Week 47: November 22, 2015 -- November 28, 2015

There is no evidence of global warming here in North Texas; I had to turn on the heat to take off the chill, but the furnace -- or whatever it is that provides heat in these small apartments -- is now off and it's a comfortable 67 degrees. Last night, over at my daughter's McMansion it was way too warm; they have the thermostat set at 71 degrees. They were gone for the weekend and I took advantage of the opportunity to watch some football on their big screen television.

Wow, that was a digression. All I had planned to do was link the only story I plan to post with regard to all the excitement and hyperbole that will surround the 2015 Paris Peace Talks on Global Warming, where every western leader will be padding his or her resume to hopefully contend for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

The article, of course is  -- in fact, put this much in google: your complete guide to the climate debate -- see how few letters you have to put into the search box to get the WSJ article to show up. You will be surprised. I put in this much: your complete g and the article was the first hit. I didn't even get past the "g." I've read enough of it to tell me it is all I need to post on the 2015 Paris Peace Talks on Global Warming. The only reason folks will be tuning in is to see if ISIS (or as President Obama calls the JV team, ISIL) is able to crash the party.

The link to the WSJ article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/your-complete-guide-to-the-climate-debate-1448656890. I hate to think this is the 144,865,890th article the WSJ has had on the climate debate.

I suppose the big story of the week was the fact there is a glimmer of hope that Saudi Arabia has decided to hold the line at $40. Unfortunately, the fly in that oily soup is the fact that there are more than 1,000 wells waiting to be fracked in North Dakota and probably twice that many in Texas.

At the very end of the week, a reader sent me a fairly reliable hint that Shell United States is coming to North Dakota. I have problems with Shell. I really don't know whether it's Shell, or Royal Dutch Shell, and until the spill in the Gulf of 2010, I kept confusing BP and Shell. But whatever, at least someone has credible information to suggest "Shell" will enter the Bakken in a big way. I have a post on it in draft but won't post it until the credible information is ... well, a bit more credible. I don't want to get anyone into trouble.

So, what were the big stories last week? Not many. Perhaps the highlight was the autumn portfolio of North Dakota / Minnesota photographs sent by Vern Whitten.

Operations
Lime Rock Resources finally posts their Russian Creek acquisition
October's North Dakota oil production remained flat month-over-month
a second bench Three Forks well looks very promising
a birthday greeting to Mr Woodrow Star "A" 1, 57 years young

Flaring
EIA posts an update on flaring in North Dakota 

Refinery
Proposed Devils Lake refinery on hold

Miscellaneous
I formally added "propane" to the "next big story" page; it's been there all along but a bit hidden
the US officially gets on the top ten list of countries with proved oil reserves 
the US increased its proved reserves estimate for sixth year in a row
Katie Ledecky named female athlete of the year -- a three-peat
North Dakota's shortfall grows