North Dakota Headline Story Over At RBN Energy Today -- September 25, 2015; Number Of Active Rigs In North Dakota Bounces Off Lows, Back Up To 71

North Dakota has a plan to keep oil wells unplugged -- RBN Energy:

This month the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) indicated they are leaning towards leniency in their treatment of operators that have drilled but not completed wells within the one-year time frame permitted. Instead of assuming such wells are abandoned, which would otherwise mean an expired drilling permit and about $200,000 in plugging costs,  – the State plans to give operators more time. That possibility opens up a whole new underground storage option for producers struggling to make ends meet. Today we explain the NDIC plan.

There has been a significant increase in State tax revenues from the oil and gas sector over the past 4 years as drilling and production from the prolific Williston Basin boomed in North Dakota. Little wonder that the State’s NDIC has done its best to keep producers actively engaged in drilling even as crude prices have fallen during the past year. To that end as we detailed back in April (2015) the State legislature has provided tax incentives to producers drilling during periods of time when prices fall below certain thresholds.

There were two such tax breaks on the table this year – with the so called “small trigger” incentive providing a 4.5% break on the State’s 6.5% Extraction Tax (applied to the gross value of oil produced at the well) between February and June 2015 for all new horizontal wells when average oil prices dropped below $57.50/Bbl in January 2015. The second, “large trigger” tax break would have waived the Extraction Tax altogether for 24 months for all producers provided prices stayed below a $55/Bbl threshold for 5 consecutive months. When we last wrote on those tax breaks producers were confidently expecting to enjoy a waiver of extraction taxes after June 2015 on the assumption that the 5 month low price criteria was met. Unfortunately for them the trigger was never pulled because average prices for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark crude target were higher than the threshold in May and then again in June. As a result the Large Trigger was not enacted and producers did not enjoy the tax break.

Much more at the link. This article will be archived.

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Active rigs in North Dakota:

	9/25/2015	09/25/2014	09/25/2013	09/25/2012	09/25/2011
Active Rigs	71	192	186	187	195

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Meanwhile, For Those Taking The Road To New England ...

.... Massachusetts getting ready to address high electricity costs. Four alternatives:

• natural gas: opponents will Keystone all new pipeline proposals
• hydroelectric power from Canada: no one wants more high-voltage lines from Canada
• off-shore wind turbines: LOL
• solar: the state has had enough of net-metering; regardless -- solar energy in Massachusetts to solve its problems? LOL 

The whole purpose of this exercise is to lower electricity costs. In fact, intermittent energy will increase monthly rates. Just wait and see. This is not rocket science. The utilities and faux environmentalists will join forces; get bills passed to increase intermittent energy; and then utilities will go to regulators to get rates increased to pay for new wind turbines (10 years off) and new solar farms (that tend to provide electricity only when the sun is shining; and that's why Massachusetts is a travel destination for those who worship the sun).

The issue interests me not today but I needed to post this for the archives. Something tells me we will be re-visiting this issue in five years.