Notes And Comment -- Early Morning Note -- April 16, 2021

First things first: a huge apology to a reader for my delay in responding to his very insightful e-mail he sent me yesterday. I haven't forgotten. I will get to it today! I promise. That reader is perhaps the most insightful reader I have when it comes to the shale revolution; his experience is in natural gas in the northeast but sometimes I think he understands the Bakken better than I (do). He is certainly more exuberant about the science than even I am. And that's saying a lot.

So much going on today. I thought it was Saturday and was going to sleep in. That's why I'm behind in blogging this morning. 

So much to cover:

• the buzz today: the EV companies, with regard to the market, are doing very, very poorly; "a stunning fall from grace." They must be reading the blog -- I just posted a note on EVs yesterday that "explained" this
• masks and deaths per capita: a reader sent me a  most interesting chart. I will post it later; as soon as he saw the graph, the governor of New Hampshire removed the state's mask mandate -- at least that's what the reader who sent me the graphic suggested;
• ten-year treasury: not trading as "experts" expected
• US markets: on the way to more records; YOLO has morphed to FOMO;
• a BofA "talking head" suggested the US GDP is running at 10% and that rate of growth will continue for quite some time, although maybe not quite that high, and there will be "ankle-biters" that will pull the GDP down. By the way, the huge deficit / debt (whatever) will cut the GDP as much as 0.8%. Really? Really. 
• Dow and S&P hit another record today. I can't keep up.
• COMCAST: share price target raised. Whoo-hoo! 
• re-iterating: I see no comparison between 1920s and 2020s; the 2021 - 2026 looks a lot more like 1949 - 1965; and, yes, the time-span "discrepancy" is incredibly important to note. Link here.
  

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Back to the Bakken

Director's Cut: production numbers for February -- overnight I just noticed something that no one has yet talked about; see post here.

Slawson is back! What it means for the Bakken. Maybe later. 

Active rigs:

$63.39	4/16/2021	04/16/2020	04/16/2019	04/16/2018	04/16/2017
Active Rigs	17	33	65	59	51

Two wells coming off the confidential list -- Friday, April 16, 2021: 13 for the month, 13 for the quarter, 94 for the year:

• 37795, drl/NC, CLR, Carson Peak 14-35HSL1, Corral Creek, no production data,
• 37230, drl/NC, WPX, Patricia Kelly 2-1HS, Spotted Horn, no production data,

RBN Energy: reducing intentional releases of natural gas spurred by ESG objectives, regulations. Methane bad, natural gas good.

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is the second-most-abundant greenhouse gas tied to human activity after carbon dioxide, and pound-for-pound has 25 times the heat-trapping potential of CO2. We also know that a considerable portion of methane emissions come from the oil and gas industry, not just from leaks but from intentional releases such as “blowdowns,” when operators vent natural gas into the atmosphere to relieve pressure in the pipe and allow maintenance, testing, and other work to take place. 

Sure, it would be better for the environment and most everybody involved if there was a way to capture natural gas instead of releasing it. (Spoiler alert: there is.) But what are the incentives for producers, pipeline owners, or local distribution companies invest in a solution? Today, we consider what midstreamers, transmission operators, and LDCs can do to minimize blowdowns.