Press release:
MDU announced today that its
indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Fidelity Exploration & Production
Company, signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement for the sale of certain
oil and natural gas production assets in Mountrail County, North Dakota,
with an effective date of May 1, 2014. The sale price is $200 million
plus customary closing adjustments with closing expected by Sept. 30.
The assets sold consist of
approximately 4,363 net acres with net daily production of approximately
2,000 barrels of oil per day from 81 gross wells, 49 of which are
operated by Fidelity. The company will continue to hold 12,000 net acres
in Mountrail County.
$200 million / 4,363 acres =
$46,000 / acre. Yes, I know some (all) of the acreage is in production and I assume all of it is derisked.
Don provided
some observations with this announced deal.
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Quote Of The Day
Without a well-articulated strategy
that the public supports and the world understands, America will
lack the legitimacy—and ultimately the power—it needs to make the
world safer than it is today.–Barack Obama,
The Audacity of Hope (2006), page 302.
The book is available at Barnes and Noble, with an "additional 10% off for members."
My hunch is Barack Obama will go down as one of the best orators, communicators, writers, this country has ever seen. Ronald Reagan, I don't recall, wrote so much. I'm not even sure Vladimir Putin writes that much.
One of the most literate, and best writers of history, was Julius Caesar. From wiki:
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, Consul, and notable author of Latin prose. Much of Caesar's life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns,...
I didn't really think about that, or maybe didn't even know much about that until reading
the Memoirs of Hardian by the Belgium author Marguerite Yourcenar. And I discovered Marguerite
through my enjoyment of reading Virginia Woolf.
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A Note to the Granddaughters
We had a great day in Los Angeles yesterday. Before I get started, two comments:
- when folks tell me the economy is doing poorly, I always ask, "compared to what"
- based on the number of tattoos I see and the average size of these tattoos, I am convinced the state of California could increase income taxes and property taxes by another 10 to 20 percent, and it would not have an adverse effect on the economy
We left early yesterday morning to get to the Getty Museum before it opened. There were already hundreds ahead of us and by the time we left, the parking structure was full. The Getty Museum is free; parking is $15, but one can access the museum via the outstanding public transportation system Los Angeles is known for.
I could not believe the luck. I have had many docent-led tours, but the tour of the James Ensor exhibit by Marilyn Ruman may have been the best I have experienced. The museum opened in 1997; Marilyn has been a docent since the doors opened. The museum owns one James Ensor painting, perhaps his most famous,
Christ's Entry into Brussels. (Sort of reminded me of Washington, DC, January 20, 2009, but I digress.)
Like Ms Ruman I had walked past that painting every time I visited the Getty; I never liked it, and I certainly never understood it. I also never understood why it was in the Getty. The Getty has paintings during a relatively "narrow" period: from the Middle Ages (14th century) to the Impressionist period (late 19th, maybe early 20th century), and this painting was clearly beyond Impressionism.
Through a stroke of superb planning, the Getty museum had a special exhibit of representing Ensor's entire works -- from his early beginnings to his scandalous works for which he is remembered. This may be the first and only time this will ever occur. Most of his works are in Antwerp, Belgium, and in Chicago. When the Antwerp museum went into renovation this past year, Getty took advantage to bring Ensor's paintings to Los Angeles. After the Los Angeles exhibit, the exhibit will go to Chicago, the only other venue in the United States before the Antwerp paintings are returned to Belgium.
Getty never lends out its one Ensor painting.
We were at the Getty until 2:00 p.m. and then drove the eight to ten miles on surface streets to Farmer's Market off Fairfax and 3rd, near Wilshire's "Miracle Mile." It's always one of the favorites of the older granddaughter who always looks forward to
Brazilian churrascaria at
Pampas Grill. Our older granddaughter had garlic sirloin, my wife and I had lamb; my wife also had fish stew which she likes even better than the beef or lamb. Our younger granddaughter had fresh strawberries. (Later this week I will barbecue another beer can chicken on the big grill, and lamb on the smaller grill. I mention that because we will invite Kei over for dinner.)
The line around Pampas Grill is always the longest line in Farmer's Market. It moves quickly, but it was the longest line I have experienced there, and I have been going for years. That's why when I mentioned above that when folks tell me the economy is doing poorly, I respond with "compared to what."
The parking structure at Farmer's Market (servicing the co-located Grove, a high-end mall in west LA) is eight stories high. It was completely full when we got there on a Sunday afternoon -- well, not quite full; the top level had 26 available spaces. After we pulled in, there were 25 parking spots left.
We were there until about 8:00 p.m. We returned home via La Cienega Boulevard. Neither my wife nor I had ever taken this route home before. To say the least, it was incredible: several miles of an urban street, six lanes wide, cement barrier dividing the "highway"; pretty much non-stop all the way to I-405 with a speed limit of 55, most folks adhering to the posted limit. Coming to the intersection with traffic lights would have been sporty at 55 mph, but the city cleverly built a on-ramp directly to the I-405, allowing drivers to accelerate to 75. I was more like a NASCAR pace car and stayed in the far right lane at 55 mph until I got into the rhythm of high-speed urban driving (again).
Earlier in the day, going north on the I-110 out of San Pedro, I noted a California highway patrol cruiser weaving back and forth across lanes behind me, about half a mile behind me. I immediately recognized that as a signal that there was a major "event" occurring on the interstate ahead of him (and by extension, ahead of us). Cars coming toward us were flashing their headlights. Cars continued to move at the posted speed limit, but most of us (I assume) were looking for an escape route if the "big one" appeared ahead of us. About 90 seconds later, there it was: a huge piece of furniture -- a wooden "sofa" of sorts completely blocking lane 2 of the four-lane highway going north. I was in lane 3 (to the left) fortunately, traffic was relatively light, and everybody made it safely. We were lucky not to be following the truck that lost its cargo.
Returning home was uneventful.
Beer Can Chicken, Pabst Blue Ribbon
