Bakken, Energy Potpourri -- December 22, 2014

I'm behind on blogging, so a series of links, for the archives, and perhaps maybe come back to later.

Oil storm has Texas wildcat veterans warning Bakken rookies to take cover -- Bloomberg:

Autry Stephens knows the look and feel of an oil boom going bust, and he’s starting to get ready.

The West Texas wildcatter, 76, has weathered four such cycles in his 52 years draining crude from the Permian basin, still the most prolific U.S. oilfield. Though the collapse in prices since June doesn’t yet have him in a panic, Stephens recognizes the signs of another downturn on the horizon. 

Go about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) due north and you get a very different take from the rookie oil barons in North Dakota, where crude output from the Bakken formation went from 200,000 barrels a day in 2008 to about 1.2 million today. They’re not seeing any need to take shelter, and it shows in their swagger.  

Rich Vestal, who’s seen his trucking business double, double again and then double one more time in the past five years, is sipping root beer out of a Styrofoam cup at the Courthouse Cafe in Williston, North Dakota. “I would welcome a slowdown,” he says, while believing one’s not really in the works.

Oil patch towns may get chance to catch up with housing, infrastructure -- The Bismarck Tribune. 

As oil drilling is forecast to see a downturn in the Bakken in 2015, the mayor of Watford City concedes people want to know what will happen in one of the fastest-growing towns in the oil patch.

Nothing and everything is his answer.

Brent Sanford said development and land sales are not slowing because the housing and infrastructure that's needed for permanent oil field employees has not been met.

"Basically, based on projections for a need of 7,000 permanent housing units, we're only at about 2,000. We're so far away. We can't let our foot off the pedal here," he said.

Sanford and Williston Mayor Howard Klug are singing from the same page of the oil boom book.

From The Montana Standard, eastern Montana in critical need for basic infrastructure:

SIDNEY — In the epicenter of the oil and gas boom, communities are growing so quickly they can’t keep up with their basic infrastructure needs such as water and sewage treatment facilities, housing and roads and bridges.

Upgrading water and sewage treatment facilities is the most pressing need in Sidney, public works director Jeff Hintz says. It may cost up to $18 million for the wastewater plant, $17 million for the water treatment plant and $3 million to replace the water storage tank.

Yet local officials say they haven’t received much help yet from state government.