Montana Update: Four Bakken Completions, All In Richland County

In Richland County, Continental Resources Inc. reported the completion of four Bakken Formation wells.

The Fairfield SunTimes is reporting:

• The Constance-Linnea HSU, TD: 20,195 feet; the IP was 240 bopd.
• The Earl-Rita HSU, TD:  20,620 feet; the IP was 177 bopd.
  The Larry 1-28H, TD:  13,928 feet; the IP was 474 bopd. 
• The Lucille 3-27H; with three laterals; TDs of: 11,759 feet; 15,392 feet; and, 20,028 feet. No IP was provided, or if it was, I missed it. 

Don provided the link, thank you.

Richland County is west of McKenzie County in North Dakota.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

Regular readers know that my wife and I provide 24/7 care for our two granddaughters. I started this back in 2007 and except for a couple weeks during the Christmas holidays and a couple of weeks in the summer when they are with their other grandparents or vacationing with their parents, we are involved 24/7. Since 2007 we have pretty much lived in the same house as the granddaughters. This past year was the first time in six years that we had an apartment separate from theirs.

Some days are more exhausting than others; today was one of those days. My wife is still out in California and I had to have the two granddaughters in two different places at the same time: swimming for one (6:30 - 7: 30) and soccer for the other 6:00 - 7:30). Swimming was in South Lake, Texas; soccer was in Grapevine, TX.

Everything worked out. I won't provide the details.

We got home at 8:00 p.m. and I cooked Omaha Steaks, and invited their mother to come over; she was getting off work at 8:00 p.m. and would be getting home about 8:30 p.m. She joined us. A very nice evening. I had made Ghiradelli double chocolate brownies during the day so they had a fresh dessert. I think the brownie mix was $1.67 with my loyalty card and coupon; otherwise $2.50 with the loyalty card alone. One egg and an inconsequential amount of vegetable oil and that was the total cost for dessert that will last several days.

My daughter drove home (just a couple of blocks) but the granddaughters wanted me to walk them home, which I did. They loved discussing their plans for the evening; my only purpose was to be their escort, I guess, and carry their art work.

They are incredible sisters, ages 7 and 10. As I reflect back on their conversation, this is all that came to mind:

Stand By Me, Ben E. King
This is another song, another singer that convinces me/reminds me that there is a God. Evolved humans do not come up with these songs, these melodies on their own. Seriously, listen to the lyrics, and/or listen to the strings in the instrumentals portions and think that this was done without the help of angels. Probably not. G. K. Chesterton would agree.

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Isn't YouTube wonderful? Matched with Ben E. King above, one gets Otis Redding:

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
I assume I've listened to this song a thousand times, but for the first time tonight, I heard the emotion in his voice...."wastin' time... I left my home in Georgia ... headed for the Frisco Bay .. I had nothing to live for .. nothing's gonna change... I can't do what 10 people tell me to do so I guess I will remain the same ... "

I can't do what 10 people tell me to do so I guess I will remain the same ... I think of the newly hired, minimum wage workers on the assembly line with a dozen supervisors / managers / quality improvement gurus with clipboards ... if they survive the union, the corporate management, human resources, their spouse, their kids ...

One more for the road:

Right Down The Road, Gerry Rafferty A Mother's Day Song

How Big Might The Bakken Be?

I wasn't going to post this story. I didn't care all that much. And I was exhausted.

But, look at the numbers in this article. No, before you do that look at these numbers: the population of Norway is 5 million. The population of North Dakota is 700,000.

Every Norwegian is a millionaire.

Now look at the numbers in this story. Reuters is reporting via Rigzone:

Norway cuts its 2014 oil production forecasts on Wednesday, and warned that investment growth will soon stop, but also sharply raised its undiscovered resource estimate on more Arctic riches.

The world's seventh biggest oil exporter and Western Europe's top gas supplier sees oil production at about 1.46 million barrels a day this year.

Even as investment growth slows, Norway increased its total undiscovered resource estimate to 18.5 billion barrels of oil equivalents (boe) from a previous estimate for 16.3 billion boe.

Okay, did you see those numbers? Norway is producing about 1.5 million bopd. North Dakota: soon to hit the 1 million bopd milestone and estimates are that North Dakota will produce 2 million bopd (barring any geopolitical disruption). Norway is slowing down production because of increased challenges in deep-sea drilling in the Arctic. Sort of makes the Bakken look like a cakewalk, huh?

So, Norway:

• 1.5 million bopd
• 5 million Norwegians
• every Norwegian is a millionaire
• reserves of 20 billion bbls
• Norway's "Legacy Fund" invested in equities and property around the world

Compare with North North Dakota:

• 1 million bopd
• less than a million North Dakotans
• CLR suggests Bakken reserves are significantly greater than 20 billion bbls
• North Dakota's "Legacy Fund" invested in cash at 0.02%

Disclaimer: all numbers are the opinions of me and me alone based on various sources. I would not swear on a Bible that any or all of statistics stated are accurate, but that's my worldview. 

From Sweden, close enough to Norway: 



SOS, ABBA       Waterloo, ABBA

"Let Them Eat Cake" -- If They Want More Dangerous CBR Terminals, Then We'll Build More Dangerous CBR Terminals

The AP is reporting via Rigzone:

The chief executive of TransCanada said Wednesday if the Obama administration doesn't approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline his company will look to the more dangerous alternative of building build rail terminals in Alberta and Oklahoma.

President Barack Obama is expected to decide early this year on Keystone XL, which is under review at the State Department. The long-delayed pipeline would carry oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said pipelines are "by far a safer alternative" to oil trains but said if customers want him to build rail terminals he will. He said he's in discussions with oil and rail companies. Concerns have been raised about the increasing use of rail to transport oil throughout North America.

A number of recent derailments have worried both officials and residents close to rail lines. In July, 47 people were killed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, when a train with 72 oil tankers derailed and exploded in the small community. On Dec. 30, an oil train derailed and exploded in North Dakota, causing the evacuation of a nearby town but no injuries. Earlier this month, a train carrying oil and gas exploded in New Brunswick, also causing evacuations.

Girling said they'll consider building a rail terminal in Hardisty, Alberta where the pipeline would have started. He said he will also consider building an import terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma, site of the biggest U.S. oil storage hub. The southern leg of Keystone XL from Cushing to refineries in the Gulf Coast is set to come online next week.

RBN Energy has posted a number of excellent articles on Canadian CBR.

CBR Rules

Reuters is reporting via Rigzone:

Safety standards for tank cars carrying crude oil and other hazardous material that have been involved in several recent derailments are not likely to come before next year, the U.S. Department of Transportation said on Wednesday.

A spate of explosive derailments, including one in Quebec last July which killed 47 people, another last month in North Dakota and as recently as last week in New Brunswick, Canada, has led to concerns over the safety of shipping crude oil by rail.

Officials have asked the shipping industry for input on how to make tank cars more safe, particularly in light of fiery incidents involving crude shipments that jumped the tracks. A prolonged process for writing new rules has begun but many months are needed to digest the views of stakeholders and clear bureaucratic hurdles, officials have said.

The rules will likely not be finished before January next year, the DOT said in a notice of major initiatives released this week. For many producers, moving crude oil on railcars has been the preferred means of bringing the product to refineries. Some 71 percent of all oil produced in North Dakota was transported by rail in November, or around 800,000 barrels per day, according to the state's Pipeline Authority.

Wednesday Evening: Statoil Reports Two "High IP" Wells

I will be tied up this evening (lots of granddaughter-related activity) but will update as I find time. Readers have sent me links to a number of stories that need to be posted.

This is a long, long article. I've been waiting for this one, the second part of his 2-part series on the Bakken, an update as we go into 2014. I will read it later. I've been told that it is very, very long and could have been easily broken into three articles. Michael Filloon's part 2 of a 2-part series on the Bakken, going into 2014. It will be interesting to see if he addresses the #1 and the #2 issue on everyone's mind regarding the Bakken.

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

Active rigs:

	1/15/2014	01/15/2013	01/15/2012	01/15/2011	01/15/2010
Active Rigs	187	185	200	163	80

Five (5) new permits:

• Operators: Petro-Hunt (3), Crescent Point, Hess
• Fields: North Tioga (Burke), Church (Williams), Hawkeye (McKenzie)
• Comments:

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

Seven (7) producing wells completed:

• 23208, 240, BR, CCU Boxcar 44-22PH, Corral Creek, unitized, t10/13; cum --
• 23860, 3,358, Statoil, Hovde 33-4 2H, Sandrocks, t12/13; cum --
• 24361, 3,099, Statoil, Knight 35-26 3TFH, Banks, t12/13; cum --
• 24836, 416, CLR Bice Federal 4-32H1, Chimney Butte, t12/13; cum --
• 25630, 194, Samson Resources, Bel Air 2314-2H, Ambrose, t1/14; cum --
• 25664, 480, Mountain Divide, Heckman 7-6-1H, Fortuna, t9/13; cum --
• 25668, 456, Mountain Divide, Olson 2-11S-1H, Fortuna, t10/13; cum --

Wells coming off confidential list Thursday:

• 25304, 2,257, QEP, Paul 2-26035TH, the Helis Grail, t12/13; cum --
• 25576, 447, Hess, EN-Riersgard 156-93-1718H-6, Alger, t12/13; cum --

Two Laterals Off One CLR Well On The Atlanta Pad Southwest Of Williston

This is interesting, a "mystery" noted by a reader.

This is a nice one for folks who want to get experience with the NDIC GIS map server.

Looking at CLR's 14-well Atlanta pad in Baker oil field southwest of Williston, there are two horizontal laterals coming from:

• 23362, drl, CLR, Atlanta 11-6H, Baker

The well file does not say anything about a sidetrack or another lateral. Drilling to total depth seemed to be without a hitch except it stopped 100 feet short due to a motor failure.

Maybe once it comes off DRL status and is completed, we might learn the answer from an updated file report. Until then, we are relying on readers that might know why there are two horizontals, almost the same length, coming from the above noted well.

Are There Any Active Wells In Wells County, North Dakota?

This came in as a comment from a reader, but comments are not google-searchable; I will post it here:

Do you have any idea what's with the production data for Wells County displayed on page 2 of the latest (November 2013) monthly oil and gas production report (available at https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/mprindex.asp)? 

Apparently there was a newly productive gas well there in November, and a rather decent one at that, but I hadn't heard about any drilling there, nor can I find any additional information within the report or on the NDIC GIS map server. As far as I can tell, while also appreciating the irony, there should be no active wells in Wells County.

When you get to the link, click on November, 2013; it's a pdf. At the pdf, go to page two. Note the gas well in Wells County. Neither the reader nor I can find any other data at the NDIC site regarding this well.

The reader and I both hope this well is indeed active; another fifty years with no active wells in this county and they may have to change the name.

Wednesday

Whiting and Petro-Hunt each report a "high-IP"well. 

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

EPD and Tallgrass Energy report increased dividends/distributions. For EPD, at one penny, inconsequential. 

Natural gas prices continue to climb. The Wall Street Journal is reporting: weather forecasts called for a potential second blast of frigid temperatures in late January that is likely to boost demand for the heating fuel.

Active rigs in North Dakota: 188

RBN Energy: This is a great post preceding the Denver Congress, 29 - 30 January, 2014, when the focus will be on CBR and pipeline takeaway capacity in the Bakken. RBN Energy asks today whether new tank car rules will derail the Bakken. I haven't read it yet, but my answer is "no." Let's see what RBN Energy has to say.

The recent tragic spate of four rail accidents involving crude-by-rail, three of them carrying crude from North Dakota, have increased pressure for regulation of rail tank car standards. The railroad industry- through the American Railroad Association (ARA) - proposed improved safety standards in 2011 for tank cars carrying hazardous materials including crude oil. These standards have been adopted by US tank car builders and were mandated this week by the Canadian Government for new tank car construction. If the new standards applied to all existing tank cars then at least 75,000 cars manufactured before 2011 would require retrofitting. Today we examine the impact hastily implemented new regulatory requirements might have on Bakken crude oil takeaway.

No spoiler alert; you have to go to the linked story to see the answer. Suffice it to say that I have ben "way wrong" suggesting that there is now adequate pipeline to get oil out of the Bakken. The slides at the linked story clearly suggest that there is not enough pipeline takeaway to meet Bakken production.

In addition, The Wall Street Journal has a front-section story on the same subject: CBR and the Bakken.

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The Wall Street Journal

Perhaps most interesting story of the day: a federal appeals court opens the way for broadband providers to charge content companies for faster speeds, striking down federal rules that required equal treatment of internet traffic. My hunch: the legal battles are not yet over.

Cities grapple with oil-train safety.

Every day, a train more than a mile long travels alongside a highway in Albany, N.Y., a half-mile from the state capitol building and even closer to houses.

Its cargo is crude oil from North Dakota, which federal regulators and railroads fear is more explosive than other oils. In the past year, Albany has become an unlikely hub for the U.S. oil business, taking in shipments by rail and sending them out by ship down the Hudson River to refineries.

Now officials there are trying to get up to speed on how to handle a potential oil-train accident, as are their peers from Chicago to Denver to New Orleans.

Railroad officials don't like to talk about it, but oil trains are rumbling through many large cities because of surging output from North Dakota's Bakken shale.

Functioning as pipelines on rails, tanker cars full of oil pass through Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, St. Louis, Kansas City and Houston, among others. Bakken crude, which has been involved in three major explosions after rail accidents in the past seven months, is traveling to every corner of the country: west into Washington state and then south to refineries near Los Angeles; south to Gulf Coast refiners; north into Canada; and east to refineries in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

My hunch: cities strapped for cash have just found another set of deep pockets. 

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Mac Pro is a Lamborghini, but who drives that fast? You would be surprised. Big name Hollywood producers and directors for starters. I will post the fun stuff at the very bottom so as not to annoy readers.

The Stockton California diocese will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to address growing liabilities stemming from allegations of sexual abuse. Also see the story at this post; if you go to that link, you have to scroll down to find the story.

It's hard to "kill" a plane. This surprised me. I did not know they were still flying. Admirers join forces to save the Warthog.

The Air Force's budget-cutting plan to retire hundreds of jets that have provided invaluable protection for U.S. troops is creating strange bedfellows, as influential lawmakers and longtime critics of Pentagon bloat rally to save the A-10 "Warthog."

For more than two decades, the A-10 Thunderbolt II has provided aerial protection to ground troops, a task it has performed from Iraq's "Highway of Death" in the first Gulf War to the Taliban strongholds of eastern Afghanistan. Few people at the Pentagon challenge the plane's reputation for providing forces with the best support possible.

Eliminating the Warthog—so named because of its ugly, snub-nosed design—is one way the Air Force is looking to deal with its need to trim more than $50 billion from its budget over the next five years as part of a broader congressional mandate that the Pentagon out $500 billion the next decade. Air Force officials say retiring the entire fleet of about 300 A-10s by 2020 would save a total of $3.7 billion.

$3.7 billion over 6 years = $0.6 billion / year. Hardly worth talking about. But great photo-ops. And politicians can speak to their constituencies.

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Jobs deal collapses in the Senate. I thought Senator Schumer was worried about the House. LOL. Just a reminder: the Dems are solidly in control of the Senate. They can pass anything they want. Even unemployment benefit extensions.

Say it ain't so. Beanie Babies creator sentenced to probation for tax evasion.

Supreme Court bars Argentina suit against Daimler. Watershed moment. Repercussions for the Ecuador-Chevron case? Probably no link. I've lost the bubble on which court this case is currently being tried. Canadian? Whatever.

Tesla will start building charging stations in China. Okay. How does one spell Quixote?

The Los Angeles Times

Good for them. LA unified school district ignores advice, moves ahead with iPad program. Sends a message.

The Boston Globe

One western Massachusetts school district is considering a 4-day school week. Bus transportation costs too much.  Meanwhile the governor is pouring money into the Boston transit system.

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That Apple Story

From the article --

My recommendation: Buy an iMac now. It is the Lexus of desktop computers, but trust me, it will handle whatever you throw at it. In two to three years, upgrade to a new one, when the technology has moved along.

The price of two computers over five years will still be less than what you'd spend on one 8-core Mac Pro. People who favor Windows may wonder why I've focused on Apple. The answer is that most consumers who spend more than $1,000 on a computer buy a Mac.

For those people, the question is which one. What caught my eye about the Mac Pro is that Apple priced the entry-level model a tantalizing $1,000 more than a top-of-the-line iMac. Mac Pros don't come with a monitor or keyboard, so the actual price difference for the entry model can be closer to $2,000. The gallon-jug-sized Mac Pro is shaped like a cylinder, with lights on the back that come alive when you move it, an adorable flourish of questionable usefulness. The cover comes off so you can show off the hardware under the hood. While Apple abandoned the tower computer design used by most pro desktops, it didn't skimp on specs. The main processor can have up to 12 cores (standard computers have two or four) and there are two dedicated graphics processors.

Instead of adding new capabilities inside the case, Apple wants you to expand it with peripherals that connect via the fast Thunderbolt cable (as well as the latest versions of USB, HDMI, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). The Mac Pro's most brag-worthy advantage is it can run up to three Ultra HD (aka 4K) displays—each with four times the resolution of your hi-def TV. But this may be too forward looking. Apple doesn't make an Ultra HD monitor, and the Sharp model it currently recommends costs $3,500. Dell and Lenovo recently announced their own Ultra HD screens priced under $1,000.

Apple has supported most aftermarket monitors, but hasn't yet certified these or said whether it is planning a desktop version of the Retina-display experience it offers on mobile devices and the MacBook Pro. For now, your best Mac Pro monitor option is Apple's $1,000 Thunderbolt Display, which is similar to the 27-inch iMac's.