WTI Drops Three Percent; Four New Permits; One Permit Renewed; Two DUCs Reported As Completed-- November 10, 2021

Hershey: on a down day for the market, Hershey was up $3.38 today, closed at $179.56. See next story.

Wow, wow, wow: this is amazing. Dot's Pretzels -- my favorite pretzel. I have been buying them for years. My youngest sister introduced them to me. Amazing. And now Hershey is going to buy Dot's Pretzels for $1.2 billion. Link here. I wonder if Dorothy "Dot' Henke ever appeared on Shark Tank. LOL. Mr Wonderful would have turned her down, saying everybody makes pretzels. He's a real chump. From the linked article:

Hershey is buying North Dakota-based Dot's Pretzels, along with one of its manufacturing partners, for a combined $1.2 billion, the chocolate giant announced Wednesday.

"With a unique range of bold, distinctive seasonings and a flavorful crunch that creates a premium pretzel experience for consumers, Dot's Pretzels stand apart from all other products in the pretzel category," Hershey Co. president and chief executive Michele Buck said in a statement.

The company called Dot's the "fastest-growing U.S. pretzel brand" and said it represented a staggering 55% of the category's growth over the past year.

Dorothy "Dot" Henke founded the company in her home outside outside of Minot, N.D., in 2012. She found early success amid the state's oil boom and its hungry workers before getting picked up by an increasing number of retailers, including Minneapolis-based Target Corp. Henke said it's her secret seasoning recipe that led to her success.

"I created my pretzels to share with those people closest to me and have built the business with the idea of sharing them with everyone," she said in a news release Wednesday. "With Hershey behind this amazing brand, I am confident that anyone who would like to enjoy these deliciously bold pretzels will have the opportunity."

Consumption of savory snacks, like ready-to-eat popcorn, chips and flavored pretzels, has trended upward in recent years, but sales spiked during the pandemic as Americans spent more time in front of screens, according to a recent report from the NPD Group.

Comment: this is a huge story. Pennsylvania is known for its pretzels, and here, North Dakota comes along and beats them at their own game. LOL.

Target: huge promoter of Dot's Pretzels. 

WTI: drops over 3% today; drops almost $3/bbl; closed at $81.34.

**********************************
Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$81.34	11/10/2021	11/10/2020	11/10/2019	11/10/2018	11/10/2017
Active Rigs	32	15	55	66	52

Four new permits, #38645 - #38648, inclusive:

• Operators: Iron Oil Operating (3); Bowline (Nine Point Energy)
• Fields: Buffal Wallow (McKenzie County); and, Briar Creek (Williams County)
• Comments:
• Iron Oil Operating has permits for three Buffalo wells in NENE 17-148-100, to be sited 285 FNL and between 1200 FEL and 1300 FEL
• Bowline has a permit for a Heen S well in SWSE 35-153-104, to be sited 450 FSL and 1500 FEL;

One permit renewed:

• 34061, Sinclair, Bighorn 3-6H, Dunn County

Two producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 33864, 1,313, Hess, BL-Myrtrice-156-96-2536-5.
• 33864, 1,508, Hess, BL-Myrtrice-156-96-2536H-4,

NDIC did not provide updated list of active rigs.