From Boom To Bust. Light At The End Of The Tunnel? Whiting Talks $50 Oil -- Sunday, May 1, 2016

From KARE 11, Minneapolis/St Paul: from boom to bust, big changes in Boomtown. Includes a very nice video; I watched the video without the sound, so I can't comment on the story accompanying the video. The best line in the print story:

"We're glad that we're kind of getting our town back," said Williston Mayor Howard Klug.

Klug speaks for Williston natives relieved the chaos of the boom has passed.

He also points to what the city reaped from the boom: a $77 million rec center and $57 million high school set to open this fall. Both are marks of a prospering community.

But really, how bad is it? Williston's sales tax debt took a six-noth downgrade to junk. Bondbuyer.com is reporting. If unable to reach that site, Moody's also provides updates. From March 21, 2016:

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded to Ba3 from Baa2 the rating on Williston, ND's $1.4 million of Moody's-rated sales tax revenue debt. The outlook is negative.

The downgrade to Ba3 reflects the city's weakened credit quality and recent declines in maximum annual debt service coverage resulting from severe declines in sales tax receipts. The rating also incorporates a modestly-sized tax base with economic concentration in the oil industry, annual risk of non-appropriation, and satisfactory legal protections.

And two days ago, Oil and Gas Investor:

Williston, N.D., epicenter of the U.S. fracking boom earlier this decade, had the credit rating on four of its sales tax revenue bonds lowered six notches by Standard & Poor's (S&P) on April 28 amid lower regional production.
"The downgrade reflects our view of the precipitous decline in sales and use tax receipts that the city has reported since oil production peaked in the region in late 2014," said Scott Nees, a credit analyst with S&P.

Argusmedia.com is reporting that Whiting will start "bringing wells online once oil prices touch $50/bbl and stay there for 90 days."

The independent yesterday raised its output guidance on the back of an agreement it signed with an undisclosed private party to share drilling and completion costs.

Volcker said there are more opportunities to sign similar joint venture agreements across its other acreage but a call on how to develop those resources will depend on where oil prices are.

"We will evaluate as oil prices rise whether we want to drill those or whether we want to JV them," he said.

Under the agreement signed on 14 April, the party will pay 65pc of drilling and completion costs for a 50pc working interest in 44 gross Williston basin wells in North Dakota.

Whiting raised its output guidance for the year to 131,400-136,900 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d), without raising its capital expenditures (capex). Back in February when the producer announced a steep cut of 80pc in its 2016 capex from a year earlier to $500mn, it had reduced its output guidance for the year to 128,000-138,000 boe/d. That compared with an output of 163,200 boe/d in 2015.