Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Wells Coming Off Confidential List Thursday

19863, drl, Emerald, Mongoose 1-8-4H, Charbonneau, (remember, Emerald used to be VOG),
23131, drl, Hess, SC-Norman 154-98-3130H-5, Truax,
23650, 1,536, BR, Kkummer 31-30TFH, Blue Buttes, 2-sec spacing, t3/13; cum --
23667, 1,597, BR, Kummer 21-30TFH, Blue Buttes, 2-sec spacing, t3/13; cum --

Eight (8) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA -- Another 15 Petro-Hunt Wells Canceled Inside The Reservation

Active rigs: 189 (steady; at high end)

Eight (8) new permits --
  • Operators: SM Energy (2), Triangle (2), Whiting, Hunt, Legacy, Oasis
  • Fields: Sanish (Mountrail), Zahl (Williams), Red Rock (Bottineau), Poe (McKenzie), Cottonwood (Burke), Timber Creek (McKenzie)
  • Comments:
Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Producing well completed:
  • 23817, 975, Whiting, Brookbank State 44-9TFX, Sanish, t3/13; cum -- 
Fifteen (15) permits canceled, including eleven Petro-Hunt permits (on top of 22 yesterday); these were in McKenzie County, I believe all on the reservation. Others canceling: Cornerstone (3), Samson Resources (1)

KOG's Pilot Project

NOTE: the P Wood wells are updated at another post, click here

I can't remember if I ever posted this as a stand-along post. I buried it deep in another post, but can't remember if I made it a stand-alone post. At the risk of re-posting something, here it is, simply a "cut and paste" without editing:

March 1, 2013: very, very reliable source providing very, very interesting information. See Z-Man's input at this thread; looking for time-date stamp of 11:51 a.m., March 1: 
Re: the Polar - they're doing a 6 middle Bakken, 6 Three Forks pilot there (3 in the upper bench, 3 in the 2nd bench), wells 800 feet apart and in the TFS, 50' apart vertically ... testing communication on a bit bigger scale than they have in the past. Results by year end.
Over two years ago, one can find posts suggesting that the effectiveness of fracks in the Bakken suggested 500-foot separation. They're getting closer.
These are probably the wells Z-Man is referring to; this was taken from a post dated December 14, 2012:
With regard to the eight new KOG permits: all eight are in the same section - 27-154-98. There are already three other wells in this section, all on confidential status, which means that there will be eleven (11) wells sited in this section. So, these are the permits for this section:
  • 24374, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-14H, Truax,
  • 24375, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-14H3, Truax,
  • 24376, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-15H, Truax,
  • 24604, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13HB, Truax,
  • 24605, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13H3, Truax,
  • 24606, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13HA, Truax,
  • 24607, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-14H3, Truax,
  • 24608, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-15H, Truax,
  • 24609, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-16H3, Truax,
  • 24610, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-16H, Truax,
  • 24611, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-2-27-34-16H3A, Truax,
In addition to these, add these two:
  • 24649, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-34-14H, Truax, 
  • 24650, conf, KOG, P Wood 154-98-3-27-16-3H, Truax, (running north)

Another Green Energy Car Company Folds; Frac Daddy In the Kentucky Derby (40-1); Another Winter Storm (May, 2013); Keystone Kops In Boston, DC

The Oil & Gas Journal is reporting that this is the reason for falling crude prices: rising unemployment in Europe.
Oil prices fell Apr. 30 with crude dropping 1.1% in the New York futures market after the Euro-zone reported record high unemployment of 12.1%. There also was continued concern of possible US intervention in Syria.
Another green energy car company folds: Coda. Reuters is reporting
U.S. green car startup Coda Holdings Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday after selling just 100 of its all-electric sedans, another example of battery-powered vehicles' failure to break into the mass market.
The filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware will allow the Los Angeles company to exit the auto sector and refocus on energy storage, a far less capital-intensive business.
The company uses the same technology it used in cars to build systems for utilities and building operators to store power. A group of lenders led by Fortress Investment Group LLC plan to extend debtor-in-possession financing and will seek to acquire the company for $25 million through the bankruptcy process, Coda said in a statement.
Coda launched its five-passenger electric car in California a year ago, delivering a range of 125 miles (201 km) on a single charge. The $37,250 vehicle was criticized for its no-frills styling, and its short history also included a recall due to faulty airbags.
Must have been the no-frills airbags. They come inflated from the factory.  
Enbridge will build east Texas cryo plant. The Oil & Gas Journal is reporting
Enbridge Energy Partners LP, Houston, will build a 150-MMcfd cryogenic natural gas processing plant near Beckville in Panola County, Tex., the company has announced, estimating the cost of the project at $140 million.
Construction will begin in late 2013 with start-up by early 2015.
For newbies: the ONEOK ones in North Dakota are 100-MMcfd processing plants.
Looks like XOM's Kearl field not ready for prime time. Platts is reporting:
ExxonMobil has gotten its Kearl Canadian oil sands production off the ground, but you can’t say that yet about the other key component of such a project: the price.
Canadian crude, still pretty much a bottleneck despite all the projects in the pipeline, remains heavily discounted to US benchmark West Texas Intermediate. (That fact was driven home today in the Energy Information Administration’s weekly report, which reported record crude oil stocks of about 395.3 million barrels.)
ExxonMobil affiliate Imperial Oil spotlighted its struggles with Canadian prices during its recent earnings call. Its average Q1 bitumen realization was down 34% year-on-year at C$43.63/b. (The exchange rate with the US dollar has been mostly flat.)
However, the second phase of the project will necessitate the sale of some product to third parties. “We’ve got till 2015, ...."
Snowy spring breaks records across the US. Yahoo News is reporting:
The unusually frigid spring is the latest in a string of cold winters to hit Alaska during the 2000s. The Alaska Climate Research Center attributes the shift to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. This 20-year climate oscillation is in what is called a negative phase, meaning it is directing Arctic storms across Alaska.
Alaska isn't the only state with a record snowy spring this year. Wichita, Kan., had its seventh-coldest April on record, with record lows on April 23 and 24, according to the NWS.
And a storm moving through the Rockies this week is expected to drop up to a foot (30 cm) of snow in Denver, Cheyenne, Wyo., and the Great Plains, the NWS has forecast. Denver is already buried under 11 inches (28 cm) more snow than average for April.
No mention of global warming. Yahoo!News is reporting May Day storm also hit Colorado, Wyoming. :
South Dakota's largest city, Sioux Falls, got its first May snowfall in 37 years. A winter storm warning was also in effect for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The storm is welcome in Colorado and Wyoming because it boosts the snowpack that provides the region's water supply. Both states are in a drought but have benefited from several rounds of spring snow. However, the recent storms have largely missed southwestern Colorado, which remains dry and at risk for wildfires.
About 5 inches were forecast for Denver, where the snow was making the roads a sloppy mess. The snow wasn't sticking much to the pavement, still warm after recent temperatures in the 70s, but it clung to grassy areas and flowers.
Frac Daddy, from Billings, MT, is in the Kentucky Derby, May 4, 2013. Sent in by a reader; thank you. Next to the USGS 2013 assessment, this may be the biggest story of the week. Disclaimer: this is not a gambling site. Do not make any bets on what you read here or what you think you have read here.

More and more it looks like the Keystone Kops, from President Obama's Homeland Security and Immigration folks, down to the Boston Police Chief and his folks, looking for the bombers. Had this been an oil company, all hell would have broken loose, but as long as it's President Obama and his minions, the mainstream media will avoid asking the hard questions. The individual was less than 400 yards from where he abandoned the getaway car, and he was found AFTER the police chief gave the "all clear sort of" call.

Speaking of Keystone Kops, it didn't take long for Washington to pass a bill and the president to sign the bill ending FAA (air traffic controller) furloughs. Wow, that plan backfired -- the plan to make the sequester as painful as possible. I don't know who won: FAA or the public. I know who lost.

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With regard to the FAA furloughs. Some random, not-ready-for-prime-time thoughts:

This is a very interesting story. I don't think folks have thought about it much, except to say the whole FAA furlough thing was ridiculous. But it was much more than that.

This is a huge loss of President Obama.

He bluffed on the sequester; the GOP called him on it, and we end up with the President's sequester.

The president, we are told, told his staff to make the sequester as painful as possible, and air travel was probably the quickest, most visible way to do it, and THEY LOST. And they lost big. Not only did the president have to ban FAA furloughs, he did so most publicly because his own party had had enough. This was not the GOP that forced his hand. Harry Reid pushed this bill through so fast his staffers are probably still trying to find the original document for Harry to sign.

Who won? The FAA certainly won. And they won big. They asked for increased funding this past year and they got it, and when faced with a measly 2% cut, they held firm, and President Obama blinked.

Never again will the FAA have to worry about funding. They learned a lot since the Reagan presidency.

So, now, two big losses: a) the gun bill; b) the sequester. Sure, the sequester remains in effect, but wherever it "hurts" the 47% the most, the President will back down.

I think the FAA story is a huge story and the reason it moved so quickly was because the president's party did not want this story to get any traction. The story will be off the front page in less than a week.

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Some folks are already asking whether President Obama is a lame duck. (A reminder: he took the oath of office on/about January 20, 2013, for his second term; it is now May 1, 2013 less than five months into a 48-month presidency. It's going to be a long slog.)

In fact, President Obama may be worse than the "standard" lame duck. I think even when Bill Clinton was a lame duck (and to some extent George Bush) he was still liked by his party. In Bill Clinton's case, he was actively sought out to campaign for others.

Not only will Obama be a lame duck, he will be worse. Folks in his party running for office will run from him.

Obama may be seen more as a rabid skunk than a lame duck.

Record Road Construction In North Dakota This Summer: $900 Million Vs Previous Record of $600 Million (2011)

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:
The North Dakota Transportation Department is embarking on its largest construction program ever.
It calls for $878 million in road work, dwarfing the record of $590 million in 2011, said Grant Levi, acting DOT director.
“If you drive just about any major road this summer, you’re going to see construction,” Levi said during a Monday briefing to western North Dakota legislators.
Much of the construction will be in the state’s oil patch, where roads have been packed with trucks and other oil-related traffic.
The other day, someone wrote to tell me that man-camps were 30 - 40% unoccupied. Something tells me this is about to change. And the contractors will come out of Denver.

Platts Tweets; Recommendation For New Airport Siting; Trending/Technology

NYMEX June gas futures continue to rise on expectations of a third consecutive below-average storage injection of the season.

From this week's EIA weekly report: US commercial crude oil stocks finished last week at all-time high of 395.284 million barrels.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

Based on four "things": a) the location of the Dallas-Ft Worth Airport (DFW); b) George Dyson's Turing's Cathedral, c. 2013; c) the Midland-Odessa experience; and, d) the USGS 2013 assessment of the Bakken/Three Forks:
The new Williston international airport needs to be located somewhere near Alexander, North Dakota, preferably on the west side.
Unfortunately the three-letter IATA codes "OIL," "BKN," and "FRQ," are already taken, so the code may have to remain "ISN." I suppose "$$$" is still available.

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A Note For The Granddaughters

When I was younger, I was an early adopter. As I've aged, not so much.

Some random thoughts:

1) Converting YouTube videos (video/audio) to MP3 (audio only) and import into iTunes is incredibly easy and best thing since sliced bread, as we used to say.

2) Apple TV for $99.00. I would be hard pressed to find a better "anything" at that price.

3) Twitter.
I can take or leave Facebook. But finally, I "get" Twitter. I resisted Twitter .... until last week. I don't remember what made me look at Twitter again. But now I'm sold. I understand why Twitter will be the next big thing, if it isn't already. Twitter is very similar to The Drudge Report, pushing short "headlines" with links. The Drudge Report has two shortcomings, both of which it could resolve. With Twitter, the "headlines" are continuously flowing, unlike The Drudge Report that can go days without changing 90% of its content.

In addition, The Drudge Report cannot be tailored for one's preferences. Most of the links at Drudge I can do without. With Twitter I can tailor what I want to receive and I can easily follow/unfollow/tailor the tweet feed. 
There is talk that Apple could buy Twitter; I hope they do. I've never invested in AAPL and have no plans to start, but if Apple buys Twitter it will suggest that Tim Cook can still skate to where the puck will be, though much more of a delay in acquiring Twitter will be too late. If a late adopter like me loves Twitter it may be already too late.

Just How Bad Was the WTI/Western Canadian Select Heavy Crude Oil Discount?

The Oil & Gas Journal is reporting:
The price of Western Canadian Select (WCS) heavy crude oil rose from $58.38/bbl (US) in February to $66.73/bbl in March and about $68/bbl in April, reported the analyst, Patricia Mohr, in a commodity price report.
The WCS discount against West Texas Intermediate crude fell from a record high $36.94/bbl in February to $26.23/bbl in March, $23.07/bbl in April, and, based on futures values, $13.90/bbl in May. The WCS discount is growing again in June.
It is my understanding that it is more expensive to produce oil in the Canadian oil sands compared to the Bakken. 

Everyone has their own numbers, but my numbers: Canadian oil sands need $60 oil to make money; the Bakken operators can make money on $40 oil. Some say those figures are high.

Random Note: Increasing Digital Memory Density

Note To The Granddaughters

As mentioned over the past few days, I am really enjoying George Dyson's Turing's Cathedral, c. 2012.

I don't understand much of the technical stuff, but I'm getting better. It will be exciting to go through middle school, high school, and university with you so I can learn electrical engineering which I did not learn the first time going through life.

It is incredible how things developed with regard to the computer. When John von Neumann and friends were developing the computer back in the 1940's, from the very beginning, they divided coding into two major units: computation and storage. And that's the way it remains today.

It has been incredible to see how much memory "they" are now able to put on small SanDisks, for example, but here's a short video to show how researchers are looking to increase even that amount of memory density.

At the video, listen carefully at 2:15. The researcher says it takes one million atoms to store one byte of memory. In the technology at the video, the researcher says they can store one byte, or one unit, of memory using twelve -- repeat, twelve -- atoms.

OBSERVATION 2: Random Observations Regarding the USGS 2013 Assessment of the Bakken: The Four Benches of the Three Forks


Widely released yesterday were two USGS products: a four-page glossy and a 20-slide Power Point presentation. Both of them are linked at the this post.

Slide 6 of the PowerPoint Presentation shows the three sub-formations of the Bakken formation: upper, middle, and lower.

That slide also shows the "Pronghorn Member/Sanish Sand."

Interestingly enough, the slide does not show the four benches of the Three Forks. In fact, it does not even show the "upper" and "lower" units, though these are mentioned in passing in the glossy: "The Three Forks Formation reaches a maximum thickness of 270 feet in the central portion of the basin and is divided stratigraphically into lower and upper units, with variable oil saturations."

USGS assessments are based on the results of completed wells, past and present. At the time of the assessment, I would assume 90% of the Three Forks wells targeted the upper unit, and none targeted the deeper unit that Continental Resources refers to as the third and fourth bench. Indeed, it was only in the past month or so that the first well was successfully drilled into the third bench (and it is producing oil).

Looking For Answers In All The Wrong Places

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:
Yet there's something bizarre going on. Even as an estimated 130 million smartphones roam the U.S. streets, economists can't quite find them.
By that I mean they can't find how these mobile devices are improving worker productivity, which computers have been doing quite ruthlessly for the last 70 years. Productivity is the reason living standards rise. It's why we have more goods and services than our grandparents could imagine.
The official U.S. productivity numbers are low when compared with the stunning 3% yearly gains of the first Web era, roughly 1995 to 2004. In fact, annual productivity growth since 2004 is about 1.5%, below even the long-term average of 2.25%. It's as if a time-wasting flock of Angry Birds has buried productivity like a worm.
Perhaps the economists are looking for answers in all the wrong places.

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Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places, Johnny Lee

May 1, 2013: Global Warming Will Drop 6 - 9 Inches of Snow In Southern Wisconsin / Central Iowa / Minnesota

The National Weather Service is reporting (this may be a dynamic link; accurate at the time it was posted):
A COLD FRONT WILL STALL OVER SOUTHERN WISCONSIN INTO CENTRAL IOWA 
THROUGH TONIGHT. SEVERAL AREAS OF LOW PRESSURE WILL SHIFT NORTHEAST
ALONG THIS FRONT...
WORKING WITHIN A STRONG SURGE OF INCOMING COLDER AIR TO PRODUCE PERIODS 
OF MODERATE TO HEAVY ACCUMULATING SNOW OVER THE REGION...
MAINLY THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH MIDDAY THURSDAY. 

A WINTER STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT APPROXIMATELY 
WITHIN 50 MILES EITHER SIDE OF A LINE 
FROM RICE LAKE WI THROUGH THE TWIN CITIES METRO TO MANKATO TO BLUE EARTH. 

SNOWFALL RATES OF 1 TO 2 INCHES PER HOUR CAN BE EXPECTED 
MID TO LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND AGAIN OVERNIGHT TONIGHT...
WITH TOTAL AMOUNTS OF 6 TO 9 INCHES WITHIN THIS AREA. 

A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR 3 TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW 
ALONG A LINE FROM MORA TO BUFFALO TO REDWOOD FALLS IN MINNESOTA 
AND ALSO FROM CORNELL TO EAU CLAIRE TODURAND IN WISCONSIN. 
And so it goes.

KOG Reports A Nice Well On 320-Acre Spacing -- May 1, 2013

Permits

2014 (list is complete)
30020, loc, KOG,
30019, loc, KOG,
30018, loc, KOG,
30012, loc, KOG,
30011, loc, KOG,
29183, loc, KOG,
29182,  loc, KOG,
29181, loc, KOG,
29180, loc, KOG,
28076, conf, MRO,
28075, conf, MRO,

2013 (list is complete)
26063, 2,538, MRO, Swift Eagle USA 31-15TFH,
26062, 1,658, MRO, Two Crow USA 21-15TFH,
25898, conf, MRO, Azure USA 31-15H,
25897, conf, MRO, Chase USA 21-15H,
25738, drl, Enerplus, Sun 149-93-07D-12H,
25588, 2,750, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-33-28-4H3, t1/15;
25587, 3,465, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-33-28-4H, t1/15;
25586, drl, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-33-28-4H3A,
25585, 3,122, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-33-28-3H, t1/15;
25584, conf, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-33-28-3H3,
25583, conf, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-33-28-2H3,
25143, 950, Enerplus, Pygmy 147-93-18B-19H TF, a nice well, t12/13;
25142, 965, Enerplus, Pygmy 147-93-18B-19H TF, a nice well, t12/13;
24745, conf, MRO, Melvain Fox USA 14-4H,
24744, conf, MRO, Fox USA 14-1H,

2012
24058, conf, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-11-2-4H3,
24057, 1,570, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-11-2-3H3,
24056, 2,271, KOG, Moccasin Creek 14-11-2-3H,
23314, 1,224, WPX, Good Bird 36-25HA,
23313, 1,441, WPX, Good Bird 36-25HW,
23312, 690, WPX, Good Bird 36-25HB,
23311, 996, WPX, Good Bird 36-25HX,
23310, 1,365, WPX, Good Bird 36-25HZ,
23309, 1,140, WPX, Good Bird 36-25HD,
23308, 2,005, WPX, Blackhawk 1-12HD,
23307, 1,442, WPX, Blackhawk 1-12HZ,
23306, 1,508, WPX, Blackhawk 1-12HY,
23305, 1,480, WPX, Blackhawk 1-12HB,
23304, 1,444, WPX, Blackhawk 1-12HW,
23303, 1,697, WPX, Blackhawk 1-12HA,
23225, 2,169, KOG, Moccasin Creek 4-3-34-3H3,
23224, 2,473, KOG, Moccasin Creek 4-3-34-4H,
23085, 2,506, KOG, Moccasin Creek 16-10-3-3H3,
23084, 2,129, KOG, Moccasin Creek 16-10-3-3H,
22465, 2,095, KOG, Moccasin Creek 16-26-27-13H3,
22462, 1,941, KOG, Moccasin Creek 16-26-27-12H,
22432, 250, WPX, Paul Peter Coffee 35HD,
22431, 380, WPX, Paul Peter Coffee 35HA,
22430, 258, WPX, Paul Peter Coffee 35HC,

2011
21219, 401, WPX, Black Hawk 1-12H,
21111, conf, Enerplus, Anna g. Baker 6b-7-2H TF,
20974, 730, MRO, Boy Chief USA 11-15TFH,
20932, conf, Enerplus, Rocket 147-93-08D-05-2H TF,
20931, conf, Enerplus, Copper 147-93-17A-20-2H-TF,
20644, 1,221, MRO, Good Bear USA 31-14H,
20642, 1,137, MRO, Good Bear USA 21-14H,
20608, conf, Enerplus, Venus 147-93-16B-21-2H TF,
20606, conf, Enerplus, Saturn 147-93-09C-04-2H,
20405, 803, MRO, Boy Chief USA 11-15H,

Updates

Original Post

23225, 2,169, KOG, Moccasin Creek 4-3-34-3H3, Moccasin Creek, spacing: W2; t2/13; cum 28K 3/13; Three Forks; 16 stages; 2 million lbs; all ceramics, I believe,

A quick (very quick) look at the NDIC GIS map suggests that the only (?) 320-acre spacing units are in the reservation. I haven't looked everywhere, but that's the first impression, and it won't be far off.

Fields with 320-acre spacing include, but not limited to, inside the reservation:
  • Squaw Creek (many units)
  • Spotted Horn (two units)
  • Mandaree (many units)
  • Reunion Bay (one such unit)
  • McGregory Buttes (many units)
  • South Fork (several units)
  • Heart Butte (several units, but not many considering how big the field is)
  • Moccasin Creek (four such units)
This is the only 320-acre spacing unit I see outside the reservation:
  • Bear Creek (one unit)

Wednesday Morning Links -- And For The Truckers -- Beam Me Up Scottie -- I'm Ready To Take My Place At The Helm Of The Enterprise

Active rigs: 189 (very nice; nice to see work for rough necks; truckers)

Beam me up Scottie, I'm ready to drive -- to take my place at the helm of the Enterprise....

Star Trucker, Slim Dusty
Play It Loud


RBN Energy: The California power market on natural gas; how the nuclear reactor story will play out

Jobs: expectation, a gain of 155,000; actual, a gain of 119,000. And so it goes. I assume this is a day for golfing for the president.

Walt Mossberg: guide to laptops; springtime buyer's guide; bottom line:
For a high-quality, traditional laptop without a touch screen, you can't do much better than a MacBook Air, if you have at least $999 to spend. On the Windows side, stick with touch screens and be prepared to spend nearly as much, or even a bit more. But if you can wait, come back in the fall.

WSJ Links

Section D (Personal Journal):

Section C (Money & Investing):

Section B (Marketplace):
Average daily circulation at the largest newspapers in the U.S. declined in the six months ended March 31 from a year earlier, but circulation at The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times rose. 
The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., maintained its position as the country's largest newspaper by average weekday circulation. The paper had an average weekday circulation of 2.4 million, including print and digital subscribers, as of March 31, up 12% from a year earlier, according to the latest figures from the Alliance for Audited Media. 
New York Times Co.'s flagship newspaper rose to the No. 2 rank, with 1.9 million weekday readers, up 18%, and continued to have the highest Sunday circulation in the U.S., at 2.3 million, up 16%.
The Times's circulation reflects gains in digital subscriptions. The paper had the largest digital circulation, at 1.1 million.
Gannett Co.'s  flagship USA Today fell to the No. 3 spot, with 1.7 million readers, a decline of 7.9% from a year earlier.
Perhaps more on this later.
Section A:
Miscellaneous

If heads don't roll at Homeland Security over the Boston Marathon bombings, it confirms my thoughts about the president. It seems "everyone" from Russia to Saudi Arabia was warning the US about the Boston Marathon bomber.  The president: we've won the war on terrorism; we will treat events as crimes, and we won't profile. If "push comes to shove," the Islamists have my back."

Here We Go: More Green Energy Bankruptcies

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:
When the New Energy Corp. ethanol plant in South Bend, Ind., was idled by its bankruptcy filing last November, people nearby hoped a buyer would restart operations, and not just for its 90 jobs. The plant had sucked six million gallons of water a day from the surrounding swamplands, and without its pumps, water pooled in nearby basements.
But the winning $2.5 million bid at the bankruptcy auction came from buyers who plan to sell the plant for scrap.
The South Bend facility was the country's first major ethanol plant when it opened in 1984, and now it could be the first to get dismantled after filing for bankruptcy. Several other small towns in the Midwest could face a similar scenario as the ethanol industry begins to emerge from one of the toughest markets in its three-decade history.
The U.S. needs roughly 13 billion gallons of ethanol each year because most gasoline sold in the country is blended with 10% ethanol under a government mandate. But demand for gasoline has been weaker since 2008 as people chose to drive less in the recession and prolonged economic recovery, leading to an oversupply of the fuel. Last year's Midwest drought, meanwhile, drove up the price of corn that plants need to brew ethanol.
U.S. ethanol production fell in 2012 for the first time in 16 years, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, forcing some ethanol plants to idle and take losses as they wait for the oversupply to ease.  
And so it goes.