shows the pad. It is almost exactly two miles west of where the Williston bypass intersects "2&85" north of Williston. Compared to other single well pads in the immediate area it seems to be about two- to three-times larger.  There is currently one 4-well pad, three of which are on DRL status and run south; the fourth is still confidential. 

February 26, 2013: an enquiring mind wonders why a well has been placed on inactive status after only a few months of production. There are four wells on this pad; all wells look quite nice; one looks very nice. The scout ticket shows them all without a pump (F). My hunch is that now that all wells are in, CLR is ready to start putting in pumps. 

February 26, 2013: a reader inquired about a recent permit for a microseismic array. Perhaps this thread will develop into something. By the way, the microseismic arrays are one reason the Bakken has been so successful.

February 25, 2013: this is an interesting data point -- the price point for a multi-well pad in the Bakken. The writer at the link suggests $8,000 / 5-acre single well pad was what he remembers from a few years ago. He is curious what current multi-well pads "go for."

February 19, 2013: an enquiring mind asked about production number for two Big Bend wells; provided. 

February 19, 2013: an enquiring mind is looking for production data for five wells. It would be a lot easier if permit numbers/file numbers would be provided. Having said that, three of the wells are "Oil for America" wells and are "dry" for all practical purposes. The Sharon well had an IP for oil of "zero." The fifth well, an SM well, had an IP for oil of 23.

February 14, 2013: Yesterday I noted three interesting threads over at the Bakken Shale Discussion Group.

The third of the three, regarding 160-acre spacing in the Parshall oil field just got more interesting. It is important to note that I am not saying this is 160-acre spacing, others are saying it.

From that thread that started the discussion:

The first 160-acre spaced wells in the Core area, the Wayzetta 022-1509H and 149-1509H, had maximum rates of 1,185 and 1,265 Bopd, respectively.

• 22703, conf, EOG, Wayzetta 22-1509H, the well file shows this well to be on a 1920-acre spacing unit, going through three sections, 9/10/15-153-90. The well is still on confidential, so Larry must have source of information to provide an IP. 
• 22704, conf, EOG, WAyzetta 149-1509H, the well file shows this well to parallel #22703 -- 1920-acre spacing through the same sections, 9/10/15-153-90; the well file includes a drilling report suggesting this well has been drilled, waiting completion at time of filing. The well is still on confidential, so Larry must have a source of information to provide an IP.

February 14, 2013: an interesting question, five years into the boom, and I quote verbatim, the subject: "lawers of oil." The question: "we were hearing about diferent lawers of oil , above and below the backen , what has been the decission to drill for these lawers of oil ? or are they draining to towards the backen so need for more drilling?" Sort of reminds me of a question that was asked earlier.

February 10, 2013: this will be an interesting thread to follow. The thread has gotten a bit off-topic from how it started, but it will shed more light on the Bakken. An enquiring mind noted that a Three Forks well produced a bit of oil initially, and then no more oil, but only natural gas. Another voice who seems to know what's going on suggests that "fracking into a gas cap" is unlikely since "shales & 'shale-like' reservoirs don't have gas caps in the conventional sense.  So, something to follow.  I have seen this once before in the Bakken.

The discussion relates to this well:

• 21484, 1,483, BR, Bartlett 31-16TFH, t9/12; cum 2K 12/12; with the following production:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	12-2012	31	0	0	0	2841	0	2836
BAKKEN	11-2012	30	0	0	0	85288	0	85283
BAKKEN	10-2012	31	0	0	0	88133	0	88133
BAKKEN	9-2012	14	1961	1924	0	0	0	0

February 7, 2013: update: my answer was incorrect; the unusual spacing unit was due to the boundary of the National Park; my explanation following is incorrect;  an enquiring mind noted an unusual spacing unit. The Bakken spacing unit for the following wells are noted, according to the NDIC GIS map server, to be a 1600-acre spacing unit encompassing sections 5, 8 and the northeast half of section 17-140-100. There are several1600-acre spacing units on the GIS map server and there are 1700-acre spacing units that are similarly unique. The odd-shaped spacing units allow the spacing unit to fit inside a designated oil field. The NDIC had a couple of options: change the boundaries of the oil field, or designate a unique spacing unit that fits the existing the oil field. It makes a lot more sense for the oil company / the NDIC to simply "fit" the well into the boundaries of the existing oil field. There are two wells in this peculiar-shaped spacing unit:

• 24236, drl, Whiting, Babeck 31-5PH, Park,
• 24237, drl, Whiting, Babeck 41-5PH, Park,

The spacing unit is interesting, hardly unique, and easily explained. [Again, I'm wrong, but we got the answer: it has to do with the National Park boundary. A huge "thank you" to "anonymous" for the explanation. From my perspective, it seems the unusual spacing was not capricious or arbitrary, but has a reasonable explanation. ] 

Bakken and Rail -- Cut and Paste From An Earlier Post This Morning

The Bakken on CNBC: A talking head on CNBC, about 6:45 a.m. talked for quite some time on the Bakken and rail, despite the fact that the segment was not expected to be centered on the Bakken. Don might be able to find the video for me later; if so, I will post it. --> Don found the video -- here it is.

An unrelated note: National Weather Service -- update for Boston's winter storm of the century. Earlier I thought I had misheard, but I guess I had not: for Boston, this could be one of Boston's top five winter storms and could dump as much as 3 feet on Boston. Snow is start falling in the general area this afternoon, but that's probably higher elevations farther west.

WSJ Op-Ed: The Unscary Sequester -- At The End Of The Day: A Jobs Bill For Washington, DC

Updates

March 27, 2013: SecDef, Chuck Hagel, has found a way to drastically cut the number of days defense department civilians need to be furloughed. Meanwhile, the White House tours remain canceled and the President and his family are on vacation in the Bermudas.

March 24, 2013: we don't have enough money for White House tours due to the sequester, but we have $500 million for the Palestinians.  $500 million would pay for 140 years of White House tours. Actually more because until the 2nd through 140th year-money would be needed, it could be invested in GE stock, paying 3.3% dividend, and potential for share appreciation over those 140 years.

March 22, 2013: the USAF Academy cancels "Fourth of July" celebrations due to sequester. And so it goes. As Commander in Chief, the president could override this. His silence on these matters is deafening. But, somehow, I think the Academy will survive. In fact, a lot of the freshmen will be very, very happy to see the celebrations brought to a halt. Who do you think provides all the physical labor required? It certainly is not the general officers or the faculty.

March 13, 2013: What's wrong with this picture? Due to the sequester, ICE either needs to furlough some agents, or release some detainees. So, they release the detainees.  ICE releases 2,000 detainees, but can't provide the exact number, after telling Congress the actual number would be in the "hundreds." Among those released were some considered to be "violent" offenders. Due to congressional uproar, ICE has now gone back out and "re-captured" four of those "violent" offenders. The Washington Times reports, March 14, 2013.  It's hard for me to believe that the federal government is run so absolutely "close" that 2% spending cut results in so many folks being furloughed. Maybe a pay cut would have been just as effective.

March 4, 2013: how phony is the sequester? Day 1 of the budget cuts -- the sequester is already causing delays at airports -- White House. 

March 3, 2013: Democrats, themselves, say they bet wrong on tax increase earlier in the year; said they were surprised that GOP was so intransigent.

March 3, 2013: before the sequester order was signed, the president suggested a "doomsday" for much of America. Now that the order has been signed, well, maybe not so much. I think I will go out to the airport tomorrow and see if the lines are twice as long as suggested/predicted by the White House.

March 3, 2013: The original post stated the sequester was simply about jobs in Washington, DC. NBC didn't say it leading up to the order, but now that the president has signed the sequester order, NBC News is reporting that DC (as in Washington, DC) will take the brunt of the budget cuts. 

March 3, 2013: Sequester. What sequester? SecState Kerry hands out $250 million to Islamic/15th century Egypt.

March 3, 2013: the White House admits it -- the White House initiated discussion on instituting a sequester. A day late and a dollar short.

Original Post

I normally don't do this -- a stand-alone post from the WSJ, but I need to have a central clearing post for all the stories between now and the end of March on the "sequester." Also, I need to get serious about the "sequester" and learn more about it.

First of all the "sequester" is not a "nor'easter." According to wiki: A nor'easter is a macro-scale storm along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. A nor'easter is expected this weekend.

A sequester is, in this case, a cut in government spending. Which won't happen.

Some data points from the op-ed: 

The president first proposed the sequester in 2011.

Fact check:

In the debate, Obama said he didn’t propose sequestration, Congress did. (We asked the White House for comment, but didn't hear back.)

To determine the question of ownership, we turned to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s new book The Price of Politics.

Woodward’s reporting shows clearly that defense sequestration was an idea that came out of Obama’s White House. But the intention was to force Republicans to negotiate, not to actually put the cuts into effect. [By the way, that's how I remember it also: it was a "threat" that if the White House didn't get is way it would sequester DOD funding.]

Woodward summarizes the thoughts of the Obama team: "There would be no chance the Republicans would want to pull the trigger and allow the sequester to force massive cuts to Defense." Democrats, meanwhile, didn’t want to see their favorite domestic programs cut.

The domestic cuts through the sequester will be less than the blowout for Hurricane Sandy relief. But the accounting is in the fine print.

Fact check:

Government relief for Hurricane Sandy: $50 billion.

The sequester is estimated to cut $85 -- the op-ed. Half would come from defense and half from domestic discretionary spending. That's where the phrase "the sequester will be less than the blowout for Hurrican Sandy relief." But a lot of defense spending will impact domestic spending.

So, a wash.

Medicare providers would take 2% cut.
The government has been trying for years to cut reimbursement to Medicare providers. In the most recent round, the providers won. Taxpayers lost.

Bottom line: total discretionary domestic spending is up about 30% over 2008 - 2013. The sequester would "claw that  back by all of about 5%." Five percent of the 30% or back to 25% -- not sure exactly what is meant by "all of about 5%." But I don't think it's important.

This is all about jobs in Washington: From the op-ed: the sequester will surely require worker furloughs and cutbacks in certain nonpriority services. But most of those layoffs will happen in the Washington, DC, area, the recession-free region that has [recently boomed].

********************

The DOD 2013 budget is $614 billion. This does not include $88 billion for overseas contingency operations which include Afghanistan and Iraq.  Most of the defense sequestration could probably be taken out of overseas contingency operations and delays in some major projects and no one would notice the difference.

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My first takeaway now that I now the difference between a sequester and a nor'easter: if the sequester affects the stock market adversely, it will be based on emotion, not fact.

WSJ Op-Ed: The Unscary Sequester

I normally don't do this -- a stand-alone post from the WSJ, but I need to have a central c

Thursday Morning Links

WSJ Links

Section D (Personal Journal): museum review, Spirits of the Passage: The Story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, The Frazier History Museum, through June 15; a dispassionate examination of the business of slavery, stripped of any moral or political commentary.

Section C (Money & Investing): nothing of interest. Crude oil supplies were reported at the blog earlier.

Section B (Marketplace):
Boeing tries a fix for 787

US coal steams offshore: us coal exports are surging to Europe -- many, many story lines (Europe leads discussion on global warming; Europe's experience with wind and solar energy; if the US ports on the West Coast -- e.g., Portland, OR, -- don't want to ship coal, the US ports on the East Coast will)

Oklahoma City fears an end to Chesapeake's largess

Idaho seeks to tax the cloud; says web services are subject to sales taxation

Section A:

Page 3, and we've talked about page before: library that holds no books; my home county plans to open facility that will offer users only digital editions; huge story; almost the entire third page, with lots of photos; this will open on the south side of the city; the article doesn't have the exact location, but says the Casa del Kabob is located nearby; if so, this library will truly be on the South Side. I am impressed. The South Side has complained for a long time that there are no bookstores located there; predominantly Hispanic; probably a huge under-count in the census in this area;

I'll save the op-ed, "The Unscary Sequester" for a stand-alone post.

First Time Unemployment Claims -- Drop 5,000

Remember: the magic number is 400,000

Prior: 368
Revised: 371
Consensus: 360
Actual: 366

The four-week moving average has dropped to 350,500.

Source

So, before we see the Bloomberg, Reuters, AP stories, this narrative:

Last week's numbers were revised UP, from 368,000 to 371,000.

The consensus was that the number would improve, that the number would drop 8,000, to 360,000. It dropped but not quite that much; it dropped to 366,000, better than the revised. So, this will be reported as great news. Happy days are here again.

Later: okay, here's the Reuter's spin:

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week and a trend reading hit a near five-year low, pointing to ongoing healing in the labor market.

On-going healing.

It's on-going.

But I wouldn't call it healing.

Thursday Links -- Wells Coming Off Confidential List Have Been Posted

Updates

March 25, 2013: Homeland Security buying another 360,000 rounds of ammunition; refuses to talk about it. Remember: the fall of Rome from fell within.

While the Department of Homeland Security continues to ignore members of Congress demanding to know why the federal agency is engaged in an apparent arms build-up, the DHS has just announced it plans to purchase another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition to add to the roughly 2 billion bullets already bought over the past year.

March 11, 2013: Homeland Security buying another 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. 

Original Post

Wells coming off the confidential list have been posted.

I missed the weather report, but I assume it will pop up again. I probably misheard, but I think there are some reports there could be as much as 3 feet of snow falling in some places in New England this Friday/Saturday. More sane/conservative estimates are 8" to 12" of snow for Boston.  Wow, this global warming is really playing havoc for the East Coast.

Again, another great article from RBN Energy. Today, a look at the explosive (pun intended) growth in US-exported liquid propane gas (LPG) -- leaving Texas/Louisiana to points south. I was surprised who the customers were. Be sure to read to the end of the article. I give OXY a lot of grief, but there's an interesting data point at the end of the article regarding OXY. And, now that I've brought up OXY, a reader sent me a note suggesting that OXY is moving by leaps and bounds out in California (think Monterey Shale). For investors, OXY has really trailed XOM and CVX share price appreciation over the past two years (according to Yahoo!Financial compare graphs).

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any decisions base on what you read at this site.

New link. A reader sent in a link to a new website. I've only looked at one graphic so can't say much about the site, but if this graphic is an indication is how good the site is, ChartsBin should be fun to explore. The site will be added to my "Data Links" page.

The Bakken on CNBC: A talking head on CNBC, about 6:45 a.m. talked for quite some time on the Bakken and rail, despite the fact that the segment was not expected to be centered on the Bakken. Don might be able to find the video for me later; if so, I will post it. --> Don found the video -- here it is.

WTI/Brent spread appears to be flirting with $21, according to the CNBC crawler. If so, this is the widest spread in quite some time. I follow the spread elsewhere. 

When others said the Boeing Dreamliner would be airborne soon after the initial grounding, I disagreed, suggesting this will be drawn out for quite some time. Now they are talking about "redesigning" the batteries or the battery reconfiguration. If so, this will not be overnight. Considering battery manufacturers have been working on "new" batteries for decades without a quantum leap for end-users, it's not good news when "they" start talking about battery re-design for a plane that was supposed to be flying by now. At the WSJ.

*********************

[Update: February 17, 2013: this is just plain weird -- gun dealers report shortages of ammunition at USA Today;

Gun shops are running low on ammunition from a run by customers fearful of potential gun-control legislation, according to gun retailers and customers.

And DHS purchases 21.6 million more rounds of ammunition, February 7, 2013, infowars.com]

This is just plain weird ... or scary: DHS buying billions of rounds of ammo.

An approximation of how many rounds of ammunition the DHS has now secured over the last 10 months stands at around 1.625 billion. In March 2012, ATK announced that they had agreed to provide the DHS with a maximum of 450 million bullets over four years, a story that prompted questions about why the feds were buying ammunition in such large quantities.

To put that in perspective, during the height of active battle operations in Iraq, US soldiers used 5.5 million rounds of ammunition a month. Extrapolating the figures, the DHS has purchased enough bullets over the last 10 months to wage a full scale war for almost 30 years.

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Meanwhile, a reporter at the LA Times is recommending that the USPS solve its monetary problems by a) converting their post offices to Starbucks-like coffee shops; and, b) become the national provider of high-speed internet e-mail. I can't make this stuff up. 

Capitalize on the Postal Service's commitment to communication and have it spearhead efforts for universal access to high-speed Internet service. The Federal Communications Commission already has declared this a national priority, so let's put the Postal Service in the driver's seat. 

Meanwhile, let's overhaul our antiquated post offices.

Follow the Starbucks example. Convert them into coffee shops that allow people to go online whenever they please. Sure, you could still mail a package or buy stamps. But you could also get a decent cup of government-brewed java and kick back with your tablet or laptop.

And the LA Times is paying this columnist? Next time you visit your local post office, imagine the staff operating a Starbucks coffee shop and trouble-shooting high-speed internet.