The AP has a four-page internet story over at Rigzone on CBR derailments, spills, explosions, and fires. It begins:
BILLINGS,
Montana (AP) — At least 10 times since 2008, freight trains hauling oil
across North America have derailed and spilled significant quantities
of crude, with most of the accidents touching off fires or catastrophic
explosions.
The derailments released almost 3 million gallons of oil, nearly twice
as much as the largest pipeline spill in the U.S. since at least 1986.
And the deadliest wreck killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic,
Quebec.
Those findings, from an Associated Press review of U.S. and Canadian
accident records, underscore a lesser-known danger of America's oil
boom, which is changing the global energy balance and raising urgent
safety questions closer to home.
Experts say recent efforts to improve the safety of oil shipments belie
an unsettling fact: With increasing volumes of crude now moving by rail,
it's become impossible to send oil-hauling trains to refineries without
passing major population centers, where more lives and property are at
risk.
Adding to the danger is the high volatility of the light, sweet crude
from the fast-growing Bakken oil patch in Montana and North Dakota,
where many of the trains originate. Because it contains more natural gas
than heavier crude, Bakken oil can have a lower ignition point. Of the
six oil trains that derailed and caught fire since 2008, four came from
the Bakken and each caused at least one explosion. That includes the
accident at Lac-Megantic, which spilled an estimated 1.6 million gallons
and set off a blast that levelled a large section of the town.
After recent fiery derailments in Quebec, Alabama, North Dakota and New
Brunswick, companies and regulators in the U.S. and Canada are pursuing
an array of potential changes such as slowing or rerouting trains,
upgrading rupture-prone tank cars and bolstering fire departments.
Company executives were expected to offer a set of voluntary safety
measures in the coming days at the request of U.S. Transportation
Secretary Anthony Foxx.
The
price of oil extended gains above $100 a barrel Monday as the cold
weather in the United States increased demand for heating fuels and
solid Chinese credit numbers eased concerns over the world's
second-biggest economy.
By midday, benchmark U.S. crude for March delivery was up 62 cents to
$100.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. On Friday, the Nymex contract fell 5 cents to close at
$100.30.
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La Japonaise, Barcelona, The Opera, Freddie Mercury, Montserrat Caballe
This is the third coldest winter on record for the US so far.
Look at that graph. A few things jump out at me.
First, the three coldest winters, including this one, are not even "kinda cold" compared to previous winters. The three coldest winters are practically off the scale.
Second, if one eliminates the first two decades (1890 - 1910), one would not even notice anything that looks anything like "warming." Only because of those first two decades, would a least-squares straight line slant "upward" (warming). And we have no idea what the temperatures were prior to 1890 based on this graph.
Also, look at that temperature scale, the "y" axis: the warmest winters did not even exceed 3 degrees Celsius off the baseline. The vast majority of "figures" were within two degrees Celsius, either warmer or colder than the baseline.
And the warmists are concerned about a one-degree rise over a century, conveniently forgetting that the earth has had no warming for 18 years, going on 19. The warmists also conveniently forget the #1 greenhouse gas is water vapor which accounts for about 97% of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. CO2 accounts for less than 3% and manmade CO2 accounts for a fraction of that. And no one is telling us to limit our water vapor emissions.
**********************************
O Karen O
Highway 61 Revisited, Karen O and the Million Dollar Bashers
The Immigrant Song, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Karen O and Trent Reznor
Goldleaf Jewelry Co., a Chinese jewelry retailer with gold mining investments, plans to buy U.S. oil and gas operator ERG Resources LLC for at least $665 million.
The Beijing-based company will pay for the acquisition with a private share placement, raising as much as $940 million from no more than 10 investors, Goldleaf said.
Buying closely held ERG would give Goldleaf a foothold in oil assets along the Gulf Coast and California, adding to $16 billion of oil and gas deals announced by Chinese companies in the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ERG sold 13 oilfields to Australia’s Linc Energy Ltd. in 2011 for $236 million.
The number of producing acres was not provided in the press release, at least that I could see.
a syndicated television series spanning one decade, 2040 - 2049
Chronicles from The Bakken
Starring Samuel "Oilman" Goshwin & Liam Nikolai Gjorkstad
with occasional appearances by Archie McCool
initial funding from Apple Prairie Broadcasting
and
matching grant money from The Legacy Fund,
and
continuing support from viewers like you.
Season One, Episode Three: The Chase
They
called themselves Thelma and Louise. Thelma was 15. Louise was old
enough to remember the 1991 movie in re-runs. In all the commotion, no
one saw them jump into the yellow Lamborghini. Of course it had not been
planned, but it wasn't the first time Louise had taken off in someone
else's car or pick-up. It was easy to do in the North Dakota winters
where folks left their vehicles running during short outings in the
middle of winter. Louise was momentarily confused by the Lamborgini's
dashboard and "operating system" as she called it. But after a moment,
it seemed intuitive and off they went, around the barricades and past
the Good Humor truck.
With
all the Bakken milllionaires and the fancy sports cars on I-98, two
young women in a yellow Lamborghini did not seem out of place. The only
vehicles that still got folks to turn their heads were the vintage
Volvos coming out of Minnesota. The Volvos were common during the
"great migration" but not seen so much any more. When Volvos were seen
on I-98, North Dakotans were known to turn their heads, and murmur, "how
sad." But that was often followed with typical Scandinavian optimism,
"It could be worse; they could be coming from Wisconsin."
It
was only when Sam and Liam finally got back to the six-lane divided
highway, when they noticed their car was missing. They might have noted
their missing car earlier but the young, shapely, tall, blonde
paramedics tending to their needs had momentarily distracted them. The
authorities were alerted via a text message. It took a moment for the
older Rugby policewomen who had set up the barricades to decode the
text: CR STLN. W-B-Y-L.
"W-B-Y-L"
-- world's best yogurt, but what did the "L" stand for? And the "CR
STLN" -- what the heck was that?
Once they bought a few vowels, it all
made sense: Car stolen. West-bound-yellow-Lamborghini. Vanna
White, the Rugby dispatcher, always loved playing that game, but it
often slowed things down in the fast-paced world of crime prevention in
Rugby.
The
sky overhead was filled with media drones filming the derailment; the
flare from the overturned tank car was getting bigger but seemed to be
relatively non-threatening. The safety retro-fits to the tank cars were
apparently doing their job: releasing the legendary flammable cargo at a
measured, OSHA-prescribed rate. The firemen later said they decided to
let the fire burn itself out. The girls scouts had arrived; North Dakota
girl scouts never passed up an opportunity for s'mores. The Good Humor
truck had the marshmallows; the girls scouts had their cookies; and, the
chocolate? A Widman's truck was on its way to the Bakken.
The
MSNBCAl Jazeera drone was the only drone following the yellow
Lamborghini. By now, television viewers across North Dakota were tuned
into watching the Rugby Story, as it was now being called. Surfing
across the various networks, the "chase" was quickly becoming the
"reality show of the season." Some were already making comparisons to
the SUV-freeway chases so common in Los Angeles at the turn of century.
Thelma
and Louise were flying. Thelma, all of 15, had no clue. All she knew
was this: flying down I-98 in a yellow Lamborghini was more exciting
than taking North Dakota state history where she would be had she not
skipped school today. She never understood the reason she had to
memorize the 56 North Dakota state counties. And that was just for
starters. Of course North Dakota state history was easier for her
parents when there were only 53 counties in the Peace Garden State.
The
omniscient narrator wasn't going to digress and talk about North Dakota
history, but driving down a six-lane divided highway across North
Dakota is about as boring as it can possibly get. One might as well take
this opportunity to tell a story. Bill Bryson thought crossing Nebraska
was boring; he had obviously never traveled across North Dakota on
"old" US Highway 2 (now I-98, built to accommodate all the Minnesotans
fleeing their state due to high taxes among other things. The Target
security breach was "among the other things," best forgotten).
So,
while Thelma and Louise make their way across "old US Highway 2" it's
as good a time as any to explain the 56 counties. (Spoiler alert: they
won't get as far as they would like.)
Like
so much of North Dakota history, this story begins during the Bakken
boom. In fact, to digress again, the old timers remember when they took
North Dakota state history during one year of middle school, and even
that seemed too much. But after the boom, the state required three years
of North Dakota state history to graduate: pre-boom, during the boom,
and post-boom state history. Students were allowed to substitute one
year of state history with a year-long course in engineering, preferably
petroleum engineering, but MDU was able to lobby the legislature into
allowing electrical engineering as an alternative to petroleum
engineering. The Legacy Fund paid the salaries of the engineering
professors, most of whom came from BP.
During
the boom, QEP made history when it petitioned to "unitize" one of its
fields, which was known as the "Grail." The attempt by QEP to unitize
the "Helis Grail" started innocently enough but one thing led to another
and before the governor knew what happened, the other two members of
the NDIC agreed to let the oil companies unitize the five western North
Dakota counties: Sheridan, Roosevelt, Richland, Williams, and McKenzie.
Except for the three-hundred-forty-five (345) "extraordinary sites" the
entire five-county area was unitized.
Sheridan,
Roosevelt, and Richland counties had been annexed by North Dakota some
years earlier. When the issue came up, it only seemed to make sense.
These three Montana counties were part of the Bakken. Most of the
legislators in Helena didn't even know where the three counties were
located. If anyone had asked, and no one had, North Dakotans had long
been upset that Montana would name one of their counties after TR who
had had his ranch in North Dakota, and, for "pete's sake," they would
say, not in Montana.
Harold Hamm, Jr, one day, simply said, it's time to
annex eastern Montana; let's just do it. In fact that was the headline
in the Informed newspaper:
"It's Time To Annex Eastern Montana, Let's Just Do It -- Harold Hamm, Jr."
The
NDIC agreed. The NDIC, of course, had no authority to annex eastern
Montana, even if it was just three Bakken-oil-producing counties, but
that had not stopped the NDIC before. The commission had made a lot of
decisions over the years that seemed to be beyond their bailiwick.
Moving the North Dakota state capital to Williston seemed to be beyond
their bailiwick, too, but no one noticed that either. A lot of Bismarck
legislators were heard to have said at the time, in typical Scandinavian
optimism, "it could be worse. They could have moved the capital to
Fargo."
So,
eastern Montana, or at least the three Bakken-oil-producing counties of
Sheridan, Roosevelt, and Richland were annexed and became part of North
Dakota. That is where the counties should have been all along if Lewis
and Clark had known about the Bakken in the first place.
That's
why I-98 runs from Grand Forks to Bainville, North Dakota. The state
was willing to fund the interstate within the borders of North Dakota,
but no farther east or west.
Thelma
did not know this history. She probably would not have cared. Louise,
on the other hand, knew the story very, very well. But that story will
have to wait.
Next week's episode: will Thelma and Louise reach Montana? (Spoiler alert: no.)
I'm heading out for the day; will post again later this evening.
But folks should really read Mike Filloon's recent article very, very closely. There are some interesting things he says in that article about completion techniques and strategies in the Bakken. Read the article from the standpoint of geology and well completion in the Bakken, not from an investing point of view.
I will come back later and talk about it from a layman's point of view, and be completely wrong and humiliated. LOL.
On occasion I talk about the impact the oil industry has had on North Dakota. Texas may produce more oil than North Dakota, but the impact will be much, much greater on my home state. A reader recently noted the same thing and sent me the following:
While having coffee and getting my morning fix of news I wondered what
the numbers would be so I did a little quick research to put ND oil
production in perspective.
I don't recall ever seeing these numbers and
this is my math so it's subject to error but what I found is
astounding.
Texas with a population of about 28 million and oil
production of about 2.8 million barrels per day produces about 1/10th of
a barrel per resident per day.
North Dakota with a population of about 700,000
and oil production of about 1 million barrels per day produces about 1.4
barrels per resident per day.
This means ND produces about 14 times as
much oil per resident as Texas. Wow, talk about story lines. If I had a
little more time I'd do the population ratio for taxes collected but my
two oldest grand kids have a break from school
(girl, 5 and boy, 6) and I sense two more engineers in the family so we
are going to be very busy in Fargo for the next week.
(I purposely left a bit of identifying data of the reader off the note.)
In fact, the spread (1/10 vs 1.4 bbls) could widen. It might be an interesting metric to track.
I agree completely with the writer. I post a lot of stories about how others (New Yorkers, for example) perceive "us" but the bigger story is the impact the oil and gas industry has on a very, very small state. In addition, it isn't really "North Dakota" but rather four, or five, or six counties in western North Dakota, and perhaps one or two counties in eastern Montana. But even that's a stretch: one could argue that right now it's all about Williams County, McKenzie County, one-half of Mountrail County, and one-half of Dunn County. Of course, over time, the southwestern counties in North Dakota will also play a bigger role, but the vast majority of oil is being produced in 2 + 1/2 + 1/2 counties.
Just from the drilling alone, almost $2 billion/month is being spent in western North Dakota (200 wells x $10 million/well). Yes, the actual number is slightly less than 200, and the operators say they are bringing the cost of wells down to $7 million, but ...
In addition, the state is pouring money into highways (new highways, widening, and maintenance) in a very small area. Texas, on the other hand, the highway money is spread across a much bigger state, and might even be concentrated in the DFW area, relatively far away from the oil fields.
On the other hand, of course, the ports along the Texas coast and the refineries are a whole different story.
The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a
Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for
allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their
Greenwich Village apartment.
A detective discovered a plastic container with seven grams of a
white chemical powder called HMTD, which is so powerful, cops evacuated
several nearby buildings.
Police also found a flare launcher,
which is a commercial replica of a grenade launcher; a modified 12 gauge
Mossberg 500 shotgun; ammo; and nine high-capacity rifle magazines, the
sources said.
Cops also allegedly uncovered papers about creating
homemade booby traps, improvised submachine guns, and various
handwritten notebooks containing chemical formulas.
Also, this is the city that the mayor says has the strictest gun laws in
the nation. When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
Wrong Number?
Is it just me or do others wonder how one mistakenly knows a "telephone sex" phone number?According to NBC 6, South Florida:
Florida Gov. Rick Scott mistakenly gave out the number for an adult
phone line when he tried to provide the number for the toll-free
meningitis hotline at a news conference Tuesday. [The best comment: I
thought meningitis made your neck stiff.]
"The most conservative estimates of North American natural gas supply
demonstrate a serious shortfall in production for the foreseeable
future. With short supply driving prices higher, we are now seeing some
of the highest natural gas prices in the world here in the Southwestern
United States ..."
Everything I read suggests just the opposite, specifically: North
America is swimming in natural gas; and, the price of natural gas
continues to deteriorate.
It should be noted that DKRW is a "clean energy" play and has a huge
interest in GE-delivered wind turbines for their wind energy projects.
Global Warming
Is it just me or have others noted there has been no mainstream media coverage of the fact that Lake Erie is nearly completely frozen over, the first time in fourteen (14) years?
Had it not been for Fox News and the Drudge Report I would have missed
it. I guess global warming is everywhere but the United States, and the
United States is to blame for it.
Obama's Secret War in Pakistan
Is it just me or do others remember the secret war that Richard Nixon
was accused of promulgating during the Vietnam War when he launched
raids on "safe areas" just across the border in neighboring countries?
The US mainstream media is not reporting that our current president is
doing the same thing in Afghanistan as he triples the Predator strikes
in Pakistan. But our friends in England are getting the story out. I don't recall that Nixon was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; Barack Obama was.
President Obama's Budget
Is it just me or do others recall the language used when President Bush
sent his budget to a Democratically-controlled congress: DOA? For
President Obama, same result, but paragraphs to explain it in mainstream media.
Arms Sale to Taiwan
Is it just me or do others find it strange that the Nobel Peace Prize winner has announced plans for more than $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan just when things seemed so quiet in that part of the world? And in the very same weekend that deal is announced, the administration raises the stakes
by sending a missile shield (thanks to previous administrations that we
even have the shield) to the Mideast, further antagonizing Iran. The
"peace president" is also increasing nuclear weapons budget to research
smaller nuclear weapons.
Angry Young Man
Is it just me or is the president coming across as an angry young man?
His public display of dissing the Supreme Court, who sat directly in
front of him, encouraging the packed room to stand up as one body and
clap, with the judges remaining sitting -- how embarrassing -- was
probably the most impolite moment of any State of the Union address I
can remember. I wonder what his mother would have thought? Or even his
wife? He just seems to immature and angry. How does one "reach across
the aisle" with that kind of grandstanding? The swing vote was a
moderate (liberal by some definitions); I can hardly imagine the Court
being all that friendly when the administration argues its next case.
From my perspective, this is his short list of enemies: the coal
industry ("the industry will go bankrupt"); the Olympic committee; the
environmentalists (no White House action in his first year); the
military ("don't ask, don't tell" policy); the bankers; Wall Street
("fat cats"); the police (for acting "stupidly"); New York City
(bringing the terrorist trial to Manhattan); the oil industry; the
Supreme Court; China; Fox Television; talk radio; France; and, Queen
Elizabeth.
Except for the unions working at General Motors who were bailed out, I
think the president has managed to insult everyone in his first year in
office. It just may be me, but positive comments might be a whole lot
more helpful.
[Update: his meeting with the Republicans three days later confirms his
"anger-based" ideology. The AP reports that he went to the Republican
strategy off-site to look at ways for all parties to work together, but after a few conciliatory remarks, the president once again showed his anger and frustration.]
In addition, a Secret Service operative stood ready to protect the president against any 12-y/o throwing a shoe.
But again, I must be missing something.
On Dithering
Is it just me or am I missing something with regard to Obama's most recent push to concentrate on banking reform?
Was this the conversation in the oval office on his one-year anniversary
in the White House: "Now that we've spent a year getting nowhere with
health care reform, let's spend the next year on bank reform. Even my
staunchest supporters, Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd tell me even if
supported, it won't pass for four or five years."
Meanwhile, according to CNBC, on January 22, 2010, the day President
Obama declares war on the banking industry, unemployment rose in 43
states with New York and New Jersey setting new multi-year highs. And
then we have statistics like these: "Michigan shed 15,700 jobs, but
31,000 people left the labor force. That caused the state's jobless rate
to fall slightly, to 14.6 percent from 14.7 percent. Michigan has the
nation's highest unemployment rate." That's right: Michigan's
unemployment rate, the highest in the nation, drops 0.1 percent because
31,000 people left the labor force. The only way to explain this:
President Obama wants New York and New Jersey to feel Michigan's pain.
By regulating the banks, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City says jobs will
be lost in his city and his state. By the way, North Dakota had the
lowest unemployment rate of 4.4 percent.
On Smoking Guns
Is it just me or is there something I'm missing when the administration
says there was no smoking gun with regard to the 23-year-old Nigerian
who almost blew up a Delta/NWA airliner -- a 23 y/o Nigerian who a) the
CIA had identified as a threat; b) who trained in Yemen; c) whose father
alerted authorities; d) who bought a one-way ticket to the US with
cash; e) who had an expired visa and denied a British visa; f) who
traveled halfway around the world with no luggage; g) who needed help
boarding a plane because his papers were not in order? I suppose the
administration was correct; there was no one smoking gun; there were not
less than eight. Oh, well. Yemen. Delta/NWA. Dec 2009.
On Clemency
Is is just me or is there something wrong with our system when a
governor can grant clemency for a man sentenced to a 95-year prison term
who (the perp, not the governor) then goes out and kills four cops in
cold blood? Folks are not sentenced for 95 years for jay walking.
Governor Huckabee; cop killer, Washington state, Nov 2009.
On Terrorism
Homeland Security/TSA personnel treat 90-y/o grandmothers like potential
terrorists before boarding a plane, and yet the FBI dropped their
inquiry into the US Army Muslim psychiatrist at Fort Hood after he
exchanged e-mails with a radical cleric in Yemen. Is it just me, or is
Homeland Security/FBI bureaucratic bumblers? Fort Hood. Yemen. Dec 2009.
On Terrorism
Is it just me, or do others have the same question: why is it called terrorism when an Islamist cries "Allāhu Akbar" ("God is Great") and then flies an airplane into a building, but "we're asked not to jump to conclusions when that same Islamist cries "Allāhu Akbar" ("God is Great") and then shoots and kills/wounds 43 innocent Americans?
By the way, as long as we're asking questions, would this qualify as a "hate crime"? -- November 7, 2009.
For those who say he did not have ties with al-Qaeda, not so fast. There is now evidence of attempts to contact al-Qaeda electronically. Fort Hood. Yemen. -- November 9, 2009.
On Unemployment
Is it just me, or does it seem the only thing the government is
currently working on is health care reform (now 1,990 pages thick)?
I hear very little about any plan for Afghanistan despite mounting
losses. I hear very little about Iraq despite huge blasts near the
"green zone," the safe part of Baghdad. I hear very little about the
$1.4 trillion deficit, except that we will add to it with health care "reform," now estimated to cost $1.055 trillion.
Yes, trillion. I hear very little about the incredible lack of H1N1
flu vaccine (promised 150 million doses; we have about 20 million).
But, come drought or high water, and despite 65% of Americans against a
1,990-page health care reform, "they" are determined to force it down
our throats.
Oh, that other pesky little problem: 10.2% unemployment, including 15% unemployment in Michigan, 13% in California.
Update: President Obama has not put off indefinitely any decision on
Afghanistan. This suggests a president who is in over his head; unable
to make a decision. Posted November 3, 2009. Updated November 24, 2009.
