This Is Bloomberg

Obama's dangerous contempt for the rule of law.

.... we already have all the evidence we need to understand President Barack Obama’s fundamental attitude toward the rule of law. That evidence is right there in the public record, and what it shows is indifference and contempt. 

That was Bloomberg.

Others: impeached or not, the president will go down as one of the laziest (he has admitted that), most inept, and now, most vain president we've ever had, who felt he was above the law, and his contempt for the constitution was, well, pretty much, unprecedented. Some might argue President Nixon had more contempt, but if I recall correctly, he resigned.

Wells Coming Off The Confidential List Wednesday; Nuverra / Heckmann / Power Fuels To Ring Closing Bell On Big Board On Wednesday; Perhaps A First: All Seven Wells Coming Off Confidential List Go To DRL Status

23495, drl, CLR, Simmental Federal 3-16H, Elm Tree,
23608, drl, CLR, Charlotte 5-22H, Banks,
23833, drl, XTO, Lundin 44X-11C, Siverston,
23882, drl, XTO, FBIR Bird 31X-19H, Heart Butte,
23883, drl, XTO, FBIR Bird 31X-19D, Heart Butte,
24211, drl, SM, Jeglum 2-39HNA, Colgan,
24377, drl, CLR, Barney 3-29H-3, Brooklyn

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In case I forget to post this later tomorrow, Power Fuels is part of Nuverra:

Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Inc., one of the largest companies in the United States dedicated to the removal, treatment, recycling, transportation and disposal of restricted solids, fluids and hydrocarbons, today announced that Mark D. Johnsrud, Chief Executive Officer, and Jay C. Parkinson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will ring the Closing Bell® at the NYSE on May 29 to commemorate the Company’s recently completed name and ticker symbol change to Nuverra Environmental Solutions and NES, respectively.

The Closing Bell will ring at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time and can be viewed live on the NYSE’s website at https://nyse.nyx.com/the-bell/todays-bells-live

 Power Fuels --> Heckmann --> Nuverra.

Offices in Beach, Dickinson, Minot, Stanley, Tioga, Watford City (HQ office) and Williston.

Cool, huh?

This Is Why Bloomberg Wants To Ban 16-Ounce Drinks

The New York Post is reporting:

“He eats lunch when he arrives at work at 2 p.m. Then, like clockwork, he goes to sleep with a cup of soda on the table and the straw in it,” said Marvin Robbins, a union vice president.

“Then he wakes up, looks at his watch and says, ‘I have to get out before the traffic gets bad.’ He’s usually out by 4 p.m. after being at the office two hours.”

ObamaCare will arrive when he most needs it.

Appears to be about 45 years old.

Magellan Eyes EOR Project West Of Williston

The Oil & Gas Journal is reporting:

Magellan Petroleum Corp., Denver, said it could eventually add 50 million bbl of oil reserves to its books by bringing an existing oil field at Poplar, Mont., to full-scale carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery operation.

First step in this process is a CO2-EOR pilot program that Magellan plans to begin this summer with five new wells. The pilot could cost as much as $20 million, the company said.

The evaluation period will take 12-24 months, after which the company hopes to move to a full-field development.

Poplar, MT, is 75 miles due west of Williston.

The link for the Poplar oil field (thank you, Don).

I assume if they add 50 million bbls of their reserves, the CEO will start calling this a "popular" oil field.

A Random Post On Labor Force Statistics For North Dakota

Statistics from North Dakota Labor Force. (Link provided by a reader; I would have missed it.)

Comments from the reader:

Some interesting stats for the month of May (probably April but posted on the site in May).

Williams county is the 8th largest county in the state by population, but yet has the 3rd largest workforce in the state by county.

Williams county beats out Grand Forks and Ward by 7,000 to 10,000 and less than 4,000 under Burleigh county. Pretty impressive numbers to say the least.

Four (4) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; KOG And XTO Each With A Nice Well

Active rigs: 186 (steady)

Four (4) new permits --

• Operators: Hess (4)
• Fields: Antelope (McKenzie)
• Comments:

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

Four (4) producing wells completed:

• 23745, A, True Oil, True Federal 31-32, Bowline, Red River Pool, t5/13; cum  --
• 23745, 204, True Oil, True Federal 31-32, Bowline, Birdbear Pool, t5/13; cum  --
• 24405, 2,367, KOG, P. Thomas 153-98-5-3-2-1H, Truax,  t4/13; cum --
• 24104, 2,380, XTO, Stenberg 14-10SWH, North Tobacco Garden,  t4/13; cum --
• 22984, 640, OXY USA, Schafner 1-29-32H-142-95, Manning, t3/13; cum 8K 3/13;

Random Update On Eagle Ford Production For March, 2013

Updates

May 29, 2013: Article at SeekingAlpha with more depth, background.

The big picture here is that EOG and COP pump roughly 50% of the total production from the fastest growing and arguably the most economical shale play in the US: the Eagle Ford. More importantly, a recent EOG slide shows that while the Bakken's rate of production growth appears to be slowing, Eagle Ford production growth is still on an upward trajectory.

 [Wait until water becomes an issue. Smile.]

Original Post

From Yahoo!In-Play:

5:33 PM Oil production in Texas’ Eagle Ford shale formation rose 77% Y/Y in March, yielding more than 529K bbl/day and posting a record. The number could still go higher; February output was revised to 511K bbl/day from the preliminary report of 471K. EOG Resources is the largest Eagle Ford leaseholder, with 639K net acres, followed by Chesapeake and Apache.

CLR in the Bakken:

• ~ 1.1 million net acres
• 1Q13: net Bakken production: 76,900 boepd; gross >100,000 boepd

[CLR's figures put there to help me put Eagle Ford production in perspective.]

My original post had an additional comment which was incorrect; an alert reader caught it; see comments. That incorrect statistic has been removed. A big "thank you" to the reader for catching that.

The Next Big Thing: New Poll -- What Is The Future Of The US Post Office?

The LA Times is reporting: US Postal Service "on its last legs"--

But his future, and that of the U.S. Postal Service, is in doubt. The Postal Service lost $1.9 billion between January and March, and $15.9 billion last year. The 238-year-old institution loses $25 million each day, and has reached its borrowing limit with the federal Treasury. Daily mail delivery could be threatened within a year, officials say.

And it goes on:

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has reduced staff, consolidated mail facilities and lowered express delivery standards in an effort to cut spending. But the savings have not been enough to match the drop in revenue.

"We are in real trouble, and we need comprehensive postal reform yesterday," Mickey Barnett, chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, told a congressional committee last month.

The Postal Service is a government corporation, which means it is organized like a business yet subject to congressional oversight. Consequently, reform is difficult, said Mike Schuyler, a fellow at the Washington-based Tax Foundation who has studied postal issues for nearly two decades.

Some argue that it's a manufactured crisis with the requirement that the USPS "pre-fund" its health care program for retirees 50 years in advance.

This is an old story and getting older. The USPS reached its borrowing limit some time ago, and yet nothing seems to have changed. The USPS is an independent agency of the US government (whatever that means), according to wiki.

Is the USPS too big to fail?

Behind closed doors in Washington folks are working on plans to keep the USPS afloat. No doubt the first data point folks are shown on the PowerPoint presentations:

Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads."

No doubt the second data point folks are shown:

The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 abolished the United States Post Office Department, a part of the cabinet, and created the United States Postal Service, a corporation-like independent agency with an official monopoly on the delivery of mail in the United States. Pub.L. 91–375 was signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where this is headed. I think before the end of the current administration, there will be serious talk of making the postal service part of the federal government again, either at cabinet level, or more likely absorbed by one of the existing departments, most likely the Department of Homeland Security or less likely, the Treasury Department.

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NEW POLL

Time for a new poll, mostly because I'm just tired of seeing the same poll day after day.

First the results of the current poll in which readers were asked, which will occur first:

• decision on the Keystone XL: 44%
• serious discussion of impeachment: 56%

Now, the new poll. The USPS is broke and getting "broker" every day. The USPS is "too big to fail."

There are only four options. Which is more likely?

• grand reform resulting in USPS solvency
• status quo (Congress keeps funding with continuing resolutions)
• reverts back to cabinet-level department of US government
• absorbed by another cabinet-level department (e.g., Homeland Security)

Tuesday Morning News and Links; On A Day That The Market Surges, ENB Is Down

Active rigs: 185 (steady, on the low side)

Wells coming off the confidential list are starting to be posted for the day.

RBN Energy: NGL storage issues while we wait for infrastructure to be put in place.

We’ve been talking about growing natural gas liquid (NGL) production in recent weeks from the Williston Basin, the Eagle Ford, the Northeast and other geographies.  We have also previously discussed the mismatch between NGL production growth and incremental domestic demand, but we have yet to answer the question: are we likely to run into storage issues with NGLs while we are waiting for infrastructure and demand side projects such as export terminals and petrochemical facilities to be built out?  Today we start a series of blogs examining regional storage capacity and the mismatch between expected U.S. NGLs supply - an incremental 1.5 MMb/d between 2012 and 2018, and demand growth.  In today’s blog, we set the stage for the series and take a broad look at NGL Storage.

For investors only: ENB is down on a day when the market is surging. Why? Issuing preferred shares to raise C$300 million.  That represents about 1.4% of outstanding shares. With an operating cash flow of more than $3 billion, this doesn't seem like a lot of cash.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you read here. 

Red Cross or Salvation Army? Salvation Army. Hands down. Like a discount airline, the Red Cross seems more interested in collecting money than focusing on needs. Today, another story: much of Red Cross fund for Sandy aid still unspent. The AP is reporting:

Seven months after Superstorm Sandy, the Red Cross still hasn't spent more than a third of the $303 million it raised to assist victims of the storm, a strategy the organization says will help address needs that weren't immediately apparent in the disaster's wake.

Some disaster relief experts say that's smart planning. But others question whether the Red Cross, an organization best known for rushing into disasters to distribute food and get people into shelter, should have acted with more urgency in the weeks after the storm and left long-haul recovery tasks to someone else.

It certainly seems the Red Cross has the same philosophy as the Obama administration: never let a good crisis go to waste. Call me cynical.

Peak Oil: some interesting data points from an article at The Oil Drum:

• Germany will open more coal-fired power plants this year than at any time within the past twenty years
• in rough numbers, Germany has a peak demand of 85 GW of electricity with coal and lignite capacity of around 47.6 GW in 2011
• from then until 2015, an additional 10.7 GW of coal-fired plant will come on line
• Russia is closing in on a record post-Soviet oil production reaching a level of 10.49 mbd (the Soviet peak was 11.48 mbd in 1987)
• it is going to take a significant and ongoing investment in order for Russia to have any hope of sustaining those numbers 
• how close did the British come to running out of natural gas this past winter: 6 hours

US Postal Service "on its last legs" -- LA Times:

But his future, and that of the U.S. Postal Service, is in doubt. The Postal Service lost $1.9 billion between January and March, and $15.9 billion last year. The 238-year-old institution loses $25 million each day, and has reached its borrowing limit with the federal Treasury. Daily mail delivery could be threatened within a year, officials say.

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WSJ Links
Section D (Personal Journal):

• A house museum that oil riches built. 

Section C (Money & Investing):

• East coasters drive down gasoline demand.

• Invesco manager's death roils Texas investors.

Section B (Marketplace):

Section A:

• US oil boom divides OPEC (previously linked)

United States Environmental Services Sets Up Shop In Dickinson

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

United States Environmental Services, a company new to the Bakken, handles everything from routine cleaning of rigs to emergencies like spills and fires. The company has a shop in Dickinson and will soon be expanding into the Watford City/Williston area.

USES has been based in the Gulf of Mexico since 1996, and has a wealth of experience with maritime cleanup, especially with the Gulf oil spill in 2010 caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

I'm sitting in a Starbucks starting to blog for the day. Overhead and overheard is the McCartney song "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." When this song came out, I was selling books door-to-door in a suburb of New York City. It was the hardest job I ever had. It was tough. I could never do it again. I still occasionally have short moments of panic thinking about it. Smile.

It was unusual not to hear this song every morning while my colleague drove us to our starting points for the day.

The song brings back memories of a most memorable summer. That's where I met the love of my life -- and then the love of my life met the love of her life. And it apparently was not me. Smile. But, wow, the memories.

This is not a Beatles song. It is a song by Paul and Linda McCarney. From wiki: the first of a string of post-Beatles, McCartney-penned singles to top the US pop chart during the 1970s and 1980s.

Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Paul and Linda McCartney