North Dakota Oil Production Report "Somewhat Disappointing" -- NDIC/Director

Link here.

That was the politically correct thing to say, but I find it remarkable that oil production increased despite all the headwinds. One has to remember that, according to The Atlantic Monthly, the Bakken boom is over.

Day in, day out, the folks continue to drill at 175 sites (or thereabouts) every day. More and more pipeline is laid. Lessons are learned every day. Time from spud to initial sales continues to decrease. Flaring on non-federal / non-BLM land is only 20 percent. And the weather just keeps getting better. Load restrictions will present a few problems but operators are getting better and better each year preparing for this.

I thought the report was pretty good. But then I'm an inveterate optimist.

I see that Great Lakes Airlines will discontinue operations at Dickinson later this month, further confirming The Atlantic Monthly assertion that the boom is over. The airline will also discontinue operations at Williston this month. In the same story: the board, in a unanimous vote, moved to increase [airport manager] Remynse’s 2014 salary about 25 percent to $69,500 annually. Still
underpaid.

Senator Hoeven will travel to the Ukraine. The purpose of the trip was not mentioned. Senator McCain will lead the delegation.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

On another note, I made the second of three payments on the new bicycle I have on layaway. I will make the last payment next month. I am excited to add my first disc-brake bicycle to my "collection." This will be my first KHS bike.

The weather is now perfect for biking in northern Texas.

I don't have the book with me today at Starbucks, but I've started reading Crazy Horse. I picked the book up at Chuck Wilder's Books on Broadway store in Williston a couple of weeks ago. I knew it would be good, but until I started reading it, I had no idea how good it was going to be. It's incredible. When I get back home and can quote from the book, if I remember, I will provide a bit of background to the author and the background to the book.

My first thought after reading a few pages: Chuck Wilder really knows his books. There must be thousands of books that he must choose from each year and to keep coming up with these great books must be no small feat.

I'm also reading Sylvia Nasar's Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius. Something tells me reviewers will pan this book as being too superficial, but for the beginner who wants to learn about the "science" of economics, this looks like a very, very good place to start. The book begins with Marx and Engels. It's hard to believe that a loser like Marx made such a huge impact. It is obvious that folks mis-read what he wrote.

I completed The Origin of Tepees: The Evolution of Ideas (and Ourselves), by Jonnie Hughes. It's a nice travelogue, from Minneapolis, to Mandan, to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It can probably be read on one long international flight. If one wants a 30-second soundbite on the "origin" and "migration" of the Plains Indians from 1600 to 1800, I would be hard-pressed to recommend a better source. Humorously, our younger granddaughter is working on a tepee for her hedgehogs; my wife used chopsticks to build a prototype and actually asked our granddaughter if the wanted a three-pole tepee or a four-pole tepee, the thread that actually holds The Origin of Tepees together. Until I read this book, neither my wife nor I were even aware that there was a difference, and one evolved from the other.