Only Seven Active Rigs From The High This Date Two Years Ago In The Bakken; Ten (10) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Note: the subject line could be a bit misleading. I believe the "record" number of rigs drilling in the Bakken was 218 or thereabouts, which includes rigs drilling salt water disposal wells. 

Active rigs:

	3/21/2014	03/21/2013	03/21/2012	03/21/2011	03/21/2010
Active Rigs	198	184	205	171	103

Ten (10) new permits --

• Operators: CLR (8), Whiting, SM Energy (that was easy)
• Fields: Dollar Joe (Williams), Indian Hill (McKenzie); Bell (Stark)
• Comments: SM Energy has a permit for a wildcat well in Divide County

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

Cancelled permits:

• Slawson canceled two Zulu wells, and one Fox well, all in Mountrail County
• Oasis canceled a Garcia well in Burke County
• HRC canceled a Fort Berthold well in Dunn County

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What Does It Matter?

Most folks get one shot in life; some get a couple of shots in life; rarely does one get more than two shots. Ronald Reagan got several shots at life: radio announcer, Hollywood B-actor; California governor, US president, rancher (a derivative), and perhaps a few other shots, depending on the definition of "derivatives."

President Obama got, maybe, two shots at life: Harvard, US president. The Nobel peace prize was a derivative.

Al Gore got one or two shots at life, and he will quietly fade away.

I figure I had one shot at life: graduate school; everything after that was derived from graduate school. Had I not had two grandchildren to take care of, I might have taken another shot. But the grandchildren (fortunately) precluded that.

I thought about that when I saw the WSJ video about the Harold Hamm divorce. His one shot: wildcatter. Everything else, from now on, derives from that. The video suggests that Harold Hamm could have to pay his wife a substantial sum despite the fact that he will retain all shares in his company. (The story certainly has the feeling that it was "released" by his wife's lawyer; certainly, if nothing else, this is simply a report of the wife's "appeal" to the judge.) If I were Harold Hamm, I would give her the company, the entire company, and take one or two billion dollars, call it a life, and retire to the "good life." He had his shot at life; everything from here on out derives from his success as a wildcatter. I can't imagine anything more boring and insubstantial than spending the rest of my life in court, arguing over money. He can take the billion or two and go off and start another company, if he needs to keep active. He needs to look on this divorce as an opportunity for another shot at life. Few folks get such opportunities. Man up. I guess.

[I wrote this note while watching Baz Lurhmann's The Great Gatsby  for the fourth time, the last two viewings in the last 24 hours. Viewing The Great Gatsby, at least for me, puts this post in perspective. Jay Gatsby had, perhaps, four shots at life. His violent death was the reason he lives on; had he not died violently but simply died of old age, it would not have been a story. He died "knowing" that Daisy was calling him.]