RockPile Gets Bought Out; Expands -- September 24, 2016

Headline from today's Williston Herald: "Bill promoting tourism in Native American communities on President Obama's desk." Senator Heidi Heitkamp said she expects the bill to be signed soon.

It looks like North Dakota is ahead of the curve already, like it so often is. We have hundreds of visitors from all over the world already at the Standing Rock Reservation, no doubt in anticipation of the bill being signed.

Key officers of the companies involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline will probably not attend the bill-signing ceremony.

By the way, the DAPL developer bought the land being contested north of the Standing Rock Reservation. Another story for another day. Google it. It's worth the read. I drove through that area seven months ago: the land is filled with ravines ("badland") and cannot be farmed. It is mostly brush land and can't support many head of cattle. It's the kind of land that the "white man" gave back to the Native Americans during the 19th century. 

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RockPile Gets Bought Out, Expands

Also from The Williston Herald today:

• Houston-based White Deer Energy buys RockPile
• White Deer: a private equity firm focused on oil and gas
• acquisition puts RockPile in a debt-free situation
• RockPile: 400 employees nationwide with more than half in North Dakota
• RockPile was previously a subsidiary of Triangle Petroleum Corp
• RockPile will expand
• one week after the announcement, RockPile acquired American Well Service, Kenmare, ND
• American Well Service: a workover rig company

The RockPile has been one of my favorite companies to follow. I track it here. Now that it's become part of a private equity firm much less information will be available. But just imagine -- a company that did not exist five years ago now has a "nationwide footprint" with more than 400 employees, more than half in North Dakota. By the way, a company like RockPile then becomes a toehold for an equity firm like White Deer to expand in the Bakken.

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North Dakota Tax Collections Continue To Fall Below Forecast

Also from The Williston Herald today. August tax revenues for the state:
forecast: #139.3 million

• $9.2 million less than forecast
• it does not say when this forecast was made; if made in 2014, that would be quite a difference than a forecast made in early 2016; I assume the forecast was made shortly before the tax revenues were tallied

Week 38: September 18, 2016 -- September 24, 2016

I've been traveling since Tuesday this past week, cross-country, and haven't done much with the blog. This will continue for the next week. Bear with me.

For me, I think the big story was the Lynn Helms update. Three new numbers got my attention. "New" Bakken wells compared with "old" Bakken wells:

• IPs up from 1,100 bopd to 1,500 bopd
• Bakken wells to produce five years longer than "old"Bakken wells (from 30 years to 35 years)
• "new" Bakken wells to have EURs 25% greater than "old" Bakken wells

Internationally, all eyes are on the upcoming OPEC non-meeting. It looks more and more like the Saudis and the Iranians are coming closer together on a deal. They will agree to disagree, and then have a non-meeting to prepare for a meeting to discuss the agenda for a real meeting at which they will make a lot of proclamations, and life will go on. You know, as I write that, OPEC is beginning to "feel" a lot like the Federal Reserve. The analysts "hang on" every word, every rumor, and talking heads (which I never see) all provide their own opinions, saying in three minute interviews that:

• the price of oil might go up (Goldman Sachs on Tuesdays and Fridays)
• the price of oil might go down (Godman Sachs on Monday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays)
• OPEC is irrelevant (Cramer)
• OPEC is relevant but not like "before" (Cramer)
• Saudi Arabia controls the price of oil, but the Bakken is the swing "state" (Pickens)
• the Bakken is dead (everyone)
• oil will be in a trading range of $40 to $50 unless it breaks out to spike, or slumps on bad economic news and goes back to $30 (The MillionDollarWay)

And, meanwhile, we will spend another two to three months talking about whether the Fed will raise rates a quarter of a percent which will impact the market for two weeks, and then be forgotten.

Operations
Richard Zeits' update; and, here

CBR
RBN Energy had a great update on CBR
Statoil with 55 "pooling" cases in Williams County on the agenda for October
BR reported some incredibly nice Veeder wells; more to come

Pipelines
Dakota Access Pipeline issue which I pretty much ignore
Obama approves natural gas pipelines to provide energy for US companies moving to Mexico; kills pipelines that would benefit America's midcontinent
Warren Buffett owns 7th largest natural gas pipeline in the US

Bakken Economy
Air park east of Williston moves forward 
North Dakota's Legacy Fund: $3.6 billion; more than enough to cover law enforcement at Standing Rock

Miscellaneous
Alaska: LNG by rail 
The Encana update
Just how big is the Bakken?

Slowly Getting Back To The Blog -- September 24, 2016

It looks like I missed almost 18 hours of the Bakken. Sorry. And it won't be much better today. Lots of family commitments.

I have a lot of e-mail to catch up on and notes from readers. And then the "top stories" of the week.