Friday -- Part IV -- Housing Starts, Largest Decline Since April -- Reuters; Weather Stalls Housing

More from Schlumberger, from the very, very long report:

In the Bakken shale play in North Dakota, a combination of Schlumberger technologies was specifically designed for use by Continental Resources to execute the largest ever downhole microseismic monitoring operation in the history of the industry.

The hydraulic fracture growth and optimum well spacing were tested in the Bakken and Three Forks formations using three Wireline VSI* versatile seismic imager receiver arrays simultaneously conveyed in three wells using TuffTRAC* cased hole services technology.

The VSI technology acquired high quality data over 3,000 ft from the location of the microseismic events. The operation was successfully completed in 63 days and included 293 fracturing stages with the Wireline monitoring services efficiently conveyed in excess of 300,000 lateral ft.

This is a big, big deal when an international company like Schlumberger specifically mentions the Bakken and then has a comment that is that long. And that important.

Don tells me that Cramer, this morning on CNBC, said Harold Hamm/CLR was using a lot of this Schlumberger technology. Fascinating. 

Random look at some incredible wells. I continue to update wells that went to DRL status last year and are now completed. It is absolutely incredible how good some of these wells are. Forget about IPs. Look at early production. When I first started blogging, 100,000 bbls of oil by the end of the first year was the gold standard. Look at the "test" date and then look at the cumulative production/date in the following. For example, HRC's FB 147-94-1B12-3H with 158,000 bbls by November, 2013, and it was fracked/completed tested about six months earlier:

• 23382, 2,710, HRC, Fort Berthold 147-94-1B-12-3H, McGregory Buttes, t5/13; cum 158K 11/13; 
• 23505, 2,147, HRC, Fort Berthold 152-93-17D-08-7H, Four Bears, t9/13; cum 58K 11/13; 
• 24949, 2,274, QEP, Patsy 2-29-32BH, the Helis Grail, t9/13; cum 59K 11/13;

Reuters is reporting:

U.S. housing starts fell less than expected in December, pausing after recent strong gains that had propelled home building activity to multi-year highs.

The Commerce Department said on Friday groundbreaking dropped 9.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000-unit pace.

It was the largest percentage decline since April.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected starts to fall to a 990,000-unit rate in December. For all of 2013, starts increased 18.3 percent to an average of 923,400-units.

It's all that global warming.

Reuters headline: Schlumberger's profit surges.

Schlumberger Ltd, the world's largest oilfield services company, posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Friday as robust international activity offset stiff competition in North America.

Fracking, drilling seismic studies and other lucrative services for oil producers across most of the Middle East, Asia and Latin America helped the company's profit top analysts' estimates for the ninth straight quarter.

Intense competition with Halliburton Co and Baker Hughes Inc for work in North America's vast shale fields, though, combined with weak natural gas prices, eroded regional results. Without strong sales from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, North American revenue would have dipped.

"In the United States, we see no change in fundamentals, with any meaningful recovery in dry gas drilling activity some way out in the future," Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard said in a statement.

Schlumberger has the lowest exposure to North America among the big four oilfield service providers. International markets brought in about two-thirds of Schlumberger's 2013 revenue of $45.27 billion.

Among the majors, it seems XOM is the gold standard; among the oil service companies, it appears SLB is the gold standard. This does not mean they are the "best" in which to invest.

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

As noted earlier:

The Board of Directors of Schlumberger Limited today approved a 28% increase of the quarterly dividend. The increased dividend of $0.40 per share of outstanding common stock is payable on April 11, 2014 to stockholders of record at the close of business on February 19, 2014.  

On tap next week, earnings will be reported for the following companies of interest:

• Baker Hughes
• Cheney's former company
• Delta
• Xylinx
• Netflix
• Baxter
• Starbucks
• Union Pacific
• Kansas City Southern

I own shares in two of the companies listed above.  Make that three; I forgot about one.

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The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport will soon have a third daily round-trip flight option with both of its major airlines.

Airport manager Matthew Remynse said United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have both decided to add a third flight to and from Dickinson during Thursday’s Dickinson Airport Authority Commission meeting at City Hall.