Twelve (12) New Permits -- North Dakota; Eleven (11) Producing Wells Completed; August 7, 2014; Triangle Reports Six (6) Nice Wells; Enerplus Reports A Huge Well; Barack Back To Bombing Iraq? US Open Borders Policy Extends To Northern Border? Antarctic Hits Record Cold; Sea Ice At Record Highs; Denbury Has A Nice Red River Well

From "Overheard" in The Wall Street Journal:

Amid war and rumors of war, it seems odd that oil prices have dropped over the past month. That might be because another war could be brewing: within OPEC.

Saudi Arabia this week released September official selling prices for its oil. It offered bigger discounts for Asian and U.S. buyers against August's levels.

As energy economist Phil Verleger pointed out in a recent report, this could indicate a growing battle for market share. With U.S. shale-oil output rising, U.S. imports of oil from West Africa have plummeted from an annualized average of two million barrels a day in late 2007 to about 300,000 barrels a day currently. That forces countries such as Nigeria to target other markets, like Asia—putting them in direct competition with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members

As OPEC's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia can choose to accommodate competing barrels by cutting its own output—or price its own oil more competitively to defend its market share. That raises the risk of a price war in the cartel.

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Northern Oil & Gas beats by $0.07, misses on revs; co raises 2014 production guidance to +20-25%, from +15% YoY growth: Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.29 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.07 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.22; revenues fell 22.5% year/year to $74.6 mln vs the $97.17 mln consensus.

2014 guidance- co raises production guidance

• Net well additions remain on pace for Northern to add ~44 net wells for the full year 
• However, Northern now expects full year 2014 production to increase between 20% and 25% over 2013, versus prior guidance of a 15% increase.
• This improved outlook is driven in part by the excellent field conditions during the second quarter, as well as new completion designs.
• These new completion designs also appear to be driving a moderate increase in completed well costs, as the weighted average AFE cost of Northern's 23.5 net wells in process as of June 30, 2014 was $9.2 million.
• If the AFE cost trend continues, Northern would expect its full year 2014 drilling and completion capital expenditures to increase by ~5% over prior guidance.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.
 

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Wells coming off the confidential list Friday:

• 26475, 203, Murex, Gary Lee 31-30H, Alexandri, producing, t5/14; cum 3K 6/14;
• 26538, 625, OXY USA, Mildred Sadowsky 2-11-14H-142-97, Willmen, t2/14; cum 28K 6/14;
• 26941, 99, Corinthian, Corinthian Skarphol 16-29 1H, North Souris, a Spearfish well, t3/14; cum 9K 6/14;
• 27053, 171, Denbury, CHSU 14B-26NH 15, Cedar Hills,a South Red River B well, t4/14; cum 15K 6/14;
• 27134, drl, Hess, SC-Tom-153-98-1514H-7, Truax, no production data,
• 27271, 690, WPX, Glenn Fox 13-24HW, Van Hook, t7/14; cum 7K 6/14;
• 27295, drl, Hess, EN-Ortloff-156-94-2635H-6, Big Butte, no production data,
• 27557, 2,013, XTO, Kaye Federal 43X-4E, Lost Bridge, no production data,

Active rigs:

	8/7/2014	08/07/2013	08/07/2012	08/07/2011	08/07/2010
Active Rigs	192	181	199	184	141

Twelve (12) new permits --

• Operators: WPX (5), EOG (4), Petro-Hunt (2), Whiting
• Fields: Reunion Bay (Dunn), Parshall (Mountrail), Charlson (McKenzie), Bell (Stark)
• Comments:

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

Eleven (11) producing wells completed:

• 27046, 1,135, Whiting, Anna Bartleson 44-20-2H, Sanish, t7/14; cum --
• 27083, 1,200, BR, Denali 44-33TFH, Johnson Corner, 4 sections, t7/14; cum --
• 26878, 1,367, XTO, FBIR Buyblackhawk 24X-27F, Heart Butte, ICO, t7/14; cum --
• 23541, 1,545, Enerplus, Honor 150-94-06B-18H TF, Spotted Horn, t6/14; cum 31K 6/14;
• 27047, 1,297, Whiting, Bartleson 44-20H,  Sanish, t7/14; cum --
• 26231, 329, Triangle, Dwyer 150-101-35-26-3H, Rawson, t4/14; cum 46K 6/14;
• 26494, 173, Triangle, State 154-102-25-36-5H, Rosebud, t4/14; cum 27K 6/14;
• 26725, 436, Triangle, Hovde 150-100-6-7-1H, Spring Creek, t4/14; cum 62K 6/14;
• 26723, 447, Triangle, State 152-102-36-25-5H, Elk, t41/4; cum 39K 6/14;
• 26735, 750, Triangle, Wisness 150-100-23-14-5H, Timber Creek, t4/14; cum 42K 6/14
• 26736, 766, Triangle, Wisness 150-100-23-14-6H, Timber Creek, t4/14; cum 46K 6/14;

The Wall Street Journal

Iraqi War #3? Obama approves airstrikes on Iraq.

WSJ survey: economists see 2H14 GDP growth of 3%.

For Obama, Iraq move is a policy reversal. Now, back to vacation plans and more golfing.

US firms stockpiling titanium parts in case Russia bans export; the metal is critical to building jetliners.

Surprise! Brazil's new oil output is rising fast. Petrobras gets nearly a quarter of its 2 million bopd poroduction from fast-growing 'pre-salt'discoveries offshore, helping stem declines in the state-owned oil company's mature fields. This was not expected by some, including me.

Doomsday: magazine sales in US drop 12% in 1H14 from a year earlier; paid subscriptions dropped 2%.

USDA's world cotton price nears threshold level that triggers US government loan-repayment assistance to farmers.

Falling natural-gas prices dim utility stocks.

The Los Angeles Times

It appears that President Obama's air force has bombed, or will bomb, or might bomb, or might consider maybe bombing ISIS forces now that there are reports that they have seized Iraq's largest dam (?). Conflicting reports coming out of different news agencies. Why are we going back in, now? On another note, I know when the previous president went into Iraq he went in with an international coalition of forces, the backing of the UN, and on the basis of testimony from Colin Powell (who later said it was "bs"or something to that effect). It appears this time, the president is going in alone, as in unilaterally. I can't make this stuff up. I truly thought Mr Obama thought more bombing would simply lead to another cycle of more fighting.

John Walsh, Montana, has quit the US Senate race; couldn't dodge plagiarism charges.

The 14-y/o female arrested with four other teens after a USC student was fatally beaten has been charged with seven (7) -- "book her, Dano" -- felonies in connection with a robbery following the deadly assault. She faces charges of carjacking, one count of second-degree robbery, one count of attempted second-degree robbery, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of assault likely to cause great bodily injury during a robbery. Not charged with any hate crime?

The Washington Times

Apparently the US "OPEN BORDERS" policy now extends to the north, also. In addition to the OPEN BORDERS policy along the US-Mexican border, it appears that we now have an OPEN BORDERS policy over Alaska. The Washington Times is reporting that Russian bears have crossed into Alaska at least 16 times in the last couple of weeks.  

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The Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits

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Weather, climate, extreme weather, a warming hiatus? 

Call it what you want. Baby, it's cold outside.

Antarctica hits record cold: -67 degrees. Polar bears not seen

cfact is reporting:

Thirteen members of the British Antarctic Survey were trapped and in danger of freezing to death when their base, Halley VI, lost power.  Power went down on July 30th and is now partially restored.  The BAS waited to report the incident until power came back up, however now reports that the incident was so serious that all science activities have been suspended and emergency contingency plans to abandon some of Halley’s eight modules and attempt to shelter in a remaining few have been prepared.

The incident is particularly serious, as the station is likely completely cut off from rescue for months.  The incident occurred during the height of the Antarctic winter while southern sea ice is at or near record highs.

Twenty-nine Thirty excuses. If you can't explain the pause, you can't explain the cause.