NDIC Hearing Docket Agenda For May, 2017

The NDIC hearing docket agenda for May, 2017, has been posted.

Highlights

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 (five pages)

• 25805, BR, Pershing and/or North Fork-Bakken; i) terminate a 2560-acre unit; ii) allow up to 9 horizontal wells on a 1280-acre unit; iii) establish a new 2560-acre unit, 18 wells on that unit; McKenzie County
• 25810, MRO, Reunion Bay-Bakken; i) 10 wells on a 1280-acre unit; ii) 8 wells on a  1280-acre unit; iii) reduce the setback; Dunn, Mountrail counties

Wednesday Supplement, May 24, 2017 (two cases, both involving Whiting)

Thursday, May 25, 2017 (seven pages)

• 25832, Enerplus, Mandaree-Bakken; i) 4 wells on each of four existing 320-acre unit; ii) 9 wells on each of three 640-acre units; iii) 11 wells on each of six 1280-acre units; McKenzie, Dunn counties
•  25833, Enerplus, McGregory Buttes-Bakken; i) 4 wells on each of five existing 320-acre units; ii) 9 wells on each of three 640-acre units; and, 11 wells on each of eight 1280-acre units; Dunn County
• 25834, Slawson, Big Bend-Bakken; 7 wells on each of two 640-acre units; Mountrail County

Thursday, May 25, 2017 (supplement)

• 25839: exception to the rules for a single well, #33232, Vardon 2-14H, Siverston field

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

Full Agenda Summary

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 (five pages)

• 25798, NDIC, regarding HRC file #30269, Eagle Nest-Bakken, Dunn County
• 25799, Oasis, Trenton-Bakken; proper spacing, McKenzie, Williams counties
• 25800, Kraken Oil, Oliver and/or Rainbow-Bakken; establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; 1 well; Williams County
• 25801, Kraken Oil, Oliver and/or Ray-Bakken; establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; 1 well; Williams County
• 25802, Kraken Oil, Oliver-Bakken; establish three overlapping 2560-acre units; 1 well on each; Williams County
• 25803, Kraken Oil, Lone Tree Lake and/or Oliver-Bakken; establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; 1 well; Williams County
• 25804, Kraken Oil, Lone Tree Lake-Bakken; establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit; 1 well; Williams County
• 25805, BR, Pershing and/or North Fork-Bakken; i) terminate a 2560-acre unit; ii) allow up to 9 horizontal wells on a 1280-acre unit; iii) establish a new 2560-acre unit, 18 wells on that unit; McKenzie County
• 25806, Hess, Little Knife and/or Lost Bridge-Bakken; amend; establish two overlapping 2560-acre units; one well on each, Dunn County
• 25807, Whiting, Lonesome-Duperow pool; establish a zone of 320-acre spacing; one vertical well; McKenzie
• 25808, Whiting, Sioux-Red River pool; to re-establish spacing and to establish two 320-acre units or alternatively establishing two 320-acre drilling units; one well each; McKenzie
• 25809, Whiting, Sioux-Duperow pool; establish a zone of 320-acre spacing; one well; McKenzie
• 25810, MRO, Reunion Bay-Bakken; i) 10 wells on a 1280-acre unit; ii) 8 wells on a  1280-acre unit; iii) reduce the setback; Dunn, Mountrail counties
• 25811, BR, pooling
• 25812, BR, pooling
• 25813, Hess, pooling
• 25814, Hess, pooling
• 25815, Whiting, Lonesome-Red River pool, 2 vertical wells on 320-acre spacing unit, McKenzie
• 25816, MRO, pooling
• 25817, MRO, commingling
• 25818, Petro Harvester; PTL2 SWD 1, Burke County

Wednesday Supplement, May 24, 2017 (two cases, both involving Whiting)

• 25837, Whiting, Lonesome-Duperow pool, establish a zone of 320-acre spacing; 1 well; McKenzie
• 25838, Whiting, Sioux-Red River pool, establish two 320-acre spacing units, or alternatively establish two 320-acre drilling units; 1 vertical well; McKenzie

Thursday, May 25, 2017 (seven pages)

• 25819, Mountain Divide, et al, Big Dipper-Bakken; proper spacing, Divide
• 25820, Resource Energy Can-Am LLC, Flat Lake East-Bakken, proper spacing, Divide
• 25821, Resource Energy Can-Am LLC, Skjermo-Bakken, proper spacing, Divide
• 25822, EOG, Antelope-Sanish, establish an overlapping 640-acre unit; 1 well; McKenzie
• 25823, EOG, Painted Woods-Bakken, establish an overlapping 2560-acre unit;1 well; Williams 
• 25824, Trendwell Energy Corp, Short Creek-Madison pool; establish an 800-acre spacing unit; 1 wells; Burke
• 25825, Enerplus, McGregory Buttes-Bakken, establish an overlapping 640-acre; 1 well, Dunn 
• 25826, EOG, pooling
• 25827, EOG, commingling
• 25858, EOG, commingling
• 25829, EOG, commingling
• 25830, EOG, commingling
• 25831, EOG, commingling
• 25832, Enerplus, Mandaree-Bakken; i) 4 wells on each of four existing 320-acre unit; ii) 9 wells on each of three 640-acre units; iii) 11 wells on each of six 1280-acre units; McKenzie, Dunn counties
• 25833, Enerplus, McGregory Buttes-Bakken; i) 4 wells on each of five existing 320-acre units; ii) 9 wells on each of three 640-acre units; and, 11 wells on each of eight 1280-acre units; Dunn County
• 25834, Slawson, Big Bend-Bakken; 7 wells on each of two 640-acre units; Mountrail County
• 25835, CLR, commingling
• 25836, CLR, commingling

The Trump Daily Note

The Second 100 Days
 The First 30 Days (Days 101 - 130)

The Trump Presidency
The Third 30 days +10

The Second 30 Days 
The First 30 Days

Between Election And Inauguration
The Third 10 Days

The Second 30 Days

The First 30 Days

May 30, 2017, T+130:  Kathy Griffin and her attempt at freedom of speech falls flat.

May 29, 2017, T+129: Spielberg's Transformers movie is much better than I ever expected. The first movie. Yes, I'm about a decade behind watching movies.

May 28, 2017, T+128: Coca-Cola 600 a real dud.

May 27, 2017, T+127: Press sheds alligator tears of Sean Spicer -- not part of Trump entourage that met the Pope.

May 26, 2017, T+126: European segment not so much.

May 25, 2017, T+125: Saudi Arabia trip huge success.

May 24, 2017, T+124: Trump's approval rating pops to 48%. 

May 23, 2017, T+123: now it appears that the appointment of Robert Mueller could be an "ethics violation." LOL. Manchester: CBS News confirmed Tuesday that the man who blew himself up the previous night at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was 23-year-old Salman Abedi, who was known to British authorities prior to the attack.

May 22, 2017, T+122: if nothing else, President Trump has found a way to appoint new government agency heads and directors: fire the incumbent. Firing James Comey, regardless of how this all plays out, allows Trump to appoint a new FBI director, a 10-year appointment, though only one appointee since J Edgar Hoover has actually served a full 10-year term. On another note, President Trump is the first acting president of the US to visit the West Wall.

May 21, 2017, T+121: a win-win. Either President Trump survives, or we go to Plan B, President Pence. LOL. Did the Dems just shoot themselves in their collective foot? It looks like ObamaCare will survive. LOL. Are Reince Priebus' days numbered; leaving early from Trump's Mideast tour. 

May 20, 2017, T+120: ObamaCare will die this year. GOP won't have to repeal it. GOP simply needs to let health insurance sector return to status quo ante.

May 19, 2017, T+119: Washington Post -- Trump -- one "secret" (wink, wink) released to Russians; major news story. Comey: Hillary passed "hundreds of thousands" of classified e-mail to Anthony Weiner via Huma. Ho-hum. LOL.

May 18, 2017, T+118: I get a kick out of snowflakes, cupcakes, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times commiserating over President Trump. They can say what they want, but:

• we're saying President Trump, not President Clinton;
• Dow 30, Nasdaq, S&P 500 have all hit new record highs, multiple times;
• he's already appointed (and US Senate confirmed) one Supreme Court justice -- US Senate stonewalled Obama on his nominee for almost a year;
• he's fired the FBI Director (only once before has that been done) and will now be appointing a new FBI director; and,
• this is all in the first six months.

May 17, 2017, T+117: those tapes? Ask NSA. Ask the FBI. Trump wasn't talking about any WH tapes. LOL. "Special counsel" appointed to do the "Russian" investigation. About time. Trump shoudl have done that "day 1."

May 16, 2017, T+116:  Incredibly good editorial; too bad most won't read it. Stephen Colbert certainly won't read it. Nor Bill Maher. I will archive it.

May 15, 2017, T+115: Trump needs to cancel the daily press briefing. This is making it too easy for his enemies and the mainstream media. The daily press briefing at mid-day simply becomes the top news stories and soundbites for the network evening shows. Trump does a much, much better job of getting his message out. Spicer and Huckabee are simply screwing things up.

May 14, 2017, T+114: while the NSA is looking for non-existent evidence for any collusion between the Trump campaign and Putin, malware/ransomware pretty much shuts down Great Britain's National Health Service and cripples computers worldwide. And where did the malware come from?

Cybersecurity experts said the malicious software works by exploiting a flaw in Microsoft software that was described in NSA documents stolen from the agency and leaked publicly in April by a criminal group called Shadow Brokers.

May 13, 2017, T+113: again, journalists don't "get" Trump's irony, sarcasm, dry humor. The press is now asking about "tapes" in the White House when in fact Trump was making a reference to what "others" were gathering on him: the Russians, the NSA, the FBI, etc.

May 12, 2017, T+112: amazing. The alt-left has compiled a list of people visiting Trump in the White House: mostly male, mostly Republian, mostly rich. Obama's list: mostly male, mostly Democrats, mostly rich. I can't make this stuff up.

May 11, 2017, T+111: of 100 folks talking to President Trump about leaving / staying (Paris climate accords), 99 are corporate CEOs and are advising Trump to leave the Paris climate accords. One advisor, his daughter Ivanka, is advising him to stay. So, who do you think he will listen to? LOL. Yup, Ivanka has won this one.

May 10, 2017, T+110: Munger/Buffett are disingenuous -- suggesting tax cuts will benefit the rich like them. They don't mention that 50% of Americans do not pay federal income taxes. Not quite sure how tax cuts could help those who don't pay taxes (yes, I do, but you get the point).

May 9, 2017, T+109: not being report -- "Flynn" was given his top security clearance by the Obama administration, not Trump. [Wow, doesn't this beat all? Trump just fired FBI director James Comey. When Comey heard the news, he thought it as a "prank."

May 8, 2017, T+108: Taking another shot at Trump and his tweeting habits, Barbara Streisand quipped: "Usually when a man that age is up at 4 a.m., he forgot to take his Flomax," referring to a medication to treat the prostate. Had Donald Trump made a similar comment about women, he would have been skewered. But Barbara is what she is. A hypocritical princess surrounded by a wall. Has anyone on the left actually read Trump's tweets, the modern version of FDR's fireside chats. Wow. 

May 7, 2017, T+107: the press is concerned about the taxpayers' expense for President Trump working at his summer White House in New Jersey; the same press was never worried about the Obama trips to Hawaii. Cognitive dissonance.

May 6, 2017, T+106: it's okay for Barack Obama to meddle in the French election but not for other countries to meddle in the US election. One wonders how much Mr Obama (or his foundation -- wink, wink) was paid for the televised commercial.

May 5, 2017, T+105: Hillary blames her presidential loss on Comey. She's blaming the wrong person. it turns out Comey decided to go public with his ongoing investigation after Hillary's husband met the US attorney general on the tarmac at some airport.

May 4, 2017, T+104: US House passes "repeal and replace ObamaCare. After James Comey's testimony it is clear that in American all people are equal; but some people are more equal than others. Comey is prosecutor, defense attorney, jury, and judge. He had more than enough information on Hillary to indict her and chose to say that she was incredibly negligent, but did not have criminal intent. Wow.

May 3, 2017, T+103: NOKO.

May 2, 2017, T+102: the most fun I have is reading back issues of The New Yorker; The New York Review of Books; and, London Review of Books that came out during the first two or three months after Trump was elected president.

May 1, 2017, T+101: May Day riots and fires in Portland, Oregon. Is it just me or has the press finally quit talking about Russia and the 2016 election?

Another Meager Daily Activity Report -- May 1, 2017

Active rigs:

	5/1/2017	05/01/2016	05/01/2015	05/01/2014	05/01/2013
Active Rigs	49	29	86	187	189

No new permits.

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 29832, 1,362, EOG, Fertile 72-0905H, Parshall,
• 30385, 1,088, EOG, Fertile 67-0410H, Parshall,
• 32992, 215, Petro Harvester, PTL1 32-29 165-91 B, Portal oil field, a Madison well;

Apple Earnings To Be Reported Tuesday -- May 1, 2017

Update: Apple has a quarter-trillion dollars in cash. More cash than Canada and UK combined. 

Update: AAPL now pays out more in dividends that US Steel is worth.

Update: earnings 1Q17

• headline: Apple iPhone sales disappoint
• a beat on earnings, but a miss on sales
• EPS: $2.10 vs $2.02 forecast (huge)
• revenue: $52.9 billion vs $53.02 forecast (hardly a miss)
• iPhone sales: 50.8 million (vs 52 million forecast) -- hardly a miss
• average selling price: $655 vs $666 forecast
• shares down 1.5%
• guidance: $43.5 - $45.5 vs $45.7
• raised dividend 10.5% to $0.63/share
• boosted share buyback authorization to $210 billion
• will return $300 billion to shareholders by March, 2019
• shares outstanding: 5.25 billion 
• $300 / 5.25 = almost $60/share 
• iPhone sales down 1% from same quarter last year
• iPad sales fell 13% to 8.9 million units
• Mac sales rose 4% to 4.2 million units
• services businesses up 18% against last year, $7.04 billion
• other businesses (includes Apple Watch) up 31% against last year, to $2.87 billion 
• hit record cap of $775 billion before dropping back about 1.5% after earnings released 
• Alphabet (Google): $647 billion
• Microsoft: $536 billion
• Amazong: $452 billion

Original Post

Data points:

• US population: 330 million
• one-fourth of the American public -- one out of every four Americans -- acquired an iPhone during the holiday period in 1Q17 -- not during the quarter, but during the holiday period (at least that's what was said at the linked article)
• Apple sold 78.3 million iPhones during the 1Q17 holiday season
• average selling price of each iPhone: $695 (Wall Street forecast: $688)
• Apple's 2nd quarter is generally among its weakest (for obvious reasons)
• 20 - 30% of consumers prefer a more expensive iPhone model to a less expensive iPhone model
• Apple earnings to be reported Tuesday
• forecast: 52 million sold iPhones, an increase of 1 million iPhones from same quarter one year ago
• forecast: 33% of consumers will have preferred a more expensive iPhone model rather than a less expensive iPhone model

So, we'll see.

So,

• if during their best quarter: 80 million phones
• the worst quarter: 50 million phones
• splitting the difference, 65 million phones in each of the two other quarters
• total: 260 iPhones sold in one year
• one has to assume, not every Apple iPhone user bought a new iPhone in 2016

Well, you can do the math.

I don't own a smart phone. Never have. Never will. I probably shouldn't say "never."

But in our older daughter's family, the only member who doesn't have an iPhone is Sophia; she will turn three years old this summer. My wife has an iPhone. The only holdouts, it appears: our older daughter out in Portland, and, me.

Pembina Pipeline To Buy Veresen Inc -- North Dakota Story -- May 1, 2017

If one does a "Pembina Pipeline" search on the blog, one finds many, many posts mentioning Pembina Pipeline. It is a big player in the Bakken.

Let's begin with this post, though, from November 8, 2013: the ten fastest growing energy companies in North America:

• Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp - Canada
• Pembina Pipeline Corp - Canada
• HollyFrontier Corp - Texas
• CLR - Oklahoma
• Concho Resources - Texas
• Energy Transfer Equity, LP - Texas
• EOG Resources, Inc - Texas
• Denbury Resources Inc - Texas
• Crescent Point Energy Corp - Canada
• Buckeye Partners, LP - Texas

Pembina Pipeline is a huge transporter of ethane from the Bakken, specifically from Tioga, to western Canadian oil sands where it is used as a diluent to transport heavy oil sands crude oil. Doing a blog search for Pembina Pipeline will provide quite a bit of information.

I say all that because a reader sent me this link: Pembina Pipeline is buying smaller rival Veresen Inc for almost $10 billion, including debt, giving Pembina access to natural gas pipelines and processing infrastructure. The combined company will have a strong position in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, home to the world’s third largest crude reserves.

This deal follows two other recent huge deals in the pipeline sector:

• Enbridge buys Spectra, previously blogged, for almost $30 billion
• TransCanada buys Columbia Pipeline Group, for about $10 billion

Veresen's network stretches across Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and North Dakota. In addition, Veresen has a 680-mile natural gas pipeline extending from Wyoming to Oregon, and owns the Albert Ethane Gathering System.

There are several story lines here.

Much more at the link.

It is interesting that Enbridge did not make the top-10 list in 2013.

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

Word For The Day: Tsundoku

The Japanese have a word for one who collects too many books: 

The desire to buy more books than you can physically read in one human lifetime is actually so universal, there’s a specific word for it: tsundoku. Defined as the stockpiling of books that will never be consumed, the term is a Japanese portmanteau of sorts, combining the words “tsunde” (meaning “to stack things”), “oku” (meaning “to leave for a while”) and “doku” (meaning “to read”).

One wonders if "tsunami" and "tsundou" have the same root word, or similar etymology. I know that being crushed under my bookcases, should they fall, would be similar to being crushed by a tsunami. 

Top Producers In North Dakota; Top Producing Wells In North Dakota -- Drilling Edge -- May 1, 2017

Dynamic link here.

Top North Dakota oil producers alphabetical at source:

Top North Dakota oil producers by production:

Operator	December 2016
Whiting	3,637,531
CLR	2,818,120
Hess	2,487,533
XTO	1,823,113
Oasis	1,650,165
EOG	1,613,221
BR	1,525,064
QEP	1,404,148
Marathon	1,358,676
Statoil	1,212,170
WPX	1,019,381
HRC	961,870
SM Energy	767,260
Petro-Hunt	643,251
Newfield	559,690
Enerplus	549,603
Slawson	541,957
Lime Rock Resources	408,995
Zavanna	358,909
Denbury	296,309

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

Top producing wells in North Dakota, alphabetical at source:

Top producing wells in North Dakota, monthly production:

Operator	Well	February 2017
QEP	Tipi V	34,237
Oasis	Rolfson N	31,407
Whiting	Rolla Federal	30,960
CLR	Charolais	29,471
QEP	Tipi V	27,356
Oasis	Rolfson N	24,666
Oasis	Rolfson N	23,880
Oasis	Johnsrud	23,509
Whiting	Rolla Federal	18,433
Whiting	Rolla Federal	18,307
Whiting	Flatland	18,082
Whiting	Rolla Federal	16,281
Whiting	Rolla Federal	15,510
Whiting	Rolla Federal	15,510
Whiting	Chameleon	15,058
WPX	Helena	13,763
WPX	Helena	12,627
Whiting	Flatland	10,921
WPX	Wells	2,844
CLR	Holstein	1,692

Top producing wells in North Dakota, alphabetical by producer:

Operator	Well	February 2017
WPX	Helena	13,763
WPX	Helena	12,627
WPX	Wells	2,844
Whiting	Rolla Federal	30,960
Whiting	Rolla Federal	18,433
Whiting	Rolla Federal	18,307
Whiting	Flatland	18,082
Whiting	Rolla Federal	16,281
Whiting	Rolla Federal	15,510
Whiting	Rolla Federal	15,510
Whiting	Chameleon	15,058
Whiting	Flatland	10,921
QEP	Tipi V	34,237
QEP	Tipi V	27,356
Oasis	Rolfson N	31,407
Oasis	Rolfson N	24,666
Oasis	Rolfson N	23,880
Oasis	Johnsrud	23,509
CLR	Charolais	29,471
CLR	Holstein	1,692