Idle Rambling On A Sunday Morning -- September 21, 2014; CLR And Springer In Oklahoma

I'm not being lazy. I have three posts in draft stage ready for posting, but I will post them later this week, so the folks going back to work have something to look at during their breaks. To some extent, that's true. The bigger reason is that I want folks to take a look at the most recent CLR presentation with regard to the Bakken (not with regard to CLR, per se) and think about the implications.

Don sent me an observation from that presentation that is absolutely incredible; it will put the Bakken into perspective and help folks better understand the boom in North Dakota.

In the meantime, a reader alerted me to this: http://oppidan.com/properties/industrialwarehouse/general-electric-williston-nd. In case the link breaks, it is the artist's rendering and details of a new GE facility in Williston: industrial warehouse, 52,000 square feet. Did I read somewhere the average size of a Wal-Mart is 100,000 square feet? Gives one an idea of the size of the facility. The website says the facility will be located "north" of town. Well, that narrows that down. East or west side of 2  & 85? How far north? By the way, at the link, one can see photos of ongoing construction. (Note the typographical error in spelling "facility" -- glad to see I'm not the only one who makes typographical errors.

When you get to the link, be sure to also click on Oppidan developments in the Bakken.

One can search "Oppidan" on this website for other Oppidan stories. Quite a story.

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Press Release Disguised As A News Story?

The AP is reporting:

An Oklahoma City-based energy company has unveiled a new formation in south-central Oklahoma that the company's CEO said will elevate the state as an oil producer.

Continental Resources Inc. said western Oklahoma's Springer Shale deposit is in the heart of the South Central Oklahoma Oil Province, Continental's last big discovery, The Oklahoman reported (http://bit.ly/1qk32sd).

CEO Harold Hamm said the Springer and other new Oklahoma oil deposits have the state on track to surpass California and Alaska and become the nation's third-largest oil producer, behind Texas and North Dakota.

Continental completed its first Springer well early last year. It produced more than 2,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the newspaper.

Continental drilled another exploratory well about 25 miles away to delineate the formation, then another near the original well to confirm the discovery.

The company then halted its operations to amass more acreage in the formation. It resumed drilling in the second quarter, with 118,000 net acres in its portfolio.

Parker said Continental has completed 11 Springer wells so far but kept its operations there quiet for 20 months. He said the company has 11 or 12 years' worth of drilling opportunities in the Springer's oil window.

And that's why oil companies want the results of their wells kept secret.

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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Global Warming

I saw the op-ed / article in The Wall Street Journal but didn't pay much attention to it. The story is getting a bit long in the tooth (or is it, "teeth"?) as they say, more and more scientists coming out of the closet. But this post put the op-ed in perspective. Over at Quadrant Online:

President Obama is so convinced about dangerous human-caused global warming that he describes sceptics as ‘flat-earthers’ who think the moon is made of cheese.

Actually, sceptics include three astronauts who have walked on the moon — Buzz Aldrin, Charles Duke and Jack Schmidt — and four other Apollo astronauts. But let’s not quibble with the president, who claims to have the weight of the science community behind him.

Or does he? Dr Steven E. Koonin was Undersecretary for Science in the Energy Department during Obama’s first term.

Koonin is sceptical about the alarmist case, so much so that he calls for serious independent reviews of the IPCC’s forecasts and methodology, along with a close look at other scientists’ prognostications.

He says, “A transparent rigor would be a welcome development, especially given the momentous political and policy decisions at stake. That could be supported by regular, independent, ‘red team’ reviews to stress-test and challenge the projections by focusing on their deficiencies and uncertainties; that would certainly be the best practice of the scientific method.”

Koonin’s previous positions include professor of theoretical physics and provost at Caltech, as well as chief scientist of BP, where his work focused on renewable and low-carbon energy technologies.

Writing in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal Koonin debunked warmism, saying it would be a long time before science could give validly emphatic advice to the political community.

The certitude of the orthodox climate scientist was not only misguided, he continued, but was distorting the debate on energy and CO2 emissions.

And they all raised their hands, and said, "Amen."

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A Note To The Granddaughters

I try to ride my bike to my favorite Starbucks every day -- a five-mile ride one way -- three Starbucks are much closer: one, one block away; another about a half-mile away; and, my previous favorite about a mile away. But the five-mile ride is much nicer. And it takes me to one of the biggest outdoor malls in America -- Southlake Town Centre, and the mall is getting bigger. Much, much bigger. Trader Joe's should be opening any time now. REI is going up across the main thoroughfare; another huge grocery story similar to "Whole Foods" is also going up.

The pollen must be way down. It was incredibly bad three days ago, not so bad yesterday during the soccer game (in which "we" won 6-0; our granddaughter scored twice). Today, very little pollen problems.

On Thursday and Friday of this past week I was unable to connect to the wi-fi at this particular Starbucks, and on Friday they forgot to "prepare" my pastry order (which I just blew off -- cost only $2.60 but I saved all those calories by not eating it -- thank you, Mr Starbucks). I went to the Starbucks over at Barnes and Noble later. (Wow, that's five Starbucks in bicycling range; and, as long as I'm on the subject, there is actually a sixth one, a new one another half-mile down the road.)

After the problems with this Starbucks the past two days I had planned not to return to this one, but tried one more time. Today, it's working perfectly. Wonderful.

On the way to Starbucks I bicycled past the Apple retail store. I was quite astounded. There was a line outside the store; this was about 9:12 a.m. I know the time because I thought Barnes and Noble opened at 9:00 a.m. They do. Every day, except Sunday. So, that's why I'm back at this Starbucks waiting for Barnes and Noble to open. But now that wi-fi is working, here I am.

So, there's a line outside Apple. My son-in-law upgraded iPhones for both my wife and our daughter. They had the iPhone 4. Neither wanted the iPhone 6. Too big. They each were upgraded to an iPhone 5S which is practically being given away for free. It's quite incredible. My son-in-law asked me if I wanted an iPhone (he was upgrading to the iPhone 6 -- his company uses Apple phones). I said I did not want an iPhone.

I still have my Samsung clamshell, the one I've had for about six years, replacing the previous Samsung clamshell. I don't know know if readers have ever seen a clamshell. It only does two things: a) opens and closes, that's why they call it a clamshell; and, b) makes phone calls. No sexting. No texting. Oh, yes, it does have voicemail function and an alarm clock function. Oh, it does one more thing: it routinely lasts about 8 hours before it needs to be recharged -- and that's if I'm not using it. The battery is pretty much dead; our younger daughter has the same model; she told me how to replace the battery. But I think a new battery would cost about as much as a new clamshell.

I won't get an iPhone. I'm already addicted to the web; I don't need a SmartPhone. It would only be worse. I've weaned myself off the web to some extent. I no longer carry a power source for my laptop. When it runs out of juice, I'm done for the day -- or at least until I return home.