The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog): 09/19/25

Friday, September 19, 2025

Two Denbury South Red River B Wells Go Over One Million Bbls Cumulative Oil -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49164B.

The wells:

15828, 673, Denbury Onshore, CHSU 13C-11SH 16, Cedar Hills, South Red River B, t12/05; cum 958K 1/20; cum 1.041012 million bbls 7/25;

15659, 301, Denbury/BR, CHSU 11D-33SH 15, Cedar Hills field, South Red River B, tt2/05; cum 1.011060 million bbls 7/25; still producing 2,000 bbls/month;

On another note, this Denbury well, targeting the Bakken formation in the Charlson oil field is still flowing (no pump) at 2,000 bbls / month:

17113, 3,030, XTO/Denbury, Charlson Federal 14X-35H, Charlson, t10/08; cum 882K 3/21; F; subtle jump in production; cum 890K 6/21; still F; cum 891K 9/21; still F; cum 921K 10/22; F; 933K 6/23; cum 951K 1/24; see this post; cum 956K 3/24; still F; cum 875K 11/24; F; cum 898K 7/25;

This well is still flowing without a pump, 4,000 bbls / month, now over a million bbls cumulative:

17147, 2,101, XTO, HBU Boucher 41X-21, Hofflund, t4/09; F; cum 992K 10/21; jump in production; cum 1.030890 million bbls 19/22; see this note; huge well; cum 1.051301 million bbls 2/23; cum 1.153660 7/25; coming off line this month (July) -- obviously due to activity in the area; although nothing on the map; A work over?

When I first started following the Bakken, experts said that once wells were off-line for a year, those wells were seldom returned to production. I run across a lot of Bakken wells that have been off line for more than year that come back on line. This well went off line 9/21 and was put back on line just two months ago, 6/25:

18077, A/AB/IA/1,773, Whiting, Kannianen 11-5H, t9/09; cum 497K 2/21; cum 500K 6/21; cum 501K 8/21; off line since 9/21; back on line 6/25; first full month of production when put back on line, 1,081 bbls of oil over 31 days;

One And Done? September 19, 2025

Locator: 49163FED.

The president's spokesperson said the president was happy with the quarter-percent cut. The president did not tweet otherwise.

Daily Activity Reports, September 17 - 19, 2025

Locator: 49162B.

Some of the NDIC modules are down including the daily activity report. A reader was nice enough to send me copies of the missing reports. I have posted the permits for new wells, so will post the other data here.

The new permits have been already been posted on a daily basis.

Interestingly, there was no other data that I normally report except three DUCs reported as completed.

Active rigs: 34.

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

41090, drl/A, Silver Hill Energy, Rooster W Federal 159-94-2-26-1MBHX, North Tioga, t--; 259 bopd;
41202, drl/A, Silver Hill Energy, Rooster W Federal 159-94-2-26-3MBHX, North Tioga, t--; 403 bopd;
40372, conf/A, Slawson, Kahua 3-6-7H, Pleasant Hill, t--; 2,356 bopd;

Alison Ritter's Quick Connects -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49161B.

• NDPC message : There is plenty of future opportunity in the Bakken -- KFYR - TV

• The Bakken's next bold boom: Merging AI and energy -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Pioneer Generation Station Phase IV now fully operational -- McKenzie County Farmer

• BLM announces $38M in oil and gas revenue across North Dakota and Montana -- KX News

• Lawmakers agree action may be needed to ensure royalty owners get fair shake -- North Dakota Monitor

• Summit petitions Iowa regulators to remove Dakotas requirement from permit -- Iowa Capital Dispatch

• Bill to streamline cross-border energy projects gains approval in the U.S. House -- Rep. Julie Fedorchak

• Xcel Energy proposes 19% electricity rate hike in North Dakota, biggest request in years -- Dickinson Press

• Oilfield spill leaks 840K gallons of oil and brine mixture, contaminating ag land -- North Dakota Monitor

• Trump approves federal funds to help pay for cleanup of deadly June storms in North Dakota -- InForum

• Dustin McNally to fill Grand Forks' District 42 House seat vacated by Emily O'Brien -- Grand Forks Herald

• More federal assistance available for North Dakota ranchers hit by 2024 wildfires -- Bismarck Tribune

• 2025 sets record for most tornadoes in North Dakota in one year; 58 confirmed and counting -- KFYR - TV

• North Dakota joins call for US Supreme Court to hear ranchers eminent domain case -- Bismarck Tribune

• Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library launches virtual programming series -- North Dakota Monitor

• City Commission reduces deficit, conducts final budget review before public hearing -- Williston Herald

• Police staffing, economic development debate highlight marathon budget talk in Minot -- KFYR - TV

• September's record breaking tornado outbreak causes damage across Sheridan County -- KX News

• Dickinson Area Public Library celebrates expansion with groundbreaking ceremony -- Dickinson Press

• Otter Tail Power Company receives Edison Electric Institute Emergency Response Award -- Hazen Star

• North Dakota DPI releases first updated tribal textbook, with more on the way -- North Dakota Monitor

• Minot Public School Board approve financial report and discuss dip in enrollment -- Minot Daily News

• North Valley CTE students 'think like a prairie' with hands-on art experience -- Dickinson Press

• Tioga School Board holds budget hearing, sets policy, hears construction updates -- Williston Herald

• Beulah Public Schools welcome Minot natives Rebecca Nord and Nyssa Stroschein -- The Beacon

• Property tax cap won't affect Divide's '25-26 school budget; district already at max for levy -- The Journal

• Watford City Schools are 'off and running' with approximately 100 new students -- McKenzie County Farmer

• BLM advances environmental assessments for challenged oil and gas leases in seven states -- BLM

• California lawmakers pass bill to boost oil production and make supply more affordable -- Reuters

• Plains All American's Permian crude pipelines in Texas facing oil quality issues, sources say -- Reuters

• US electricity consumption is rising so rapidly that coal usage could increase dramatically -- Mining MX

• Growth of AI creates new markets for North Dakota natural gas, governor says -- North Dakota Monitor

• Trump launches effort to speed up development of power grid projects as AI boosts demand -- Reuters

• Artificial intelligence is booming -- and America's power grid is struggling to keep up -- RealClearEnergy

• Justice Dept. moves to block Vermont's Climate Superfund Act targeting energy companies -- Townhall

• Coal prices rebound as China boosts imports; more than 25 million tons per month -- Oilprice.com

• Chevron says lawyers manipulated "independent" climate attribution studies -- Energy in Depth Climate

• National Academies of Science slammed for defending Obama CO2 endangerment finding -- Daily Caller

• High-risk properties, not "climate disasters," are the reason for higher insurance rates -- Climate Realism

• Lomborg: Environmental doomsday predictions collapse as world becomes richer and greener -- NY Post

• Meteorologist debunks "attribution" study blaming oil companies for U.S. heat waves -- Climate Realism

• CO2's many benefits show that climate alarmism is more superstition than science -- American Thinker

Best Fast Food -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49160FASTFOOD.

As readers know, some modules of the NDIC website are down, including the daily activity reports.

A reader was kind enough to request a copy of the past three reports and has forwarded them to me.

When I get a chance, I will post them, as I usually do.

But first, something I forgot to post yesterday, September 18, 2025, yesterday, National Cheeseburger Day.

Chowhound has rated the top five US cheeseburgers. Link here.

Culver's ButterBurger (#1)
Shake Shack's ShackBurger (#2)
Cheeseburger from FiveGuys (#3)
One Burger from Wahlburgers (#4)
McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese (#5)

Note: In-N-Out did not make the list.

Bonus: best McDonald's burgers, from good (#10) to best (#1). Link here.

Bonus: best fast food French fries, from good (#10) to best (#1). Link here.

Dairy Queen (#15)
In-N-Out Burger (#14)
Jack In The Box (#13)
Kentucky Fried Chicken (#12)
Del Taco (#11)
Five Guys (#10)
Popeyes (#9)
Chick-fil-A (#8)
Arby's (#7)
Burger King (#6)
Carl's Jr. (#5)
Wendy's (#4)
Taco Bell (#3)
Shake Shack (#2)
McDonald's (#1) -- Whoo-hoo! Agree, 1000%.

****************************
A Musical Interlude

Mr Big Stuff.

Link here.

Closer Look At Enbridge's Line 5 -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49159ENBRIDGE.

Link here for the map. Without annotation:

With annotation:

Enbridge: Line 5, Michigan-to-Canada, back in the news. Link here.

Line 5 begins at Superior, Wisconsin, where Canadian crude and NGLs flow off Enbridge’s Mainline system. From there, the line cuts across Michigan, supplying propane to the Upper Peninsula and feedstock to refineries in Detroit and Toledo, before ending in Sarnia, Ontario. That makes Michigan both a customer and a corridor, while Canada has a double stake—as both a producer shipping oil east and a consumer depending on Sarnia’s refineries.

Four New Permits -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49158B.

Enbridge: Line 5, Michigan-to-Canada, back in the news. Link here.

Line 5 begins at Superior, Wisconsin, where Canadian crude and NGLs flow off Enbridge’s Mainline system. From there, the line cuts across Michigan, supplying propane to the Upper Peninsula and feedstock to refineries in Detroit and Toledo, before ending in Sarnia, Ontario. That makes Michigan both a customer and a corridor, while Canada has a double stake—as both a producer shipping oil east and a consumer depending on Sarnia’s refineries.

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

WTI: $62.68.

Four new permits, #42325 - #4237, inclusive:

42324, loc/conf, EOG, Hawkeye 31-1336H, Clarks Creek, lot 5, section 12-152-95; to be sited 786 FSL 757 FWL.
42325, loc/conf, EOG, Hawkeye 174-1336H, Clarks Creek,
42326, loc/conf, EOG, Hawkeye 176-1336H, Clarks Creek,
42327, loc/conf, CLR, Limousin FIU 9-4HSL, Sanish, lot 3, section 3-152-93.

The map for the new Hawkeye wells:

Selected wells of interest:

37593, Hess, AN-Lone Tree-152-95-1207H-6, Antelope/Sanish, t2/25; cum 114K 7/25, lot 4, section 12-152-95, sited 1482 FSL 344 FWL;
33601, 1,800, Hess, AN-Lone Tree-152-95-1207H-3, Antelope/Sanish, t12/17; cum 460K 7/25;
37545, loc/A; Hess, AN-Lone Tree-152-95-1207H-7, Antelope/Sanish, t3/25; cum 157K 7/25;

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	7-2025	30	11495	11535	4523	54161	52152	1956
SANISH	6-2025	30	23127	23173	10108	69098	64607	4422
SANISH	5-2025	31	25680	25622	9769	60382	57143	3173
SANISH	4-2025	30	28773	28740	10167	51872	49953	1862
SANISH	3-2025	31	50774	50821	17600	84790	81665	3040
SANISH	2-2025	9	16826	16666	5028	41138	37157	3924

Thinking Where To Invest New Money -- Rambling Thoughts While Swimmig -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49157INVESTING.

Not ready for prime time but don't want to lose the thought.

Comment: the Fed won't say it out loud, but the governors are all thinking it -- the target may be "2%" but considering where we were and considering all the talk from the White House, they (the Fed governors) are more than happy with "3%." They also know that "inflation" is very segmented in this country, and that some things are due to "supply and demand" clearly out of the control of the government, much less the Fed. Housing and used automobiles are the best examples, and the blame is 1000% is all Biden's. Twelve million new residents overnight need a place to live and modes of transportation.

See disclaimer.

No recommendations.

Simply things I think about while swimming when thinking about investing.

Thoughts:

magnificent seven;

Amazon -- tier 2
Oracle -- tier 1
Broadcom -- tier 1
the others -- tier 3

American Manufacturing Program;

GLW -- tier 1
the others -- tier 3

one bank

BK -- tier 2

two railroads

CSX -- tier 3

one heavy industry

CAT -- tier 3

one energy

VNOM -- tier 3

Some NDIC Modules Remain "Down" -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49156B.

Daily activity reports.

xAI Raising $10 Billion At $200 Billion Valuation -- Sources -- Being Reported By CNBC -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49155AI.

I will provide the link and updates with regard to Musk's xAI project later.

This gave me an opportunity to ask ChatGPT the status of that project including the installation of the gas turbines? Another very long answer, but here's the bottom line:

Power and buildout of the xAI, Memphis, Tennessee:

And that gave me an opportunity to post the following.

I asked ChatGPT this question:

How much money do experts think will be spent on AI -- the fourth industrial revolution -- in the US over the next ten years? This number needs to include the buildout of energy (think nuclear plants) to power these large data centers and fabs.

As usual, a very, very long and a very, very involved answer. Bottom line, my take: $8 to $10 trillion.

ChatGPT's bottom line after 25 seconds of search:

Now, the next question: what is the US national defense budget, annual:

slightly less than $1 trillion.

Data Points -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49154ARCHIVES.

Data points this past week that really caught my attention:

the strong performance of US equity markets in August / September, considering these two months are historically tough months for mom-and-pop retail investors;
Apple's global laptop sales in the 2Q25;
the staggering production in the Permian relative to the rest of the nation;
what appears to be an incredible Apple iPhone 17 launch;
the continued misreading of the Intel story;
the strength of the fourth (sixth) industrial revolution;
the Fed is cutting despite a strong market;

despite all the trash talk from the White House, JPow is looking pretty good;
most important: he is independent of the White House and he's very, very trustworthy and credible.

*********************************
The Apple iPhone 17 Launch

Apparently "lines-around-the-block" phenomenon is incredible, completely unexpected.

Will analysts start talking about a "supercycle"?

Are folks concerned that next year's "foldable" phone is not something they want?

Are folks amazed by the camera upgrade, particularly video, and have noted that prices were either unchanged, or increased marginally ($100 over three years use of the phone = $2.75 / month increase) since they bought their last phones, two to five years ago?

Or more importantly, did that jump from 128 to 256 GB get their attention?

Are folks telling "us," they don't need a "revolution." Are they telling "us" they like the better camera (video, particularly) and the 256 GB memory, a doubling in memory more than AI?

Folks are certainly telling “us" that the AI issue is an "invented" issue by analysts and Apple's competitors. Apple buyers don’t care.

Remember:

Apple's eco-system;
Apple's 2.3 billion devices worldwide in use;

Can any one competitor compete on those two points?

Ticker:

note:

P/E at 37
market cap: $3.65 trillion

The Sour-Gas-Related Infrastructure of the Booming Northern Delaware Basin -- RBN Energy -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49153PERMIAN.

RBN Energy: the sour-gas-related infrastructure of the booming northern Delaware Basin. Archived.

The numbers out of Eddy and Lea counties in southeastern New Mexico are nothing short of staggering. Crude oil production at 2.3 MMb/d, or one-sixth of total U.S. output. Natural gas production north of 9 Bcf/d and rising fast. More than 90 active rigs — again, one-sixth of the U.S. total.

Many top E&Ps are stoked about the Northern Delaware Basin because of its stacked benches of high-quality, crude-saturated shale and carbonate formations. But much of the associated gas emerging from wells in Lea County is “off-spec” — tainted by levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) that need to be dealt with — and producers and midstreamers have been scrambling to develop the sour-gas-related infrastructure required to support production growth.

In today’s RBN blog, we begin a detailed look at the Northern Delaware’s existing and planned infrastructure for handling sour gas, including special gas gathering systems, amine treatment facilities, acid gas injection (AGI) wells, sweet gas pipelines and processing plants.
t wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that New Mexico’s Eddy and Lea counties are now the epicenter of U.S. hydrocarbon production. As the Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently pointed out, the side-by-side counties (total population ~140,000) accounted for an astounding 52% of total U.S. crude oil production growth from 2020 to 2024 — a nearly 1 MMb/d increase in only four years (mustard-brown layer and bar segments in Figure 1 below). Lea County alone produced an average of 1.2 MMb/d of crude and 4.3 Bcf/d of gas in June, according to ShaleXP, and Eddy’s output (a little gassier) averaged about 900 Mb/d and 5 Bcf/d. Eight counties on the Texas side of the Permian — six in the Midland Basin and two in the Delaware — accounted for another 40% (or ~760 MMb/d) of the 2020-24 gain in total U.S. crude production (burgundy and red layers and bar segments).

Figure 1. Eddy and Lea Counties’ Shares of U.S. Crude Oil Production and Production Growth.

Source: EIA

Not for nothing did Eddy and Lea take center stage. Instead, over the past several years a handful of Permian producers — EOG Resources, Devon Energy, Mewbourne Oil, Occidental Petroleum and Matador Resources among them — (1) came to understand just how much crude oil was trapped within the thousands of vertical feet of shale and carbonate formations in the Northern Delaware and (2) perfected the drilling-and-completion techniques to free that crude (and lots of NGLs-rich associated gas) in an increasingly systematic, efficient and economic manner. Nowadays, it’s common for newly completed horizontal wells in the two counties to produce between 60 Mbbl and 120 Mbbl of crude oil in their first 30 days of operation, and for multi-well pads to produce several hundred thousand barrels a month.

ChatGPT prompt: Oil. Permian. Delaware Basin. Is FANG / VNOM located across the Delaware Basin or more prominently in either the norther Delaware Basin or the southern Delaware Basin?

ChatGPT reply:

FANG (Diamondback) is more prominently in the Southern Delaware Basin when it comes to its core development acreage. Their big, operated acquisitions and development are focused in counties like Reeves & Ward and other southern Texas Delaware areas.
VNOM (Viper) has a royalty / minerals footprint that is more spread out, covering both southern and more northern acreage. But don’t think of them as having “core operated development” (drilling, completions) as much in the northern Delaware as some operators do; their strength is royalty exposure over a broad area.

TGIF -- September 19, 2025

Locator: 49152B.

Government funding: through November 21, 2025, voting now in progress.

Apple: initial reports regarding Apple 17 launch appear positive.

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

NDIC website: some modules still "down."

WTI: $63.13.

New wells:

Monday, September 22, 2025: 35 for the month, 128 for the quarter, 558 for the year,

40942, conf, Oasis, Painted Rocks 5000 41-20 2BX,
40941, conf, Oasis, Painted Rocks 5000 41-20 3B,
40903, conf, CLR, Corsican Federal 9-15H,

Sunday, September 21, 2025: 32 for the month, 125 for the quarter, 555 for the year,

40704, conf, Oasis, Lake Trenton Federal 5302 21-31 2B,

Saturday, September 20, 2025: 31 for the month, 124 for the quarter, 564 for the year,

41213, conf, Slawson, Daredevil Federal 4-2-14H,

Friday, September 19, 2025: 30 for the month, 123 for the quarter, 563 for the year,

41212, conf, Slawson, Daredevil Federal 3-2-14H,
41077, conf, Hess, GO-Foss Fam Trst-156-97-2314H-6,
41075, conf, Hess, GO-Foss Fam Trst-156-97-2314H-3,
40814, conf, Enerplus, Fort Berthold 148-94-19D-18-10H,