Top Stories For 2021 -- IN PROGRESS

Top stories by month for the year 2021: link here. 

I'm starting to put the top stories for 2021 together. 

This will be updated for the next sixty days before it goes final. Please feel free to offer suggestions.

Permits in North Dakota, annual summary, 2021. Link pending.

Comment: 

2020: It is interesting to look at the summary comment for 2019 where the US economy was on an incredible roll. That all stopped in 2020. The Chinese flu / Wuhan flu / Covid-19 pandemic was THE story of 2020. The pandemic telescoped 2020 - 2035 into 2020 - 2025. In the energy arena, twenty years from now, 2020 will be seen as the year that the world had clearly pivoted from "black" to "green." That pivot culminated in the election of a "green" president. 

2021: Meanwhile, 2021, was the year that the US economy took off ... until the flash crash the day after Thanksgiving. The Biden administration is committed to shutting down fossil fuel in an effort to pivot to "green" energy.  For investors, "meme stocks" were the stocks to be in ... until they weren't -- again the flash crash suggested that investors realized that it might be best if the companies they invested in actually made money.

The top story in 2021, without question has to be the fact that the number of cases of Covid-19 in the US set an all-time record at the end of the year and showed no signs of peaking. At the end of the year, President Biden termed the pandemic a problem for the individual states, that the pandemic would have to be solved at the state level, a federal, one-size-fits-all plan would not work. And then the President went on vacation. Meanwhile, the US economy surged; Wall Street surged; and things would have been even better had there not been a supply chain problem. That was 2021 in a nutshell: record number of Covid-19 cases in the US; President Biden walks away; economy surges; supply chain disruptions dominated the economic news but these disruptions appears to be waning by the end of the year.

Elevator speech: the stories that dominated the Bakken in 2021:

• The year drilling returned in the Bakken, but with a rig count that never hit the high-30's in number. 
• In fact, the number of active oil and gas rigs in the Bakken never exceeded thirty-four.
  
• The new status quo: fewer permits, fewer rigs; steady production; great free cash flow.
  

Transitions:

• Pre-packaged bankruptcies / reorganizations of 2020 were behind us;
• "Early" operators returned to drilling; most stayed out with a wait-and-see attitude;
  

International, non-energy:

• Saudi Arabia cash reserves surge by the end of the year, but still near all-time lows;
  
• Covid-19 seemed to have been beaten; then a new variant popped up in late November: Omicron.
• US finished the year with a record number of Covid-19 cases.
  
• Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Iranian drum-beating remains absent -- perhaps with one exception: Ukraine, where Putin is massing troops on the border.
  

International energy:

• Energy crisis, winter, 2021 - 2022, for UK and EU; energy prices surging at start of winter; were starting to come down at the end of the year with a flotilla of US LNG tankers sailing to Europe;
  
• More and more apparent OPEC+ does not have much spare capacity; this will be a controversial theme in 2022;
  
• OPEC+ forecasts a glut of oil in 1Q22, certainly by 2Q22; not eager to increase production even though energy prices for the consumers sky-high; raises the question of "spare capacity"
  

National, non-energy:

• Biden does surprisingly well despite "novel" way of governing; 
• walks away from Afghanistan; 
• walks away from federal solution for Covid-19
• walks away from high gasoline prices
• walks away from "southern surge"
  
• Apple's M1 chip was a top tech story in 2020; Apple remains a top tech story in 2021, saying it will accelerate plans for an EV; mentioned it once, then never mentioned it again;
  
• Corporate migration from CA to TX continues; 
• Tesla HQ officially to Texas, late 2021;
• Of the big names, Chef Ramsay announced his move from CA to TX at the end of the year;
  
• Late in the year, remote learning / virtual meetings (WebEx, Zoom) is back in focus;
  
• Tesla, Rivian, Lucid: the top three automotive companies by market cap
• Supply chain obstacles practically shut down US economy; things improving after Christmas (eithe that or simply no longer being reported)
  

National, energy:

• US: third year of energy independence (folks argue this point; that's fine; we know)
  
• Political pundits tell us Biden has made US dependent on foreign oil again, but that's "political talk"; the US remains very, very independent; 
  
• LNG became the story in 2020; remains the story in 2021
  

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Top Stories of 2021
By Category

Top Story Of The Year:

• The never-ending hysteria over Covid-19; the year ended with global concerns re: omicron
• US records highest number of active cases by the end of the year and no sign of peaking;
  
• Domestic and international citizens won't put up with more lock-down mandates
• Vaccine mandates losing ground in US, but more US citizens taking vaccines than ever before in light of omicron; federal judge strikes down Biden mandates on literally the last day of 2021;
• Closing out 2021: inflation; no longer considered transitory
  

Runner-up story of the year:

• The volatility of the stock market. No one knows where we are headed: even Charlie Munger says this is a most unusual year.
• Having said that, investors did very, very well; savers concerned about inflation
  

The Biden administration:

• "I don't have those numbers in front of me."
• Speaks volumes about how concerned the US SecEnergy is with regard to high price of gasoline; announces release of oil from SPR but can't put that in context.
  
• The "southern surge," as a story, is over for this administration. It no longer matters.
  

The world:

• After being in disarray last year, Saudi's foreign reserves doing better;
  
• China / US geopolitics: Putin/Xi playing chess; Biden playing checkers
• Question mark: is Puting looking to put the USSR back together or the Russian Empire?
  

Most surprising story of 2021:

• The flash crash on Thanksgiving Friday; two weeks later it was forgotten.
  
• Unranked Texas A&M defeating Alabama in college football; even so, Alabama will be playing Georgia in the championship game/
  

The most egregious story to come out of the Bakken:

The "best call" by the blog: huge mistake for Oasis to enter the Permian. 

The most frustrating story to come out of the Bakken: 

• NDIC IT. NDIC website "broke" in mid-July and by the end of the year, still broken; NDIC seems unconcerned.
  

The top US story:

• Biden doing surprisingly well.
• Huge spending bill passed
• "Build Back Better" bill close to being passed; to be continued in early 2022.
  

North Dakota, energy:

• The Bakken is back
  
• Production gradually recovers to a new status quo
  

North Dakota economy:

• Williston is fastest growing micro-city in the US
  

North Dakota technology:

• carbon capture and storage
• Spiritwood soybean - renewable diesel facility
  

Most exciting non-operator in the Bakken:

• NOG
  

Most exciting micro operator in the Bakken:

Most exciting small operator in the Bakken:

• Bruin
  

Most exciting medium operator in the Bakken:

• Slawson

Most exciting large operator in the Bakken:

• MRO

Most aggressive large operator in the Bakken:

• CLR

Biggest deals:

• 
  

Most surprising deal:

• Oasis exits the Permian
• CLR enters the Permian just weeks before the price of oil plummets
  

Record price per Bakken mineral acre, 2021 (quarterly lease sales):

•  
  

Bakken operations, rigs:

• Trended toward thirty active rigs; plateaued at 32 rigs
  

Bakken operations, production:

• Drops to third place in US but with a third of the rigs the #2 state requires
  

Bakken operations, density:

• CLR: "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"
  

Top prediction made in 2021 for 2022:

• EVs will destroy a lot of investors, severely harm several manufacturers
  

Record initial production:

Biggest story in takeaway capacity:

• Capline pipeline reversal announced
  

CBR:

• Non-story in 2020, but the DAPL story has not yet ended
  

Pipeline:

• World's largest carbon capture pipeline: the Midwest Carbon Express
  
• DAPL story not yet ended
  

Fracking:

• Bakken 4.5: near simultaneous pad drilling, simultaneous pad fracking, and, near multi-pad completions
  

Flaring:

• ND sets all-time capture record
  

Natural gas:

• Bakken continues to set production records, month-after-month;
• Another natural gas processing plant begins operations; Bill Sanderson, west of Williston;
  

Refining:

• Dickinson greenfield refinery in trouble?
  

Investment story of the year:

The "other" Williston Basin formations:

• Nothing.
  

Bakken economy:

• Surging.
  

New (or better-understood) oil patch jargon:

• spaceholder
  

Miscellaneous:

Bakken economy -- Williston Economic Development (WED) top ten stories: