Feeling Snarky On A Friday Night -- September 14, 2018

Florence: Almost immediately the storm of the century, the one the Washington Post said was caused by President Trump, after hitting landfall, downgraded to a tropical storm (i.e., a rainstorm). All this hype. It hits the coast at barely category 1, and then immediately to tropical storm.

One big rainstorm: see video. See Hurricane Floyd, 1999.

Blizzards in North Dakota are routinely worse. I vividly recall how little national attention was given to the ranchers in South Dakota during a particularly severe blizzard.

Good news for the NFL. One less competitive distraction this weekend.

[Later, playing politics or television ratings with Florence:

Florence may not have been a Category 4 to start with. Some AGW weather and climate “scientists” are reading the wind speed off the top of the clouds. This is notoriously inaccurate. When a hurricane hunter punched through the eyewall with instruments to correctly read wind and pressure, suddenly it was a 3/2 hurricane. When it was just offshore some U.S. weathermen were still calling it a Category 4 when it had dropped to a 2. Until Florence came within range of an aircraft, all you could accurately say is it was big and had a lot of moisture in the clouds. There was nothing really record-breaking in the flooding, either. Weatherman Joe Bastardi easily named off several hurricanes that caused more severe damage in that region.]

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Back to the Bakken

Flaring: I was under the impression that the NDIC was going to stomp on operators this month if they didn't get the flaring issue under control. Flaring worsened, see July, 2018, data, at the "just-released" Director's Cut. And, yet, the state allowed a significant increase in the number of wells to be completed.

Director's Cut: posted. A shout-out to Art Berman and Jane Nielson.

Bismarck Tribune: feeling proud to be from North Dakota. Harold Hamm, et al, keeping North Dakota great.

A trifecta: back in July, 2018, from The Bismarck Tribune.

Another trifecta for July, 2018:

• North Dakota crude oil production: new all-time record: 1.268,366 bopd 
• North Dakota natural gas production: new all-time records -- several months of consecutive, new all-time records
• North Dakota producing wells: a new all-time record

Active rigs:

	9/14/2018	09/14/2017	09/14/2016	09/14/2015	09/14/2014
Active Rigs	65	55	34	68	199

No new permits.

Six producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 32260, 507, Statoil, Enderud 9-4 7TFH, Banks, t8/18; cum --;
• 33388, 165, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Paopao 7-35-26-158N-100W TFH, Dublin, t8/18; cum --
• 33389, 261, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Paopao 6-35-26-158N-100W TFH, Dublin, t8/18; cum --
• 33392, 267, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Paopao 5-35-26-158N-100W TFH, Dublin, t8/18; cum --
• 33386, 239, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Paopao 4-35-26-158N-100W MBH, Dublin, t8/18; cum --
• 33387, 230, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Paopao 3-35-26-158N-100W MBH, Dublin, t8/18; cum --

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Bakken Dilemma:

You have two elephants in the room. How do you deal with them?

• one elephant: flaring is getting worse, not better in North Dakota
• second elephant: if you "enforce" flaring guidelines with current infrastructure constraints, oil income to the state falls; and oil income to royalty owners (voters) falls -- and there's a mid-term election this autumn

So how do you handle the two elephants?

Yup, you guessed it. Form a committee to study the problem.