Monday, April 18, 2016; UK Oil Industry At The "Edge Of A Chasm"

From the BBC: North Dakota is running on empty --

Daily production was 1.12 million barrels a day in January, says Lynn Helms, director of the state's mineral resources department. That's not far off the all time high of 1.22 million barrels a day in December 2014.  

I'm not sure what the BBC's definition of empty is: 1.12 million bopd with 29 rigs vs 200 rigs in 2014, and another 1,000 wells waiting to be fracked, and another 1,500 wells shut-in vs about 13,000 active wells.

And then this:

While nobody is talking about a return to the days of the gold rush that helped shape America's west, energy companies and workers who remain in North Dakota are betting this slump will end.

The question is, when? And will anyone be left in Williston when it does? 

Well, actually that's not quite true about no one talking about a return to the "gold rush": both Harold Hamm and Lynn Helms are talking about "fast and furious" once again.

But whether we see "fast and furious" again, it's pretty irrelevant to North Dakota. North Dakota will do just fine. A few western counties will struggle, but North Dakota will do just fine. It still bugs me that no one seems to understand that North Dakota has a lot more going for it than the Bakken. North Dakota was thriving before the Bakken and will thrive regardless. North Dakota has 53 counties. About four of them are the core of the Bakken.

Legacy Fund has been updated.

With regard to whether anyone will be in North Dakota if/when a "boom" returns? That question was never asked in 2000, if there would be enough people to manage another boom in North Dakota. I suppose if you work for BBC you really don't understand America or a free market based on an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state (definition of capitalism). In 2000, there was no infrastructure ready to handle the boom; in 2015, the infrastructure is incredible.

Sinclair, hardly active during the entire boom, has just picked up 8 new permits in the past two business days. Eighteen Bakken permits were renewed today. There are 1,500 inactive wells -- they can be put on-line overnight. There are upwards of 1,000 DUCs. Things are so much farther along than they were in 2007 when the boom began, not that many workers needed to get things started again.

But I'm glad to see the BBC folks on top of this. LOL.

Again, the Bakken is four counties in western North Dakota. How's UK's oil and gas industry doing? Ask Oilprice, from a February 24, 2016 article (like two months ago):  UK Oil Industry At The “Edge Of A Chasm”.

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Flooding in Texas

Today, while at the bike shop here in Grapevine, the owner was on the phone talking to his wife. She was "trapped" in Houston -- couldn't get out due to the flooding. I knew it was bad but I didn't know it was this bad. It's the top story over at The Drudge Report: flooding at Biblical proportions. Our oldest granddaughter is scheduled to play a water polo tournament in Houston this weekend: the big question is not whether it will be held, but whether it will be held indoors or outdoors.

Paper Roses, Linda Gail Lewis