North Dakota To Require Producers To Treat Crude Before Shipping -- WSJ; November 13, 2014

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

North Dakota plans unprecedented steps to ensure crude pumped from the state’s Bakken Shale oil producing region is safe enough to be loaded into railroad tank cars and sent across the country.

In the first major move by regulators to address the role of gaseous, volatile crude in railroad accidents, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which regulates energy production in the state, said it would require Bakken Shale well operators to strip gases from crudes that show high vapor pressures.

Those changes could make the new rules more costly for the state’s smaller producers. Jack Ekstrom, vice president of government affairs for Whiting Petroleum Corp. said the rules don’t appear to be “a major material cost” he said. “This is perhaps more of a concern to a marginal or smaller operator.”

The state expects to issue final rules by December 11th.

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Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Home Again

Nebraska hospital prepares for new Ebola patient -- surgeon from Sierra Leone being brought back to the US for treatment. 

A surgeon infected with Ebola will be transported from Sierra Leone to The Nebraska Medical Center for treatment, a U.S. government official familiar with the situation said.
The doctor, a Sierra Leone national and legal permanent resident of the United States, is expected to arrive this weekend, most likely Saturday, the official said.

The official said it's not known whether the doctor was working in an Ebola treatment unit or some other type of hospital. The surgeon is married to a U.S. citizen and has children, the official said.

The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha is one of four hospitals in the United States that have biocontainment units and years of preparation in handling highly infectious disease such as Ebola.

NDIC Expected To Rule Thursday On Stripping Volatile Gases From Crude Oil Before Shipping -- November 12, 2014

From the Wall Street Journal:

Regulators set to decide on crude-by-rail shipping rules are relying on testing methods that may understate the explosive risk of the crude, according to a growing chorus of industry and Canadian officials.

The tests’ accuracy is central to addressing the safety of growing crude-by-rail shipments across the continent: whether Bakken crude contains potentially dangerous levels of dissolved gases. Several trains carrying Bakken crude have exploded after derailing, including a fiery accident last year that killed 47 people in a small town in Quebec.

The North Dakota Industrial Commission is expected to rule Thursday on what steps, if any, producers must take to strip volatile gases out of crude oil before loading it into railroad tank cars.

The regulator’s decision will be based, at least in part, on the testimony of a half-dozen oil executives who urged the state to consider the conclusions of a study by the North Dakota Petroleum Council, a lobbying group for energy producers.

That study found Bakken crude was no more volatile than other so-called light crudes commonplace in Texas and elsewhere.

But that finding may reflect a problem with the methodology, which could have allowed flammable gases, or light ends, to escape in the process of collecting and handling the crude samples. This means that tests aimed at determining how explosive crude is within a tank car might be significantly underestimating the risk of combustion.

For googling, this is known as "crude oil stabilization."

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The Wall Street Journal

Russia entering the Ukraine ... again -- NATO.

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Is part-time work the new post-recession norm? This is the lede:

The unemployment rate has fallen sharply over the past year, but that improvement is masking a still-bleak picture for millions of workers who say they can’t find full-time jobs. Now economists are wondering whether the elevated level of part-timers is a post-recession norm.

The only question I have, is ObamaCare mentioned? Yes:

On one side are economists like Ms. Girard, who say greater economic uncertainty and rising labor costs—from increases in the minimum wage, regulations or health-care expenses stemming from the Affordable Care Act—explain higher levels of part-time work.

“There is a structural element to this at the very least,” she said. The health-care law requires employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent workers to offer affordable insurance to employees working 30 or more hours a week or face fines.

“Companies are just more inclined to hire part-time workers, not necessarily because of the health-care law, but for business reasons that make it a more attractive option,” Ms. Girard said.

Anecdotal reports have suggested employers have cut hours to prepare for the implementation of the health-care law, but that hasn’t been borne out by economic data.

An analysis by Bowen Garrett of the Urban Institute and Robert Kaestner at the University of Illinois at Chicago found a small increase in part-time work this year, but the increase occurred for part-time jobs with between 30 and 34 hours—above the 30-hour threshold that would be affected by the health-care law.

So, don't blame ObamaCare.

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Could we see another government shutdown? GOP may use must-pass spending legislation to thwart Obama's threatened immigration rules.

Supreme Court considers voting-rights case in Alabama. It appears the court might be upset that African-Americans are getting too good at gerrymandering. LOL.

"Everyone" now wants the Keystone, it seems -- Democrats in the Senate are looking for a unanimous vote to approve the Keystone. Previously reported.

A fourth African country -- Mali -- now has two cases of Ebola. Fortunately it's not that east to contract. In another note, POTUS seeks $6.2 billion in emergency funding to fight Ebola. And yet another Ebola story: trials of antivirals to treat Ebola start next month. 

Obama to nominate a lizard Lazard banker for a top Treasury post.

I assume there is a lot more but my time is up.