Wells Coming Off The Confidential List Friday

21544, 2,496, GMX Resources, Akovenko F24-34-2H, Ranch Creek, t11/12; cum 14K 12/12;
22208, 823, EOG, Sidonia 45-0409H, Clear Water, t8/12; cum 36K 12/12;
22462, 1,941, KOG, Moccasin Creek 16-26-27-12H, Moccasin Creek, t1/13; cum --
22465, 2,095, KOG, Moccasin Creek 16-26-27-13H3, Moccasin Creek, t12/12; cum 9K 12/12
22791, 2,084, BR, Morgan 21-28TFH 3NH, Pershing, 4-section spacing, t1/13; cum --
23144, 484, Fidelity, Lee 19-20-29H, Sanish, t9/12; cum 26K 12/12;
23216, 783, WPX, Corn Stalk 20HC, Squaw Creek, t1/13; cum --
23254, 494, WPX, Coyote Necklace 24HD, Reunion Bay, t10/12; cum 58K 12/12; see below
23276, 921, Newfield, Darlene Federal 152-97-13-24-10H, Westberg, t1/13; cum --
23331, drl, QEP, MHA 1-03-34H-150-92, Heart Butte,
23349, 743, CLR, Sverdrup 1-36H, Frazier, t11/12; cum 28K 12/12; see below

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

23254, conf, WPX, Coyote Necklace 24HD, Reunion Bay:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
12-2012	16487	0
11-2012	17078	0
10-2012	23802	0

 23349, conf, CLR, Sverdrup 1-36H, Frazier:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
12-2012	18283	18576
11-2012	7855	0
10-2012	1506	0

#1 State For Young Adults: North Dakota -- Business Insider

Another #1 for North Dakota.

"While North Dakota may not be the first place you think of when it comes to youth culture, given how tough things are for young people these days, it might be wise to look somewhere off the beaten path," Barrington suggests.

"North Dakota's booming economy gave it very high marks across the board in economic categories, and it did just well enough in the lifestyle categories to grab the top spot."

Fourteen (14) Wells Sited in One Section; Four (4) Rigs Currently Operating In That Section

A reader noted:

Check out 27 154 98 in Truax field on GIS map server. Looks like 4 rigs on section 27. 

That is quite incredible. Four rigs in one section; one is drilling a salt water disposal well. Not counting that salt water disposal well, there are currently 13 wells sited (or will be sited) in this one section. 

The Washington Post Answers The Question: Why Move To North Dakota

Link here.

"Anon 1" had a better answer to "why would a Washingtonian want to move to North Dakota?"

A: To avoid a DC winter.

NASCAR's Daytona 500 Starting Line-Up

CRC sent me the link; I couldn't find it earlier. But here it is:

http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2013/02/21/daytona-500-starting-lineup.html

National Geographic Article on The Bakken

Several folks have sent in a link to the current issue of National Geographic featuring the Bakken.

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

Active rigs: 184 (nice, steady)

Nine (9) new permits --

• Operators: Oasis (3), Slawson (2), Bakken Hunter, Triangle, Petro-Hunt, Liberty Resources
  Fields: Crosby (Divide), Gros Ventre (Burke), Buffalo Wallow (McKenzie), Union Center (McKenzie), Big Bend (Mountrail), Pronghorn (McKenzie), Alger (Mountrail)
• Comments: The Pronghorn oil field is not near Whiting's Pronghorn prospect

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

More to follow; several nice producing wells have now reported initial production numbers.

CNBC Article On The Monterey Shale

The Bakken is still the gold-standard to which all new shale fields are compared.

Chevron not particularly enamored with the Monterey Shale.

CNBC is reporting:

Thousands of feet below some of the nation's most fertile farm land could be 15.4 billion barrels of crude oil.

Billion, with a "B".

The federal government believes the Monterey Shale, which lies under more than 1,750 square miles of central and southern California, has far more shale oil than anywhere else in the lower 48 states -- nearly four times the amount of the Bakken Shale in North Dakota.

But this is California. Nothing is easy. Accessing the oil will require hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, and even then it may be too expensive to be economical. Oil companies are quietly buying up mineral rights and drilling holes in the earth northwest of Bakersfield to see if they can get lucky.

"It's very different in California," said Gabe Garcia, who is an assistant field officer for the Bureau of Land Management in Bakersfield. He estimated there are 25 to 30 test wells on federal land drilling down as much as 14,000 feet into the Monterey Shale. Unlike North Dakota, the geology in California is impacted by tectonic plates - the rock is folded over - forcing the oil into hidden pockets.

This is most interesting:

Not all oil companies claim to see much potential. Chevron, which has been pumping oil conventionally in the area for over a century, told CNBC in a statement, "Chevron does not see the same level of promise in the Monterey Shale as other companies...we have not been encouraged by the results of the wells we have drilled into the formation."

In light of this: Chevron moving 800 California employees to Texas. 

With regard to the size of the Monterey Shale compared to the Bakken: USGS estimates about 4 billion bbls, but NDIC now estimates about 6.5 billion; and CLR estimated as much as 24 billion bbls of recoverable oil. 

Bakken Employers Are Becoming Landlords

Several folks have sent me this link. Bloomberg is reporting that Bakken employers are becoming landlords:

Mercy Medical Center has 50 out of 500 positions to fill at any given time, said Grimshaw, chief executive officer. When $5,000 sign-on bonuses offered to attract nursing recruits didn’t get enough takers, Grimshaw persuaded the parent company, Englewood, Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives, to build a $12 million, 68-unit apartment building near the hospital.

“We’re facing some of the greatest staffing challenges we’ve ever encountered,” Grimshaw said, sitting behind a desk piled with technical drawings and construction layouts. “This is a most unique situation really in America.”

Among Grimshaw’s staff is Jerry Freeman, a carpenter who moved from Spokane, Washington, in search of a stable job in the oil fields. Grimshaw wooed Freeman away from the rigs by arranging housing on the hospital campus for him and his wife, in a building once used by nuns and now shared with three other people. 

Lots more at the linked article. 

One reader who sent me the link and is building housing in the Bakken, noted:

The linked Bloomberg article doesn’t mention is the rate of return on adding an employee.

For example, one company in the Bakken: for every truck they added, the company added $40,000 to the bottom line -- per month.

Each apartment unit cost $120,000 to built.  The comany built 500.  The apartments were paid for in six (6) months.

That is the model everyone is realizing is the ticket.

A long, long time ago, I posted a note regarding BEXP. They built a neighborhood of single-family homes. They put in the water, sewer, utilities themselves because it would have taken too long for the city/county to put those services in.

DNR Reports 4Q12 Earnings

Press release here.

Denbury Resources Inc. today announced adjusted net income of $137 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, or $0.36 per diluted share. This compares to $127 million of adjusted net income, or $0.33 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2012, and $175 million of adjusted net income, or $0.45 per diluted share, for the prior year fourth quarter. Fourth quarter of 2012 net income was $115 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, on quarterly revenues of $603 million. This compares to net income of $85 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, on revenues of $595 million for the third quarter of 2012, and net income of $53 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, on revenues of $612 million for the prior year fourth quarter.

Adjusted cash flow from operations for the fourth quarter of 2012 was $316 million, but would have been $358 million if the increase in current income taxes related to the Bakken transaction were excluded. This compares to adjusted cash flow from operations of $350 million for the third quarter of 2012and $387 million for the prior year fourth quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities (the GAAP measure) was $385 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to $294 million for the third quarter of 2012 and $366 million for the prior year fourth quarter.

Beats, 36 cents vs 29 cents.

CHK Tops Estimates: 26 Cents vs 14 Cents -- Isn't That Almost Double What "They" Were Expecting?

Reuters is reporting:

Chesapeake Energy Corp reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street views on Thursday, helped in part by lower-than-expected expenses.

Shares of Chesapeake rose 2.5 percent before the start of regular trading.

The earnings report came a day after Chesapeake said an internal investigation of the financial dealings of its outgoing chief executive, Aubrey McClendon, found no "intentional" wrongdoing.

The Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, company posted a profit of $257 million, or 39 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $429 million, or 63 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding items, Chesapeake had a profit of 26 cents per share. Analysts, on average, had expected 14 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

First Talking Head On CNBC: No Concern About Jobless Claims Jump: Up 20,000; Four-Week Moving Average Worsens

OK.

Lat week's numbers revised up 1,000, to 341,000.

New jobless claims up 20,000 and thus we get back up to 362,000.

So, if the first talking head on CNBC says "not to worry," I can't wait to see how Reuters and/or Bloomberg spins this.

Remember: the magic number is 400,000

Talking head: QE5 right around the corner. The Fed minutes yesterday were a classic head fake. So, we'll see.

Reuters spin:

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but still remained at levels consistent with a steady improvement in labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 362,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected first-time applications to rise to 355,000. The increase in claims last week pushed them toward the upper end of their range for this year.

A blizzard that hit the East Coast late in the first week of February could have exaggerated the drop in claims for the week ended February 9.

Yep, the old blizzard excuse.

And, of course, boiler plate continues:

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, increased 8,000 to 360,750.

Minimal Blogging Today -- Traveling -- Huge Winter Storm Coming

Thought for the day.

Huge winter storm: 30 million in the path of "Q." Wow, the entire midwest including Missouri. It looks like quite a storm.

Global warming hits southern California: sub-freezing temperatures, strong winds to hit Los Angeles.

Strong winds and subfreezing temperatures are expected in inland and mountain areas across Southern California on Thursday in the wake of a winter storm that dumped snow and rain on the region.

Temperatures are expected to range from the upper 20s to low 30s from interior valleys in San Luis Obispo County to the Antelope, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys in Los Angeles County, according to the National Weather Service.

The frigid temperatures are a result of a cold, dry air mass. The agency said crops, sensitive vegetation and animals need to be protected. Frost advisories were issued for inland valley areas from the Central Coast to the San Gabriel Valley.

Thursday Links Continued -- Minimal Blogging -- Traveling

Reuters is reporting: Linn Energy is buying Berry Petroleum.

Oil and gas producer Linn Energy LLC said it would buy Berry Petroleum Co in an all-stock deal valued at $4.3 billion including debt, giving it more exposure to lucrative liquids that will help it raise production by 30 percent. 

Berry shareholders will receive the equivalent of about $46.24 per share, a 19.8 percent premium to the stock's closing price of $38.59 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Berry's profile from Yahoo!Financial:

Berry Petroleum Company, an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploitation, exploration, production, and development of crude oil and natural gas in the United States. Its principal reserves and producing properties are located in California, Texas, Utah, and Colorado. As of December 31, 2011, the company had working interests in 2,867 net productive oil wells and 282 net productive natural gas wells; and proved undeveloped reserves of 130.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. It sells its crude oil and gas to marketing companies or refiners. The company is also involved in the generation and sale of electricity to public utilities. Berry Petroleum Company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.