KOG's P Wood Permits/Wells Have Been Updated -- October 27, 2014

KOG added four more P Wood permits today. The P Wood permits/wells have been updated.

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What Some Of Us Will Be Talking About Tomorrow.

The Wall Street Journal

Top story: gasoline at $3 carriers rewards ... and risks.

CDC rejects mandatory Ebola quarantines. CDC opts for the honor system when dealing with the "only" disease that we now routinely treat wearing HAZMAT suits. Open Borders. Open Arms. Open Roam.

VA disability claims soar.

It will be interesting to see what Italy has to say about his: US soldiers returning from Ebolaland to take 21-day R&R in Italy.

US soldiers depart Afghanistan .. leaving Afghan forces to fight Taliban largely alone.

Pakistan was the biggest obstacle to the goal of stopping world-wide polio transmission by the end of 2014. Didn't Pakistan have a relationship with Osama bin Laden, also?

I don't recall if I posted the story earlier about the huge bill the EU sent the Brits. The EU is holding firm, saying it is "extremely difficult" to see how the EU rules could be changed to give the UK more time to make good on the extra 2.1 billion euros "owed" the EU. 

Tesla: to lower its lease price by 25% and give buyers 90 days to return the vehicle if they are unhappy with it.

Heard on the street: Apple's surprise star -- the Mac. Apple logged its biggest sales gains with a a product heading into middle-age, the Mac. That helped the computer line leapfrog the iPad to become Apple's second biggest-selling product behind the iPhone.  So many, many story lines. 

Rising US life spans spell pain for pension funds -- already struggling to plug a gap between available assets and future obligations to retirees.

Wall Street's oil bulls are throwing in the towel, conceding that the 25% drop in crude prices since June won't be reversed any time soon.

China is on a buying spree in the global oil markets as prices slumber near the lowest in years. The purchases show how China is taking advantage of the energy glut to stock up on oil used for making transportation fuels.

Gas-price drop pumps up Costco. The sharp drop in oil prices gives hypermarkets that sell gas, like Costco and Wal-Mart, a pricing advantage. 

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 The Los Angeles Times

Kurdish fighters in Syria are desperate for promised reinforcements.

Another burst water pipe shuts down Hollywood intersection.

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Alternative To Pay

As noted earlier, CVS, Rite Aid, and Wal-Mart are notable in their decision not to use ApplePay. They will use something different. From Macrumors:

Headed up by Walmart, which has also publicly stated that it won't be supporting Apple Pay, MCX is composed of several different retail outlets and restaurants, including Best Buy, Lowe's, Old Navy, Southwest, Target, 7 Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Hobby Lobby, and more.

MCX's payment solution, CurrentC, is currently in testing in Minnesota and takes a decidedly different approach to mobile payments. CurrentC does not use NFC, instead basing payments around the scanning of QR codes with a smartphone camera. CurrentC is highly beneficial to merchants, but appears to be of questionable value to customers given that it requires both a social security number and a driver's license number, along with access to a bank account.

Despite only being available in Minnesota at the time being, MCX's CurrentC app has received hundreds of negative reviews from Apple Pay supporters. Android and iOS users on reddit have also teamed up to call for a boycott on all MCX partners, as disabling NFC support to prevent Apple Pay purchases also disables Android-based payment solutions like Google Wallet.  

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how this "tech battle" will end. Like I'm going to give some folks in Minnesota my social security number, a bank account number, and my driver's license number. LOL. If you go that route, you better also subscribe to LifeLock.

More from the linked article:

Though quite a few big name retailers have opted out of Apple Pay, Apple has signed on with several major partners including Macy's, Chevron, Disney, McDonald's, Nike, Petco, Whole Foods, and more. Apple Pay is accepted at the retail stores of any of its partners, and at any store that accepts NFC payments.

The list is much more extensive, and any list that has Disney and the oil companies will end up being the one I use. If I use any at all.

By the way, the banks are already competing for ApplePay business. Wells Fargo is enticing offers $20 in credit to try Apple Pay. Macrumors is also reporting:

While some merchants are pushing back against Apple's new Apple Pay mobile payment service as they work on their own competing solution, banks are putting their weight behind Apple's solution that seeks to streamline the current experience of using a credit or debit card.

In an effort to encourage users to adopt Apple Pay, Wells Fargo has just launched a program offering credits of up to $20 just for trying out the service. Wells Fargo credit card users can receive one-time $20 credits, while debit and prepaid card users can receive $10 credits simply by using their iPhone 6 or 6 Plus to complete an Apple Pay purchase on their cards through November 30.  

I think some Las Vegas casinos used to give folks up to $100 in free chips to visit their establishments. That was a long time ago.

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Par For The Course

(Pun Intended)

The US Army has made a unilateral decision to quarantine all troops returning from Ebolaland.

The CDC does not want folks quarantined when they return from Ebolaland unless they have clear-cut Ebolasymptoms. CDC prefers the "honor system" when dealing with the one disease that is treated by health care providers in HAZMAT suits. Based on news reports, it sounds like the CDC has not released "official" Ebolasymptoms.

I'm not sure if Homeland Security has weighed in on what they are now doing with health care workers returning from Ebolaland.

The US president is still deciding (or not deciding) on a national policy.  

By the way, have we heard from the Ebolaczar on any of this? [I posted this October 27, 2014; The New York Daily News asked the same question October 28, 2014 -- called him MIA.]

Active Rigs At 196 -- North Dakota, October 27, 2014

Active rigs: 

	10/27/2014	10/27/2013	10/27/2012	10/27/2011	10/27/2010
Active Rigs	196	182	186	200	150

Wells coming off the confidential list Tuesday:

• 23583, 755, CLR, Columbia Federal 7-5H, Dollar Joe, t10/14; cum --
• 23683, dry, WPX, Martin Fox 20-17HY, Mandaree, "channeled surface cement job";
• 26991, 508, Slawson, Zulu 5-21H, Van Hook, t8/14; cum 14K 8/14;
• 27814, drl, Statoil, Maston 34-27 2H, Banks, no production data,
• 27837, drl, MRO, Bears ghost USA 21-4TFH, McGregory Butte, no production data,

Eight (8) new permits --

• Operators: KOG (4), Whiting (3), CLR,
  Fields: Truax (Williams), Timber Creek (McKenzie), Sanish (Mountrail), Pershing (McKenzie)
• Comments:

Thirteen (13) producing wells completed:

• 27453, n/d, CLR, Hartman 5-28H3, NWNW 28-146-95, Three Forks third bench, Chimney Butte, 
• 27454, n/d, CLR, Hartman 6-28H2, Three Forks second bench, Chimney Butte, 
• 27455, n/d, CLR, Hartman 7-28H3, Three Forks third bench, Chimney Butte, 
• 27450, n/d, CLR, Hartman 8-28H1, Three Forks first bench, Chimney Butte, 
• 27451, n/d, CLR, Hartman 9-28H2, Three Forks second bench, Chimney Butte, 
• 27452, n/d, CLR, Hartman 10-28H, middle Bakken, Chimney Butte, 
• 26627, n/d, CLR, Mack 13-2H3, NWNE 25-150-10, Three Forks third bench, South Tobacco Garden,
• 26535, n/d, CLR, Jerry 7-8H, SESE 8-151-100, middle Bakken, Poe,
• 26536, n/d, CLR, Jerry 6-8H, SESE 8-151-100, middle Bakken, Poe,
• 26189, 1,617, Whiting, Solberg 11-2H, Ray, 1280-acre, cum --
• 28859, 1,066, Whiting, Solberg 11-2TFH, Ray, cum --
• 27015, 1,558, Whiting, Solberg 21-2H, Ray, cum -- 
• 27664, 535, CLR, Sumner 1-12H, Ellisville, t10/14; cum --

Stark County Wells Have Been Updated -- October 27, 20914

Stark County wells have been updated.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

Our older granddaughter, eleven years old, and who lives just across the street from us, developed a fever several days ago which has not abated; it has been as high as 104, and even yesterday -- about four days into this non-Ebola event -- she had a fever of 103.1. Except for a minor, relatively non-productive cough, she did not exhibit any other symptoms. Of course, the first question I asked last Friday was whether she had recently returned from West Africa.

No.

The worse part about the illness at the moment is that she won't be able to go swimming. She participates in competitive swimming and in spashball. Splashball is essentially water soccer/polo with few rules except no intentional drowning of other players. Tonight would have been splashball.

The best part of her swimming evenings (Monday - Thursday) is my getting to drive her to the pool. It's the one time of each day we have 20 minutes (each way) completely free to talk about any subject of common interest.

The other day were talking about chemical bonds: ionic bonds and covalent bonds. I was unable to explain the nuances of ionic bonding vs covalent bonding: it's been a long time since I last studied organic and inorganic chemistry.

So, now back to the books. I am relieved. I now understand why I had difficulty with the nuances of bonding. From William H Brown's Introduction to Organic and Biochemistry, c. 1987.

One way of estimating the degree of ionic or covalent character in a chemical bond is to compare the electronegativities of the atoms involved. 

That is so cool. It continues:

Electronegativity measures the force of attraction an atom has for the electrons it shares in a chemical bond with another atom. The most widely used scale of electronegativities was devised by Linus Pauling int he 1930s; it is based on bond energies of diatomic molecules. On this scale, fluorine, the most electronegative element, is assigned an electronegativity of 4.0 and all other elements are assigned values relative to fluorine. 

And here's one way of determining whether a bond is ionic or covalent: "as an approximation, an ionic bond is formed with the difference in electronegativity between two elements is 1.7 or greater."
I must have missed that day in high school/college when this was explained. The source, as noted, is c. 1987, so a lot of things may have changed since then, but ... whatever.

Another reason I find this so cool is that it was Linus Pauling that came up with this. I am most familiar with "the" Linus Pauling as "described" by James Watson in The Double Helix, 1968. Wow, the first half of the 20th century was quite incredible.

Since then, as one character in "The Big Bang Theory" has said: "not much has happened."

1280 Vs 640 -- October 27, 2014

Three wells that came off the confidential list over the weekend/today caught my attention:

• 25653, 1,024, Petro-Hunt, State of North Dakota 154-99-16A-6H, Stockyard Creek, Three Forks (though app said middle Bakken), short lateral, 640 acres/ICO, 22 stages, 2.5 million lbs sand, t7/14; cum 39K 8/14;
• 26992, 557, Slawson, Fox 5-28H, Van Hook, 640 acres/ICO, t9/14; cum 8K 8/14;
• 27875, 1,791, Petro-Hunt, Wollan 152-96-27C-6H, Clear Creek, 18 stages/2.1 million lbs sand, 640 acres, t7/14; cum 50K 8/14;

I believe these three were each 640-acre spacing, something one doesn't see often in the Bakken. For newbies, EOG's Parshall field was originally all 640-acre units (and almost all wells in the Parshall field are 640-acre wells, with  rare exceptions, including #25093, a Wayzetta well). Much of the Parshall is now 1280-acre spacing (or ICO with 1280-acre proposed).

Some time ago, perhaps two years ago, there were discussions about the relative economics of short laterals vs long laterals. 

CLR Announces JV WIth A Subsidiary Of A Fortune Global 100 South Korean Company -- October 27, 2014; Open Borders, Open Arms, Open Roam ... Open Season

From the press release:

Continental Resources, Inc. announced today it has formed a joint venture with a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of SK E&S Co. Ltd o jointly develop a significant portion of Continental's Northwest Cana Woodford natural gas assets, primarily in Blaine and Dewey counties, Oklahoma. SK E&S is a subsidiary of SK Group, one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea and part of SK Holdings, a Fortune Global 100 company. 

Continental sold a 49.9% interest in approximately 44,000 net acres in the highly prospective Northwest Cana area of the Anadarko Woodford Shale play, including interests in 37 producing wells, for total consideration of approximately $360 million. Continental received $90 million at closing, and SK has committed to pay an additional $270 million to carry 50% of Continental's remaining share of future drilling and completion costs. Continental anticipates no change in its 2014 and 2015 capital expenditures, its production mix of crude oil and natural gas, or its overall production targets as a result of this agreement.

RBN Energy: must-read update on CBR and the Bakken. It's another great article with lots of data. The conclusion:

What does this mean for the future of Bakken crude-by-rail? As we have seen before, it takes time for producers to react to market price changes and so we don’t see an overnight exodus away from the railroads in North Dakota. But the longer that rail economics remain underwater the more barrels will move to pipelines.

The recent spate of new pipeline project announcements out of the Bakken reflects shipper interest in moving away from rail when they can. Trouble is that there are no pipelines yet from North Dakota (or anywhere else) to the East or West Coasts, so incremental pipeline barrels out of the Bakken are going to end up at Cushing or the Gulf Coast – where they will compete with a flood of light crude from the Texas Permian and Eagle Ford basins – putting further downward pressure on the LLS premium over WTI – reducing the pipeline netbacks.

But in a downward pricing market, the lower cost of pipelines trumps pricier railroads. That means those Bakken producers that continue to supply the East and West Coasts will have to eat higher transport costs to compete with Brent and ANS. And as crude prices fall, you can be sure that producers are paying close attention to getting the best netbacks available to sustain their new drilling investment.

Active rigs:

	10/27/2014	10/27/2013	10/27/2012	10/27/2011	10/27/2010
Active Rigs	194	182	186	200	150

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Open Borders ... Open Arms ... Open Roam

It's funny how things evolve. As far as I know, about the only "disease" that requires health care workers to don HAZMAT suits, and for those coming back from the HOT ZONE, the national policy seems to be open borders, open arms, and now open roam. LOL.

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Un-Tracking 

I have loyalty cards for the two drugstores I shop and for the three grocery stores I shop. They all collect data on what I buy and two of the stores (one drugstore and one grocery store) send me targeted coupons.  I have no problem with that. Most of the time, the e-mail is immediately "trashed" but if I'm going shopping, I will at least check the coupons. 

CVS and Rite Aid have announced they won't accept Apple Pay (and I believe Wal-Mart never intended to accept Apple Pay). The rumors are that by using Apple Pay the retailers lose the ability to track their customers. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Target (I don't use their Red Card any more) has said it will accept Apple Pay -- I don't know if they are on-line with Apple Pay yet. McDonald's is.

This reminds me of two previous epic technology battles: Sony Beta-Max vs VHS; and, Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. 

On another note, I doubt anyone can find a more aggressive mail-order marketer than Omaha Steaks. One would think that their customers would get furious with all the mailings and telephone calls. The funny thing: I don't mind them at all. I would be furious if any other retailer did this, but I don't mind at all. I don't know why. To some extent, it's interesting to see how good the deals get the longer one goes without ordering. At some point, the deals become irresistible. It appears they don't actually track one's specific tastes in meat selections, but they sure do know you as a customer. There are days I am tempted to buy a small medium-sized freezer for just Omaha Steaks for the man-cave.

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Open Season

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's important to note that the "Open Borders ... Open Arms ... Open Roam ..." policies appear to be emanating from the East Coast. In Texas, if the governor has his way, he may add "Open Season."