KOG With Huge Skunk Creek Well; QEP With Four (4) "High-IP" Wells; Petro-Hunt To Report A Huge Bakken Well -- August 14, 2014; US LNG Export Process -- Picking Winners And Losers

Wells coming off the confidential list Friday:

• 24832, 1,243, Petro-Hunt, Kostelnak 145-97-29B-32-1H, Little Knife, t6/14; cum 22K 6/14;
• 26395, drl, CLR, Limousin 5-3H, Sanish, no production data,
• 26673, 344, OXY USA, Steffan 2-29-28H-143-97, Willmen, t2/14; cum 20K 6/14;
• 27327, 2,357, KOG, Skunk Creek 4-8-17-14H3, South Fork, t7/14; cum --

Reminder: I track all OXY Bakken/North Dakota wells -- click here.

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24832, see above, Petro-Hunt, Kostelnak 145-97-29B-32-1H, Little Knife, a huge well,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2014	21074	18444

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Twelve (12) new permits --

• Operators: Triangle (4), XTO (3), Slawson (2), Whiting (2), CLR,
• Fields: Pronghorn (McKenzie), Murphy Creek (Dunn), Big Bend (Mountrail), Bell (Stark), Garylord (Stark), Temple (Williams
• Comments:

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

Permits renewed:

The White Butte Oil Operations renewed permits for three Panzer wells in Antelope oil field, McKenzie county. I don't recall posting this company before. These are the only three permits this company has in North Dakota at this time; perhaps they picked up these permits from someone else? Yes, here they are: the permits were originally issued in 2011 to Slawson; here were two of them:

• 21385, conf, Slawson, Panzer 1-20H, Antelope,
• 21387, conf, Slawson, Panzer 4-20TFH, Antelope,

Eleven (11) producing wells completed:

• 24846, 2,013, QEP, MHA 1-06-07H-147-92, Heart Butte, t6/14; cum 29K 6/14;
• 24848, 2,187, QEP, MHA 5-06-07H-147-92, Heart Butte, t6/14; cum 24K 6/14;
• 24847, 2,238, QEP, MHA 7-06-07H-147-92, Heart Butte, t6/14; cum 34K 6/14;
• 24845, 2,736, QEP, MHA 3-06-07H-147-92, Heart Butte, t5/14; cum 43K 6/14;
• 26688, 623, CLR, Schroeder 2-34H, Stoneview, t6/14; cum 6K 6/14;
• 27077, 1,342, MRO, Vollmer 24-24TFH, Chimney Butte, t7/14; cum --
• 24918, 279, Slawson, Hunter 7-8-17TFH, Big Bend, t6/14; cum 7K 6/14;
• 24921, 188, Slawson, Jeriyote 6-5-32TFH, Big Bend, t6/14; cum 6K 6/14;
• 26822, 607, XTO, Boe State 31X-16H, Beaver Lodge, t7/14; cum --
• 26821, 1,298, XTO, Boe State 31X-16D, Beaver Lodge, t7/14; cum --
• 26823, 753, XTO, Boe State 31X-16C, Beaver Lodge, t7/14; cum --

Active rigs:

	8/14/2014	08/14/2013	08/14/2012	08/14/2011	08/14/2010
Active Rigs	194	184	201	191	142

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The road to New England: as Don noted, movers and shakers are moving stranded Marcellus and Utica natural gas to states that want it. Apparently, at least according to this article, Massachusetts and New Hampshire are not interested, FuelFix is reporting:

A Houston company is planning to spend $1.75 billion on two new pipelines to carry Northeastern U.S. shale gas to nearby states and to systems that go to Gulf Coast and Midwestern markets.

Columbia Pipeline Group, the Houston-based infrastructure arm of Indiana gas distributor NiSource, said it wants to move stranded gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays to eager markets in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, as well as to its pipelines that transport gas across the country.

By the way, just for the record, US Senator from Massachusetts, the Native American Elizabeth Warren opposes a new natural gas pipeline to Massachusetts.That's fine; I'm just a spectator; no dog in this fight.

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Europe at a tipping point is a subject I track here. This is another article, sent by Don, that supports the argument. The UPI is reporting:

Natural gas production from members of the European Union is expected to decline by more than 40 percent in the coming years, Russian analysis Wednesday finds.

A report Wednesday from Russia's National Energy Security Fund finds gas production from EU member states declines 43 percent over the next 12 years when compared with 2013 levels.

The research note finds the reduction in gas production is equivalent to the total annual consumption rate of Italy. It says the EU currently is able to meet only 35 percent of its domestic demand for gas and has few export partners outside Russia.

The report suggests that in the EU, the percent of energy production:

• renewable and coal: 40%
• natural gas: 17%
• crude oil: "the rest"

My thoughts:

This report, coming from Russia (which has its own agenda) makes one circumspect, but based on what I've read I have to agree. Europe won't frack, and had the US not cracked the code on fracking, the US would be in deep, deep trouble. I believe that almost all our oil, and much of our natural gas, is now coming from fracked fields.

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For Investors Only 

LNG Export Process -- Update

• The U.S. Energy Department has finalized its plan to revamp the process for approving liquefied natural gas exports, largely codifying a process first proposed in May.
• Beginning immediately, the DoE will only issue final rulings on whether exports are in the public interest after the FERC has completed an environmental review of the project.
• The benefits of the change extend unevenly to the dozens of companies now vying to export U.S. natural gas, and some in the industry say the new process will exacerbate permitting delays for most companies.
• The biggest winner under the new approach is Cheniere Energy, which already had gained FERC approval but faced a nearly two-year wait for the required Energy Department review of its proposed Sabine Pass expansion; it now moves to the front of the line to get a permit from the DoE.
• Another winner is Exxon's Golden Pass project in southeast Texas, which also was far down the Energy Department’s list, even though it was well into the FERC review.
• The new policy will not affect companies that already have received conditional approvals, such as Dominion's Cove Point project, Sempra's Cameron LNG project and Leucadia National's Oregon LNG project.