Oakdale Field Is Updated; One Well Less Than Two Years Old Closing In On A Million Barrels

I wonder what the naysayers who comment over at CarpeDiem would have to say about these oil wells in the Bakken.

Note: these wells are but two or three years old and they will produce for 39 years. 

This is the Oakdale oil field, Dunn County, just west of BR's huge Corral Creek field.

This is the field in which CLR is testing the LOWER benches of the Three Forks, but, of course, a whole lot more than just testing the lower benches is going on.

Look at this well -- still flowing on its own, no pump, 4-section spacing; at present rate, could hit 1 million bbls sometime in the next 9 months (in less than 3 years from spud):

• 20210, 803, CLR, Whitman 2-34H, Oakdale, Bakken, t9/11; F; cum 783K 6/13; 24 stages; 2.4 million lbs sand/ceramic; middle Bakken; gas shows very, very high (of course);

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	6-2013	30	25199	25209	644	26196	20621	5575
BAKKEN	5-2013	31	27727	27764	740	28209	28209	0
BAKKEN	4-2013	30	26539	26503	647	27828	27828	0
BAKKEN	3-2013	31	25303	25422	608	25640	25640	0
BAKKEN	2-2013	28	21524	21389	522	21714	21714	0
BAKKEN	1-2013	31	22744	22733	735	24964	23889	1075
BAKKEN	12-2012	31	31564	31661	737	32236	32236	0
BAKKEN	11-2012	30	33802	33711	953	34549	34549	0
BAKKEN	10-2012	31	35417	35643	1123	35484	35484	0
BAKKEN	9-2012	30	36039	36076	910	37982	37982	0
BAKKEN	8-2012	31	31719	32101	833	34770	34770	0
BAKKEN	7-2012	31	36883	36986	853	38000	38000	0
BAKKEN	6-2012	30	39669	39813	905	38128	38128	0
BAKKEN	5-2012	31	44831	43958	1003	42516	42516	0
BAKKEN	4-2012	30	45099	45361	1047	46380	46380	0
BAKKEN	3-2012	31	43877	43718	875	44212	44212	0
BAKKEN	2-2012	29	42667	42646	832	43010	43010	0
BAKKEN	1-2012	31	52616	52790	1138	45573	45573	0
BAKKEN	12-2011	31	50038	49811	1281	40488	40488	0
BAKKEN	11-2011	30	38824	38982	592	31074	31074	0
BAKKEN	10-2011	31	41571	41339	780	39458	39458	0
BAKKEN	9-2011	25	29041	28721	835	23743	6896	16847

And then this well (but just the last few months, so the post doesn't get unwieldy long):

• 18275, single well, 1,020, CLR, Hawkinson 1-22H, t2/10; UPPER Three Forks, cum 505K 6/13; producing at 9K/month; yeah, huge decline rate. LOL; still flowing on its own; no pump; cased hole; 1.9 million lbs sand/ceramic; trip gas huge (of course)

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	6-2013	20	6763	7305	694	8223	4233	3990
BAKKEN	5-2013	31	10000	9734	973	16137	16137	0
BAKKEN	4-2013	29	9872	9932	792	12451	12451	0
BAKKEN	3-2013	31	9357	9573	607	10290	10290	0
BAKKEN	2-2013	28	8005	7781	658	8639	8639	0
BAKKEN	1-2013	31	9336	9401	708	7325	6725	600
BAKKEN	12-2012	31	9923	9736	757	7978	7978	0
BAKKEN	11-2012	30	9660	9763	717	9386	9386	0
BAKKEN	10-2012	31	9980	9932	732	9913	9913	0
BAKKEN	9-2012	30	9055	9053	648	9085	9085	0
BAKKEN	8-2012	31	9873	10092	742	9853	9853	0
BAKKEN	7-2012	31	9056	8800	635	8901	8901	0

Notice how much flaring was done this past month. That tells you one thing: the system lacks capacity with all the other wells coming on line. The state needs more than just more pipelines; it needs gas gathering and processing plants. ONEOK.

I could watch this all day long:

Pipeline, The Chantays
Maybe I will.

Saturday Morning News, Views, And Links -- Part IV

The Coyote blog gets it right. Again. Great blog. It's one of three blogs I link at the sidebar at the right. 

Another billion-dollar wheat crop in Montana. The Billings Gazette is reporting:

Montana appears headed for another billion-dollar wheat crop, though wet weather has dramatically slowed spring harvest in the northern counties.

A billion dollars is the high-water mark for wheat values, achieved only six times in state history, but five times since 2007 as commodities prices have surged. Agriculture is the state’s single largest economic sector, representing about 13 percent of Montana economic activity. One in five Montana jobs is tied to agriculture.

I've often said the best year for music was 1969 (warming: going to that link will slow down your computer). From that year:

Apache, The Shadows
Wow! The Dickinson Press just couldn't bring itself to print the headline -- a Democratic senator supports the Keystone XL. And Ms Heitkamp supports it emphatically and without qualification good for her. But The Dickinson Press headline: Ms Heitkamp visits Canada. Wow, give me a break.

Following a three-day visit this week to the Alberta, Canada, oil sands, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said it’s more important than ever to gain final approval for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Another Minnesota Company Sets Up Operations In North Dakota

This is really an incredible story with so many story lines.

The Dickinson Press  is reporting:

Ultra Green, based in Plymouth, Minn., expects to start full production in Devils Lake, its first facility in the United States, later this year.

The company will have an estimated 100 employees by year’s end. Employment is expected to increase to between 300 and 350 within three to five years, according to Traynor, who grew up in Fargo and has family in Devils Lake.

Ultra Green, which started in 2007, has been making the products from sugar cane fiber in China, shipping them back to the U.S. for distribution to companies all over the country, including Whole Foods, Safeway and Sam’s Club.

However, it announced last year it was moving all production back to the U.S., with its initial plant in Devils Lake. It also is switching the raw product from sugar cane to wheat straw, the stubble left in wheat fields after farmers harvest their crop.

Devils Lake is back. 

Week 34: August 18, 2013 -- August 24, 2013

Operations
Oasis reports two huge wells in the Sanish oil field
EOG monster wells: 49 stages and 10 million pounds of sand
Bakken production increased by 1.25%; Eagle Ford decreased by 4.5% Month-Over-Month
Zavanna, Statoil find another sweet spot: four miles northeast of Williston

Rail
BNSF to invest $220 million in CAPEX in North Dakota in 2013

Pipelines
Enbridge officially inaugurates Sandpiper Pipeline

Fracking
Might New York State approve fracking?
The Feds get ready to announce new fracking rules. This will slow flaring.
The horse is already out of the barn

Economy
Recap of Minnesota-based Oppidan in the Bakken

Miscellaneous
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on the Bakken

Yellow River, Christie

Williams Cos Announces A Small Dividend Hike

Don't you just love it when the audience can guess the next song with just a few chords?

Living Next Door To Alice, Smokie

And then, of course, that led me to:

Stumblin' In, Chris Norman & Suzi Quatro Whatever.

I follow Williams Companies here. The company recently announced a dividend hike.

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

Saturday Morning News, Views, And Links -- Part III -- The Feds Will Help Eliminate Flaring

WSJ Links

Part II was getting too long.

Graphene: remember that word. This is a very, very strange, new material; it has ignited a patent "land rush." Steve Jobs would have loved it. And he would be moving quickly. How novel is graphene? The two researchers won a Nobel Price in 2010 for isolating it.

A substance 200 times stronger than steel yet as thin as an atom has ignited a global scientific gold rush, sending companies and universities racing to understand, patent and profit from the skinnier, more glamorous cousin of ordinary pencil lead.

The material is graphene, and to demonstrate its potential, Andrea Ferrari recently picked up a sheet of clear plastic, flexed it and then tapped invisible keys, triggering tinkly musical notes.

The keyboard made at Dr. Ferrari's University of Cambridge lab was printed with a circuit of graphene, which is so pliable that scientists predict it will fulfill dreams of flexible phones and electronic newspapers that can fold into a pocket.

It is the thinnest material known. But it is exceedingly strong, light and flexible. It is exceptional at conducting electricity and heat, and at absorbing and emitting light.
Scientists isolated graphene just a decade ago, but some companies are already building it into products: Head NV introduced a graphene-infused tennis racket this year. Apple Inc., Saab AB, and Lockheed Martin Corp. have recently sought or received patents to use graphene.

"Graphene is the same sort of material, like steel or plastic or silicon that can really change society," says Dr. Ferrari, who leads a band of about 40 graphene researchers at Cambridge.

The best part: graphene is an easily-remembered name that is non-threatening. 

I think I posted this story earlier, possibly from a different source. Regardless, I will say it again: for those who want flaring to stop in North Dakota, the news is good. The Feds are coming. They will help eliminate flaring.

The Bureau of Land Management, part of the Interior Department, on Friday finished taking public comments on its latest plan for oversight of fracking, the technique of injecting water and chemicals into shale formations to crack open pockets of natural gas and oil.

The new rules, which would apply only to federal and Indian lands, are meant to update decades-old regulations. They would require disclosures about chemicals used in fracking and set standards for wells and disposal of wastewater. The BLM said it didn't have a target date for finishing the rule. 

KOG and WPX have cause to worry. Whiting may also have concerns.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here. By following share prices of affected oil companies, I get a better feeling for how analysts think about these new federal rules. 

Saturday Morning News, Views, And Links -- Part II

WSJ Links

Part I was getting too long.

There were not less than three stories in today's Journal regarding Steve Ballmer.
 

This will be an interesting story to follow over the new few months: Steve Ballmer's (or someone else's) decision to retire from Microsoft. With all his billions maybe he will start a new business. Maybe something in the oil and gas industry. "Heard on the street" has this headline: Microsoft hits Ballmer out of the park: CEO's departure is overdue, but Microsoft still has considerable strengths. This was the front page article on the announcement: the key -- MSFT stock jumped 7% on the news of his imminent departure.

I think this will also be interesting to watch over the next couple of years: inside Comcast's $30 billion TV bet. I haven't had "network television" in months and when I last had it, it was only sporadically available, and I generally didn't watch it. I've posted some thoughts regarding Netflix and television. With so many viewing options out there, it will be interesting to see who the winners are, who the losers are, over the next few years. There has to be a reason that Apple has not yet marketed its own internet television beyond what it has already done. I think Apple, too, is struggling to "guess" where the puck will be in five years. 

In the two years since Comcast Corp. bought NBCUniversal, Mr. Burke has shown a zeal for shaking things up with little sentimentality, weeding out some of the company's most well-known personalities in the process.

A straight-talking Harvard Business School graduate, Mr. Burke belongs to a new generation of media chieftains—including Time Warner Inc.'s Jeff Bewkes and Viacom Inc.'s Philippe Dauman—who are more enamored with the bottom line than with Hollywood glamour. He refrains from hanging out in the news rooms and indulging stars—hallmarks of his predecessor Jeff Zucker. Warren Buffett, who made him a director on his board at Berkshire Hathaway, describes him as "a personable guy, but not flamboyant."

Mr. Burke is the man in charge of pulling off a colossal wager. With Comcast's two-stage, $30 billion deal completed in March, the cable giant is betting that its distribution business, combined with a content company, can create outsize benefits. That logic, of course, runs counter to the trend of big U.S. media companies breaking themselves into smaller pieces. Time Warner Inc. spun off its cable operations in 2009 after failed bids to happily marry its content and distribution arms; Viacom Inc. carved out its CBS broadcast television and radio business into a separate company in 2005.

This is interesting. I follow the Motiva refinery a bit more than other refineries (which means, "practically not at all") but I was unaware of all the problems at the largest US refinery, owned and operated by Shell and Saudi Arabia. 

The biggest oil refinery in the U.S. is largely out of service after several fires over the past two weeks damaged equipment at Motiva Enterprises LLC's plant in Port Arthur, Texas.

The fires are the latest in a series of mechanical failures at the refinery, which doubled in size last year after a $10 billion expansion paid for by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Saudi Arabia Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco—the two companies that own Motiva.

The 600,000 barrel-a-day plant has turned into an economic headache that analysts have said has cost the two companies hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and lost fuel sales.

The joint-venture refinery is ranked among the top 10 world-wide by its oil-processing capacity.

Pandora vs Apple. Pandora recently (this past week) announced that it would allow listeners unlimited time at the site; previously it was limited to 40 hours a month, I believe. I listened to Pandora some years ago but lost interest. I definitely lost interest in Pandora when they capped time at the free site at 40 hours even though I doubt I ever came close to exceeding the limit. Now with threat of Apple Radio, Pandora is competing once again. I wonder if the US Justice Department will investigate Apple Radio?

Saturday Morning News, Views, And Links -- Part I

What a great day to get caught up on some reading. If you came here looking for notes about the Bakken, you should scroll down, or check out updates at the sidebar at the right. It might be a while before I get to the Bakken.

 I do plan to do "Top Stories" for the week which is only about the Bakken but that will be later.

WSJ Links

After all the Tesla stories, it is nice to see a story on the Corvette, which according to the writer, the next generation is a superstar. If I were a Bakken millionaire, this might be one of my five cars, which I would probably leave garaged in Phoenix. Next to a Harley. The first two paragraphs of the article:

The newly redesigned, seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette (C7), aka Stingray, heir to Corvette's 60-year heritage and the bannered spear of a resurgent General Motors, is an excellent car. Fast, authentic, tough as a rodeo steak. If you were planning to boycott GM for life, your road just got a little narrower.

Set aside the C7's wrathful-dragonfly styling—which only the deranged won't like—or its dead-slinky leather-wrapped cabin with glass-panel avionics and configurable graphics, or the vastly improved driver's seat. Look down the barrel of this thing: 460 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque out of a 6.2-liter, naturally aspirated direct-injection, midfront-mounted aluminum pushrod V8; the weird-but-wonderful seven-speed Tremec manual gearbox with active rev-matching; and a rear transaxle with limited-slip differential and electronic torque vectoring (with the Z51 package). All that is bolted to a new, all-aluminum, glued-and-machine-welded monocoque, replacing the C6's steel chassis, and is 100 pounds lighter and more than 50% stiffer.

 I will read this article (print edition) later. It looks fascinating: President O'Bama's failed grand strategy in the Middle East.

In the beginning, the Hebrew Bible tells us, the universe was all "tohu wabohu," chaos and tumult. This month the Middle East seems to be reverting to that primeval state: Iraq continues to unravel, the Syrian War grinds on with violence spreading to Lebanon and allegations of chemical attacks this week, and Egypt stands on the brink of civil war with the generals crushing the Muslim Brotherhood and street mobs torching churches.

Turkey's prime minister, once widely hailed as President Obama's best friend in the region, blames Egypt's violence on the Jews; pretty much everyone else blames it on the U.S.

The Obama administration had a grand strategy in the Middle East. It was well intentioned, carefully crafted and consistently pursued.

Unfortunately, it failed. 

The book that helped me understand best the Mideast was Bernard Lewis' What Went Wrong. Highly recommend. It will be interesting to read today's WSJ article in light of that book.

Wow, the Journal is just full of great articles today. Now, this: Edward Frenkel and a love for math.

The words love and math aren't usually uttered in the same breath. But mathematician Edward Frenkel is on a mission to change that, uniting the terms in both his recent film, "The Rites of Love and Math," and upcoming book, "Love and Math." Both are attempts to bridge the gap between his passion for math and the popular appetite for it.

"You say the word 'math' and people shut down," says Mr. Frenkel, sitting outdoors in New York's Bryant Park. In his book, to be published in October, the tenured professor at the University of California at Berkeley argues that the boring way that math is traditionally taught in schools has led to a widespread ignorance that may have even been responsible for the recession.

"It's like teaching an art class where they only tell you how to paint a fence but they never show you Picasso," he says of elementary school math classes. "People say, 'I'm bad at math,' but what they're really saying is 'I was bad at painting the fence.' " Love is a different story, though. "People might think they hate math but everyone loves love," he says. "I want to put more love into math."

And Mr. Frenkel, a youthful, puckish 45-year-old with a slight Russian accent and a flair for fitted shirts and tailored jeans, hopes to be math's next leading man. With YouTube videos of his lectures at UC Berkeley viewed by hundreds of thousands of people—"and that's even the most boring stuff," he adds—Mr. Frenkel does indeed talk about math adoringly. "It is this great connector," he says. "Nobody can take it away from us." What he means is that while the philosopher Pythagoras lived over 2,000 years ago, his theorem still exists today; it holds true across cultures, time and space. "How many things have the same endurance?" he asks. Mathematical formulas "have a quality of inevitability." 

I'll read the print edition later. I never get tired of reading anything about math, and it's been awhile since a "new" math book along this line has been published (at least of which I am aware).

How interesting: a short essay on maps. It certainly seems I've seen this essay or something very similar some time ago. Maybe it's just because there are so many books on maps and so many atlases out there. One bit of trivia:

The earliest efforts to ascribe boundaries to space and time were directed up instead of down. The ancients began with the lights in the night sky. The oldest star chart in existence depicts the Orion constellation, carved onto the tusk of a woolly mammoth during the Stone Age.