The Fracn8r -- The Williston Herald -- May 4, 2017 -- Maybe Top Local Story Of The Week

A nice human interest story on the "Fracn8r. In case the link is broken:

• Monte Besler
• high school classmate: Lynn Helms
• Halliburton employee
• recently recognized by Williston Basin Section Society of Petroleum Engineers with a Lifetime Service Award for his work in the are
• his second award from his peers; the first: from the Williston Basin Chapter of the American Petroleum Institute -- the latter created an individual award in that category after Besler tied with Continental Resources (CLR) for its Outstanding Achievement Award -- he, in turn, presented the award to to Kathleen Neset -- who is founder and CEO of a consulting business in Tioga
• Besler has a degree from SD School of Mines and Technology; the degree led him to his first job in Dickinson; and that job led him to the Williston Basin
• stayed with Halliburton through 1998
• then moved to Hess (1998)
• now, his own consulting firm

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A Note To The Granddaughters

I love these stories -- the one up above about Monte Besler. I have never met him, but I feel I "know" him. It seems in every profession, in every walk of life, you will find one individual at any given time that makes all the difference in the world.

Decades ago, while serving in the USAF at Grand Forks AFB, ND, my job required me to be on call 24/7 for weeks at a time. I was often called into work for "an emergency" at 3:00 a.m. I always hated that ... but invariably there was another individual already there, who had been there hours before I was .... and he loved his job, and he had no problem being called in to work at all hours of day or night ... and he was always there with a huge smile ... and as soon as I walked in at 3:00 a.m.... from the -40 degrees in North Dakota winter -- I felt right at home, happy to have been called to come in.  As soon as I saw him, I knew things would go well.

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Another Note To The Granddaughters

You will never listen to these songs; that's fine. But when I'm long gone maybe you will come back to this clip to know what I loved.

Top Ten Country Western Songs   I agree with one who commented: if you want to do a top ten country western song list, you won't succeed unless you do a top 500.  I can't disagree with #1 but I could easily come up with another 100 that could also be #1.

Meanwhile, the queen of country pop, is Shania Twain. Canadian; top selling album of all time. I remember an incredible evening with an Air Force singer serenading the wing commander with "That Don't Impress Me Much."  An enlisted female singer serenading a senior male officer and all of us loving it.

Top Ten Country Female Singers

Some Activity Reported In The Bakken -- May 4, 2017

Active rigs:

	5/4/2017	05/04/2016	05/04/2015	05/04/2014	05/04/2013
Active Rigs	50	28	84	185	192

Five new permits:

• Operator: Oasis
• Field: Alkali Creek (Mountrail)
  Comments: Oasis has permits for a new 5-well Spratley pad in SESE 13-154-94, Alkali Creek. I follow the Spratley wells here.

Ten permits renewed:

• EOG (4): four Austin permits in Mountrail County 
• Lime Rock Resources III-A (2): two Robert Sadowsky permits in Dunn County
• Hunt (2): one Weflin permit and one Austin permit, both in Mountrail County
• CLR: a Jersey Federal permit Mountrail County
• Petro-Hunt: a USA permit in McKenzie County

Two producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 30293, 967, EOG, Fertile 79-0905H,
• 30314, 552, EOG Fertile 80-0905H,

Dry hole:

• 29880, dry, WPX, Etstatis 32-29HX,

With WTI At $45, One Wonders If Saudi Has Made Another Trillion-Dollar Mistake -- May 4, 2017

We now have proof (which most of us suspected) that Saudi may have cut production but they more than made up for their cut in production by exporting oil in their storage -- my hunch is that Saudi was literally running out of storage and thought it clever to agree to a cut (which was pretty minimal to begin with) and then make up for the production cut by exporting oil out of storage.

By the way, speaking of Saudi Arabia, we now learn that the Saudi "government" will control the business operations of the Aramco IPO. It might not have been stated as such but however it's phrased, the result is the same. In the big scheme of things it probably doesn't matter but just the same ....

Idle chatter.

Shortly after posting the above, which was really posted for no reason at all, this blurb popped up over at CNBC: Plunging oil prices show OPEC has lost its grip on the market.

Compliance to the cuts "is as good as it's going to get for them, and it's still not working," said one trader.

The trader has it all wrong:

• the cuts were minimal to begin with;
• the actual production data is known only to the Saudis themselves; we have no idea if they have cut production; our data is based on their reports;
• it was shown that Saudi is exporting more oil to the US than before the announced cuts (32% more, in fact)
• it is now known that the Saudis more than made up for any cut in production by releasing oil from overflowing oil storage depots

For Saudi, truly, another trillion-dollar mistake.

That Saudi oil cut? It was only make believe:

It's Only Make Believe, Conway Twitty
I tried finding someone else doing a cover of this song, but only Conway Twitty can do it. It was his first million-sales album. 

Fracking Solutions In The Bakken -- May 4, 2017

Completion solutions in the Bakken (to be compared with recent stories on amount of proppant being used to complete Permian wells); generally does not include DUCs.

Fifth column is number of stages; sixth column is amount of proppant in millions of pounds.

Mar 4, 2017	32874	Newfield	1	51	7.6	Sand Creek
Mar 4, 2017	31161	HRC	1	33	4.9	McGregory Buttes
Mar 5, 2017	31570	Whiting	1	44	9.2	Bell
Mar 5, 2017	31187	Enerplus				Heart Butte
Mar 6, 2017	32463	SM Energy				Ambrose
Mar 6, 2017	32327	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 6, 2017	31948	Whiting	1	44	9.2	Bell
Mar 6, 2017	31712	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 6, 2017	29790	Enerplus				Heart Butte
Mar 6, 2017	25407	QEP				Heart Butte
Mar 7, 2017	31704	Whiting				Twin Valley
Mar 7, 2017	25408	QEP				Heart Butte
Mar 7, 2017	32264	Whiting	1	35	7.3	Poe
Mar 8, 2017	25409	QEP				Heart Butte
Mar 8, 2017	27596	Petro-Hunt	1	50	4.8	Llittle Knife
Mar 8, 2017	31708	Whiting	1	35	6.9	Twin Valley
Mar 8, 2017	32119	EOG				Parshall
Mar 8, 2017	32457	Hess				Blue Buttes
Mar 8, 2017	32462	SM Energy				Ambrose
Mar 13, 2017	30825	WPX	1	41	6.1	Reunion Bay
Mar 13, 2017	30826	WPX	1	40	6.0	Reunion Bay
Mar 13, 2017	32326	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 14, 2017	30828	WPX	1	42	6.1	Reunion Bay
Mar 14, 2017	31707	Whiting	1	35	7.2	Twin Valley
Mar 14, 2017	31710	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 14, 2017	32329	Whiting	1	35	10.0	Twin Valley
Mar 14, 2017	32755	XTO	0			Bear Creek
Mar 15, 2017	32087	QEP	1	49	10.0	Grail
Mar 15, 2017	32105	QEP	1	49	9.6	Grail
Mar 15, 2017	32107	QEP	1	49	10.0	Grail
Mar 15, 2017	32343	QEP	1	49	9.6	Grail
Mar 15, 2017	32344	QEP	1	49	10.0	Grail
Mar 15, 2017	32345	QEP	1	49	9.6	Grail
Mar 17, 2017	31711	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 18, 2017	31715	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 21, 2017	31706	Whiting	1	35	6.7	Twin Valley
Mar 21, 2017	29601	Lime Rock	1	16	2.4	Cabernet
Mar 22, 2017	32328	Whiting	1	35	7.1	Twin Valley
Mar 27, 2017	31705	Whiting	1	35	7.0	Twin Valley
Apr 8, 2017	32560	Whiting	1	35	7.5	Banks
Apr 11, 2017	32562	Whiting	1	35	9.8	Banks
Apr 11, 2017	32559	Whiting	1	35	9.6	Banks
Apr 12, 2017	31112	Whiting	1	50	0.0	Banks
Apr 18, 2017	32833	Whiting	1	35	15.3	Banks
Apr 24, 2017	32401	QEP				Spotted Horn
Apr 24, 2017	32402	QEP	1	54	9.7	Spotted Horn
Apr 24, 2017	32403	QEP				Spotted Horn
Apr 24, 2017	32404	QEP	1	51	9.6	Spotted Horn
Apr 24, 2017	32405	QEP	1	51	10.0	Spotted Horn
Apr 24, 2017	32406	QEP				Spotted Horn
Apr 28, 2017	32580	HRC	1	35	5.1	Four Bears
May 2, 2017	30244	HRC	1	37	5.6	Four Bears
May 2, 2017	31989	Oasis	1	36	4.1	Siverston
May 4, 2017	30243	HRC	1	36	5.5	Four Bears
May 4, 2017	31990	Oasis	1	36	4.1	Siverston
			41	38	7.5