Hess To Report Two Wells Today Including Another Huge Labar Well -- February 1, 2021

Updates

Later, 8:48 a.m. CT: silver just went over $30. Whoo-hoo. Up almost 12%. Up $3.10/ounce. Trading at $30.015. It's amazing. Folks can take their silver bars and silver coins to the local coin shop, sell everything, and pay no capital gains. No records are ever kept. By the way, gold? Spot price: $1,867.

Original Post

Humor for the day: turned on television early this morning to catch the Monday morning sports shows. First thing: Lions quarterback -- quick, name the quarterback -- is traded to the Los Angeles Rams -- this is the biggest story of the day outside of the "manufactured" Patrick Reed story. Host asks if this means the res to the QB trades are about to begin. Analyst: no. This is not the beginning of QB trades. This was the easiest, the most obvious. LOL. I watching these sames shows all last week, every morning from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00, every morning last week, and not once do I recall anyone mentioning this guy's name, much less a trade from the Lions to the Rams. Another bit of common knowledge known by everyone -- after the fact. Quick: name the "former" Lions quarterback traded to the Rams.

PGA; Nick Faldo showed his true colors over the weekend. He now becomes the PGA story for the rest of the year. 

First note in my e-mail this morning: the party is over in the Bakken. Link to the Financial Times. LOL. The article began with Chesapeake Oil and moved on to Occidental, the poster children for debacles of unprecedented (?) proportions. It was a very, very long article but as soon as I saw the first thirty paragraphs on Chesapeake, and then Occidental I knew it was a re-hash of everything we've read about the shale revolution for the past five years. Or at least since Chesapeake crashed and Occidental blew up. You will hit a paywall, but easy to get around.

More: the oil industry is well known for its history of boom and bust. This is no different. 

More: by the way, except for the investors, "everybody" made money in shale -- and many made huge amounts of money in shale. Except for the investors. So, what's new?

Headlines: scanning the headlines -- wow, a very, very slow day. Oh, that's right. The huge winter storm Orlena in the east. LOL. I just switched over to the weather channel. Talk about another storm that is/was over-hyped. Headline story from the infobabes: slippery sidewalks. Yes, that was the major concern that was breathlessly reported. Today was supposed to be the "big day." Not. Not the "big day" will be Tuesday. There is so little snowfall, most of video is back in the studio with the CGI-generated videos. Slippery sidewalks. 

ISO New England / ISO New York: ISO New England. ISO NY.   

• ISO New England: 5$ coal but otherwise unremarkable. Price spiked to $90/MWh, now leveled off at $75.

• ISONY: OAC's constituents still in the "brown." Paying upwards of $110 for their electricity.

Silver: last night before going to bed, I said the number to watch overnight / today was $30. The number to watch by the end of the week: $35. Well, we hit $30 overnight. Silver up over 10%; up almost $3; trading at $29.805. Link here. 

Millennials laughing at baby boomers. GME.  

Millennials still living in their parents' basements. As for me, I love my 1,140-square foot two-bedroom apartment. I keep forgetting it's over 1,000 square feet. 

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$53.11	2/1/2021	02/01/2020	02/01/2019	02/01/2018	02/01/2017
Active Rigs	13	54	64	58	40

Two wells coming off the confidential list today -- Monday, February 1, 2021: 2 for the month, 35 for the quarter, 35 for the year.

• 37066, conf-->loc/A, Hess, EN-Labar-154-94-1003H-9, Alkali Creek, first production, 8/20; t--; cum 143K 12/20;
• 36243, conf-->loc/NC, BR, Stortroen 1D MBH, Dimmick Lake, no production data,

The new Labar well: see this post.

RBN Energy: the northeast gas market's slow march toward more takeaway constraints, part 2. 

Despite Northeast natural gas producers battling stiff headwinds last year — the lower rig count, sub-$1.50/MMBtu spot prices, lower demand, and price-responsive shut-ins in the shoulder periods — Northeast gas production volumes still managed to hit record highs in 2020, both for daily output as well as on an annual average basis. Regional production flows averaged 32 Bcf/d in 2020, up from 31.3 Bcf/d in 2019, and daily pipeline flow data shows volumes sustained year-on-year gains through January 2021. Today, we continue our series on the Northeast gas market fundamentals, this time with a sharper focus on production trends.