Saturday, May 3, 2014

Another Twenty-Two (22) Wells Proposed For Stockyard Creek -- NDIC May, 2014, Hearings

From the NDIC agenda, May, 2014

Case 22445:
Application of Slawson Exploration Co., Inc. for an order authorizing the drilling, completing and producing of a total of eleven wells on each [of two] existing 960-acre spacing unit[s] described as Section 13 and the E/2 of Section 14; and Section 15 and the W/2 of Section 14, T.154N., R.99W., Stockyard Creek-Bakken Pool, Williams County, ND.
The case calls for two 960-acre spacing units (1.5 sections each, or a total of three sections). The sections involved: all of sections 13, 14, and 15 - 154-99 in Stockyard Creek-Bakken.

This is what those three sections look like now:



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This is a description of those three sections (13, 14, and 15, running east to west at the time of the screen shot:

In these three sections in Stockyard Creek, there are several completed (A) wells, a few wells on DRL status, and several wells on confidential status.

The various wells were permitted for various spacing units, to include: 640-acre, 960-acre, and 1280-acre. To date, these sections are not part of any overlapping 2580-acre units, but the three sections are part of 1280-acre units; the 960-acre units were awaiting approval/order by NDIC as of May, 2014.

This is the mineral acreage assigned for each well. There are three sections (15, 14, and 13, running west to east). Some horizontals are in one section only; some in two sections; none cross three sections to date.

Format: permit number, status, sections the horizontal runs through (heel-to-toe), acreage per sundry form:

A single well pad:
  • 16481, A, a Madison well, NW15-SE15, 640 acres
A single well pad:
  • 20510, A, a middle Bakken, well, SE15-NW15 (parallels #16481), 640 acres
A 3-well pad:
  • 26019, A, a middle Bakken, NC15-SC14, 1280 acres,
  • 26020, A, a middle Bakken, NC15-SC14, 1280 acres,
  • 26698, A, a middle Bakken, NC15-SC14, 1280 acres,
A single well pad:
  • 27914, conf, sited near the cent of section 14, unknown spacing unit (conf)
Two 2-well pads OR one large 4-well pad, conf, sited north of center, right on line dividing three sections into two 960-acre spacing units
  • 27912, conf, C14-conf, possibly 960 acres,
  • 27911, conf, C14-conf, possibly 960 acres,
  • 28053, conf, C14-conf, possibly 960 acres,
  • 28054, conf, C14-conf, possibly 960 acres,
A single well pad:
  • 18054, A, a middle Bakken, SE14-NW14, 640 acres
A four-well pad (data below needs to be confirmed):
  • 24793, loc, formation?, SE13-NE14, 1280 acres,
  • 24794, drl, a middle Bakken, SE13-14, 1280 acres,
  • 24795, A, a middle Bakken, SE13-NC14, 1280 acres,
  • 24796, drl, a middle Bakken, SE13-NC14, 1280 acres,
A single well pad:
  • 19328, A, a middle Bakken, SE13-NW13, 640 acres
A single well pad: 
  • 27076, conf, NE13-conf
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MRO To Test The Tyler With Two More Wells In Slope County

From the May NDIC docket agenda:
Application of Marathon Oil Co. for an order creating two 1280-acre drilling units consisting of Sections 2 and 11, T.135N., R.99W.; and Sections 2 and 11, T.134N., R.100W., Slope County, ND, and allowing a horizontal well to be drilled in the Tyler Formation in each such drilling, or granting such other relief as is appropriate.
I track the MRO Tyler wells here.

A Random Note On Activity Southwest Of Trenton, ND (Williston, ND)

Just a few miles southwest of Williston is a small town, Trenton, North Dakota. When I was growing up, there were some nice swimming "holes" in the area. The city is located near Forts Union and Buford, right at the "confluence" of the Yellowstone River and the Missouri River. I never knew what "confluence" meant when I was growing up but it sounded important; everybody was always talking about the "confluence." It's nothing more than where the Yellowstone, flowing north, flows into the Missouri River flowing east.

I suppose I shouldn't say it's nothing more than that because there is a lot of history associated with the area, and several major and minor ecological biomes. In the 1800's riverboat steamers from St Louis, MO, would have a terminus at the confluence, getting off at Fort Union. According to wiki:
The fort, possibly first known as Fort Henry or Fort Floyd, was built in 1828 or 1829 by the Upper Missouri Outfit managed by Kenneth McKenzie and capitalized by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. Fort Union was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri until 1867.
Be that as it may, the road from Williston to Trenton to points east and south was always a two-lane asphalt road, a typical rural state or county highway.

It's changing.

A few miles southwest of Trenton, seen inside the large circle in the graphic below, is the intersection of North Dakota State Highway 1804 (north/south at the intersection) and the east/west Highway 327 that would take you west into Montana and then north to Bainville (where the Amtrak recently derailed -- about a week ago -- which no one probably heard about).

Heavy equipment is now moving dirt around that intersection, and it appears going east, west, and south of the intersection, there will be a mile or two or three of four-lane highway (being widened from the two-lane highway).  The last half-mile or so on either side of the railroad track is now cement, which was new last autumn, getting completed just before winter set in. In addition to the four-lane highways leading to the intersection, the entire intersection is being re-done, and will be much, much bigger. It will be a site to behold when completed, perhaps big enough for a miniature putt-putt golf course inside the "Y" intersection if one cared to do that.

In addition, a brand new, much larger electrical utility transmission line is being built, as we "speak" today, replacing the old smaller line, paralleling the State Highway 1804 on the north side. It appears the poles were put up very, very recently. We saw pulleys on the crossbars suggesting that they were getting read to lift the wires. I don't know the fancy names for all that they are doing. Suffice it to say, a much more substantive electrical transmission line is being "strung" southwest of Trenton toward Montana.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that regional planners are getting ready for something "bigger" in the area.

The Savage CBR terminal noted in the graphic below was one of the first CBR terminals in the Bakken boom, at least that I was aware of. The circular CBR terminal was built first, again, as far I know; at least that's what I saw. Today, I also saw a straight-line CBR terminal with the loading portion enclosed. It was confirmed that there are now two CBR terminals in that location at the end of the "Savage" arrow inside the larger circle (one is a circular terminal; one is a straight segment; I assume both are operated by Savage).

The Savage CBR terminals are not drawn to scale. They are much smaller and sit closer to the intersection. If drawn to scale, they would probably be a few times bigger than the Fort Buford icon but still only a quarter or so of the size of the circle / straight line as drawn.

The question is whether all the highway activity and utility activity is going up simply for Savage. Possibly, but hard to believe. With priorities being "racked and stacked" I can think of a lot more truck-congested areas that would need widened highways (which would not explain the utility line).

Remember all that talk about the diesel refinery planned for the Trenton area? That has to be it. I'm not sure if the refinery will be located inside the larger circle in the graphic but I was told by a very unreliable source that it is located on the north side of "1804." But that would explain it.

There were very, very few wells in this immediate area. But it also doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they wouldn't be putting in two CBR terminals, new utilities, a four-lane highway, cement highway at that, if they didn't expect a lot of local truck traffic. And, by extension, a whole of new wells. By the way, CLR's 14-well Atlanta pad is just a few miles upstream to the northeast.

So, we'll see.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

Does Dark Roasted Coffee Have More Caffeine?
During a segment of this morning’s Today Show, Joy Bauer was asked by a caller if dark roasted coffee contains more caffeine.  Before answering, Joy said that the answer would surprise a lot of people.  She then said that since some of the caffeine is lost during roasting, dark roasted coffee actually has less caffeine than milder roasts.
The truth is, as usual, just a bit more complicated.
If we were to look at two coffee beans (more properly, coffee seeds), and compare the caffeine contents in a single dark roasted seed and a single medium or light roasted seed, then Joy’s response is correct.
However, more is lost during roasting than just caffeine.
The result is that not only is there less caffeine in the dark roasted seed, but there is less mass in the dark roasted seed.  This means that it takes more dark roasted seeds to match the weight of a few medium or light roasted seeds.  The net result is that dark roasted coffee when brewed by weight (the correct method, and the method used by specialty coffee retail shops nation wide) will yield a cup containing more caffeine.
The Takeaway:
If you are  brewing coffee at home using a scoop (brew by volume), then the odds are good that there is less caffeine in your dark roast coffee, but if you brew by weight or if you go out for coffee, then dark roasted coffee will contain more caffeine.

Women In The Bakken -- Just A Casual Observation

I think the ratio of men to women in the Bakken is still about 9,999 to 1. That's slightly better than what it was back in 2011.

I had an extended visit back in 2011; I have been back several times since 2011, but for shorter visits. I consider 2011 a "base year" in the Bakken for me: I was here for about three (3) months, actually working in the Bakken then, and I got to know it fairly well. I tend to compare what I see now with what I remember from 2011, though I have been here several times since then.

I'm sitting in a coffee shop on Main Street. There is seating for about 40, probably about the size of typical Starbucks. It's somewhat nicer than the standard Starbucks: there is more comfortable seating. It is fairly quiet -- which is a very, very good sign. It means there are a lot of coffee shops available around town. Folks aren't waiting for an hour at McDonald's for a cup of coffee like they were back in 2011 (slight exaggeration, but it was a very, very long wait, I recall).

Of the ten folks in here right now, there are four women. Three of them customers.

Something else we are seeing a lot more of in Williston: families. I was told that when they had the open house out at the Williston Area Recreation Center, some folks were surprised at the large number of children, particularly teenagers.

By the way, the capacity of the Williston Independent School District is 2,500 students. When I was going to school here in Williston, there were about 2,300 students in the district; the low point was 2,100 students during the 80's, I believe. Right now, there are about 3,100 students, and the projections are to go to 4,500 students over the next few years, peaking out about 5,000. (In 2030, I think the estimate actually goes to 6,500.) I'm doing that from memory and could be wrong. I do know the 2,500-capacity number is correct, but I could be off on the current enrollment figures.

The city will vote in June on whether to build a new high school, replacing the "man student camps" that are now being used to educate Williston students from kindergarten through high school. The "student camps" are portable trailers in and around the various fixed facilities. A new high school is a no-brainer. The land (30 acres, overlooking Williston) was donated. The cost would be less than 3% of the Legacy Fund as it stands now. But the Legacy Fund, paid for by oil royalties out of the Bakken, is off limits. Three percent.The bond issue to pay for the new high school (and mandated security upgrades at the six or so elementary schools) will raise what it would cost to drill three or four wells. The city voted "no" the last time this came up. Meanwhile, the school district will pay $9 million/year for the student camps until when/if a new high school is opened. I could be wrong on the cost figures but I think that's what I heard.

But I digress. I was making an observation about the ratio of men to women in the Bakken oil patch. It's getting better. I think it's still about 9,000 to one. I am not including men or women that are not in the labor force.

I think the ratio of trucks to cars is about 19 to 1.

Another observation: things have spread out. Yes, the roads are still congested on the main thoroughfares. But the truck stops are now relatively empty compared to two years ago. The trucks, when not on the road, are now found on several new truck yards and countless new industrial parks. Companies who were situated on an acre of land two years ago have spread out and now have parking lots that measure in acres for trucks.

There are a whole lot more traffic lights on the bypass west of Williston. I remember when I was here two years ago, there was much discussion and even hand-wringing about the one new traffic light on the bypass -- was it needed; could we afford it; how will it affect traffic flow? A lot of old-timers, like me, watched with anticipation, every day, that one new traffic light going up, as if we had never seen a new traffic light before. Now, it seems like the entire traffic light industry is sending their products to Williston. What do April showers bring? Mayflowers. What do Mayflower moving companies bring? Traffic lights.

There's a lot more cement and asphalt surfaces on which trucks sit and ride. Two years ago, trucks were seen everywhere, hub deep in muddy fields. Now, new thoroughfares are wide, and new huge parking lots in the industrial areas are everywhere. It simply looks a whole lot more organized; a whole lot better when it comes to truck traffic.

Contractors are working from early in the morning to late into the evening. The other night I noted there were no center markings on the road I was on; it was a bit sporty. I took my dad out to see that road the next morning. The lines had just been painted. They must have done it during the night. I was on that road at 9:00 p.m. and I was showing it to my dad the next morning. Sometime in between they had painted the center lines.

The city has done something with the traffic lights -- they are tweaking (not twerking) them to improve the traffic flow. And doing a really good job at least at one intersection where I always enjoyed watching the long stream of semis head out of town.

The twerking, by the way, I assume, still goes on at the south end of Main Street.

There is still a sense of the wild, wild west out here.

Corner of probably the busiest intersection in Williston, where the bypass intersects the "Million Dollar Way." Applebees is to the left, just across the street from this little building. The air conditioning unit is of note, considering many folks think Williston is 11 months of winter and one month of summer, August.

One of the things that strikes me every time I come to Williston: the guys that are actually doing the work, you know the ones, the truck drivers, the rough necks, the guys you would like to have around if being deployed to Libya, look really, really happy. I never hear a discouraging word. Of course that's not entirely true, but it's not far from the truth, and it's remarkable enough to be noted.

Oh, which reminds me, talking about those 3,000 folks that were out at the grand opening of the Williston Area Recreation Center: Williston is no longer northern European (Scandinavian / German) and Syrian. Someone mentioned he was pleasantly surprised to see all the Indian (as in India, the subcontinent) and Hispanic families out at the grand opening.

To be continued, perhaps. I have an appointment with my dad. (This has not been proofread; I assume there are typographical errors.)

Gasoline Storage Program Along The East Coast -- Strategic Gasoline Reserve

Updates

May 4, 2014: Argus Media is reporting the same concerns I had. My comment to Don:
The article mentions the same concerns we had -- gasoline gets old after awhile, need for electricity to pump the gasoline, and EVEN regional formulations.

You know, in the middle of an emergency, one has to admit it's crazy to worry about "regional formulations."

My hunch is the reserve will simply be a "pass-through" entity. The storage will be emptied on a regular basis if not used and will be refilled. It will be interesting how they price the cost of filling and emptying. If that's not included in the price, the government is going to lose money every time they fill and empty. Schumer has it ass-backwards: it was not the shortage of gasoline that was the problem; it was the electric grid.  
Original Post

I made a huge error earlier this morning in a posting. Fortunately Don caught it, and I brought the post down. I had misread the article. Truly embarrassing because the headline told the story.

My original post was a really, really good post -- except that it was entirely based on something that was not true, something that I misread. So I will try again.

The problem? I am having trouble coming to grips with the story. My memory must be deceiving me.

 The New York Times is reporting:
The federal government will build its first gasoline storage reserves in the New York Harbor area and in New England in response to the shortages suffered after Hurricane Sandy, the secretary of energy, Ernest J. Moniz, is to announce on Friday.
Together, the reserves will hold about a million barrels of gasoline and cost about $215 million. The fuel is intended to be held back in case another disaster cripples regional fuel supplies.
Energy Department officials envision the reserves as the first in a series that will be built in parts of the country vulnerable to extreme weather, believed to be caused by global warming.
“In addition to our mitigation and international efforts, the president’s Climate Action Plan calls on us to take measures today in order to better prepare for the effects of climate change we already see occurring here at home,” Mr. Moniz said in a statement.
Fuel shortages were one of the most widespread problems after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Two New York-area fuel refineries were shut down, and hundreds of gas stations lost power, leading to severe gasoline shortages.
I am having trouble coming to grips with the story because I didn't think it was a problem with an adequate supply of gasoline after the hurricanes. The gasoline was available, but with electricity "down," the pumps were not working and they couldn't get access to the gasoline.

So, now the government will be storing gasoline in various locations around the country. I assume they will provide for emergency power to make sure the gasoline in the storage tanks is accessible if the electric grid is compromised.

The bigger issue, I assume, is ensuring that the private service stations have electricity so that when they get the gasoline from the emergency gasoline reserves, they can actually pump it into individual vehicles.

It will be interesting to see how the increased demand for gasoline -- the gasoline that will be needed to fill these storage tanks -- will affect the price of gasoline in general. One would assume increased demand for gasoline would result in higher prices, all things being equal.

Bottom line: I think the bigger problem is the electric grid in this country.

Of course, the "climate change" rubbish is just that: rubbish. There has been no evidence of global warming for eighteen years. In addition, when there was global warming, which now seems to have dissipated, we were being told that the global temperature would rise about 1 - 3 degrees over a century. I have trouble accepting the fact that half-a-degree rise in global temperature in the 1990s can account for any weather we see today. I know the National Geographic had a cover with a Statue of Liberty waist deep in the Atlantic Ocean some time ago, but I assume that was photo-shopped.

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You Don't Own Me, Leslie Gore

Week 18: April 27, 2014 -- May 3, 2014

Operations
EOG to place 32 wells on a single 640-acre spacing unit 
Three Forks potential in Burke County
North Dakota on track to set record in the Bakken: 3,000 gas and oil permits in 2014?
Active rigs take huge jump in April
MRO's wildcat Tyler well came off the confidential list
SHD has a rig on its Clarks Creek pad
Another EOG Clarks Creek well has been added to list of "monster wells"

Fracking
Baker Hughes to voluntarily disclose fracking components

Flaring
The challenges in the Bakken 
Update on ONEOK's proposed seventh (7th) natural gas facility

Bakken economy
Overbuilding?; and here 
Pie in the sky: Singapore developer has eyes on Dickinson
Bakken development projects

Miscellaneous
CBR derailment, Lynchburg, VA; also here
Video of Williston's new recreation center
General Petraeus visits Williston to check on "his" Bakken property
Electricity rates may be going up for good

For investors only
XOM ends on a positive note despite overall market down; price of oil down; the Ukraine effect
KOG misses expectations; COP, XOM beat expectations; CVX increases dividend 

For the archives
First fracked horizontal well

Saturday News -- May 3, 2014 -- Efrem Zimbalist, Jr, Dead At 95

Generally speaking I don't expect to see much talk from the majors about the Bakken. I was surprised to see how much the Bakken was mentioned at COP's 1Q14 earnings conference call. The transcript of the conference call is at SeekingAlpha.
In the Bakken, we average 43,000 BOE per day and achieved a peak daily rate of off 54,000 barrels a day in the first quarter.
We’re also performing pilot test in the Bakken to optimize our drilling and development programs.
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Not yet reported widely: ObamaCare enrollment deadline was quietly extended again according to Fox News early Saturday morning. It looks like the deadline was quietly extended through May 1, 2014. This was the first time I had heard of that extension; I doubt that it is very significant but there are a couple of story lines if I were interested. I'm not.

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The Wall Street Journal

US adds almost 300,000 jobs as economy gains stream. 

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Germany and the US agree on more sanctions on Russia if the latter "disrupts Ukraine's presidential elections."

Apparently, Warren Buffet's heir apparent is his oldest son. Didnt' Warren once warn about nepotism?

There appears to be little agreement on the reason for the declining labor-force participation: the overall size of the labor market is shrinking, now down to a level not seen since Jimmy Carter was president.

DOT says energy firms not sharing Bakken oil test data. Only three energy companies have voluntarily turned over information on the physical characteristics of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota, according to the Department of Transportation. Call me crazy, but that hardly warrnts a front section headline story.

It looks like Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will announce her retirement sometime before November 1, 2014.

Bout face: coming into office, he said the military budget had to be cut significatnly. Now, US SecDef Chuck Hagel said NATO spending (i.e., US military spending must be increased.

Treasury (i.e., IRS) says it would delay enforcement of some provisions of a law aimed at curbing offshore tax evasion, in a victory of banks worried about the costs and possible disruptions to the financial system. Comment: again, picking and choosing which laws to follow.
Growing up, I honestly did not know that abiding by the law was optional.

Microsoft's largest individual shareholder? Bill Gates? Nope, Steve Ballmer.

The Los Angeles Times

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., dies at age 95; starred in "77 Sunset Strip." I doubt I ever saw a single episode, but I remember it well. Spending a few minutes at wiki brings back a lot of memories. The series ended in 1964. A decade later I would be cruising Sunset Boulevard while attending school out in Los Angeles. Ah, yes, the golden age of television. A lot has changed. The sitcoms in Hollywood have since moved to Washington, DC.

 
Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb, Connie Stevens and Edd Byrnes