A Look Back At Top Oil-Producing Counties In The US -- DrillingInfo - Forbes -- September 5, 2016

This is a bit dated; I'm not sure if there is more recent information from non-pay sites. This article in Forbes (linked below) was posted shortly after this post in the blog with the top 15 oil-producing counties in the US.

In this Forbes article, there are two story lines:

• briefly, the "hot" spots for oil and natural gas drilling in the continental US
• a somewhat more in-depth look at Texas counties participating in the Eagle Ford

The Forbes article has a great, great "overview" map. I was unaware that the Niobrara is doing as well as it is, apparently.

***************************

Will The September OPEC Meeting Lead To A New Organization?

Link here. 

The energy ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia, which together produce more than a fifth of the world’s crude, said at the G20 in China that they could limit output in the future, while establishing a “working group” to explore other ways to reduce volatility in markets. Russia is the largest exporter outside the Opec cartel.

“Freezing production is one of the preferred possibilities but it does not have to happen specifically today,” Saudi oil minister Khalid Al Falih said.

Russia was ready to join the producers’ cartel in freezing output in April before Saudi Arabia collapsed the talks at the last minute, refusing to join any deal without the participation of its regional rival Iran.

Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak described Monday’s agreement as “historic” but tensions remained readily apparent.

While Mr Novak said that an output cap was “the most effective instrument” with details of a plan “currently being discussed”, Mr Falih suggested that freezing production may not be necessary.

Mr Novak also said a production deal may not have to include Iran until Tehran’s production had recovered to pre-sanctions levels. Mr Falih said he believed, however, that Iran’s output was already at that level.

One can read between the lines what could be going on here.

Later, 8:08 p.m. Central Time, September 5, 2016: Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia, Russia sign oil pact; may limit output in future. Oil futures up 70 cents, trading at just over $45. Still not nearly enough for Saudi Arabia. The interesting thing: at $45 oil, Russia and US are doing just fine. It is Saudi Arabia and others in OPEC that can't live on $45 oil. Very ironic how things have worked out. 

******************************

A Note For The Granddaughters

My three most recent purchases for recreational reading:

• Cistercian Abbeys: History and Architecture, Jean-Francois Leroux-Dhuys, c. 1998, a coffee-table book
• How To Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea, Tristan Gooley, c. 2016
• Dinosaurs: The Grand Tour, Keiron Pim, field notes by Jack Horner, c. 2013, 2016

It is interesting how things work out. All the time I spent reading about dinosaurs while growing up often came back to me, thinking that it was all a waste of time. They had died out -- but a footnote -- although a huge footnote -- in geologic history.

But two huge surprises: 1) much of what we know about dinosaurs came from my backyard, the Hell Creek Fossil Beds in eastern Montana and to fields in southwestern North Dakota; and, 2) hey, the dinosaurs never died out. The non-avian dinosaurs may have died out, but the birds are doing just fine, thank you.

With regard to How To Read Water: it all has to do with our older son-in-law's love of the sea; and our oldest granddaughter's desire to be a marine biologist some day, although her interests are evolving.

And finally, what a huge surprise. While visiting the Kimbell Museum last week, I happened to come across Leroux-Dhuys' Cistercian Abbeys coffee-table book.

From the book:

The Cistercians' Carta Caritatis is, even today, a model of organization. Its innovation lies in the proposal for a system that preserves the independence of each participant in the whole within an interdependence that guarantees the respect of a centralized "general line." The Constitution eliminated the rigidity and inefficiencies of the essentially feudal pyramidal system that was usual in medieval religious Orders, and particularly that of the Cluniacs.

The cult of the Virgin Mary:

Bernard of Clairvaux was well aware that he lived in a time that was marked by the emergence of a new sensibility based on the discovery of profane love, and, in particular, that of women....a number of theologians saw this as nothing but the sin that leads to Hell... Bernard took a page out of the troubadours' book.

He placed love at the heart of his mystical theology, and sublimated it into devotion to the Virgin, queen of Heaven. The Cistercians kept women out of their monasteries, but all the abbeys were placed under the protection of Our Lady, and the Salve Regina (the antiphon of Le Puy) became, under the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux, the last devotion of each day in all Cistercian communities.

Warming to his fantastic talent for writing, Bernard of Clairvaux, the "honey-tongued Doctor," developed endless elaborations on the theme of the love of God and of his Church in the extraordinary series of 86 sermons on the Song of Solomon. 

The Salve Regina can be easily found on YouTube.

I spent many, many hours and days and weeks hiking Yorkshire County in northern England. There were days when I would lay (lie) on the green grass surrounding perhaps the most famous Cistercian Abbey in England, Fountains Abbey, and walk on the yellow grass along the small creek that ran alongside it. The creek had a name, I assume. Ah, yes, ---  there over at google maps: the River Skell. A river, not a creek.

From Norah Jones:

I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come away with me.

Come Away With Me, Norah Jones