Top Stories Of The Year -- 2018 -- Final Draft

Final draft. Final post within the next couple of days. It was still in "final draft" on May 18, 2019, but did not see any need to edit. So the final draft is the final post: top stories for the year, 2018.

Top stories by month for the year, 2018, are linked here.

The Bakken, 2018. Summary.

Permits in North Dakota, by county, by field, by operator.

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Elevator speech: the stories that dominated the Bakken in 2018:

• the Bakken is back! 
• North Dakota oil production hits new all-time records

Internationally, the big energy stories impacting the Bakken in 2018:

• western Canadian sands remains landlocked

Nationally, the biggest story to affect the oil patch: we still have a pro-oil president in office

National, energy: the natural gas story

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Top Stories Of 2018
By Category

 

Top Story of The Year: the incredible US economy, both on Main Street and Wall Street

Runner-up: US becomes net exporter of crude oil / petroleum products for first time in 75 years; US takes top spot in crude oil production; surpasses Russia, after surpassing Saudi Arabia earlier

The world: Khashoggi; Canada curtails crude oil production;

Most surprising story of 2018: Paris burns;

The most egregious story to come out of the Bakken: ND's "high water mark" land grab

The US: second longest economic expansion in history recorded; on track to become the longest;

North Dakota, energy: natural gas production, flaring records;

North Dakota, energy, runner-up: new Liberty pipeline announced

North Dakota economy:

• Legacy Fund deposits hitting recent highs
• ND taxable sales and purchases, 3Q18;

North Dakota, technology:

Most exciting small non-operator in the Bakken: NOG;

Most exciting micro operator in the Bakken: Kaiser-Francis

Most exciting small operator in the Bakken: Bruin

Most exciting medium operator in the Bakken: Oasis

Most exciting large operator in the Bakken: MRO

Biggest deal: MPC buys Endeavor

Most surprising deal: DNR swaps almost 200,000 acres in the Bakken for about 80,000 acres in the Permian.

Record price per Bakken mineral acre, 2018: NOG buys 10,600 acres for $300 million ($28,000 / acre); PetroShale, $30K/acre;

Bakken operations, rigs: the number of active rigs at a 4-year high
: 

Bakken operations, production: North Dakota crude oil production hits all-time record, July, 2018

Bakken operations, density: operators permitting for double-digit number of wells in 640-acre spacing

Top prediction for 2018: Lynn Helms opines "huge production jump" in autumn of 2018

Biggest story in takeaway capacity: new Liberty pipeline announced

CBR: rumors that LNG by CBR could be the next big railroad story

Pipeline: new Liberty pipeline announced, from the Bakken to Corpus Christi

Fracking: CLR with an 82-stage frack; CLR with a 71-stage frack;

Flaring: NDIC relaxes guidelines; ND sets natural gas production, flaring records;

Natural gas: announcement -- another $3 billion in North Dakota natural gas infrastructure for 2019

Refining: Davis refinery near the park is still on-track;

Investment story of the year: shorting the price of oil;

The "other" Williston Basin formations:

Bakken economy (too many to list): new Williston airport remains on track

Miscellaneous::Bald eagles make astonishing comeback in North Dakota