The Towner County Leases

A reader thinks he has come up with the reason for the leases in Towner County, North Dakota (I agree).

Overseas, and on the East Cost of the US, there are a lot of investors looking to cash in on the Bakken. This is an opportunity for someone to buy up North Dakota leases at a very low price and re-sell them to these overseas and East Coast investors.

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The Road To New England

I was curious why residents in New England didn't seem particularly angered by the high rates they were paying for natural gas this past winter. This may be part of the answer (I don't know, just rambling). Bangor Daily News is reporting:

The problem was highlighted last winter, when heating needs spiked and resulted in a reduced amount of gas available to generate electricity. Competitive bidding in New England’s wholesale power market sets the following day’s price at the cost for the last bit of generation needed. With natural gas making up almost 50 percent of the region’s electricity generation, supply constraints drove up prices for industrial and commercial customers buying on the wholesale market.

Residential customers will see those prices reflected in their power rates later because the standard offer price set by regulators — and used by most buyers — uses a three-year average to insulate ratepayers from fluctuating prices.

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Putting The Bakken Into Perspective, Over In The North Sea

Reuters over at Rigzone is reporting:

U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. will cut about 225 jobs in its North Sea oil operations after reviewing its business in the region where high costs have undermined some field developments.

The second largest U.S. oil company will reduce by around one fifth its Aberdeen, Scotland-based oil and gas exploration operations headcount, it said in a statement to Reuters. The jobs will include contractors, employees, and expatriates. Chevron, like many of its peers, has been under heavy pressure from shareholders to cut spending after seeing disappointing earnings and plans to sell about $10 billion of assets in the next three years.

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Global Warming

"The sun has gone quiet -- weakest cycle in more than a century."

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Good Idea Gone Bad?

Out west, someone has solved the problem of the disappearing phone booth. ATT now leaves an iPhone in those old phone booths, and trusts that folks won't steal the iPhone. Our granddaughters tested this at the Grand Canyon.