Week 45: November 6, 2016 -- November 12, 2016

Without question, the biggest story of the past week was the 7.5 magnitude earthquake felt across the entire US around midnight Central Time, November 8 / 9, 2016. The epicenter was in the center of the rural outback stretching across Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Aftershocks continued to rumble across the US through the end of the week, with some of the aftershocks in Portland, OR; Miami, FL; and Dallas, TX. In Dallas there were reports of broken glass in a single door pane in a Hooters. (I am not making this up: that was the top story on the evening news last night coming out of Dallas -- a single pane of broken glass at a downtown Hooters).

Another rolling trembler was felt in downtown Manhattan over the following three days, manifesting itself with three consecutive all-time records being set on Wall Street.

Bakken 2.0
Twenty-four (24) permits renewed; seven new permits
Number of active rigs creeping up in North Dakota; high 30's
Fascinating -- but esoteric -- look at "depth" of Bakken wells
CLR to report two huge wells; both remain confidential 
 
Operations
Statoil reports a high-IP DUC
NOG reported 3Q16 production
Newfield reported two nice wells
Whiting's Twin Valley Flatland and Tarpon Federal wells updated

Fracking
Update on a re-fracked BR Sun Notch well in Sand Creek

Pipelines
US Army Corps of Engineers re-imagining the DAPL

Bakken Economy
The $500 million fertilizer plant in western North Dakota is at the halfway mark
Another wind farm proposed for Williams County: South Meadows, west of Lindahl Wind Farm
Production gains in Texas, GOM, North Dakota drove the US oil industry in 2015 

Miscellaneous
California county south of San Francisco, along the Pacific Ocean bans fracking
PetroChina expanding receiving capacity at LNG terminals
Saudi cash reserves dwindling at about $7 billion / month
Colonial Pipeline shut down temporarily; East Coast gasoline still 6 cents lower than national average 
Anecdotal evidence that US demand for gasoline and jobs data correlate