Sweet Spots In The Bakken Still Profitable -- March 26, 2015

Bakken.com is reporting:

With the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude hovering between the $43 to $50 for the better part of this month, analysis by Wood Mackenzie has found that the majority of U.S. shale plays would need a 30 percent cost reduction to be economically viable.

With that being the case, only a select few “sweet spots” exist where drillers focus their limited capital expenditure dollars. Those “sweet spots” include the Springer, a newer shale play located in southwest Oklahoma, the Karnes Trough portion of the Eagle Ford Shale and the Nesson Anticline portion of the Bakken Shale. Two sub-plays that require minor cost reductions are The Parshall Sanish portion of the Bakken and the SCOOP Woodford in Oklahoma.

Wood Mackenzie, a global energy, metals and mining research and consultancy firm, believes even the 30 percent cost reductions can be achieved and many companies have already announced it. That’s mainly due to oil service companies slashing costs as demand for work has gone down.

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Not That Anyone Cares

Today's EIA blurb:

According to EIA monthly supply data through December 2014, which EIA released in late February, U.S. exports of fuel ethanol in 2014 reached their second-highest level at a total of 826 million gallons.

This level was second only to the 1.2 billion gallons exported during 2011 and 33% more than exports of fuel ethanol in 2013. Similarly, U.S. imports of ethanol, which totaled approximately 377 million gallons during 2013, fell by 81% to a total of 73 million gallons in 2014, their lowest annual level since 2010. As a result, the United States was a net exporter of fuel ethanol for the fifth consecutive year and exported the fuel to 37 different countries in 2014.---EIA 

20 million bbls? if I did the math correctly. I think the US uses about 9 million bbls of gasoline per day.

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Sage Grouse Don't Fly That High

Bakken.com is reporting:

A proposal to establish an enormous bomber training area over the northern Plains that advocates say will improve military training and save money got final approval Tuesday despite concerns about loud, low-flying aircraft disrupting civilian flights and damaging rural economies.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved a plan to expand the Powder River Training Complex over the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming. The move roughly quadruples the training airspace to span across nearly 35,000 square miles, making it the largest over the continental U.S.

The airspace would be used by B-1 bombers from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. The U.S. Air Force estimates that the expanded training airspace could save Ellsworth up to $23 million a year in fuel costs by reducing the number of training flights to states such as Utah and Nevada.

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Saudi's Shock and Awe

Saudi's Plans To Send Ground Troops Into Yemen

Zero Hedge is reporting:

As reported first thing today, while the initial phase of the military campaign against Yemen has been taking place for the past 18 hours and been exclusively one of airborne assaults by forces of the "Decisive Storm" coalition, Saudi hinted at what is coming next following reports that it had built up a massive 150,000 troop deployment on the border with Yemen.

And as expected, moments ago AP reported that Egyptian military and security officials told The Associated Press that the military intervention will go further, with a ground assault into Yemen by Egyptian, Saudi and other forces, planned once airstrikes have weakened the capabilities of the rebels.

Saudi better do something: ISIS/Iran/Syria/Obama are conspiring to set the stage for a new Persian Kingdom stretching across the Mideast. Apparently President Obama has agreed to Iran's demands. As opined earlier: the president cares not about the details; it is only a matter of checked things off his bucket list.