No New Permits -- June 29, 2016; Pioneer To Add Rigs In The Permian; Texas Oil And Gas Companies "Starting To Turn The Corner"

Gasoline demand, for the week ending 6/24/16: 9.709 million bopd; compared to a year ago of 9.731. Hmmmm. However, the four-week average, recent: 9.714 million bopd compared to 9.541 a year ago.

Active rigs:

	6/29/2016	06/29/2015	06/29/2014	06/29/2013	06/29/2012
Active Rigs	30	77	191	189	215

Wells coming off confidential list Thursday:

• 30281, SI/NC, BR, Merton 21-15MBH, North Fork, no production data,
• 32003, SI/NC, BR, CCU Zephyr 34-34 TFH, Corral Creek, no production data,

No new permits.

Nine permits renewed --

• Petro-Hunt, LLC (8), eight USA permits in section 1-153-95, McKenzie County
• MRO, one Stark permit in Mountrail County

Marathon canceled three permits: a Rohde, a Litvin, and a Cross permit, all in Dunn County.

Rigs. Some time ago I suggested that when the rig count starts to go up in the Bakken it will be in small increments as small operators bring back their "one" rig; the larger operators can do a lot of drilling with what they have, and they still have a huge backlog of inactive wells and DUCs. there may be exceptions (and I may be completely wrong). Oilprice.com is reporting that Pioneer Natural Resources will increase the number of its rigs from 12 to 17 in the Permian:

Pioneer Natural Resources said in an updated 2016 outlook issued in June that it would increase its horizontal rig count from 12 to 17 rigs in the Permian basin in the second half of the year. Pioneer will add the first rig in September, with plans to follow that up with an additional two rigs in each of October and November. Those rigs will begin drilling and see initial production in early 2017.

Going from 12 to 17 is quite a jump. Pioneer Natural Resources has recently been in the news quite a bit lately. As recently as June 16, 2016, there was a story that PDX paid around $15,000 acre in the Permian.

Also, there's a tweet out today that suggest oil and gas operators in  Texas "are starting to turn the corner."

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Fascinating Article On Atmospheric CO2

From Forbes. 

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A Note For The Granddaughters

For those of you who have a copy of The Sagas of Icelanders (all two of you) with the preface by Jane Smiley and the introduction by Robert Kellogg, you may be interested to know that Nancy Marie Brown has a new book out. These two books arrived today from Amazon:

• Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and The Woman Who Made Them, Nancy Marie Brown, c. 2015
• Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths, Nancy Marie Brown, c. 2012

If one enjoys JRR Tolkien and/or The Lord of the Rings, the Norse myths are quite rewarding.

Today, while talking about these books to our older granddaughter on the way home from sailing camp, "Lara's Theme" (a Dr Zhivago soundtrack/CD) began to play. I mentioned that some songs are so incredible (for lack of a better word) one has trouble imagining that they were actually written by a human. Some songs seem like they have been here forever, and existed prior to humanity, perhaps written by angels.

Arianna mentioned that another song that would fit that category was the basis for a "fan fiction" book (I assume this is the book). The song was "We'll Meet Again," made famous, I guess by Vera Lynn. Arianna has that song on her iPhone playlist and is one of her favorites.

Mine, too. I have trouble not tearing up when I hear it, and thinking of ....

We'll Meet Again, Vera Lynn