Phoenix Operating Has Five New Permits -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49695B. 

Chips to China: so far no one has connected the dots. When they do, this will be historic. Posting this for the time-date stamp. It should be revealed in the company’s earnings six months from now.

WTI: $57.44.

Active rigs: 29. 

Five new permits, #42556 - #42560, inclusive:

• Operator: Phoenix Operating
• Field Black Slough (Burke County)
• Comments:
• Phoenix Operating has permits for five Billingsley wells, lot 3, section 1-161-93, 
• to be sited 381 FNL and 2122 / 2242 FWL.

And that was all. 

Alison Ritter's Quick Connects -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49694B. 

Quick connects:

• Legacy Fund infrastructure investment could help bolster pipeline -- North Dakota Monitor

• Natural gas operator Targa Badlands fined for environmental violation -- North Dakota Monitor

• BLM seeking input for April 2026 sale of 23 oil and gas parcels in the Dakotas -- BLM

• Public Service Commission sets hearing for battery storage in Burke Co. -- Minot Daily News

• As a cold winter is underway in North Dakota, here's how to save money on energy bills -- Bismarck Tribune

• Fedorchak introduces High-Capacity Grid Act to modernize America's transmission system -- Julie Fedorchak

• North Dakota names Lisa Fair McEvers its first female Supreme Court chief justice -- North Dakota Monitor

• North Dakota governor sets Jan. 21 as tentative date for special legislative session -- North Dakota Monitor

• Political newcomer Kessel announces bid for North Dakota House; two incumbents to run again -- InForum

• North Dakota State Ethics Commission appoints new commissioner Mark Western from Stanley -- KFYR-TV

• North Dakota State Trooper's unconventional approach to winter storm safety goes viral -- Valley News Live

• MHA Nation plans $30 million water treatment plant -- first cost-share project with state -- Bismarck Tribune

• Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses could gain federal protection under new bill -- Dickinson Press

• McKenzie County P&Z denies permit for solar farm project; deemed win for local landowners -- KFYR-TV

• Watford City centralized downtown makeover: redevelopment plan takes shape -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Freezing rain overnight rendered Minot and the surrounding region into a skating rink -- Minot Daily News

• Pointers: Antoinette Heier shares time, workload management tips at Vision West meeting -- Hazen Star

• Bowman & Slope County Community Foundation awards $191K in grants this fall -- Bowman County Pioneer

• Lawmakers weigh impact of free school meal proposal, uncertainty about its cost -- North Dakota Monitor

• Bachmeier talks educational options as new state superintendent plans school district trips -- KFYR-TV

• State's K-12 schools show slight gain in student college and career path readiness -- North Dakota Monitor

• Updated school accountability reports and results from new statewide assessment announced -- KX News

• Swift development of AI has left North Dakota educators to navigate delicate balancing act -- Dickinson Press

• State lawmakers discuss funding, feasibility, concerns around free meal initiative for schools -- KFYR-TV

• Process of implementing new Williston elementary school boundaries will begin this month -- Williston Herald

• McKenzie County's 'Angel Fund' ensures every child can focus on learning -- McKenzie County Farmer

• North Dakota University System opens applications for Bismarck State College President -- Bismarck Tribune

• Minot Public Schools Superintendent shares decision-making process to cancel school Tuesday -- KFYR-TV

• Geothermal has huge potential to generate power ? including from oil and gas wells -- The Invading Sea

• Gas prices sink while electricity jumps, giving both GOP and Dems an affordability talking point -- The Hill

• US utilities are racing to sign data center supply deals as AI boom powers demand surge -- Reuters

• Colorado regulators approve plan to keep 50-year-old coal unit operating through 2026 -- E&E News

• US Army to develop small refineries to ensure domestic supply of critical minerals for defense -- Oil Price

• US has seized sanctioned oil tanker off coast of Venezuela says Trump; sends oil prices higher -- Reuters

• While the US ratchets up political pressure on Maduro's regime, we won't 'get' Venezuelan oil -- Forbes

• Trump DOE to finance up to 10 reactors in bid to kickstart nuclear energy "renaissance" -- Free Beacon

• For Gen Z, why a nuclear energy future is proving a unifying force in a divided world -- RealClearEnergy

• China to launch commercial operations at world's first small modular reactor as early as 2026 -- Oil Price

• Solar and wind project approvals on federal lands have virtually stopped this year under Trump -- Oil Price

• Trump Administration says the real threat is climate policy ? not global warming itself -- E&E News

• The Permian "Peak" that Isn't; production growing, now a tech-driven "manufacturing" phase -- Oil Price

• Report: Blue states with renewable mandates have higher electricity prices than red states -- Just The News

• Trump administration fast tracks major Alaskan mineral mine that Biden admin tried to bury -- 247 Politics

• Insurance companies are making record profits off climate change panic, not scientific facts -- NY Post

 

Qualcomm, Oracle Note -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49693QCOM. 
Locator: 49693ORCL. 

Link here. 

For some reason, I'm getting more and more links to The Globe and Mail in my news feed.

Whatever. 

***********************************
Oracle

Shay:

"OCI is positioned to be a long-term winner." 

So, what's OCI?

There is only one "OCI" that I'm interested in:

 
From the horse's mouth, OCI, link here. 

Wiki.

AI overview:

How does OCI compare with the big three? 

India -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49692INDIA. 

This popped up in Barron's yesterday, link here. 

I don't invest in India, at least not directly. I focus on American companies that are investing in India or could benefit from India's growth and demographics, specifically Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. 

But I do have at least one reader who sends me updates with regard to India.
 

Which Bakken Operators Have the Biggest Inventories Of Top-Tier Drilling Sites? RBN Energy -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49691B. 

RBN Energy: Which Bakken Operators Have the Biggest Inventories Of Top-Tier Drilling Sites? Link here. Archived. 

Three-quarters of the Bakken's top-tier well sites may have already been drilled and the basin’s remaining inventory may be less than stellar, but a new AI-based analysis suggests that the quality of the locations held by each of the shale play’s top 10 producers varies widely. For a few, there are still plenty of spots that make economic sense to drill and complete, but activity may slow to a crawl for others unless crude oil prices rebound — and in a big way. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at Novi Labs’ intense examination of the U.S.’s second-largest onshore production area.

This is the second blog in this miniseries. In Part 1, we said that while Bakken crude oil production is humming along at a steady 1.2 MMb/d, about 75% of the shale play’s top-quartile locations have already been drilled and only 6,100 well sites — about six years of inventory at the current drilling pace — could generate a good return at the range of commodity prices we’ve seen the past couple of years. We also explained Novi’s data-based, machine-learning-enhanced approach to analyzing the many layers (aka benches) in the Bakken (and other shale plays) to determine not only how much crude remains underground but how much is likely to be produced under various price scenarios.

Put simply, machine learning crunches a wide range of geologic, operational and spatial data collected from thousands of drilled wells to recognize patterns and identify the primary drivers of well performance. It then enables operators to assess how changing variables (like drilling in a higher-pressure area, tightening well spacing or increasing proppant intensity) would affect production outcomes in wells yet to be drilled. And it gives operators guidance on how best to lay out, space and sequence the development of the benches.

More important for our purposes, this approach also reveals the relative quality of the rock in various parts of a shale basin and how much of the remaining resource is likely to be developed at various crude oil price points. Regarding rock quality in the Bakken, the basin’s existing and potential wells are separated into four quartiles or tiers, with Tier 1 wells being the juiciest and (generally speaking) the most economic and Tier 4 wells having the lowest quality and being economic only if oil prices are very high. Finally, we noted there are two common ways to assess whether it makes sense to drill and complete a well: using a straight two-year breakeven or using a more conservative NPV25 breakeven, with NPV referring to net present value. (See Part 1 for details.)

Last time, we took a big-picture look at the Bakken’s remaining inventory of drilling locations. In today’s blog, we shift to a company-by-company analysis that reveals significant differences in the quality of their yet-to-be-drilled sites.

My Favorite Chart -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49690MMF. 

Tag: MMF MMFs My favorite charte 

Link here. 

Very, very small increase, but still an increase after last week's huge increase.

TGIF -- December 12, 2025

Locator: 49689B. 

Natural gas: link here. 

*****************************
Back to t he Bakken 

WTI: $57.57.

New wells reporting: 

• Sunday, December 14, 2025: 32 for the month, 155 for the quarter, 739 for the year, 
• 40956, conf, Devon Energy, Grand National 34-36F 2H, 
• Saturday, December 13, 2025: 31 for the month, 154 for the quarter, 738 for the year, 
• 41109, conf, Devon Energy, Helling 16-21 4H, 
• 40962, conf, Costanza 24-13 1TFH, 
• 40955, conf, Devon Energy, Grand National 34-36F 1H, 
• 40799, conf, Silver Hill Energy Operating, Oliver E 159-93-20-22-3MBHX, 
• 39788, conf, Silver Hill Energy Operating, Oliver E 159-93-20-32-4MBHX, 
• Friday, December 12, 2025: 26 for the month, 149 for the quarter, 733 for the year, 
• 40961, conf, Devon Energy, Costanza 23-14 XW 1H, 

RBN Energy: Which Bakken Operators Have the Biggest Inventories Of Top-Tier Drilling Sites? Link here. Archived. 

Three-quarters of the Bakken's top-tier well sites may have already been drilled and the basin’s remaining inventory may be less than stellar, but a new AI-based analysis suggests that the quality of the locations held by each of the shale play’s top 10 producers varies widely. For a few, there are still plenty of spots that make economic sense to drill and complete, but activity may slow to a crawl for others unless crude oil prices rebound — and in a big way. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at Novi Labs’ intense examination of the U.S.’s second-largest onshore production area.

This is the second blog in this miniseries. In Part 1, we said that while Bakken crude oil production is humming along at a steady 1.2 MMb/d, about 75% of the shale play’s top-quartile locations have already been drilled and only 6,100 well sites — about six years of inventory at the current drilling pace — could generate a good return at the range of commodity prices we’ve seen the past couple of years. We also explained Novi’s data-based, machine-learning-enhanced approach to analyzing the many layers (aka benches) in the Bakken (and other shale plays) to determine not only how much crude remains underground but how much is likely to be produced under various price scenarios.

Put simply, machine learning crunches a wide range of geologic, operational and spatial data collected from thousands of drilled wells to recognize patterns and identify the primary drivers of well performance. It then enables operators to assess how changing variables (like drilling in a higher-pressure area, tightening well spacing or increasing proppant intensity) would affect production outcomes in wells yet to be drilled. And it gives operators guidance on how best to lay out, space and sequence the development of the benches.

More important for our purposes, this approach also reveals the relative quality of the rock in various parts of a shale basin and how much of the remaining resource is likely to be developed at various crude oil price points. Regarding rock quality in the Bakken, the basin’s existing and potential wells are separated into four quartiles or tiers, with Tier 1 wells being the juiciest and (generally speaking) the most economic and Tier 4 wells having the lowest quality and being economic only if oil prices are very high. Finally, we noted there are two common ways to assess whether it makes sense to drill and complete a well: using a straight two-year breakeven or using a more conservative NPV25 breakeven, with NPV referring to net present value. (See Part 1 for details.)

Last time, we took a big-picture look at the Bakken’s remaining inventory of drilling locations. In today’s blog, we shift to a company-by-company analysis that reveals significant differences in the quality of their yet-to-be-drilled sites.