Wells Coming Off The Confidential List Over The Weekend, Monday; KOG Has A Nice Smokey Well; Whiting Has Another Huge Sanish Well; BR WIth Two Huge Wells

Monday, July 22, 2013

• 23500, drl, Hess, BB-Burk-151-95-0718-3, Blue Buttes, no data,
• 23534, 589, Liberty Resources, J. Garvin Jacobson 150-101-8-5-1H, Pronghorn, t2/13; cum 50K 5/13;
• 23601, 212, Baytex, Moe Trsut 33-28-160-98H 1BP, Skabo, t1/13; cum 21K 5/13;
• 24122, 2,968, BR, Blegen 44-24TFH, Blue Buttes, t6/13; cum --
• 24341, 2,803, BR, Waterton 44-32TFH, Keene, t5/13; cum 5K 5/13;

Sunday, July 21, 2013

• 20516, 211, KOG, Smokey 15-22-15-2HS, Pembroke, t12/11; cum 52K 5/13; 
• 23244, 911, CLR, Richmond 2-26H,  Brooklyn, t6/13; cum 4K 5/13;
• 23852, 1.036, Whiting, Peterson 34-35H, Sanish, t2/13; cum 42K 5/13;
• 23993, drl, Statoil, Johnston 7-6 7H, Banks, no data,
• 24323, 1,187, CLR, Raymo 3-31H, Clear Creek, producing; 9K first month; t5/13; cum 10K 5/13;
• 24351, 1,007, WPX, Stevenson 15-8HD,  Squaw Creek, producing; 13K first two months; t4/13; cum 14K 5/13;

Saturday, July 20, 2013

• 22760, 412, Zavanna, Rogers 1-12 1TFH, Foreman Butte, t6/13; cum --
• 24743, 28, Enduro Operating, MRPSE 19-13, Mouse River Park, t3/13; cum 3K 5/13;

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23534, see below, Liberty Resources, J. Garvin Jacobson 150-101-8-5-1H, Pronghorn:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
5-2013	9030	2040
4-2013	8485	0
3-2013	9177	0
2-2013	18115	0
1-2013	3785	0

 23601, see below, Baytex, Moe Trsut 33-28-160-98H 1BP, Skabo:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
5-2013	4514	0
4-2013	5024	0
3-2013	7215	0
2-2013	2650	0
1-2013	1364	0

 
20516, see below, KOG, Smokey 15-22-15-2HS, Pembroke:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
5-2013	30685	51345
4-2013	3592	1395
2-2013	1002	142

23852, see below, Whiting, Peterson 34-35H, Sanish:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
5-2013	9093	4818
4-2013	8922	0
3-2013	9638	0
2-2013	8838	0
1-2013	4724	0

That Needle In The Haystack

I'm still trying to locate the hype that folks say characterized the Bakken and the Eagle Ford.

From The Oil Drum, which is calling it quits:

Even drawing back the curtains of hype over the Bakken and Eagle Ford production [insert "LOL" here], which Rune and Art have so ably done, can only be written about at a certain low frequency before folk see it as repetitious.

Recoverable oil: the "hype":

The 1995 estimate of Bakken recoverable oil: 151 million bbls.

From the 2008 USGS report:

North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10 shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

From the 2013 USGS report:

The 2013 USGS report: doubled again to 7.4, and perhaps as much as 11.4, billion bbls. And this is a conservative estimate; it does not include the TF2, TF3, and TF4.

11.4 billion bbls is back where we were in 1974; see below.

Bonus paid for mineral acres in the Bakken:

1980s: $50/acre
2012: $14,000/acre 

Too many links to post regarding OPECs concern about burgeoning US shale oil production.

From wiki:

A landmark paper by Dow and a companion paper by Williams (1974) recognized the Bakken formation as a major source for the oil produced in the Williston Basin. These papers suggested that the Bakken was capable of generating 10 billion barrels (1.6×10⁹ m³) of oil (BBbls). Webster (1982, 1984) as part of a Master’s thesis at the University of North Dakota further sampled and analyzed the Bakken and calculated the hydrocarbon potential to be about 92 BBbls. These data were updated by Schmoker and Hester (1983) who estimated that the Bakken might contain a resource of 132 BBbls of oil in North Dakota and Montana. A research paper by USGS geochemist Leigh Price in 1999 estimated the total amount of oil contained in the Bakken shale ranged from 271 billion to 503 billion barrels (8.00×10¹⁰ m³), with a mean of 413 billion barrels (6.57×10¹⁰ m³).While others before him had begun to realize that the oil generated by the Bakken shales had remained within the Bakken, it was Price, who had spent much of his career studying the Bakken, who particularly stressed this point. If he was right, the large amounts of oil remaining in this formation would make it a prime oil exploration target.  

I don't see the hype. Some folks have been talking about 10 billion bbls of recoverable oil from the Bakken as far back as 1974, and it seems the current projections confirm that. As noted, the 2013 USGS survey estimates as much as 11.4 billion bbls.

And, of course, we don't even need to review

• the huge amount of money flowing into the Bank of North Dakota because of the Bakken
• the resurgence of the US rail industry because of the Bakken
• the re-emergence of at least three east coast refineries because of the Bakken
• the complete "re-alignment" of the US pipeline infrastructure because of the Bakken
• saving Canada's bacon -- the Tioga/Hess/ethane story -- all because of the Bakken

Call it hype, but every prediction seems to be coming true. Meanwhile, The Oil Drum calls it quits. Folks don't quit reading something because it becomes repetitious; they quit reading when it lacks credibility.

I believe the #1 book still sold in America is the Bible, and its message hasn't changed in 2,000 years.

That needle in the haystack: can anyone point me to a legitimate source that has predicted more than 11.4 billion bbls of technically recoverable oil form the Bakken, which is now the USGS's prediction (the high end of the range), other than the wiki references above?

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This does not make sense. This convicted felon is not allowed to have guns, but yet it sounds like someone wants him for killing a 4-y/o and he is now considered armed and dangerous. One would think that if he was not allowed to have a gun, this should not have happened. Of course, the bigger question is how does a 25 y/o become a felon and released from jail at such a young age? I guess the felony did not carry that big a sentence.

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

US food stamp program for Jamaicans, Haitians, and DomReps.

Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and packing them in giant barrels for the trip overseas, The Post found.

The practice is so common that hundreds of 45- to 55-gallon cardboard and plastic barrels line the walls of supermarkets in almost every Caribbean corner of the city.
The feds say the moveable feasts go against the intent of the $86 billion welfare program for impoverished Americans.

Peanuts.

Another Nice Essay By Jessie Veeder, A North Dakota Original

In The Dickinson Press. 

And some days it rains, like a 48-hour torrential downpour, and the dust turns into sloppy red mud as the water pools and makes rivers and rivets in the country roads.

And the Bakken Truck Parade slows down to chain up, wait it out or, you know, get stuck sideways across the road you take to get to your mailbox and up the hill to town where you have an appointment you would have been late for even without the rain and the 1-ton roadblock that, if you consider the physics and geometry of the situation, looks like it’s going to be a while.

Yes, some days not even four-wheel drive can help you get the groceries.

And then some days that four-wheel drive goes out on you in the middle of a similar monsoon-style thunderstorm at the beginning of the three-hour obstacle-course-style trip to Bismarck and you find yourself sliding sideways on what you were certain was a road yesterday but now, clearly, is a swamp.

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A New Martyr In America

A Note To The Granddaughters

There has been a lot said and written about the Zimmerman/Martin shooting/killing, and there will be more. I assume some of the middle school students I taught as a substitute teacher will come to school attired in tribute to Mr Martin, American martyr.

When I read the essay by Jessie Veeder, I remembered again the thought I had while driving into Starbucks this morning: there seems something "wrong" about the African-American community raising Martin -- a pot-smoking, high school dropout (or expelled) -- to sainthood.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, Trayvon Martin now becomes the face of the disenfranchised. Somehow, I think they (the disenfranchised) could do better.

I don't know how the neurons in my brain are so screwed up in wiring that somehow Jessie Veeder makes me think of the Zimmerman/Martin killing, but the killing has certainly become part of the my consciousness, if not the American consciousness.

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One nominee, I suppose for "face of the American disenfranchised, might be Mr Bojangles."  From The Los Angeles Times:

Among the dozen cars the Petersen [Automotive Museum] has already sold is a Duesenberg once owned by Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the African-American dancer and actor who often starred with Shirley Temple in pre-World War II movies. The museum plans to sell off an additional 107 vehicles worth millions of dollars in auctions that start Aug. 1.

"It was our decision that the car was not important to our collection," Meyer said when asked about the sale of Robinson's car in a brief interview. "We have other Duesenbergs to select from."

"Other Duesenbergs to select from."

I guess "they" missed the point. I could be wrong, but I believe the only African-American connection in this incredible automotive museum is the Bojangles-Duesenberg connection, and that was one too much.

Mr Bojangles, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Go-Motel Update; Governor's Walley Cup Tournament Filled (First Time In Eight Years To Fill)

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

WILLISTON — Louisiana native Dex Comardelle brings Southern hospitality to North Dakota workforce housing.

The 23-year-old was working toward a degree in hospitality management at the University of Louisiana when he started to hear about North Dakota’s oil boom.

Comardelle and his father, Ricky, who has provided living quarters for offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico for 25 years, decided to team up. They formed a company called Go-Motel and opened a workforce housing lodge north of Williston as their first step.

The lodge, which houses about 150 oilfield workers, aims to provide a more hotel-like atmosphere with larger rooms and more privacy rather than some camps that require workers to have roommates or share bathrooms.

And winning some awards:

Go-Motel catered for the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s Bakken Rocks CookFest last week and won judges’ favorite in Parshall.

By the way, I think the linked Dickinson Press article above answers the question asked in this Bismarck Tribune article:

Lake Sakakawea's "big two" walleye tournaments are coming up the next two weekends.
And, for the first time in a number of years, both have filled.

The 38th North Dakota Governor’s Walleye Cup Tournament takes to the water Friday and Saturday out of Fort Stevenson State Park.

For the first time in eight years, the tournament has a full field of 252 teams with a few to spare on a waiting list.

In past years, high gas prices, a sagging economy, flooding and low water levels were pointed at as reasons the tournament did not fill.

Tournament officials say they are not sure why it filled this year, although there could be a number of reasons including good fishing and a strong state economy.

Happy haymakers: From Hay To Harvest, Crops Look Outstanding -- The Bismarck Tribune

I assume we should thank mother nature, the farmers, and global warming, pretty much in that order.

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Luscious fields of green suck in carbon dioxide and exude tons of life-giving oxygen that absorb moisture and hold it close to the fragrant earth.

From the highest butte top to the farthest horizon an emerald jungle extends out in straight green rows and lush fields of hay.

In this sultry, swollen pause of summer, the only sound in the countryside comes from the haymakers, taking the first crop from the land.

And what a hay crop it is.

Roy Rutherford, rural Regent, says he's seen few, if any, like it. [Regent is about 36 miles south-southeast of Dickinson, just on the edge of the oil patch.]

Rutherford put up big bales of hay that at 1,400 pounds, weigh more than a well-marbled steer, their intended recipient.

And, in general:

• that six-row barley variety could come in at 85 bushels an acre
• going to see 60- to 70-bushel wheat
• five-foot-high mix of grass and alfalfa this summer
• Much of this was due to as much as 19 inches of rain this year (annual precipitation averages 14 - 20 inches across the state)
• best hay year ever by a stretch

Humans Bringing Sage Grouse Back To North Dakota

Updates

March 12, 2014: a reader sent me this link. Nothing new. The Washington Examiner is reporting:

Now comes news federal officials are nearing a decision to add more than 700 new species to the endangered list between now and 2018.

Inclusion of two of the species involved — the Sage Grouse and Prairie Chicken, both found predominantly in western states, including Texas and the Dakotas — could halt the U.S. energy boom in its tracks. 

Why? Because putting the birds on the endangered species list empowers federal bureaucrats to limit use of millions of acres of privately owned lands, thus effectively taking them out of energy exploration and development.
Whether adding them to the endangered species list is the proper course of action is disputed in part because federal officials have yet to make public all of the underlying justifications on which they are basing their actions.

Original Post

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Scientists say the sage grouse has lost half of its traditional range and also has been hit hard by the West Nile virus. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2010 determined sage grouse deserved federal protection but that other species were of higher priority. The agency has pledged to make a final decision on listing the sage grouse by late 2015.

Far southwestern North Dakota is on the edge of the sage grouse's historic range. The bird's population in that area peaked at 542 males in 1953, and has steadily declined in the past three decades. Sage grouse hunting was halted in the state in 2008 for the first time in nearly half a century after a steep population drop officials attributed to the West Nile virus.

This year's survey found only 50 males. Wildlife officials would like to see five times that number.

With help from a report the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued in March, North Dakota is beefing up its sage grouse conservation plan, though it's largely technical updates to its 2005 plan. It calls for measures ranging from limits on energy development to incentives for habitat conservation, and adds the proposed bird transplant from Montana.

We've talked about this before, I believe. 

Williams County Still Leads State In Taxable Sales And Collections; Wet Weather Dampened Returns

The Williston Herald is reporting:

Williams County maintained its statewide lead in taxable sales and collections, but numbers fell in the first quarter according to information released by the state Thursday.

As a whole, North Dakota’s taxable sales number jumped 1.6 percent, the slowest its been over the past two years and down from 9.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Reminder: The Babe Ruth World Series -- Teams Start Arriving in Williston, August 14

A most incredible event.

Huntington Beach, CA, has its US Open Surfing Championship. Williston, ND, has the Babe Ruth World Series. 

The Williston Herald is reporting.

Menard's To Build New Concept Store In Williston -- 18 Acres Along The Bypass

The Williston Herald is reporting:

More than three years after the original announcement, Menards is coming to Williston.

The hardware giant officially signed its contract for the Sand Creek Town Centre, according to Terry Metzler, operations manager of Granite Peak North Dakota and Tom Rolfstad, executive director of Williston Economic Development.

Metzler and Rolfstad said the Williston store is going to be a new concept store, making it one of the largest locations in the country. It will take up 18 acres of the Sand Creek development.

Rolfstad added that Menards has the largest market share in North Dakota among big box hardware stores with locations across the state. He said Home Depot has had mixed results while Lowe’s has been located primarily in the eastern part of the state.

Times like these, I always enjoy re-reading The Atlantic article of February 12, 2013.