Random Note On The Southern-Most Active Rig In North Dakota Right Now: A Luff Exploration Red River Well

The southern-most active rig in North Dakota at the moment is on-site here:

• 27946, conf, Luff Exploration, D and E Trust N-31H, Corey Butte, 31-129-101, right on the South Dakota state line; based on other Luff Exploration wells in the immediate area, this is most likely a Red River well.

Could this be a big well? Hard to say, but Luff Exploration has a long history working this area, and has some good Red River wells, including this one:

• 5227, 624, Luff Exploration, Greni 33-26, a Red River well, t11/72; cum 1,235,497 bbs 4/14; this well has a pretty colorful history. I believe it began as a vertical well, was re-entered and two very short laterals were placed; a work-over rig in 2003 significantly increased production. Note that it was drilled in late 1972, and continues to produce about 1,600 bbls of oil per month, which is what some Bakken wells produce after the end of the severe decline rate and then begin to level off. Is that about 42 years of production? Note: over 1.2 million bbls of oil to date.

The new well is located about 8 miles, almost directly east, of the older well (#5227).

There is nothing below the asterisks that apply to the Bakken. For archive purposes only and to help put the Bakken into perspective.

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Germany "green-energy jobs" collapse

This is interesting. I was sent a link last night to what appeared might be an interesting story. It wouldn't open in the Firefox browser, but opened in Safari, though sluggish, suggesting it was optimized for Microsoft IE, or perhaps Chrome. While waiting for it to load on Safari, I googled "Germany "green energy jobs" collapse." I was quite surprised. In the past week or so the European media has several stories on this subject, but which I had not yet seen in American mainstream media.

This article from Global Warming Policy Foundation was typical. I assume the Foundation has its own agenda, but the article is recent, contains data linked to reputable sources, and mirrors many other sites talking about the collapse of Germany's green energy industry. It is not surprising; regular readers are well aware of Merckel's return to coal in a big, big way. What is surprising is how quickly and how deeply the collapse is.

This article or one similar to it also noted the intense vitriol and acrimony. The tone coming from the "green energy" proponents suggest desperation. And, of course, they are desperate: the earth will become inhabitable in the next year or so due to greenhouse gases exceeding 401 ppm and no one is taking it seriously any more. Not even Ms Merckel. Returning to coal in a big, big way. All of Europe is returning to coal if one looks at the export (from the US) - import (into Europe) data.

Some data points from the linked article on green-energy jobs in Germany:

• the subsidization of renewable energy has not led to a significant, sustainable increase in jobs in Germany
• counting employees in government agencies and academic institutions, less than 1% of Germany's 42 million workers work in the highly subsidized sector of renewable energy
• there was a 13% drop in the number of new people employed in renewable energy sector last year, most new jobs were in solar
• the German government expects to see a further decline this year (2014) and next year
• fifteen (15) years after the start of green energy subsidies, this sector is still dependent on subsidies
• almost none of the green-energy jobs are self-supporting; they require subsidies to exist
• subsidies continue to pile up, and Germany utility users now have a 20-billion Euro bill to pay in their monthly utility bills to pay for these subsidies
• investments, meanwhile, in renewable energy have dropped 20%

Ezra Levant, Canada's self-proclaimed "foremost freedom fighter" has the same story. This is the link that was very, very slow to load and I could not get it to load on Firefox.

This January 22, 2014, NewScientist article suggests the same.

This is an example of the vitriol, desperation, anger, hostility coming from some quarters that I referenced above from this Canada Free Press article:

Lord Deben said people like Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former chancellor, should not be classed as ‘climate change deniers’ but should instead be referred to as “dismissers.” He said these people do not say climate change is not happening but deny the urgency to take action. Lord Lawson of Blaby has warned that climate sceptics are treated with same vitriol as Holocaust deniers. He also accused the Prince of Wales and the Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey of being hostile. Lord Lawson, who founded the Global Warming Policy Foundation think-tank, said he had never experienced such vilification either in his private or political life.
Claire Carter, The Daily Telegraph, 28 May 2014

So, I guess it's back to "shut up and color. The science is settled."

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CLNE

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

There's a recent article over at Seeking Alpha contributed by an individual who has been "short" CLNE since June, 2013. I have no dog in this fight; I do not invest in CLNE. What I found interesting was the timing of this article. It was dated May 30, 2014. Remember, this contributor is "short" CLNE.  Look at the price chart for CLNE this past week when the contributor wrote his article: on Wednesday, May 28, 2014, the stock was down to $10/share. Look at that jump on Thursday, May 30, 2014: up to $11.20. No wonder the writer sounded desperate.

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C'est La Vie, Khaled

Saturday Morning News -- Last Day Of May, 2014

The word for the day: dwarf

Bloomberg is reporting on the futility of Obama's going-green efforts at expense of American taxpayer: 

In fact, both critics of the effort, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and environmentalists pressing for quicker action make a similar argument: Whatever the Obama administration does at home will be dwarfed by worldwide trends. 

Were U.S. emissions cut to zero, “global emissions would continue to increase,” Robert Stavins, director of Harvard University’s Environmental Economics Program, said in an e-mail. “So, the direct impacts of the new power plant rules on atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations will be small.”

But it will make us feel good. The good news: there has been no evidence of any warming for the past 18 years.

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The Wall Street Journal

Federal investigators probing insider trading by Phil Mickelson

Federal investigators are pursuing a major insider-trading probe involving finance, gambling and sports, examining the trading of investor Carl Icahn, golfer Phil Mickelson and Las Vegas bettor William "Billy" Walters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission are examining whether Mr. Mickelson and Mr. Walters traded illicitly on nonpublic information from Mr. Icahn about his investments in public companies, people briefed on the probe said. The FBI and SEC are examining whether Mr. Walters on at least one occasion passed a tip on to Mr. Mickelson, these people said, and are studying the two men's trading patterns.

"Phil is not the target of any investigation. Period," said a lawyer for Mr. Mickelson, Glenn Cohen, on Friday, adding that an FBI agent had told him Mr. Mickelson wasn't a target. The FBI declined to comment on Mr. Cohen's statement. Two FBI agents approached Mr. Mickelson on Thursday after he finished a round of golf at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, seeking to speak with him in connection with the investigation, a person familiar with the situation said. Mr. Mickelson referred them to his attorney, this person said.

Weak wages pose threat to liftoff for economy

A long-awaited liftoff in the U.S. economy is facing pressure from stubbornly weak wage growth, muddying the outlook for consumers and challenging Federal Reserve policy makers who are counting on a pickup as they unwind the central bank's extraordinary support for the recovery.

Growth in wage and salary income slowed to just 0.2% in April from the prior month, marking the weakest monthly increase of the year ....

After adjusting for inflation, wage and salary income was up 2% from a year earlier. The figures came in a report showing that U.S. consumer spending fell in April for the first time in a year even while inflation crept up. The weak start to the second quarter, coming after the U.S. economy in the first quarter contracted for the first time in three years, is challenging the thesis of economists and investors who have been counting on a 2014 growth breakout.

Those expectations have pushed U.S. stock benchmarks to record levels, while yields on safe Treasury bonds have dipped in part due to softer economic data.

Plover protections ruffle feathers in northeast

The ruckus began last July after an unleashed dog frolicking on a beach here killed a young bird.

The unlucky chick was a federally protected piping plover, and its death set off a chorus of squawking from all sides. Federal wildlife officials threatened the town with a $12,000 fine, required Scarborough to hire a "piping plover coordinator" and pushed the town to pass a new leash law.

Things got so contentious that citizens in dog suits picketed the town hall to protest the moves.

"It's pitted husband against wife," said Richard Sullivan, a member of the town council. "Neighbors and families are split over the issue."

Southern Maine isn't the only place getting ruffled over regulations to safeguard plovers—small, fragile, sandy-hued shorebirds that breed in the Great Lakes, Northern Great Plains and along the Atlantic Coast, where they were designated as threatened in 1986 after their numbers had plummeted.

Plover disputes have roiled communities from New York's Long Island to North Carolina for years, giving rise to a popular bumper sticker among those who think too much attention is paid to the birds' welfare: "Piping Plovers Taste Like Chicken."

The clashes have been particularly acrimonious along the densely inhabited New England coast, where towns have blocked off long sandy stretches to protect the rebounding plover population from dogs, dune-buggy drivers and beachgoers who leave trash that can attract predators. 

Russia, Ukraine near deal on gas bill -- posted last night

Demise of magazine distributor in Florida to take out 6,000 jobs

One of the biggest distributors of magazines in the U.S., Source Interlink Distribution, said on Friday that it will soon end "substantially all" of its business operations, putting its 6,000 employees out of work.

The wholesale distribution company, based in Bonita Springs, Fla., said it had tried to strike new terms with key publishers and national distributors over the last five months but failed to do so. Companies such as Source Interlink play a major role in the magazine business, arranging for printed magazines to be distributed to retailers large and small.

It has become a more difficult part of the business in recent years, as consumers increasingly use the Web to read digital content, including magazines. That shift has upended the economics of newsstand distribution. 

Rat poison D-Con to lose some potency; maker agrees to lessen the potency of its d-Con to address safety concerns raised by the EPA. Apparently, the EPA feels rats are safer in the home than d-Con.

Google's Motorola smartphone (Moto X) facility to close factory door in Texas. This was a huge story in the local news last night. The factory has not even been open for one year. Apparently, affects about 700 employees. Cites high costs. Now, remember, the country with the cheapest non-labor manufacturing costs in the world is probably the US and the factory in Ft Worth was very close to its customers. Let's see if the story mentions the 800-lb gorilla on the factory floor? From the article:

Poor Moto X sales meant the company couldn't achieve economies of scale, he said, while costs for labor and shipping parts were higher than in overseas plants.

Nope, nothing about the 800-lb gorilla, $5,000/employee for ObamaCare-mandated health care. 

Gold falls to lowest prices in four months as Ukraine crisis eases.

The Los Angeles Times

The headline:  Bodies of 52 vets accumulate at morgue; L.A. County can't explain why.

Over the last 15 months, 52 unclaimed bodies of U.S. military veterans accumulated at the Los Angeles County morgue because nobody arranged transportation to Riverside National Cemetery for burial.

As of Thursday, the county could not explain why. "All the people who touched this process are working together to figure out how this occurred," said county spokesman David Sommers.

The problem began in 2013, after Rose Hills Mortuaries in Alhambra, which transported the bodies of homeless veterans under a charity program, started turning down some bodies that it said did not meet eligibility requirements.

And now the process will start over:

As for the 52 bodies that arrived from the morgue, the coroner's office must follow its standard protocol and independently verify the identities of the dead, Harvey said. In most cases, federal approval for the burials has probably expired, and reauthorization will be required.

I think if one watches the movie LA Confidential one will have a better appreciation for the county.

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Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its Los Angeles-area headquarters to Canada.

In a further blow to Southern California's visual-effects industry, Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its Los Angeles-area headquarters to Canada.

One of Hollywood's leading visual effects companies said Friday that it will move into a new facility in Vancouver that will accommodate up to 700 employees. It isn't clear how many of the company's 270 workers based in Culver City will lose their jobs, though some will be offered a chance to relocate.

The announcement was met with dismay in Southern California's beleaguered visual-effects industry, which has been buffeted by the effects of outsourcing and runaway production.

Let's see if the 800-lb gorilla in the room is mentioned in this story?

Although the visual effects industry was pioneered in California, local companies have had an increasingly difficult time competing with rivals in Canada, Britain and India that benefit from tax credits or cheaper labor. More than half a dozen California visual-effects houses have shut down or filed for bankruptcy in recent years.

Nope, no mention of ObamaCare. The reasons were all about tax credits that Canada provides the film industry, but California does not. Biting the hand that feeds you.

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Ah, yes, the blue screen of death -- after every game the LA Clippers lose, coming to a monitor near you. Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer to buy the LA Clippers. His $2.0-billion bid beat Oprah's $1.2 billion. It was a "silent auction." No re-attacks. The best Sterling had hoped for was $1 billion. Now he's suing because ... well, I'm not sure why he's suing. [I have almost 15,000 posts; I update several posts every day. I rarely get comments. But I actually have folks writing me .... defending ... Mr Sterling. LOL.]

3.8-magnitude earthquake overnight ten miles from San Pedro, California.

Total (French Oil) Leaving The Canadian Oil Sands -- Costs $90/Bbl -- Sells For $85/Bbl

Updates

Later, 7:16 p.m. central time: how coincidental. In the original post below, The WSJ noted that "western Canadian oil fetches about $85." I was reading the most recent issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, p. 16: "As rail activity has ramped up and demand for Alberta's heavy crude has increased, so has its price, jumping from about $50 a barrel in November to more than $85." 
 

Original Post

 

There are a lot of story lines in this story. The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

French oil major Total is getting out of the sandbox. The toys are just too expensive.

The company is putting its Joslyn oil-sands project in Canada on indefinite hold. BMO Capital Markets estimates the project's cost at north of $90 a barrel.

Right now, Western Canadian oil fetches about $85.

Total's move is part of a broader shift. Some 450,000 barrels a day of potential output has been deferred this year, according to Sanford C. Bernstein.

Western oil majors are doing what the stock market wants. Having seen returns on capital slump, investors want more payouts and less spending.

And then this:

But Big Oil's retreat also comes when all the excitement, with stock-price multiples to match, is around smaller competitors pioneering shale development.

Their output, particularly in North America, has helped keep oil prices stable despite geopolitical shocks elsewhere. The question is whether the smaller exploration and production companies can keep doing this.

If so, the majors' curtailed production may not boost oil prices as much as could be expected. They might simply lose market share to more innovative minnows instead.

Week 22: May 25, 2014 -- May 31, 2014

Operations
CLR's Whitman #2, ($20210) goes over the one-million-bbl milestone
Random look at activity north of Williston: Tyrone, Missouri Ridge
Improving Bakken wells -- EOG experience
KOG reports three "high-IP" wells

Fracking
EOG philosophy on re-fracking
Global fracking patents hit record number last year

Bakken Economy
24-hou Cash Wise grocery store opens in Tioga, oil capitol of North Dakota

Miscellaneous
Are we underestimating North America's fracking boom?
The Bakken shale is part of an exclusive club among global oil fields
On track for 2,800 permits for calendar year 2014
History of the early Bakken, 2004 - 2006
Musings, May 29, 2014
500% increase in number of pick-up trucks being delivered to Fargo, ND; St Paul, MN

Photography
Aerial photos of the Hagen/White wells in the Banks oil field
Incredible aerial photography: see if you can guess location of pad