Natural Gas Liquids Stripping Units Now In The Bakken; Sanctions Don't Work -- A History Lesson

Updates

Later, May 15, 2014:  see "Note to the Granddaughters," below -- sanctions don't work. Now, Business Insider is reporting a huge gas pipeline deal with China.
 

Original Post

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Mark Peterson is one of several entrepreneurs touting a new technology meant to reduce natural gas flaring and add value to mineral rights owners. However, there’s no way for him or mineral owners to know whether proper royalties were paid between the time the units started operating and when the state learned about them. 

Natural gas liquid stripping units have been around for decades but have not always been affordable or easy, said Lynn Helms, the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources director. Peterson wanted to change that.

Go to the linked article for the rest of the information. This is critical information for mineral owner.

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Jobs graph says it all -- job growth during the recession, 2007 - 2014, California vs Texas. Before you go to the link, take a guess what the graph will look like. It would be interesting to see a similar graph comparing North Dakota with Minnesota.

Unemployment, March of each year indicated, Minnesota vs North Dakota:

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A Note to the Granddaughters

Update

May 13, 2014: in response to US sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine, Russia will deny the use of the International Space Station to Americans, and will no longer sell rocket engines to the US that were used to launch military satellites into space. Wow, this sounds just like Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807.

Original Note

President Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 was supposed to bring economic pain to the warring nations of Great Britain and France. Whether it did or didn't is debatable. What is clear, the embargo destroyed the economy of Salem, Massachusetts. From Brenda Wineapple's biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne:

In 1807, sixty-one ships left Salem, Massachusetts, for the West Indies and South America, sixty-three for Europe, ten for India and China; later that year President Jefferson levied the embargo that would bleed the town. In 1808, no ships sailed from Salem. Docks stood idle, planks soggy with disuse, and soup kitchens soon fed over a thousand of the unemployed. 

We never learn, do we? But it makes us feel good, I suppose.