WTI: Below $75 -- Oasis With Six New Permits In Williams County -- January 24, 2025

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Politics: President Trump's nominee for SecDef -- will be voted on tonight -- maybe within the next few hours. If confirmed, will be the last of Trump's most consequential national security team members to be confirmed. Huge implications for GOP senators if nominee not approved.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $74.66.

Active rigs: 33.

Six new permits, #41543 - #41548, inclusive:

• Operator: Oasis:
• Fields: Bull Butte (Williams); Strandahl (Williams)
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for three Phoenix wells and three Ellis wells, all NWNE 17-156-102, 
• to be sited 548 FNL and 2203 / 2368 FEL;

Permit modification approved:

• 36276, Enerplus, Lemur 148-94-03B-10H-LL. Previously 1280-acre spacing; now six-section spacing, 3840-acre spacing.

One producing well (a DUC) reported as completed:

• 41030, 906, Petro-Hunt, State 153-95-17B-16-2H,

Trump Suggests Eliminating FEMA -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44763TRUMP.

FEMA: brilliant. FEMA funds would go directly from the US government to the state. The state, not FEMA would manage the emergency recovery efforts in their individual states. Absolutely brilliant.

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The Book Page

I didn't catch it until today. The author of the "Paradise" essay in the December 23, 2024, issue of The New Yorker was Merve Emre. I have not read the essay; I can't wait to read it. It will likely be worth the price of the annual subscription. The work of interest reviewed by Emre? John Milton's Paradise Lost.

The Berg Wells In Good Luck Oil Field -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44762B.

This was done very, very quickly; there may be typographical and content errors.

Two pads, two wells on each pad. One well on each pad "runs north," and one well on each pad "runs south."

The Berg wells in Good Luck Oil Field:

• *****22823, 963, Enerplus/G3 Operating, Berg 1-20-17H, Good Luck oil field, API #33-105-02603, SWSE 20-157-101, 250 FSL 2012 FEL, t8/12; cum 150K 11/24;
• 22822, 796, Enerplus/G3 Operating, Berg 1-29-32H, API #33-105-02602, Good Luck oil field, SWSE 20-157-101, 250 FSL 1980 FEL; t8/12; cum 179K 11/24;
• 23597, 867, Enerplus, Berg 1-30-31H, API #33-105-02772, Good Luck oil field, NENW 30-157-101, 250 FNL 1996 FWL; t2/13; cum 164K 11/24;
• 23621, 674, Enerplus, Berg 1-19-8H, API #33-105-02774, Good Luck oil field, NENW 30-157-101, 250 FNL 1964 FWL; t2/13; cum 147K 11/24;

The map:

Enerplus / Chord deal closed May 31, 2024:

FEMA -- Trump's Comments -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44761FEMA.

Visiting North Carolina and California today, President Trump made interesting comments about FEMA. 

Stories on FEMA will be the big topic over the weekend.  

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A Huge Breath of Fresh Air

We're seeing and hearing more from President Trump in his first four days than we saw and heard from President Biden in his full four years and that included an abbreviated presidential campaign last year. 

I can watch his pressers all day long. YouTube is doing a great job.

Trump has a "dialogue" type of style when taking questions from the press. He does not talk in political platitudes. Seems incredibly on top of his game despite appearing to work 24/7.  

Most interesting, fact checking by mainstream journalists is done "only" on Trump and even with that, fact-checkers are unable to come up with any significant mis-statements by Trump and even then they often end up being subject to interpretation. I think journalists need to take Stephen R. Covey's course (seven habits of highly effective people) and pay particular attention to habit #5.

Family tree: https://www.fox5ny.com/news/trump-inauguration-day-2025-family-tree-kids-grandchildren. 

He also had the advantage of a five adult children. Each of those children are huge force multipliers for the president. Even Baron.

Biden: I don't think one can call Hunter an adult. But, at least he's pardoned, so there is a possibility of self-redemption.  

In addition, his appointees consistently say that Trump is incredible in his willingness / ability to delegate. He gives them a short leash but it works.

Living Wage For Families Of Four -- By State -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44760STATES.

Link here. 

For what it's worth.

Natural Gas For Longer -- A Green Hydrogen Update -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44759HYDROGEN.

Green hydrogen, Dan Tsubouchi, link here:

RBN Energy's prognostication for 2025, link here:

Green hydrogen. At least in the short term, the future of US hydrogen production is blue. 

This prognostication title is our feeble attempt at a double entendre, of sorts.

Yup, the future of hydrogen is blue.

From one perspective, it’s blue because blue hydrogen projects — those producing hydrogen from natural gas with emissions mitigated by carbon capture — are expected to produce far more hydrogen than green hydrogen projects, which use electrolysis powered by renewable energy.

And from another perspective, the clean hydrogen outlook is blue, as in “It’s got the blues,” because progress on subsidies and tax breaks tied to hydrogen development has been painfully slow, with convoluted rulemaking casting doubt on whether the federal government’s hydrogen initiatives will happen at all.

Despite blue hydrogen dominating near-term capacity projections, with about two-thirds of potential output tied to such projects, challenges loom large. The CO2 emissions from these projects must be permanently sequestered — stored forever in deep underground formations. But progress has been hampered by long permitting delays and limited project approvals. There’s also much uncertainty around the 45V tax credit for clean hydrogen, the focus of heated debate since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in August 2022. Final rules were expected by year-end but did not materialize.

And of course, who knows what will happen when President-elect Trump takes office. He has been skeptical of clean-energy initiatives in general and the IRA specifically, so 2025 looks to be a blue year for hydrogen, unless some of the big project developers succeed in lobbying for positive changes to the permitting process.

 

My Favorite Chart -- The Weekly MMF Update -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44758MMFs.

Tag: my favorite chart

US equity markets trading near all-time highs. MMF assets increased by almost $42 billion w/w. MMF assets now stand at $6.90 trillion.

Link here.

Liz Sonders, from two days ago, link here.

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S&P 500 

From yesterday. 

Link here.

Rare Earths -- Williston Basin -- Update, Review -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44757RAREEARTHS.

Tag: rare earths, lithium

Some of this is relatively new, published in the last six months or so; some of these links are older.

A reader was gracious enough to remind me of the "North Dakota rare earth" story. I had posted some of this information earlier, but I am not sure if all of them have been previously posted. 

With the announcement of the Basin Electric proposal for a new power generation facility in western North Dakota, the "rare earth" story may be important to review.

Note: some of these links won't open in Firefox; they will open in Safari and probably other browsers.

From GEO News, July, 2023: link here.

The "rare earth" articles updated: link here. The drilling / analysis began in late summer, 2024.

From Reddit, back in 2022, link here:

Saudi Aramco Makes First Purchase Of WTI Midland -- January 24, 2025

Locator: 44756B.

Netflix: reminder on price changes. Link here.

VentureGlobal: links and headlines --

• Reuters: investors balked at VG's earnings outlook before IPO price cut; link here;
• oilprice: VG cuts IPO price range to sell more shares; link here;

Charles Kennedy, link here: Saudi oil giant Aramco buys its first US WTI Midland crude cargo.

The world’s biggest crude oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, bought this week its first cargo of U.S. WTI Midland, the crude grade which is now part of the dated Brent benchmark, S&P Global Commodity Insights told Reuters. The Saudi oil giant, which is also the world’s biggest oil company, bought the cargo in the Platts window from commodity trader Gunvor. This was Saudi Aramco’s first purchase of WTI crude in the window.

Back on June 10, 2022, it was announced that effective June, 2023, WTI Midland will join the Brent complex as assessed by Platts.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $74.35.

New wells:

• Sunday, January 26, 2025: 42 for the month, 42 for the quarter, 42 for the year, 
• 40574, conf, Empire North Dakota LLC, Red Horse 32 1H,
• 40224, conf, Hess, GO-Dustin Brose-LE-156-98-2932H-1,
• Saturday, January 25, 2025: 40 for the month, 40 for the quarter, 40 for the year, 
• 40454, conf, Hess, GO-Dustin Brose-15609802932H-5,
• Friday, January 24, 2025: 39 for the month, 39 for the quarter, 39 for the year, 
• 4487, conf, Grayson Mill, Wahus 12-1 1H, 

RBN Energy: E&Ps highlight their success in growing Utica shale production.

Condensate production in the Utica Shale’s volatile oil window in eastern Ohio has more than doubled over the past three years, and plans by the handful of E&Ps that focus on the super-light crude oil suggest that output will increase further this year and next. Who are these producers, why do they see such promise for condensate growth in the Utica, and how are they measuring their success? In today’s RBN blog, we continue examining rising condensate production in eastern Ohio with a look at the leading E&Ps in this space.