Nine (9) New Permits -- North Dakota, USA -- July 14, 2015

Active rigs:

	7/14/2015	07/14/2014	07/14/2013	07/14/2012	07/14/2011
Active Rigs	73	193	186	215	178

Nine (9) wells coming off the confidential list Wednesday:

• 28881, 637, Oasis Langved 5393 42-10 4B, Sanish, 36 stages, 9.2 million lbs, t41/5; cum 38K 5/15;
• 28882, 644, Oasis, Langved 5393 42-10 5T, Sanish, 36 stages, 4.5 million lbs, t41/5; cum 81K 5/15;
• 28903, 1,284, Oasis, Harbour 5601 42-33 4B, Tyrone, 21 stages, 3.9 million lbs; gas peak at 3,991 units, t2/15; cum 45K 5/15;
• 28904, 1,061, Oasis, Harbour 5601 42-33 3T, Tyrone, 50 stages, 9.4 million lbs, t2/15; cum 34K 5/15;
• 29656, drl, Newfield, Olson 152-96-30-31-12H, Westberg, cum 10K in first 15 days;
• 29872, SI/NC, BR, Kirkland 41-28TFH, Pershing, no production data,
• 29955, drl, Statoil, Heen 26-35 5H, Todd, no production data,
• 30003, drl, XTO, Porcupine Federal 44X-2G, Bear Creek, no production data,
• 30214, drl, XTO, Marlene 42X-20CXD, Blue Buttes, no production data,

Twelve (12) new permits --

• Operators: BR (6), Oasis (3), XTO, Thunderbird
• Fields: Elidah (McKenzie), Siverston (McKenzie), Elkhorn Ranch (Billings)
• Comments: the permits fro BR look like two 3-wells pads; Thunderbird has the permit in Elkhorn Ranch; Oasis and XTO have the permits for Siverston oil field

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Solar EOR In Oman

Rigzone is reporting:

Thanks to the success of its solar enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in Oman, GlassPoint Solar expects to break ground this year on a solar EOR facility for Petroleum Development Oman’s (PDO) Amal field. Company officials signed an agreement July 8 for construction of the Miraah facility.

The 1,021 MW solar facility – the name of which means ‘mirror’ in Arabic – will be the world’s largest solar plant in terms of output.

The plant will provide a sustainable solution for EOR steam, which currently is produced by burning gas. Miraah is expected to save 5.6 trillion Btus of gas each year, enough to supply electricity to more than 200,000 residents in Oman.

Steam generation from the first glasshouse module is expected in 2017. Once operations begin, the facility is expected to generate an average 6,000 tons of solar steam daily for oil production and save 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

The plant will consist of 36 of GlassSolar’s so-called standard blocks, built and commissioned in succession in groups of four, John O'Donnell, vice president of business development with GlassPoint, told Rigzone in an interview.

The Miraah facility, which will cover 741 acres or 3 square kilometers, will operate alongside the 7 MW pilot project developed by GlassPoint and PDO. In early 2013, GlassPoint kicked off operations at the pilot facility.

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More Bad News For Norway

Bloomberg/Rigzone is reporting:

Norway’s oil industry, already struggling after crude prices collapsed last year, is being dealt another blow as an Iranian nuclear deal promises to boost global supply.

“For Norway’s offshore production, it’s not that positive,” Thina Saltvedt, an oil analyst at Oslo-based Nordea Markets, said by phone on Tuesday. “Companies on the Norwegian shelf will face tougher competition because costs must be reduced even further to be competitive internationally.” Oil production in Norway’s Arctic Barents Sea, where Statoil ASA postponed a key development for the third time this year, could now be delayed further, Saltvedt said.

Norway, western Europe’s largest oil producer, is facing its biggest drop in offshore investments in 15 years as companies delay and cancel projects to adapt to lower prices. More than 22,000 job cuts have been announced since the beginning of 2014, according to DNB ASA.

Benchmark Brent crude fell as much as 2.5 percent to $56.4 a barrel after Iran, once OPEC’s second-biggest producer, reached an agreement with six world powers to curb its nuclear program in exchange for ending 12 years of sanctions that have crippled its economy and capped oil exports. Brent has dropped more than 10 percent this month, erasing parts of a recovery from six-year lows in January.

Cost:

Norway, which has built the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund from its oil riches, has also struggled to stop its commodity reliance from overheating the economy. It’s among the costliest places in the world to do business.

Workers in its offshore industry were the best or second-best paid worldwide over the past five years, according to recruitment firm Hays Inc.

It costs more to drill a well off Norway than anywhere else, according to a government-commissioned report in 2012. “The most important focus for Norwegian producers now is to reduce costs to be competitive,” said Tommy Hansen, a spokesman for the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, a lobby group representing companies from Statoil to Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips.

I assume the Bakken is looking better and better for the folks at Statoil.

Off The Net For Awhile -- July 14, 2015; Australia Slams Door On Wind Energy

The granddaughters have another full week and a few days remaining in their southern California vacation. However, for a number of reasons (all good), I am getting into the minivan in a few minutes -- after completing this note -- and making some sandwiches -- and starting a leisurely trip east.

I plan to head towards Grapevine, but could change plans and head north to the Bakken (unlikely). More than likely I will get back to Grapevine before returning to the Bakken later this autumn.

From southern California, the granddaughters will fly to Kentucky to see their other grandparents, so I won't be seeing them for another three weeks or so. That will really be tough on me, but something tells me they will really enjoy their days with their grandmother -- they just left to visit Little Tokyo for the rest of the day. May is half Japanese and the granddaughters love Little Tokyo.

I hope readers continue to send me articles while I'm on the road; I will eventually get to all the e-mail. I generally respond to all e-mail, but when traveling, perhaps a bit less often.

The biggest delay will be in posting comments/replies over at the Discussion Group.

Breaking news, tweeting now: Saudi-backed forces seize Aden airport in sudden advance against Houthi fighters - @Reuter.

Gas prices for least expensive regular grade, San Pedro: $4.49 / gallon.

Market closes up.

WTI up slightly.

CSX beats forecasts.

Active rigs:

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Active Rigs	73	193	186	215	178

Top story in Los Angeles Times: deal may strengthen Iran. Well, duh.

Los Angeles Times: NAACP wants Confederate carving removed from Georgia's Stone Mountain.

And we will end with this, smartest man in the room:

Australia has slammed the door shut on any new government-funded investment in renewable energy schemes as Prime Minister Tony Abbott extends his “war on wind power”. The new directive banning investing in existing wind technology will also apply to small-scale solar projects. In doing so Mr Abbott has sent a clear message to the mendicant green renewable energy sector that there will be no more cheap state-supplied financing for its projects. The funding ban is just the latest salvo in the government’s attacks on the renewable energy sector which also includes small-scale solar projects.

He's gonna be re-elected by a wide, wide margin.

Australian Road Trains

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At Least It's Hard To Catch 

This is very concerning: it's baaacck! Reuters is reporting:

A Liberian woman has died of Ebola in a hospital in Monrovia shortly after being admitted, becoming the sixth confirmed case of the virus since it resurfaced last month after a seven-week lull.

Her detection raised fears that the infection may be spreading in a new area of the country.

A health report sent to officials in the anti-Ebola response said that the woman died a few hours after admission, indicating that surveillance of known contacts from the earlier cases had not been rigorous enough.

More than 11,200 people have died from Ebola since the epidemic began in December 2013. Liberia was declared Ebola-free on May 9 but reported a new case nearly two months later.

Health officials say the virus probably remained latent in the country during that period and could have been reactivated by a survivor, via sexual transmission.

WPX Buys Into The Permian -- July 14, 2015

Bloomberg/Rigzone is reporting:

WPX Energy Inc., the oil and gas explorer spun off from Williams Cos., has agreed to buy closely held RKI Exploration & Production LLC for $2.35 billion.

WPX will also assume $400 million of debt to acquire RKI, which has liquids-rich fields in the Permian Basin, WPX said in a statement Tuesday. The majority of RKI’s leaseholds are located in Texas and New Mexico, where the company operates four rigs, it said.

The Permian Basin is the most active oil play in the U.S. and showed the biggest improvement in last week’s Baker Hughes Inc. weekly report, with eight rigs brought back to work. The deal is WPX’s largest since spinning out from Williams in 2011 and its first foray into the Permian, a large swathe of oil-producing rock beneath West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

WPX is buying leases in the Delaware Basin, the less- developed western half of the Permian.

No mention was made of the EPD hostile takeover of WMB.

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At Least They Are Not Blaming George W. Bush For This

This is laughable. Bloomberg blaming fracking as the reason why students drop out of high school. LOL. I'm a step away from banning Bloomberg articles from the website. At some point, things are beyond the pale. The comments, fortunately, are better (and more honest) than the article. The study is laughable. The industry is unlikely to hire any one under the age of 16. We are talking such a minuscule number of high school students that would have taken fracking jobs that the statistics are meaningless.

The study found that in the absence of fracking, the male-female gap in high school dropout rates among 17- to 18-year-olds would have narrowed between 2000 and 2013. Instead, it was unchanged at 1.4 percentage points at the end of the period, with males posting a 5.4 percent dropout rate versus 4 percent for females.

Really? This is bizarre, is more than ridiculous. And this is the last we will hear of this. It's so bizarre that it won't even become a talking point.

I wonder if the authors of the study referenced are aware of the brand new $7.5 million training center east of Williston?

Natural Gas Replaces Coal As Biggest US Electric Power Generation Source -- July 14, 2015

AP/PennEnergy is reporting: natural gas replaces coal as biggest US electric power generation source.

Natural gas overtook coal as the top source of U.S. electric power generation for the first time ever earlier this year, a milestone that has been in the making for years as the price of gas slides and new regulations make coal more risky for power generators.

The research company SNL Energy in a new report using data from the U.S. Energy Department says about 31 percent of electric power generation in April came from natural gas, and 30 percent from coal.

A drilling boom that started in 2008 has boosted U.S. natural gas production by 30 percent and made the United States the world's biggest producer of oil and natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing has allowed energy companies to tap huge volumes of gas trapped deep underground in shale formations.

Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn 1972: first woman ever named Entertainer of the Year by CMA

Sons Of Silence Motorcycle Gang In Williston -- July 14, 2015

The Williston Herald is reporting:

A Williston man was shot early Saturday morning, and another is behind bars after a fight at a house party, police said Monday morning. 

Nash Wollan was charged with aggravated assault, carrying a concealed firearm and terrorizing for allegedly shooting Michael Raphael in an alleyway next to the Sons of Silence repair shop on First Street East. 

Although Wollan claims to be a member of the Sons of Silence, a motorcycle gang known for violence and alleged drug activity, police do not believe Saturday’s shooting was gang-related.

Related:

Being a cop in Williston and Williams County is many things; but the one thing it’s never — boring.

Working in law enforcement in Williston and Williams County has its highs and lows. The non-stop pace and constant exposure to the effects of drug and alcohol abuse can be draining, but if one thing comes easy for police officers here, it’s gaining experience.

Both police officer Kristiina Ravaska and sheriff’s deputy Jason Roberts came from Minnesota to work here. Their expectations were high, and the job delivered.

“I’ve wanted experience and I’ve gotten experience,” Ravaska, 30, said. “All the calls I go on are different.”

New cops here get broken in quickly. With both city and county law enforcement struggling to keep up with a ballooning population, officers are often the ones who see firsthand what can happen when someone hits rock bottom.

“We deal with a lot of people who aren’t from here,” Roberts said. “People who are at the lowest point in their lives - that’s who we’re dealing with.”

According to Job Service North Dakota, 64% of the jobs in Williston are in the oil field, which employs about 15,300 workers. The influx of workers has posed its challenges, police officials say, but at the same time they balk at the Wild West characterization that’s been assigned to the city by media from around the world.

“From what I see these individuals are very hardworking, many of them are trying to save their homes in other parts of the nation,” Lt. Det. David Peterson of the Williston Police Department said. “You have a certain percentage who are going to commit crimes…but I think that Williston has not gotten a fair shake with the national media.”

Great perspective from Detective Peterson.

Where Will The "New" Iranian Oil Go -- July 14, 2015

My hunch is that with regard to Iranian oil, not much is going to change very soon (except emotions) with regard to Iranian exports.

First of all, the deal has to be finalized, reviewed, and then acted upon. Second, Iran had waivers to sell a lot of its oil, and no doubt, skirted the sanctions and may have sold much more oil that we know, albeit with a bit of difficulty. Third, even if everything is worked out and everything is deemed to be hunky-dory, it will take some time to get Iran back up to full capacity.

Finally, there will be a lot of competition.

Who are the buyers of Iranian oil? Platts:

Iran sells most of its crude exports to four Asian countries: China, India, Japan and South Korea. With Turkey and Taiwan, these countries were buying Iranian oil under waivers from US financial sanctions granted in return for reduced oil purchases from Iran.

The deal struck July 14 would allow them to boost their purchases. That would mean the crude they’d been buying, from West Africa, Russia, the Caspian, the North Sea and Iraq, among others, could be looking for a new home.

Oil minister Bijan Zanganeh has said Asia will be Iran’s main target. That’s where oil demand is still growing, albeit more slowly than before. Europe, which took about 600,000 b/d before the sanctions hit, will also be a focus.

However, wherever Iran tries to sell its oil there will be challenges. Competition has increased everywhere, partly because lower US reliance on imported crude has sent former suppliers looking for new markets.

So, the losers are: West Africa (not unexpected); Russia (bad news); the Caspian; the North Sea (the latter two I know little about current status/production; and, Iraq (really bad news). It is interesting that Saudi Arabia was not mentioned as one of the losers.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Active rigs:

	7/14/2015	07/14/2014	07/14/2013	07/14/2012	07/14/2011
Active Rigs	73	193	186	215	178

RBN Energy: Why Europe Needs U.S.-Sourced Natural Gas.

European natural gas consumers would welcome the addition of low-cost liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. to their gas-supply mix. For one thing, they want to reduce their reliance on Russia and other potentially sketchy sources of pipeline gas.

For another, they want to weaken the link between oil and gas pricing—something U.S.-sourced LNG would help them do. What would it take for the U.S. to become one of Europe’s primary gas suppliers, and what would that mean for U.S. gas producers and LNG exporters? Today we continue our examination of the international LNG market with a look at what’s driving European curiosity about U.S. LNG.

The U.S. and European natural gas markets are about as similar as U.S. football and European football (known to those of us on the western side of the Atlantic as soccer). Within the Lower 48, U.S. gas pipelines are highly interconnected, gas pricing and trading is hub-based—and, it’s worth noting, virtually all of the gas consumed in the U.S. is sourced domestically or from Canada, a highly reliable and politically stable trading partner. Europe, on the other hand, depends on far-away sources for much of its gas (about 30% is piped in from Vladimir Putin’s Russia), and it developed its first gas trading hub less than 20 years ago (the British National Balancing Point, or NBP, in 1996). 

Even now, spot gas trading sets the price for little more than half of all the natural gas Europeans consume. The price for almost all the rest (40% or so, by most estimates, including most Russian gas) is based on long-term contracts indexed to oil prices. 

There are a lot of historical reasons for this, including the facts that the UK and Norway (two of Europe’s three primary sources of native gas—Holland is the third) for years were not connected to the rest of Europe by gas pipelines. Also, for centuries before the formation of the European Union (EU) in 1993, each European country was pretty much a market of its own. Things have been changing, though. New pipelines have been built (and more are planned), new trading hubs have been started up (including the Title Transfer Facility in 2003, the Central European Gas Hub in 2005, and the Net Connect Germany and Gaspool hubs in 2009), and more than 20 LNG import terminals have been developed throughout Europe (green dots in Figure 1) to receive liquefied gas from Qatar, Algeria, Nigeria and other suppliers. More import terminals are under construction.

Update On Next US Oil Revolution -- July 14, 2015

Update on then next revolution in US oil production: CO2 EOR. OilPrice is reporting:

What OPEC countries fear most is a follow-up technological revolution that will lead to a second oil boom in the U.S., and that fear is now being realized.

A technological revolution spurred the U.S. oil boom that resulted in the greatest increase in domestic oil production in a century, and while that has stuttered in the face of a major oil price slump and an OPEC campaign to maintain a grip on market share, the American response could be another technological revolution that demonstrates that the first one was merely an impressive embryonic experiment.

It’s not only about shale now—it’s about reviving mature oil fields through advancements in enhanced oil recovery, potentially opening up not only new shale fields, but older fields that have been forgotten.

There are myriad gloom-and-doom stories about what is often alluded to as a short-lived oil boom in the U.S. But what many fail to understand is that revolutions of this nature are phased, with the advent of new technology typically followed by a temporary halt in progress while we study the results and come up with something even better.

What we’re looking at here are advancements in EOR for greater production and cost efficiency that can weather oil price slumps and awaken America’s sleeping giant oil fields. Soon we are likely to see some new players in the field buying up oil assets and putting more advanced EOR technologies to work to re-ignite the revolution.

The shale revolution was stunning, indeed. But there have been setbacks—even beyond the oil price slump that has rendered fracking expensive. Fracking uses a lot of water.

According to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study, the process uses up to 9.6 million gallons of water per well and is putting farming and drinking sources at risk in arid states, and especially in major drought-ridden shale-boom venues like Texas.

Phase two of the U.S. oil boom hits at the heart of the inadequacies of the first phase, in a natural progression.

There are two very interesting EOR advancements that have caught our attention in recent months: CO2 EOR and Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT).

Go to the link for the rest of the story.  

By the way, one of my pet peeves is this boiler plate: "...fracking uses a lot of water." So do golf courses.

Bakken #1 In US For Increase Productivity Per Rig -- July 14, 2015

Updates

Later, 10:09 a.m. Pacific time: soon after posting the original post, a reader sent me a couple of comments and a link to a great set of graphics.

The first comment regarding natural gas in the original post:

Look at the Utica. Very interesting how it has higher gas productivity than any play other than the Marcellus. Better than the Hyanesville. And still improving rapidly. May be on its way to being the second best gas play. Also, check out the amount of new oil from the Utica. I think of it as a gas play, maybe a wet gas play, but still wet. But 200+ bopd/rig is a lot of oil for a gas play. Yes, the layer is deeper than the Marcellus, so expensive to drill...and has some of the same takeaway issues. But it is really amazing how it has come from nowhere over the past two years. It's no longer just a dream, but a legitimate growing contributor. 

N.B. This is an important observation from a reader. Then, the second comment, regarding the difference between the Bakken and Eagle Ford:

The Eagle Ford has IPs which drive its higher new oil per rig productivity (over the Bakken). And much closer to markets (better pricing). But the declines are faster (more Bakken wells will remain as strippers, more EF wells will be abandoned). See link below. This helps justify continued drilling in the Bakken, because economics rely on the production all the way out. 

I was not aware that the Eagle Ford had decline rates even "worse" than Bakken decline rates. Interesting. I learn something new every day. I assume I should have known this but completely missed it (but I think I know why).

The reader sent the link (a pdf) that compares the decline rates for the various plays.

This opens up a whole new avenue of discussion. Because I lack experience in the oil and gas industry when I get into these new discussions, I could be way off base. I may be way wrong on these things as I go into uncharted territory. The rest that follows is opinion and a recollection that could be in error.

When I read that phrase from the reader, "more Bakken wells will remain as strippers, more EF wells will be abandoned," it immediately reminded me of something the new EOG CEO said recently about re-fracking: it would be easier to simply drill a new well than re-enter/re-frack an old one. That now makes sense ... from his perspective.

I believe EOG has a bigger presence in the Eagle Ford, and if push comes to shove, EOG would prefer the Eagle Ford to the Bakken (my opinion). If it is accurate that wells are likely to be abandoned sooner in the Eagle Ford than in the Bakken, then it would make sense about simply drilling a new well rather than re-entering an abandoned well. An active well, however, even a stripper well, would offer additional options (re-work, re-enter, re-frack) than an abandoned well.

I recently posted an example of a stripper well that was re-fracked. At the time, I did not mention that it was a stripper well. (At least it meant stripper well status; I do not know if the request was approved.)

Link here: random update of 17118. When I posted the update on that BR well, there was one more item that I alluded to but did not post. I had some thoughts but was not ready to post them. What I did not mention specifically was that #17118 met "stripper well parameters" as spelled out in the letter requesting stripper well determination dated January 25, 2013.

This is a great example of a well that, although a stripper by definition, found new life when re-fracked.

That pretty much closes the loop on #17118 except for one more item, but that, too, will be left for another day. The reader provided a huge amount of information; it takes a bit of time for it all to sink in, and I don't want to go too far out on a limb with bad reasoning.

I know I did not articulate the information above as well as I would have liked, but I think folks get the gist. If it's confusing, ignore my comments, and simply read the reader's second comments, and look at the linked pdf.

Original Post

 

This is a dynamic link over at EIA. Note that Bakken barely beat out the Eagle Ford, but the Bakken and the Eagle Ford are well above the next plays, except perhaps the Niobrara:

Reminder to self: another memo to Jane Nielson.

#1 Story In Southern California This Week: $5 Gasoline; EIA Rubs Salt In The Wound -- July 14, 2015

Updates

Later, 9:11 a.m. Pacific time: moments after posting the original post -- that the #1 story in California is $5 gasoline, this EIA "energy cookie" pops up:

The average retail price for motor gasoline this summer (April through September) is expected to be $2.67 per gallon, the lowest price (in real dollars, meaning adjusted for inflation) since 2009, based on projections in EIA's July Short-Term Energy Outlook (http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/) . This decline is mainly the result of the projected 41% year-over-year decline in the average price of North Sea Brent crude oil. --- EIA  

What? "This decline is mainly the result of the projected 41% year-over-year decline in the average price of North Sea Brent crude oil. What? 

Original Post

 

Breitbart probably has the best broad-brush explanation to date of the overall energy picture in California:

GasBuddy noted that an “extraordinary convergence of fuel supply problems this week in California prompted severe spikes in wholesale gasoline prices and experts say there’s no immediate relief in sight.” CEO Jason Toews sent Governor Brown a letter asking him to consult with the EPA and Department of Energy about a California gas regulation standards waiver due to “extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances.”

Friday’s Gas Buddy call came after U.S. crude oil prices plummeted by -5% last week and the average price of gas in the U.S. slumped to $2.76 per gallon.

The International Energy Agency stated that the world is currently “massively oversupplied” with oil, mostly due to the US fracking boom.  Over the July 4 weekend, the U.S. national average price for gasoline fell to the lowest level since 2010.

But while the rest of the America enjoys almost $1 per gallon in savings, California drivers on Friday in the Bay Area drivers were surprised to see gasoline up-tick to $4 a gallon, and L.A. Basin drivers were stunned as some stations posted $5 a gallon gasoline.

When Governor Brown was leaving office after his first stint in 1983, California was America’s second-largest producer of crude oil at 1.025 million barrels per day (bpd) 32 years later, California has dropped to the third-largest producer of crude oil, as production plummeted to 545,000 bpd.

When Brown signed a bill in 2011 raising the minimum renewable portfolio standards (RPS) for utilities from 20% to 33% by 2020, he promised investments in wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal sources would cut energy prices and create tens of thousands of jobs. The only things stimulated so far have been higher energy prices.

State oil supplies are now at their lowest point in 12-months. Federal energy officials said that California refiners have been forced to run-down 1.1 million barrels held in their reserve storage tanks. Out-of-state crude oil imports had been averaging about  100,000 barrels a day, but no imports arrived last week, according to state records.

Other relevant links at this site:

• California and CBR, April 13, 2014
• Only 1% of California oil arrives by rail, October 1, 2014
• California approves first CBR off-loading terminal after lengthy review, September 10, 2014
• Bakersfield CBR off-loading terminal, November 8, 2013 
• California CBR - huge success story, May 8, 2014

Notice also the earlier tag: California_Spike_2014

Seventeen (17) New Permits Issued Last Friday -- July 13, 2015

It appears I forgot to post the summary of Friday's daily activity report published by the NDIC; it was quite a report: seventeen (17) new permits --

• Operators: Statoil (9), BR (3), Triangle (2), CLR, Resonance Exploration, Newfield, 
• Fields: East Fork (Williams), Corral Creek (Dunn), Elk (McKenzie), Crazy Man Creek (Williams), Westhope (Bottineau), Westberg (McKenzie)
• Comments: it looks like Statoil has permits for a 9-well pad in 28-156-100, East Fork oil field; see graphic below

In addition there were an additional 14 wells approved for "tight hole" status.

Nine (9) producing wells completed:

• 27885, 130, Hess, BW-R Peterson-149-99-1102H-4, Cherry Creek, t6/15; cum --
• 28762, 1,044, Hess, HA-Thompson-152-95-1720H-9, Hawkeye, t6/15; cum --
• 28763, 1,492, Hess, HA-Thompson-152-95-1720H-10, Hawkeye, t6/15; cum --
• 28992, 50, Hess, GO-Perdue-157-97-0112H-2, Ray, t6/15; cum --
• 29110, 973, Hess, EN-Uran A-154-93-2215H-7, Robinson Lake, t6/15; cum --
• 29319, 2,197, Statoil, East Fork 32-29 5H, East Fork, t6/15; cum --
• 29320, 2,427, Statoil, Folvag 5-8 6TFH, Stony Creek, t6/15; cum --
• 30273, 1,642, Whiting, Charging Eagle 10-14-11-3H, Twin Buttes, t6/15; cum --
• 30390, 653, Whiting, Charging Eagle 10-14-11-3H3, Twin Buttes, t6/15; cum --

A fairly recent Oasis permit/well was temporarily abandoned:

• 23350, TA, Oasis, Gramma Federal 5300 41-31T, it looks like this well has become problematic for Oasis; considering converting it to a SWD well 

See above: this is a graphic of where Statoil's proposed 9-well pad will be. (I did this in haste and there may be errors; if this information is important to you, go to the source.)

EIA Predictions For US Crude Oil Production, August, 2015 -- July 13, 2015

Reuters via Rigzone is reporting: EIA:  Oil Output From US Shale Plays Seen Down For Fourth Consecutive Month.

July 13 (Reuters) - Oil production from U.S. shale in August is expected to fall by the most since at least 2007.

Oil production from the largest U.S. shale plays will plunge in August for a fourth consecutive month.

Output was expected to decline by 91,000 barrels per day, 12 percent over July's forecast production decline, to 5.4 million bpd, the lowest level since November for the seven shale plays tracked in EIA's productivity report.

Energy firms cut back on new drilling after U.S. crude futures collapsed 60 percent from over $107 a barrel in June 2014 to near $42 in March on oversupply concerns and lackluster world demand.

Despite the cuts, however, U.S. production averaged 9.6 million bpd during the week ended July 3 for a seventh week in a row, its highest level since the early 1970s, according to the most recent government data.

Several energy firms decided to return to the well pad during May and June when prices averaged $60 a barrel after rebounding off the March lows. The firms have not publicly changed those new drilling plans even though crude prices fell last week and were now trading around $52 a barrel.

In the Bakken shale play, for example, North Dakota regulators said the state's well count hit a record high in May with producers deciding to hydraulically fracture more freshly drilled wells, bucking a trend to mothball them. Drilling permit applications also spiked.

Oil production in the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana was expected to fall 22,000 bpd to 1.2 million bpd in August, while Eagle Ford oil production in South Texas was expected to drop 55,000 bpd to 1.5 million bpd.

Oil production in the Permian play of West Texas and New Mexico, the biggest U.S. shale oil play, however, was expected to rise 5,000 bpd to 2.0 million bpd.

Some said that the Permian was a dying oil basin until the shale revolution came along. Sort of up-ends Hubbert's peak oil theory. No matter how they spin it. 

Monday Night Links -- July 13, 2015

I'll come back to these stories later, but they were sent to me by readers and I don't want to lose them.

This one has a lot of great data points regarding mandated renewable energy in Minnesota. ArgusMedia is reporting that Minnesota power will idle the Taconite coal plant.

The second link is to a renewable energy site suggesting things aren't as rosy as some would like to think when it comes to renewable energy. Renewables - SeeNews is reporting that global investment in renewables during 2Q15 decreased by [an astounding] 28% year-on-year. The source says the 29% drop is due, in part, to the strong dollar. It's also due in part to the fact that without government subsidies, wind/solar energy in the US isn't going to hack it. In addition, the article did not mention that Saudi Arabia recently "delayed" (i.e., scuttled) their massive solar energy program, probably due to cash flow issues, but probably also due to .... Sam Kinison would know what I'm talking about ... sand.

This is a nice feel-good article for Texans. Investors.com updates the "Texas miracle." It looks like a press release put out by Governor Perry's presidential election team:

Under Gov. Rick Perry's leadership, Texas created nearly 28% of all new jobs nationally — the majority of which paid average or above average wages.

Much has been said recently about the Texas economy being tested by a drop in oil prices. As the nation's largest producer of oil and gas, it's natural that Texas would feel the effects of a 45% decline in oil prices over the last year.

The state's oil and gas industry payrolls have decreased by more than 2,000 jobs over the last six months through May — the largest six-month job loss for the industry since the Great Recession.

Meanwhile, growth in other Texas industries has exploded as a result of the state's low-tax environment, stable rules and regulations, skilled workforce, and responsible legal environment that have come to be known as the Texas Model. While Perry was in office, CEO Magazine ranked Texas the No. 1 state to do business for ten years in a row, and 1.7 million companies filed to do business in the state.

Austin has become the new Silicon Valley and Texas surpassed California in 2012 for the first time ever to become the nation's largest high-tech exporting state.

Houston is a medical mecca — its Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world — and the state is top ranked for employing biotech-related scientists and doctorate holders.

Dallas is a global transportation hub, and the state is home to the headquarters of two international airlines and two of the world's busiest airports.

And I think Grapevine, Texas, our home, is the Christmas capital of Texas. It is certainly the wine capital with six wineries and/or wine-tasting rooms on four city blocks of Main Street.

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Jamestown $3 Billion Fertilizer Plant On Hold

Meanwhile, back in North Dakota, that $3 billion fertilizer plant has been put on hold while water issues are worked out. The Grand Forks Herald has the story.

According to a reader: at one time the Spiritwood site in Jamestown, ND,  was going to have  --

• a malting plant- done 
• a power plant- done, but mothballed day one. I don’t know if it operates -- see below
• an ethanol plant- scrapped -- see below
• a large Feed lot- scrapped 

The plan was to have all by-products from one plant, go to the next plant.

Update, July 18, 2015: outstanding news -- another reader tells me that the power plant is up and running (link here); and the ethanol plant came on-line this spring (link here). I will also post a stand-along post here in case other information becomes available.

This article at Prairie Biz Magazine may help explain the "confusion." The plant was completed in 2011 but then sat idle until recently.

The 99-megawatt coal-fired electric generating plant was completed in August 2011. The plant went through a testing and commissioning process and then was shut down because of lack of demand for electricity in Minnesota. The plant has sat idle since.

Construction on the Spiritwood Station generating plant, which is being built near Spiritwood, N.D., began in 2006. The plant cost about $350 million to construct and was intended to produce steam for use at the Cargill Malt plant and electricity for the Minnesota markets.

A huge "thank you" to this reader for providing the update.