Week 48: November 23, 2014 -- November 29, 2014

Top story of the week
Oil glut, Saudi Arabia does not cut production: oil slides to $67

Getting more press than it deserves
Another "silly story" from the New York Times 

Operations
Estimated ultimate recovery in the Bakken as much as 40%
Random look at 2560-acre unit where CLR could place 28 wells

Fracking
Background to those fracking records in the Bakken (with new/important comment)

Refinery
Reservation refinery on hold
Dickinson refinery to start accepting crude next week

Bakken economy
Construction of Williston by-pass west of city now underway
Of America's ten counties with highest per-capita income, five of those counties are in western North Dakota

Miscellaneous
CO2 Solutions and UND-EERC partnering in CO2 capture studies
Mystery of the missing multi-well pad

***********************************

Flashback

From The Oil Drum: "The Bakken Shale -- Has It Moved The Oil Needle?" -- November 2, 2009. 

Active Rigs Holding Steady At 185 -- North Dakota, November 28, 2014

Active rigs:

	11/28/2014	11/28/2013	11/28/2012	11/28/2011	11/28/2010
Active Rigs	185	191	184	198	163

Wells coming off the confidential list yesterday, today were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Four (4) new permits --

• Operators: BR (3), Whiting
• Fields: Corral Creek (Dunn), Estes (McKenzie)
• Comments:

A Bridge Over Troubled Waters -- Google: The Numbers Don't Work -- November 28, 2014

A huge "thank you" to a reader for alerting me to this.

Google engineers write:

Starting in 2007, Google committed significant resources to tackle the world’s climate and energy problems. A few of these efforts proved very successful: Google deployed some of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world, purchased large amounts of renewable energy, and offset what remained of its carbon footprint.

Google’s boldest energy move was an effort known as "RE to cost less than C," which aimed to develop renewable energy sources that would generate electricity more cheaply than coal-fired power plants do. The company announced that Google would help promising technologies mature by investing in start-ups and conducting its own internal R&D. Its aspirational goal: to produce a gigawatt of renewable power more cheaply than a coal-fired plant could, and to achieve this in years, not decades.

Its aspirational goal: to produce a gigawatt of renewable power more cheaply than a coal-fired plant could, and to achieve this in years, not decades.

Unfortunately, not every Google moon shot leaves Earth orbit. In 2011, the company decided that "RE to cost less than C" was not on track to meet its target and shut down the initiative. The two of us, who worked as engineers on the internal RE

At the start of "RE to cost less than C," we had shared the attitude of many stalwart environmentalists: We felt that with steady improvements to today’s renewable energy technologies, our society could stave off catastrophic climate change. We now know that to be a false hope—but that doesn’t mean the planet is doomed. . . .

Trying to combat climate change exclusively with today’s renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach.

Excerpts from the essay; complete essay at the link.

[One comment at the link exposed "The Road to Germany": Google's largest renewable is tax credits.  When the sun isn't shining, or the wind not blowing, Google still expects to operate its server farms using local fossil energy.  However, when installing reversible electric meters, they avoid the capacity and transmission charges which must then be paid by other utility customers.]

A bridge over troubled waters:

Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Simon and Garfunkel

Bakken Crude Oil: Handle With Care -- November 28, 2014

The previous note led me to this. Enjoy.

Bakken oil: handle with care.

Handle With Care, The Traveling Wilburys

been beat up and battered 'round
been blown up and derailed
reputations changeable
situations tolerable
but, Bakken crude, you're adorable
handle me with care
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Mr President, won't you show me that you really care
everybody's got somebody to lean on (except Canadian oil sands and the Bakken)
I've been uptight and made a mess
but I'll clean it up myself, I guess,
oh, the sweet smell of success.

And, of course, there's another Traveling Wilbury's / Del Shannon song that could be added, but I won't. I've posted that song many times. 

Enderlin: End-Of-The-Line -- November 28, 2014

I had not planned to post this story until the issue was resolved, or more newsworthy updates were provided.

However, a reader from upstate New York sent me a nice note (despite all my "negative stories" about that part of the world -- actually a bit more to the east -- New England, but I digress).

But he sent me a nice note with some great links and -- to make it worthy of a stand-alone post -- an opportunity for a great video. So here goes.

The note from the reader:

I saw this anti-Bakken article, more of the current media pile-on to expose all the supposed dark underbellies of the Bakken boom. 

Though in fairness, because of the lawsuit the story is definitely newsworthy.

What’s funny, if you Google Earth view the town of Enderlin, you will see one of those big trains parked right through the entire town.

You can even see the overpass mentioned in the article. The google link (it may be a dynamic link and the train may have moved on. The overpass will probably still be there).

End of the Line, Traveling Wilburys

Black Friday -- More Subdued Now That Stores Are Opening After Thanksgiving Dinner -- November 28, 2014

Wells coming off confidential list yesterday and today have been posted. Link here. 

Tea leaves: North Dakota oil production will take big "hit" in November (data will be released January 15, 2015); in addition to everything else previously reported, now it's the weather. From a weather forecast on Thanksgiving, the Bakken was going to get hit with another messy storm:

November 27, 2014, 1:15 pm CST Update: Light snow continues to spread across western and central North Dakota this afternoon. At this time the heaviest snow is located across northwest North Dakota at places like Williston, Tioga, Stanley [also known as Bakkenland].

Messy and freezing: light freezing rain may mix in with snow later this evening across the northwest. Light snow accumulations of less than an inch along the SD/ND border to 3 inches along the ND/Canada border are expected by the late evening hours.

It's starting -- it's being tweeted now -- Libyan rival prime minister says country might break up if recognized government in east forms its own state oil company. 

Enbridge "needs" another Canadian-US pipeline. Whether or not it ever gets built, it tells me again, just how much oil there is in western Canada. Early indications: Minnesota prefers rail. The Dickinson Press is reporting:

The 1,031-mile Pipeline No. 3 would replace the company’s 1968-vintage Line No. 3, and would bring more Canadian tar sands crude oil into the U.S.

The company hopes to have the $7.5 billion project underway in 2016 and completed by 2017.

But one has to chuckle. "Everyone" complains about old rusting pipelines and the need to upgrade all the rotting infrastructure across the US, but as soon as an oil pipeline company proposes to do just that, "everyone" comes out of the woodwork and yells, "not in my backyard. We meant somewhere else."  And political leadership is afraid to call them on that.

***********************************  

Active rigs:

	11/28/2014	11/28/2013	11/28/2012	11/28/2011	11/28/2010
Active Rigs	183	191	184	198	163

RBN Energy: ethane exports to help power the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the Obama plan to power Africa seems to have been another shell game. Reuters is reporting:

The five-year plan has not yet delivered the power.

Power Africa has not measured its progress by counting actual megawatts added to the grid but promises of additional power made in deals it says it helped negotiate, according to sources inside the project and documents seen by Reuters.

Some projects facilitated by Power Africa -- a program operated by the U.S. aid agency USAID -- were under way years before the scheme's inception, others are still in the planning stage.

It is unclear how much of the $7 billion Obama pledged has actually been spent or if a further $20 billion in private sector investment commitments will materialize.

"Saying you've met targets on projects that might never happen or taking the credit for projects that have been worked on for years makes me uncomfortable," a source working on Power Africa told Reuters. "It's misleading."

Sort of like ObamaCare. Even Senator Schumer now recognizes ObamaCare for what it is.

***************************************** 

Second Autumn Event, 2014 -- Winter Storm Cato First entries November 25 - 26, 2014   Albany, NY, breaks 1888 snowfall record with 6'7" inches falling on Wednesday - Approximately 15 people reported protesting in Ferguson, MO, as snow falls on area 
More than 48,000 New York customers without power due to snow storm
Northeast: 730 flights canceled; 4,300 delayed 
More than 300,000 customers without power in New England due to snow storm
110,000 folks in Maine with no power, electricity -- November 27, 2014
Now has a name: Cato -- November 27, 2014
New weather storm to hit Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Portland -- November 27, 2014
Avalanche in Rockies in November -- November 27, 2014
110Kin Maine; 30K in Massachusetts; 195K in New Hampshire without power -- Nov 27, 2014
Minnesota coldest Thanksgiving since 1930 -- November 27, 2014
16K in Massachusetts remain without power; 15 inches of snow -- Nov 27, 2014
Earliest winter in decades sweeps nation -- November 27, 2014
To keep them warm in the White House: six kinds of pies for Thanksgiving -- Nov 28, 2014
133K in New Hampshire still without power on Friday -- November 28, 2014

**************************

Quiet In Target, 8:49 a.m. CT, Black Friday

The subject line says it all.