Friday, June 13, 2014

Week 24: June 8, 2014 -- June 14, 2014

This week was all about Sunnis/ISIS taking northern Iraq (Mosul, Tikrit). The week ended with the insurgents about 30 miles north of Baghdad. WTI oil futures settled just nine cents shy of $107.

Operations
Two interesting middle Bakken wells on the northeast edge of the basin
Halcon on a roll, another big well
Triangle Petroleum with two big wells; a whopping 17 producing wells completed
Whiting with several spectacular wells
Ten (10) new XTO permits in the Bakken

Fracking
Fracking sand in southwestern South Dakota?
Increasing amounts of sand for fracking will generate more activity for rail, trucking

Rail
BNSF continues to invest in the Bakken
Dakota Plains Holdings transloading facility, New Town, ND, to begin operations

Water
Lake Sakakawea to rise significantly later this month

Bakken economy
Williston to get new high school 
$56 million recreation center for Watford City; to go forward with new hospital

For investors only
Triangle Petroleum quarterly report
Analysts suggest price of oil could surge before end of year (that was before the new Iraqi war)
HK provides operations update

Off The Net Until Saturday Morning

At 5:15 p.m. EDT tonight, WTI crude oil futures closed nine cents shy of $107.

I seldom do this but this is too much fun. I will leave it up until my wife gets a chance to see it, and then I will take it down.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/cross-eyed-hillary-appears-conan-obrien

Texas Oil Jobs And Closing Out One Of The Polls

It looks like I can close out one of the polls but first some business.

If you notice, at the top of the sidebar at the right, there are two "gadgets" both related to jobs in the oil patch. The link to Bakken oil patch jobs has been up for awhile; the "Texas Oil Jobs" gadget has just been added. Apparently there are some new jobs, both in the Bakken and in Texas the writer wanted to alert me to. (I'm probably qualified for neither. Smile.)

A regular reader sent me the link. There is no hidden agenda for me by posting these links: they are simply there to help folks who might be interested (actually there might be a hidden agenda: the Bakken needs a lot of folks and if this helps bring 'em here, great). Maybe I shouldn't post Texas oil patch jobs -- just joking.

Anyway, it is what it is. "Texas Oil Jobs" will take you to "www.texasoilcareers.com."

The "gadgets" are at the top of the sidebar at the right for now, but will gradually move down a bit so I can get my "quick look links" back up at the top.

Now, back to the poll, in which we asked if the June, 2014, Director's Cut would come out before, during, or after President Obama's visit to North Dakota, Friday, June 13, 2014. The results, the Director's Cut would be posted, in relation to the visit:
  • before: 21%
  • during: 17%
  • after: 29%
  • no June, 2014, by presidential executive order: 33%
My hunch: the 29% who said "after" are going to be proved correct. I really thought it would be posted today. Two more hours in this day in central daylight time.

Rhythm of My Heart, Rod Stewart

Update On Enbridge Clipper

Updates

October 17, 2017:  after five years of study, the US State Department finally reached a decision -- a permit was approved for a 3-mile section of pipeline.
The State Department has granted Enbridge Energy a presidential permit for the final piece of its project to boost the capacity of its Alberta Clipper oil pipeline.
Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge has been operating the pipeline, formally called Line 67, since 2010. The company upgraded its pumping stations in 2014 and 2015 to nearly double its capacity to 800,000 barrels per day.
But Enbridge needed the permit for the 3-mile segment that crosses the U.S.-Canadian border near Neche, North Dakota. After nearly five years of review, the State Department said Monday that issuing the permit serves the national interest.
Enbridge has been running Line 67 at full capacity by using a short detour into a parallel pipeline for crossing the border.
Line 67 carries Alberta crude across Minnesota to Superior, WI.
Original Post

I'm too tired / too exhausted to do much blogging tonight, so I'm going to post this "as is" with regard to an update on the Enbridge Clipper pipeline.

I don't know if folks can make sense of this but I will clean it up tomorrow. [October 17, 2017: I never did get around to cleaning this up, but the US State Department, after five years of review, approved this 3-mile section of pipeline.

There are four components:
The Enbridge Clipper is mentioned at this post, where I track pipelines of interest.That post has not been updated in a long, long time.

By the way, once the Clipper gets to Flanagan, it hooks up with Enbridge Flanagan South, taking oil to Cushing. And finally we have western Canadian oil getting to Cushing and then to Texas/Louisiana refineries regardless of Keystone.

I can imagine SecState John Kerry denying the Enbridge permit based on global warming issues, but he will be out of office in less than two years and by that time all the pipeline on both sides of the border will be completed. With WTI oil headed toward new highs in light of the Iraq drama, I doubt Americans will have much more tolerance for politics (or global warming concerns) preventing Canadian oil from reaching Cushing. But nothing surprises me any more.

Eleven (11) New Permits -- North Dakota, Home Of Standing Rock Indian Reservation (Shared With South Dakota)

Active rigs:


6/13/201406/13/201306/13/201206/13/201106/13/2009
Active Rigs18718521116937

Eleven (11) new permits --
  • Operators: Samson Resources (4), Hess (2), Slawson (2), QEP, Statoil, CLR
  • Fields: Ambrose (Divide), Parshall (Mountrail), Big Bend (Mountrail), Grail (McKenzie), Todd (Williams), Bell (Stark)
  • Comments:
Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

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

Trading at new highs: APA, CNI, CP, Crescent Point Energy, OXY, SSL. Looks like most of the oil companies pulled back a bit today.

Renewable energy: over at Carpe Diem, Mark Perry rightly notes that "wind and solar production won't make much difference in reducing CO2 emissions." He provides an incredible graph showing how Germany's cost of industrial electricity has jumped from about 10 cents/kwh to almost 20 cents/kwh. Making things worse was Germany's decision to mothball four nuclear plants in 2011/2012. Germany industry pays an average of almost 20 cents/kwh of electricity vs the 7 cents that American industry pays on average.

Iraq: from wiki, the US-led invasion of Iraq lasted from March 19, 2003, to May 1, 2003. The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations. The ISIS-led invasion of Iraq resulted in the fall of Mosul in the first 24 hours (to the best of my knowledge) on Tuesday, June 10, 2013. By Friday, June 13, 2013, the major combat operations appear over and it's now on to a stalemate of sorts as each side re-groups for protracted civil war.

Update On The Torquay (Three Forks In Canada) -- Seeking Alpha

I would have missed this; a reader just sent it to. Seeking Alpha has an article on the Torquay in Canada.

Regular readers will recall the post I did on the Torquay a couple of months ago.

From the Seeking Alpha article:
Just when you thought The Bakken couldn't get any better -- it does.
Oil producers are now "cracking the code" on the Torquay, or Three Forks formation below the Bakken, and coming up with incredible economics -- these wells are paying back in only seven months.
This news has completely re-invigorated the Canadian side of the Bakken. And on the US side, the Three Forks is causing industry to leap-frog estimates of the amount of recoverable oil available -- by about 57%.
It's hard to imagine that the #1 oil play in all of North America could have such a huge increase in size -- usually this happens in increments. This map from the Province of Manitoba shows how much potential theTorquay/Three Forks has -- it ranges from 1.5-7x as thick as the Bakken!


Friday, June 13, 2014 -- President Obama Visits North Dakota

Iraq: US considering options. President Obama to visit North Dakota. Chuck Hagel at an undisclosed location. John Kerry speaking on global warming somewhere. So much for sanctions: it appears President Obama is looking to get support from Iran in countering Iraqi insurgency. I don't think Mr Obama had his heart set on sanctions all that much to begin with. The linked article suggests the relationship between the US and Iran has been warming for the past year -- first time that's been reported. The spin is amazing. Baghdad is going to love having Iran fill the vacuum left by the US.

Active rigs:


6/13/201406/13/201306/13/201206/13/201106/13/2009
Active Rigs18518521116937

RBN Energy: a discussion of the "quality" of US crude oil -- condensate, light oil, heavy oil.

The Wall Street Journal

Iraq "girds" to protect capital Baghdad. 

Militants aim to redraw map of the Middle East. "This entire system is disintegrating like a house of cards that starts to collapse," Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said. A militant Islamist group that has carved out control of a swath of Syria has moved into Iraq, conquering cities and threatening the Iraqi government the U.S. helped create and support with billions of dollars in aid and thousands of American lives. The group—known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham—isn't a threat only to Iraq and Syria. It seeks to impose its vision of a single radical Islamist state stretching from the Mediterranean coast of Syria through modern Iraq, the region of the Islamic Caliphates established in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Sluggish retail sales cloud hopes for breakout growth.

US Supreme Court ruled that certain money inherited from IRAs can be taken by creditors to cover the debts of people in bankruptcy proceedings.

Kiev says Russian tanks entered the Ukraine.

OPEC dismisses oil-supply concern.

The Los Angeles Times

Governor, legislators reach funding deal on bullet train

Bergdahl apparently moves to head of list for medical care; arrives at Brooke Army Medical Center without going through central appointment system

Back in the USA, Linda Ronstadt, Chuck Berry