Twenty-Eight (28) Pages Of Hess Wells Transferred To Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC -- January 2, 2014

Active rigs: 183

Today's NDIC daily activity report may have set some sort of record. Normally, the daily activity report runs 1 to 3 pages. A six-page report is very, very long. Today's daily activity report runs to 29 pages.

Seven (7) new permits --

• Operators: Emerald Oil (4), EOG (2), MRO
• Fields: Charbonneau (McKenzie), Parshall (Mountrail), Reunion Bay (Mountrail)
• Comments:

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

Two (2) producing wells were completed:

• 26192, 501, Sequel, Hove 11-21H-2128-15895-TF, McGregor, t12/ 13; no production data,
• 26193, 1,067, Sequel, Morris 11-21H-0916-15895-MB, McGregor, t9/13; no production data,

The reason for a 29-page NDIC daily activity report today was the fact that it took about 28 pages to list all the wells that were being transferred from Hess Corporation to Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC. You almost wonder if a reader was correct, suggesting that Hess maybe getting their ducks in order to sell off their Bakken assets. Just thinking out loud. The chronology of Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC, is posted here. I'm not going to count them but if there are about 55 wells per page, that works out to over 1500 wells.

Wells coming off the confidential list tomorrow:

• 24378, 515, CLR, Barney 5-29H-2, Brooklyn, t9/13; cum 29K 11/13;
• 24945, drl, XTO, Sorkness State 24X-36A, Sorkness, producing, a nice well,
• 25001, drl, SM Energy, Annie 12-18H, Poe, a nice well,
• 25373, 402, American Eagle, Elbert State 16-36-164-101, Colgan, t9/13; cum 15K 11/13;
• 25426, drl, Hess, EN-Nelson 155-94-3328H-3, Alkali Creek, no production data,
• 25721, drl, XTO, Strommen 44X-7D, Killdeer, producing, a nice well,

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J. Paul Getty Biography

Seeing the 28 pages of wells being transferred from Hess Corporation to Hess Bakken Investments II, LLC, reminds me of a story J Paul Getty told in his biography As I See It. The Gettys, father and son, back in 1923, were involved only in oil exploration and production, but always thought about becoming an integrated, well-to-consumer oil company at a cost "within their resources." The stock market crash in 1929 did not affect the Gettys but shares in publicly-held companies provided an opportunity to purchase assets at unbelievable bargain prices. For every dollar spent, one could buy $20 worth of assets. 

J P Getty's dad died in 1930 (age 75); his mother and his father's executors were too timid to take advantage of the situation, so J Paul Getty decided to go out on his own, using his own capital. In 1932, he was 39 years old.

J Paul Getty set his sights on a California oil driller, the Tidewater Associated Oil Company; it took him twenty years to obtain clear-cut numerical control of this company.

The president and board chairman of Tidewater did not want to be bought out, nor did the Tidewater board of directors, so they fought J Paul Getty's overtures.

It turned out that the controlling interest of Tidewater actually belonged to Standard Oil of New Jersey (J D Rockefeller). When he learned that, Getty knew it would be all but impossible to buy Tidewater. But he had sunk so much money into buying shares in the company he had no choice but to continue to try.

One day, he got a call from an intermediary telling him that Standard Oil of New Jersey had transferred the company's Tidewater shares to a holding company in Nevada called Mission Corporation. The company planned to re-distribute Mission Shares to all Standard Oil shareholders. The shares would be dispersed so broadly it would be impossible for Getty to buy the company.

The intermediary told Getty that although Standard Oil of New Jersey had transferred the company shares, Rockefeller himself still had his Tidewater shares and was willing to sell them to a buyer.

Rockefeller was out of the loop. No one had told him why the company was transferring Tidewater shares to Mission Corporation.

The intermediary bought Rockefeller's Tidewater shares on Getty's behalf. By the time Rockefeller found out what had happened, Getty had the shares. Getty then let it be known that Rockefeller sold his Tidewater shares, suggesting that if Rockefeller didn't want to own shares in Tidewater / Mission Corporation, maybe no one would want their shares, and would be willing to sell them. The ruse worked.

Lawsuits ensued, but Getty won the day. He had controlling interest of Mission Corporation but not full control of Tidewater; that would not occur until 1952.

The Standard Oil - Tidewater - Mission Corporation played out during the 1930's.

In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. J Paul Getty sent a telegram to his personal friend James Forrestal, the assistant secretary of the navy, asking to enlist. He was 49.

Getty and Forrestal met to discuss the issue. Forrestal said that Getty would not be allowed sea duty.

It so happened that Forrestal knew of Getty's relationship with Mission Corporation and Tidewater.

At the time Standard Oil was trying to hold control of Tidewater through Mission Corporation, the Standard Oil management overlooked the fact that Mission Corporation also held a 57% interest in Skelly Oil Company, a large midcontinent oil company headquartered in Tulsa.

By gaining control of Mission, Getty also gained control of Skelly.

Among its many holdings, Skelly owned the Spartan Aircraft Corporation.

Spartan had two divisions: a) training pilots; and, b) manufacturing aircraft components. Both divisions were in bad shape. The Navy put Getty in charge of Spartan and he turned the company around.

Spartan was under contract to train air cadets for the US military, the Royal Air Force (British), and the Royal Canadian Air Force.

At the height of the Pacific campaign, Getty was training thousands of pilots and delivering aircraft components to Grumann, Douglas, Boeing, Lockheed, and other prime contractors.

After V-J Day, Getty stayed on at Spartan to oversee the conversion of operations into peacetime manufacturing of house trailers and mobile homes, desperately needed for all the returning troops and the coming post-war boom. 

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Another Hit Album For Norah?

It's hard to say. The music may appeal to a narrow audience, but that audience may be a bit bigger than I realize. It is playing in Starbucks right now, and in some Starbucks the CD is available for sale. It was playing at the Barnes and Noble at The Grove/Farmers Market, Los Angeles, tonight, but the CD, interestingly enough, was not available. (I posted this video yesterday, I believe, but am posting it again.)

From wiki:

Foreverly is a collaborative album by Billie Joe Armstrong, best known as lead singer and guitarist of Green Day, and jazz/pop singer-songwriter Norah Jones.

It was released on November 25, 2013 through Reprise Records. Foreverly is a collection of traditional songs, and is a reinterpretation of the 1958 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us by The Everly Brothers.It is promoted by the lead single "Long Time Gone". A lyric video for the song was released on November 13, 2013, and was followed by the release of a music video for "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine" five days later. 

Foreverly, Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones