Relatively Quiet Day As Reported By The Daily Activity Report, September 11, 2014

Wells coming off the confidential list Friday:

• 20789, 987, Whiting, Kadrmas Federal 34-10PH, Zenith, t3/14; cum 44K 7/14;
• 24871, 984, Whiting, Kadrmas Federal 44-10PH, Zenith, producing, t3/14; cum 32K 7/14;
• 24872, 967, Whiting, Kadrmas Federal 14-10PH, Zenith, producing, t3/14; cum 39K 7/14;
• 26477, drl, CLR, Rochester 7-24H1, North Tobacco Garden, no production data,
• 27497, drl, Hess, EN-L Cvancara-155-93-2627H-5, Robinson Lake, no production data,
• 27635, 137, Slawson, Matilda Bay 1-15H, Stockyard Creek, 8 stages; planned for 24, mechanical problems; 600,000 pounds proppant; single section spacing, t6/14; cum --
• 27778, 80, Enduro, NSCU R-711-H1, Newburg, a Spearfish/Charles well, t5/14; cum 3K 7/14;

Active rigs:

	9/11/2014	09/11/2013	09/11/2012	09/11/2011	09/11/2010
Active Rigs	198	180	193	199	141

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

Eight (8) new permits --

• Operators: XTO ENergy (4), SM Energy (2),  Petro-Hunt, Zavanna,
• Fields: Bear Den (McKenzie), Colgan (Divide), Briar Creek (Williams), EAst Tioga (Burke)
• Comments:

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Boomtown Budget

Williston approves a $250 million budget. The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

The budget for the oil boomtown of Williston has increased nearly fivefold in just three years.

The city commission passed a record $250 million budget for 2015 on Tuesday.

The city's budget was just $53 million in 2012. The budget was $20 million in 2000.

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Apple

One of the things I've enjoyed over the years is trying to understand what business or what sector a particular company was in (Rigzone happened to have an article on that very subject yesterday, by the way, which I did not link). One of the "aha" moments for me was when I realized that BNSF was not in the railroad business, but was in the transportation business -- a subtle difference, perhaps, but it makes a difference (think "intermodal"). One could argue that BNSF is an energy company now. That' s a bit a of a stretch but it helps explain this thread.

From the very beginning, I always felt Apple was in the fashion business. It was also in the mobile entertainment business. But I've seldom seen articles by anyone suggesting that Apple was in the fashion business. It might have started with multiple colors of their "iBean" computers, and certainly in their multiple colors of their iPods or whatever those small music devices came to be called. I've long forgotten.

Then the Watch. It is pretty much unnecessary from a utilitarian point of view, because it requires an iPhone to be fully functional. The Watch, then, becomes superfluous, except .... as an accessory item. And yes, women are going to be getting the top end (sapphire crystal/18-karat gold backing) Watch as gifts.

I probably would not have posted that except for this most recent item from Macrumors.com:

Apple appears to be targeting a mid-2015 launch for the machine [the notebook] and, most interestingly, the company is said be planning to offer it in the same silver, gold, and space gray colors used on its iPhone lineup.

So, yes, folks will be color coordinating their notebooks, iPhones, and their Watches ... and at least one of them will be completely superfluous -- simply a fashion statement.

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World-Weary

This is the opening paragraph from the most recent issue of The New Yorker, "The Talk of the Town," p. 27:

Even the most forgiving judge of Barack Obama, one willing to overlook his preference for chipping onto the sunlit greens of Martha's Vineyard rather than brooding in the fluorescent glare of the Situation Room, must admit that the President has sometimes been a thick-tongued steward of his own foreign policy. How did the author of "A More Perfect Union" become the author of "The worlld has always been messy"? Obama, who prides himself on late-night preparation, unshakable rationality, and a writerly ear, is compiling an anthology of botched pronouncements that have, at best, muddied his intentions.

August, 2012: "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized." [Which, by the way, almost sounds inner-city-gangsta.]

September, 2013: "I didn't set a red line. The world set a red line."

August, 2014: "I don't want to put the cart before the horse. We don't have a strategy yet."

Wow. Besides the content (substance was lacking), the language was "low English," at best.

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Notes to the Granddaughers

Don sent me a link to a Dickinson Press article about a USAF Red Horse team helping to construct housing on the reservation:

Construction is underway on a 10-trailer complex for government employees at the Bureau of Land Management’s Dickinson office, where officials say turnover is high due to housing shortages in the area.

Work began last month on the complex, which will house BLM and Forest Service employees and their families, some of whom live in trailers in South Heart and New England.

The 10-acre parcel, off of First Street and 40th Avenue Southwest near Patterson Lake and just five minutes from the BLM office, belonged to the Bureau of Reclamation, who agreed to transfer the land to the BLM in 2013 at no cost. The U.S. Air Force’s 819th RED HORSE (Rapid Engineer Deployable, Heavy Operational Repair Squadron, Engineer), Construction Team Bravo is performing the labor at no cost as part of a training exercise for its 10 members.

I did not know that RED HORSE was actually an acronym; wow, someone had to have spent a lot of time working on that one; worthy of anything the US Navy can come up with.

I probably would not have posted the story; not much interest in it except for the memories it brought back of time I spent with a RED HORSE team and PRIME BEEF team in northern Africa some decades ago.

More on that later. Hopefully I can find a photo to post.