Week 21: May 23, 2021 -- May 29, 2021

Top story of the week:

• Joe Biden is still president.
• Brent back to $70 (okay, $69 and change).

Top international non-energy story:

Top international energy story:

• To explore or not explore.
• World "turning against" oil companies.
  

Top national non-energy story:

• PMI hits an all-time high?
• Covid-19 vaccination hesitancy continues to be a problem; and, here.
• Amazon acquires MGM catalogue.

Top national energy story:

• Fourteen percent increase in oil production month-over-month; and, here;
• Gasoline demand has a nice jump, but was it a one-off following the Colonial Pipeline shutdown?
• Cabot (Marcellus) and Cimarex (Permian) merge.

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

Top North Dakota energy story:

• Bakken production forecast to decline this summer.
• Quarterly lease sales reported.
• Record low number of wells coming off confidential list.

Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories:

• Quick connects.
• Watford City airport work underway; runway expansion to be finished October 1, 2021
• $24 million project; 
• replace the existing 4,400' foot runway with a new 5,800' runway
• comparison: 
• Williston International Airport -- 7,510 feet x 150 ft
• Portland, OR (PDX): 11,000 feet x 150 ft
• DFW -- four runways
  
• longest (3): 13,400' long (required by former USAF pilots)
  
• shortest (1): 8,500' long (reserved for former US Navy pilots)
  

Operators:

• EOG with six new Liberty LR permits.
• EOG with first permits in the Bakken this calendar year.
• Whiting to add three Maki wells in the prolific Sanish.
• Slawson with additional permits in Big Bend.
• Scout Energy's Lodgepole Dinsdale just went over four million bbls crude oil cumulative.
• NP Resources to drill in the Bicentennial oil field.
• NP Resources to drill in Beaver Creek oil field.
• CLR proposed up to sixteen wells on one 2560-acre unit.

Operations:

• CLR begins to drill the Long Creek Unit; and, here.
• The May, 2021, dashboards posted.

Advantaged oil:

• Petro-Hunt Charlson well with jump in production for the second time.
• Anticipating a halo effect southwest of Williston.

Fracking:

• DUC inventory dropping.

Pipelines:

• Capline pipeline reversal; DAPL implications? 
• Has the requirement for a "revised" DAPL EIS become moot? 
• North Dakota PSC approves Bridger pipeline.
• Response to the DAPL decision.
• Expansions continue apace.

Refineries:

• Marathon to run Dickinson refinery with wind energy.
  

Natural gas:

• The natural gas conumdrum in the Bakken.

Bakken economy:

• Business is booming in Williston.
• Massive cryptomining solar project proposed for Butte, Montana.

Commentary:

• Oil and gas disrupted by technology but investors and companies still don't "get it."