Arctic Blast? What Arctic Blast? Active Rigs Increase By One -- January 3, 2018; Seven New Permits

Active rigs:

$61.83↑	1/3/2018	01/03/2017	01/03/2016	01/03/2015	01/03/2014
Active Rigs	53	39	60	171	185

Seven new permits:

• Operators: Whiting (6): EOG
• Fields: Lonesome  (McKenzie); Stockyard Creek (Williams); Epping (Williams); Clarks Creek (McKenzie)
• Comments: Whiting has permits for a 5-well pad on Lot 1, section 3-154-99; will be on/near the P Earl Rennerfeldt pad (#26029; #26031; et al); the P Earl Rennerfeldt wells are followed here; EOG has a permit on/near 3-well pad with #20890, #20891, and #20892 (nice wells, but not great wells).

Two permits renewed:

• Resource Energy Can-Am (2): a Kimberly permit and a Rebecca permit, both in Divide County

Two permits cancelled:

• XTO (2): two Cole permits in McKenzie County

Most interesting from today's daily activity report: a name change --

• 32496, loc , QEP, Tipi V V 4-13-12TH is the new name; old name: Tipi V 1-13-12T2H; apparently has decided to drill a middle Bakken well at this location and not a Three Forks second bench well; Spotted Horn

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North Dakota Trivia

I'm not going to explain how I got to this one, but a reader sent me this little bit of trivia:

Chief Justice Gerald W. VandeWalle is the longest-serving chief justice in state history and the oldest state chief justice in the nation.

"They refer to me as the 'dean' (of chief justices). That's a euphemism for 'old,'" he said.

"Jerry," as he prefers to be called outside the courtroom, is a native of Noonan and a University of North Dakota graduate. He was appointed to the Supreme Court on Aug. 15, 1978, by former Gov. Arthur Link. He's been elected three times and selected chief justice by his colleagues four times since 1993.

From his bio:

On August 15, 1978, he was appointed to the Supreme Court. In November 1978 he was elected to serve an unexpired term, and was reelected to ten-year terms in 1984, 1994, 2004 and 2014. From July 1985 to July 1987, he served as the first chair of the North Dakota Judicial Conference.

Justice VandeWalle was elected Chief Justice effective January l, 1993; and reelected to successive five-year terms as Chief Justice effective 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015.

He remains on the Court as Chief Justice, having served 39 years, 4 months, and 20 days as of January 3, 2018.

Thirty-nine years is not excessive. Most 30-year-career military men who are forced to retire after 30 years of service are but 54 years of age and at the peak of their professional productivity. Can one imagine if Warren Buffett had been forced into retirement at age 54? Or Donald Trump? Or Ronald Reagan?

In this case, I assume, VandeWalle succeeded Ralph J. Erickstad. I served alongside his son, John Erickstad, in the USAF back in 1980 or thereabouts, assigned to Grand Forks AFB.