Flaring Solutions In The Bakken -- October 13, 2021

Flaring solutions in the Bakken, catalysts:

• ESG;
• ND state's tax credit to encourage less flaring.

Link to The Williston Herald. Archived.

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We're Being Played

Link here.

Anybody who believes that the Biden administration is truly concerned about high gasoline prices is being played. 

One doesn't need internal polling to show Americans are deeply concerned about price of gasoline and inflation.

"Let's go Brandon."

Right now, if Americans are placing the blame on anyone, it's Resident Biden -- based on his low polling. Right, wrong, or indifferent the Biden administration knows they need to get that monkey off their collective back and onto someone's else back.

Trump is out of the picture (sort of) so the administration needs to look for another scapegoat. 

Headline: President Bidens asks Big Oil for help. 

Translation: if prices don't drop, blame Big Oil.

From the link above:

If "I" were Big Oil, my opening gambit:

• "Mr President, is the Keystone XL back on the table?"

Rigs Don't Matter -- Not To Be Taken Out Of Context -- April 30, 2021

Link here. This article is archived.

Natural gas processing plants in North Dakota are tracked here.

From the linked article:

Although oil production in most US shale basins is not expected to reach pre-coronavirus levels until at least late 2023, additional processing and higher gas-to-oil ratios might still lead to natural gas growth in the oil-rich Bakken.

Oneok increased its first-quarter natural gas and natural gas liquids volumes processed in the Williston Basin and plans to bring another 200 MMcf/d of processing capacity online before year-end, which will further reduce flaring in North Dakota.

Gas volumes processed in the Rocky Mountain region increased 5% while NGL raw feed throughput volumes grew 20%, the company reported in its first-quarter 2021 earnings call on April 28. This occurred despite winter storm production freeze-offs in February and lower year-over-year drilling activity in the region.

"The Williston Basin continues to surpass our expectations," Oneok CEO Terry Spencer said. "Our increased operations were not reliant on increased rig activity or commodity prices. Instead, it is based on DUC inventory, rising gas to oil ratios and increased ethane demand."

Oneok chief operations officer Kevin Burdick said: "There are 350 DUC wells on our dedicated acreage. With eight completion crews, there is no need for additional drilling or completion crews to maintain our volumes throughout the year. Any additional activity would provide upside."

With more than 200 MMcf/d of natural gas still being flared in the Bakken, according to the latest data by the North Dakota Industrial Commission, more volumes of gas can still be captured even if production stagnates for the foreseeable future, especially with wells demonstrating higher gas-to-oil ratios.

The company is moving forward with its 200 MMcf/d Bear Creek natural gas processing plant expansion and related infrastructure in the Williston Basin, which is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Gas Capture Goals Met -- North Dakota -- Director's Cut -- August, 2020, Data

Screenshot from the Director's Cut, released October 16, 2020, with August, 2020, data:

Notes From All Over With Item On ND Flaring -- September 29, 2020

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

Dividend calendar: 119 ticker symbols -- go ex-dividend today. Link here. With commission-free trades, this has been the most fun I've had in years. Taking a small portion of my portfolio and "re-balancing" simply on dividends every month. I'm probably not making any money but it provides a bit of cash for other long-term investments which really interests me. 

Survey of consumer finances (SCF): the rich keep getting richer. Actually, more to the point, the investing class keeps getting richer. Link here to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Entertainment: I've been binge watching Leverage for the past few nights, starting about 11:00 p.m. and going well into the wee hours of the morning. I am just blown away by the iPad. And the  Pencil. The ads are annoying, but one can effortlessly "shrink" the picture into the corner, and then open another video, let's say Schitt's Creek on Pop. Both are free -- Pluto Television and Pop. Or if not interested in another television show, check my mail or any other site. When the add is over, bring Leverage back to full screen. And it's completely effortless, especially using the  Pencil. 

Speaking of the  Pencil, Sophia absolutely loves using the pencil when she is learning Spanish on Duolingo. She can't wait to get to the apartment complex to start using Duolingo. Biggest problem. Temporarily losing the pencil several times a day. Can't wait until Apple release air tags or whatever they're going to be called.

CBR: Alberta to Alaska. It's in the news again; Trump supports it. I won't link it; the story doesn't have legs. Pie in the sky. 

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For The Archives: ND Flaring

From Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories last week:

The North Dakota Industrial Commission approved revisions this week to the state's gas capture policy that don't change gas capture targets, but do tweak the regulations to encourage additional investment to allow the state to meet its gas capture goals.

Producers are currently required to capture 88% of produced natural gas, a target that will increase to 91% as of November 1. Thanks in part to the recent market downturn, producers are now capturing 92% of gas produced in the Bakken.

Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, noted that producers also exceeded capture targets in the previous oil price downturn five years ago, but couldn't keep pace when growth resumed, so it's important to adjust the rules to make sure producers continue to meet capture targets.

 

Helms said the changes, which include removing exemptions in some areas while tightening restrictions in others, are the byproduct of extensive dialogue with the industry. He said there is general agreement among all parties that revisions are appropriate.

Graphic:

Completing The Discussion On That "Pop-Quiz" Earlier Today -- April 14, 2020

This completes the blog I started earlier -- link here to the "pop-quiz" from earlier today.

A reminder: the NDIC now reports natural gas statistics for each well: the amount of natural gas produced by the well; the amount sold, and the amount vented/flared.

In the "old days,"

• MFC produced = MCF sold + vented/flared;

But now, more and more, in the Bakken:

• MFC produced ≠ MCF sold + vented/flared

Where is the "missing MCF (natural gas)?

A reader provides this:

Since the DMR has added the "Flared" column in wells' production profiles, it is now possible to determine how much produced natgas is consumed or re-injected (for gas lift Artificial Lift) for each well/pad.

This is determined by starting with gross production, then subtracting amount sold, then subtracting amount flared.

The remaining balance - if any - should be the amount burned onsite to power compressors and/or generators with the rest being injected back downhole for the now near-ubiquitous (in the Bakken, soon, everywhere) gas lift approach in the Artificial Lift phase.

(There are at least 3 main subsets to this, but I am still trying to gather information).

Bottom line, using the two Lime Rock wells from today - #24511 and #-33634 - one finds: ~500 M cubic feet/month consumed for the former, with ~ 800 M cubic feet/month for the latter.

(I started tracking this months ago with the 500,000 cubic feet per month per well being about average).

Using a VERY generous 'retail' price of $2/mmbtu - essentially $2.00 for every thousand feet of natgas - these operators are 'paying' (to themselves, no less) between $1,000 and $1,600 per MONTH for the use of this natgas.

In reality, these operators - Lime Rock, in this example - are getting FREE fuel for their equipment and re-injection purposes. Equipment seems mainly to consist of the aforementioned compressors and generators.

Very little info seems to be in the public domain in these matters.

Absolutely fascinating. 

Flaring: Triples Over Two Years In The Permian -- March 15, 2020

Published in S&P Global Platts back on March 6, 2020. The Permian:

• flaring triples 
• tightening of regulations likely
• federal government could start regulatory push next year (2021)

By the way, this is a big deal here in Texas -- lots of ads.

Flaring, or burning off associated natural gas during oil production, has roughly tripled in two years in the Permian. And, as flaring has skyrocketed, so have the calls to curb it. But there is little agreement on how that should be done.

"We want to reduce flaring ... the question is how we do it," Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton recently told reporters.

Sitton, a Republican, lost his re-election campaign in this week's primary election. James Wright, the Republican who defeated him, has yet to outline a plan for flaring. But both Democrats still vying for their party's nomination in November's election have said they plan to make the state's flaring permitting process stricter.

Either Democrat faces long odds of victory in November, but even if one bucks Texas voting trends, it is unclear how much one new member of the three-member commission may be able to do.

To put this in perspective (with a bit of hyperbole): replace Lynn Helms with St Greta.

Okay: a lot of hyperbole. But somehow I needed to understand why this has become such a big political issue in Texas. I think it was the #1 political ad running in Texas before the primary.

Again, going into the general election:

Sitton, a Republican, lost his re-election campaign in this week's primary election. James Wright, the Republican who defeated him, has yet to outline a plan for flaring.

But both Democrats still vying for their party's nomination in November's election have said they plan to make the state's flaring permitting process stricter.

Most Interesting Development -- March 6, 2020

Updates

April 14, 2020: as scheduled, the PSC was scheduled to consider this pipeline request today, The Bismarck Tribune link here.


Later, 2:39 p.m. Central Time: an eagle-eyed reader caught this one. Look at the story below.

• Time line:
• story published today by The Williston Herald 
• pipeline to be operational by April 1, 2020
• PSC hearing two weeks later: April 14, 2020
• time to construct: 6 - 8 weeks
• Comments:
• either a typographical error, and more likely to be operational by July 1, 2020; or, 
• "they" have the ditch dug, pipe in place; just waiting for the go-ahead?  

Or someone's watching too many re-runs of "Back To The Future."
 

 ************************************

Original Post

Link here.

As the amount of Bakken gas production has increased, future BTU limits on the Northern Border pipeline have become more and more likely. That’s prompting a unique proposal for an alternative, high-BTU gas market in the Williams-Mountrail County region.

Liberty Midstream Solutions is proposing a 4.7 mile, 8-inch residue pipeline on privately owned lands in the area to take high-BTU residuals to an existing third-party line, from where it could be sent to markets in Chicago.

The Alliance Sales Line would carry up to 80 million cubic feet per day for an estimated construction cost of $4.6 million.

The Public Service Commission has set a public hearing for the pipeline at 9 a.m. April 14 at Neset Consulting Service in Tioga. The company has asked for waivers of some procedures and timelines to expedite construction.

Liberty hopes to have the line operational by April 1, 2020. It would take six to eight weeks to construct.

Much, much more at the link. Archived.

Maps:

Top Story, North Dakota Energy, Last Week -- Geoff Simon -- Royalties -- February 18, 2020

This is actually one court ruling that I can understand after reading it only once. 

First, this:

In a strongly worded letter to its members, the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) calls a decision by the state Land Board an "overreaction" to a recent court decision regarding royalty deductions associated with processing natural gas.

The Land Board this week issued guidance to Land Commissioner Jodi Smith regarding a ND Supreme Court ruling in the case of Newfield Exploration v State of North Dakota.

The bottom line of the court ruling was that "Gross proceeds from which royalty payments under leases are calculated may not be reduced by an amount that either directly or indirectly accounts for post-production costs incurred to make the gas marketable."

In response, the Land Department sent a letter to producers notifying them that if they have been deducting post-production costs from royalty payments, they have been underpaying royalties. NDPC takes issue with the state's insistence on royalty payments going "as far back as 1979, long before the Newfield ruling was handed down."

The Petroleum Council maintains that the law does not require a lookback beyond the Newfield case, which was initiated in 2017. 

The Land Board included a flowchart with the letter that specifies how the gas royalties should be paid and would impose penalties and interest that NDPC says "will cost our industry tens of millions that would otherwise be invested in drilling new wells or gas capture infrastructure." The Petroleum Council's letter argues that the Land Board's action "violated the public trust by prioritizing what amounts to a quick cash grab over the health of the very industry that is sustaining the trust funds under the Land Board's control." NDPC urged its members concerned about the issue to contact Land Board members.

Lynn Helms:

North Dakota's top oil-regulator said he is concerned about potential consequences of the state Department of Trust Lands' action regarding collection of unpaid royalties on natural gas.

Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, said he cautioned the Land Board that being overly aggressive in their efforts would be a disincentive to reduce flaring "because the quickest and easiest way to reduce the royalty burden on gas is to flare it."

With natural gas wellhead prices well below $2.00 per thousand cubic feet, it is not economic to capture and process the gas.

It is only because of state's gas capture regulations that they are compelled to do so. The inability of producers to deduct expenses from royalty payments tends to discourage investment in gas capture infrastructure.

Helms said he advised the Land Board to consider the implications of any decision to collect royalties on natural gas on the much larger pot of royalties paid on oil production.

1979? Get out the popcorn.

*********************************

Long Ago, And Far Away

An earlier life:

It's hard to see, but it appears we (John Erickstad and I) were both majors in this photograph.

"Field grade” officers are mid-level executives in the grades of major (O-4), lieutenant colonel (O-5) and colonel (O-6). Traditionally, [US army] companies were organized into regiments commanded by colonels and assisted by a lieutenant colonel (as the second-in-command) and a single major (serving as the senior regimental staff officer and performing essentially the same function as a modern-day battalion or regimental operations officer, or “S-3” officer).

“Company grade” officers are junior executives in the grades of lieutenants (second and first) and captains (O-1 through O-3). Link here. 

Re-Visting Flaring In The Bakken -- The WSJ -- January 12, 2020

Updates

Later, 6:02 p.m. CT: denouement here.

Original Post

 From the weekend edition, Saturday-Sunday, January 11 - 12, 2020 -- "Billions of Dollars Up In Smoke."

These are the numbers are compiled by Spencer Jakab in this article.

For what it's worth, it is estimated that ... drum roll ... "flaring may be responsible for 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions."

1%.

That's it.

From all the hand-wringing, I would have bet closer to 99%. LOL.

So, 1%.

The US is #4 in flaring, behind:

• Russia (752 billion cubic feet flared)
• Iraq: 629
• Iran: 611
• US: 498

So, the US is #4 behind those three.

1%. Global flaring. Global emissions. 1%.

And the US is #4.

And in the US, the Bakken is only one of several shale plays flaring natural gas, and it is nowhere the biggest. That would be the Permian.

Jakab's article took up a whole half page of the 12-page "Exchange Section" in the weekend edition. For a non-story in the big scheme of things. And a story that's been repeated over and over for the past several years.

No mention that the manufacturing process of a single wind turbine will release more carbon than that turbine "will save" in a 30-year lifetime.

But I digress.

What a ridiculous article. What a ridiculous issue. My hunch is that Audrey Mascarenhas, CEO of Questor Technology, got to Jakab for the article. Questor Technology produces machines that safely process over 99% of methane and volatile organic compounds at oil wells. It has been widely used in Colorado which has stringent anti-flaring rules.

If something doesn't make sense, google it or follow the money. In this case I followed the money. Right to Questor.

***********************************

Low Hanging Fruit

What would be the low-hanging fruit if one wanted to do something about flaring?

More natural gas gathering pipelines and processing plants.

Well, duh.

But what would be the low-hanging fruit to get more of those gas gathering pipelines and processing plants built?

Faster buildout.

And what is the low-hanging fruit for a faster buildout of natural gas processing?

All things being equal, the best thing one could do to build out natural gas processing brings us to NEPA. And Trump will roll back unnecessary regulations meant only to stymie progress.

Speaking of which. This is where Buttigieg does not get it. He rolled out a "one-trillion-dollar infrastructure" program for the United States if he's elected president. He could do as much (and more, and spend nothing) if he simply did what Reagan and Trump worked and work to do: cut unnecessary regulations. Congress and President Buttigieg can pass a "one-trillion-dollar infrastructure" program but with regulations in place, those projects would never see the light of day.

***************************************

Flashback

Texan Sophia.

2014.

Natural Gas Plants -- North Dakota -- Williston Herald Update -- October 31, 2019

Flaring: companies looking to invest billions in North Dakota to "manage" the flaring issue. Link to The Williston Herald. Recommend archiving.

• reports that Bakken companies are building out natural gas infrastructure at a dizzying pace
• companies involved:
• Hess
• Crestwood Midstream
• ONEOK
• currently: 78 - 81 percent of the Bakken's natural gas is being captured
• only 5% is due to "stranded" production -- where infrastructure does not exist
• the problem: bottlenecks -- not stranded gas
• Hess: #2 producer in the Bakken -- I assume the reporter is talking about nat gas production
• six rigs
• those six rigs will produce (sic) about 165 new wells (time-frame not reported)
• currently 1,500 actively producing wells
• inventory of 15 years of drilling
• inventory of 3,000 more wells for Hess
• Hess has already committed about $3 billion toward proving nat gas gathering and processing
• effort began with expansion of the Tioga gas plant ot 250 million cubic feet per day
• a joint venture with Targa Resources for a 100-million cubic feet per dry plant
• Tioga plant will be expanded again to 400 million cubic feet per day, likely in 2021
• that won't include fractionation -- that market is already saturated
• Crestwood Midstream -- on Fort Berthold
• building smaller plants to get them up and running more quickly
• one small facility up and running within seven months
• a second plant now under construction: 120 million cfpd
• investment: $668 million so far and climbing
• Y-grade NGL
• waiting for ONEOK to complete its Elk Creek Pipeline
• will carry up to 240 million bbls per day out of the Bakken
• ONEOK
• already has about 1 billion cfpd of natural gas processing in the Williston Basin
• by 2021, ONEOK plans to have !.6 billion cfpd
• current projects
• two large processing plants in the Keene area, Demicks 1 and 2
• each: 200 million cfpd
• a 200-million-cfpd expansion of Bear Creek in Dunn County
• Demicks Lake plants -- part of an overall $2.3 billion capital plan the company announced last year

Natural gas processing plants in North Dakota are tracked here.

For more, see the tag: NG_Plants_ND.

The "Boogeyman" Returns -- August 17, 2019

Not ready for prime time. Two problems here. I am rushed for time but I want to start the conversation so I will post what I have, planning to come back to it later. But this essay is still in progress. Second, I am not a good writer, never have been. I am not as articulate as I need to be.

Note: do not parse phrases or sentences. Take the essay in its entirety; the "gestalt" as it were.

Updates

Later, 5:50 p.m. CT: this is so incredible. I proofed the essay below and then removed "In Progress" from the subject line. Then checking twitter for news about another issue, I come across a link to this Forbes article: 

Because some pipelines from the Marcellus traverse NY state on the way to other states, Governor Cuomo is essentially setting energy policy for all of New England. How does he get away with it? LOL. But it proves the point in the essay below.
 

The Essay

I'm looking for a better word than "boogeyman" to describe the phenomenon, but for now, I will use "boogeyman" as a placeholder.

There is no question there are bad actors at the nation-state level that would like to see the US oil industry severely constrained, if not destroyed altogether. At the top of that list would be Russia and certain state actors in the Mideast.

The success of the US shale revolution has now become an existential issue for Saudi Arabia and Iran; and possibly an existential issue for other Mideast countries, like Iraq.

If one looks at the past 20 years of the US shale story, one can start to see that mosaic of efforts to kill US shale.

The US crude oil shale revolution began in 2000 in Montana, but the real jump began in 2007 in Parshall, ND, with EOG's discovery well.

Fracking literally caught everyone by surprise. Had fracking developed slowly, I am convinced that the shale revolution never would have occurred. Had protestors been able to shut down fracking in Montana in 2001, or in North Dakota in 2007, that would have been the end of fracking. Lessons learned in the Bakken make the Permian possible. Had fracking been banned in North Dakota, those lessons would not have been learned. The Permian was a dead basin at the time. There are states that ban fracking (e.g., New York) so anyone who suggests that banning fracking across the US never would have happened carry no credibility as far as I am concerned. Does California ban fracking? I have to check again on this -- but for all intents and purposes, it is my myth (worldview) that fracking is dead in California. [In fact, I would go so far as to say that long term -- twenty years out -- the tea leaves tell me the California oil industry is dead.]

The bad actors at the nation-state level have so far been unable to stop US fracking but their efforts continue. Again, it's an existential issue for them. There are multiple ways to stop the success of the US shale sector.

Let's count the ways:

• stop pipelines; we'll come back to this later
• increased regulation
• higher production/extraction taxes 
• report every saltwater / crude oil spill as a headline story / major accident;
• plant "scary" stories:
• folks can't handle the boom
• exploding rail tankers: this was a big one -- not one death occurred in the US due to CBR; the one "mishap" in Canada was entirely bogus 
• plant fake stories: 
• decline rates will be the death knell of fracking
• companies can't make money fracking; and, banks will quit lending
• companies can't make money fracking; scare investors
• density projections in the Permian fall short
• production projections in the Permian fall short
• fracking causes smajor earthquakes
• fracking leads to global warming
• methane leaks are the real problems; methane emissions, more dangerous than CO2, are not surging
• oil industry gets huge "subsidies" from the government
• solar and wind energy is less expensive than oil
• global warming
• CO2 emissions 
• fracking and flaring: a danger to oil field workers (added August 19, 2019)

I don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist but if one wants to call me one on this issue that's fine with me.

And, now, the Bakken boogeyman, flaring, as "an issue" returns.

I don't see flaring as a boogeyman.

I see flaring as an opportunity.

And yes, Virginia, there is a way to completely eliminate flaring in the Bakken. Shut down all drilling in North Dakota and Montana. 

Flaring -- August 16, 2019

From twitter this morning.

Again, the important graph is missing: radiant heat / production ratio. It looks like that ratio might actually be down.

I thought it interesting that the "Bakken [is/was] in full panic mode." Google search revealed .... nothing. The textbook on the shale revolution -- which will probably be the "shale bible" does not have "radiative heat" in the index. That book will be released on August 21, 2019.

By the way, an alternative spelling for "flaring": "opportunity."

Any permit for a greenfield plant to help manage this problem will be approved by the NDIC in a "New York minute."

Director's Cut, June, 2019, data, posted here. North Dakota sets all-time crude oil and natural gas production records.

Flaring In The Bakken: The Big Story #0OTT Missed -- August 15, 2019

Updates

August 16, 2019: one day later, #OOTT re-tweets it. 

Original Post 

From the Director's Cut for June, 2019, flaring:

• with natural gas at $1.77 / mcf (it was $.195 last month), the oil-to-gas price ratio at Watford City, ND, is 25 to 1
• statewide gas flared volume increased 154,966 mcfpd month-over-month (it decreased month-over-month in May, 2019, so this increase is disturbing)
• produced, April, 2019: 2,833,131 mcfpd
• produced, May, 2019: 87,471844 mcf for the month
• produced, May, 2019: 2,821,672 mcf/day
• produced, June, 2019: 86,330,660 mcf/month
• produced, June, 2019: 2,876,689 mcf/day
• 57,246 / 2,876,689 = about 2%; last month it was 0.554% or about half a percent; so in one month we went from half a percent to a 2% increase in production of natural gas
• capture rate:
• statewide capture: 76% (last month: 81%)
• non-FBIR Bakken: 80% (last month: 85%)
• FBIR Bakken: 63% (last month it was 69%)
• goals: a capture rate of 88%

Glad to see the BLM all over this one.

I have no idea what the "new rules" regarding flaring are but if interested, there is a tag, flaring_new rules.

Time to build that petrochemical plant. The amount of natural gas production is only going to increase.

Rigs Don't Matter -- North Dakota Sets All-Time Crude Oil Production Record As Well As BOE Production Record -- Despite Low Rig Count -- August 15, 2019

Stayin' alive -- the Bakken theme song. LOL.

Stayin' Alive, The Bee Gees
Posted. Data being updated now.

Director's Cut released. See link above.

I'm going swimming.

Good luck to everyone.

But "we're" gonna set a record 'cause rigs don't matter.

Wow, we're having fun now.

1.424625 - 1.394648 = 0.030 million bopd = 30,000 bopd increase month-over-month.

That's about a 2% increase, in crude oil production, month-over-month.

So, if rigs don't matter, what matters?

• total number of producing wells
• new wells coming on line each month
• frack spreads

For flaring data, see this post. June, 2019, flaring data at this post.

**********************************

June, 2019 

Data Pending

Disclaimer applies: I do this quickly; no time for proofreading. There will be factual and typographical errors.

Over at twitter it's being reported that North Dakota oil production:

• June, 2019 (preliminary): 1.424625million bopd
• May, 2019 (final): 1.394648 million bopd
• April, 2019 (final): 1.392485 million bopd

Crude oil production:

• June, 2019: 1.424625 million bopd (preliminary) (all-time high -- new record)
• May, 2019: 1,394,648 bopd (final)
• April, 2019: 1,392,485, bopd (final) (see above: I predicted: 1,392,810 -- off by 385 bopd -- whoo-hoo!)
• April crude oil production "increased" by 2,347 bopd or 0.1688%

Crude oil production:

• June, 2019 (preliminary): 1,424,625 bopd (it will be revised upward when the final numbers come out next month)
• May, 2019 (final): 1,394,648 bopd
• April, 2019 (final): 1,392,485 bopd
• January, 2019, all-time high: 1,403,808 bopd

Delta, crude oil:

• June, 2019 (preliminary):  1,424,625 bopd
• May, 2019 (preliminary):1,394,648 bopd
• April, 2019 (final): 1,392,485
• delta, month-over-month, bbls: 29,977 bopd increase
• delta, month-over-month, percent: a 2.15% increase

Natural gas production:

• June, 2019 (preliminary): 2,876,689 (new all-time high)
• May, 2019 (final): 2,819,443 mcfpd
• April, 2019 (final): 2,833,131 mcfpd (this is now the all-time high)

BOE:

• June, 2019: 2,876,689 MCF/day ( all-time high) = 479,368 boe (new all-time high) + 1,394,648 = 1,874,116 boepd

Producing wells:

• June, 2019: 15,741 (preliminary - new all-time high)
• May, 2019: 15,703 
• April, 2019: 15,503 
• March, 2019: 15,353 -- well below the all-time high of 15,409 in January, 2019
• February, 2019: 15,154
• January, 2019: 15,409

 Permitting:

• July: 141
• June: 127
• May; 140
• April: 129
• March: 133 
• February: 109

DUCs

• waiting to be completed (DUCs): 983 (down 2)
• inactive wells: 1,553 (down)

Gas capture [later: see this post]

• statewide: 76%
• FBIR: 63%
• non-FBIR Bakken: 80%

Time to build that petrochemical plant!

An ArgusMedia Line Re: Pipelines -- July 17, 2019

A reminder. Some weeks ago I received this comment from a reader:

If you click through to ArgusMedia and register, ther is a free half hour presentation on export pipes, grades, and prices. Really good explanation of stuff the MSM tends to mess up in discussion. 

The comment was in reply to this post: https://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-bakken-revolution-and-pipeline.html.

At the same time:

Here's the link for Argus webinars. Note there's a FEB19 webinar on Bakken flaring:
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/webinars?page=1

Other recent links that came in among the comments, previously posted:

The commenters at PeakOilBarrel (one of the successor sites to The Oil Drum) are already speculating that the Bakken is over.

http://peakoilbarrel.com/world-oil-production-as-of-march-2019/

It seems like every winter slowdown draws them like a moth to a flame. No memory of all their previous mistaken negative predictions. No comprehension of how winter affects ND. 

And:

A lot of talk about the percentage of the corn crop that got planted, but even where there's been decent emergence there wont be much of a crop in those areas where the fields have been flooded...my corner of NE Ohio had 10 inches of rain over the first three weeks of June and by the time my freshly tilled garden dried out, the soil had packed down to an impenetrable hard pan..

a good site for keeping track:
https://water.weather.gov/precip/

I seldom visit the site, but Peak Oil Barrel is perhaps one of the most entertaining sites out there. Talk about being out of touch with reality.

***************************

Memories

Women's Soccer -- World Cup -- Summer, 2019

Lyon, France

Flaring In The Bakken -- May, 2019, Data

See comments below. Reader provides link to podcast regarding the Bakken:  https://twitter.com/RTDukes/status/1144670377597112321.

From the Director's Cut for May, 2019, flaring:

• with natural gas at $1.95 / mcf, the oil-to-gas price ratio at Watford City, ND, is 25 to 1
• statewide gas flared volume decreased 15,700 mcfpd month-over-month
• produced, April, 2019: 2,833,131 mcfpd
• produced, May, 2019: 87,471844 mcf for the month
• produced, May, 2019: 2,821,672 mcf/day
• 15,700  / 2,833,131 = 0.554% or about half a percent
• capture rate:
• statewide capture: 81%
• non-FBIR Bakken: 85%
• FBIR Bakken: 69%
• goals: a capture rate of 88%

Glad to see the BLM all over this one.

I have no idea what the "new rules" regarding flaring are but if interested, there is a tag, flaring_new rules.

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Working On Her Multiplication Tables

Turned five years old about two weeks ago.

US Ranks 44th In Flaring Intensity -- July 13, 2019

Primer on flaring: this link will most likely result in a PDF being downloaded on your desktop.

The graphic at the bottom of the fact sheet is most interesting.

The graphic might be hard to read but the US is ranked 44th on that graphic. The graphic shows the top ten flaring/crude oil production countries, and then skips to number 44, the US.

For all the grief the US gets due to flaring, "North America" flaring, in fact, is incredibly small, compared to the rest of the world. Look at the small amount of flaring from all of North America compared to Afria and Eurasia. Link here:

More on flaring intensity here:

• Oil & Gas Journal, 2018 data

Slow News Day In Wichita -- May 27, 2019

From twitter today -- must be a very, very slow news day for The Wichita Eagle. I can't imagine anyone reading The Wichita Eagle really caring one way or the other. With everything going on in the world "today," it's amazing that The Wichita Eagle found space (or enough interest) to post it. Helps explain why newspapers are disappearing.

Nothing new in the article that wasn't already known.

Without Question, The Big Story In February, 2019, Director's Cut -- Flaring -- April 13, 2019

The February, 2019, data is posted here.

Ever since the Bakken boom began, the flaring issue has been most problematic on the reservation.

Some months ago, the state threw in the towel and relaxed the rules.

Prior to relaxing the rules, the percent of produced natural gas captured on the reservation was not too far different from that of the rest of the state.

The state goal is to capture 88% of produced natural gas, a compromise between what the faux environmentalists would like and the oil companies would like. Don't take that out of context. The oil companies have their "goals"; the faux environmentalists have their "goals." The former measures success in dollars and cents; the faux environmentalists measure their success differently, but certainly not in dollars and cents. Do not take that out of context. The regulators have to thread the needle using different parameters when setting standards, goals, regulations. Not an easy task.

We've had this discussion before.

Wow, a digression. All I wanted to say is that the state was approaching success in meeting their goal to capture 88% of produced natural gas. But the reservation is the laggard. Last month, the reservation captured 71% of produced natural gas. I thought that was an all-time (recent) low and couldn't get lower. Boy, was I wrong. In February, 69% capture rate.

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For The Record

Can Bakken Producers Finally Put A Lid On Gas Flaring? -- RBN Energy -- March 14, 2019

Seven wells come off the confidential list today -- Thursday, March, 14, 2019: 54 wells for the month; 274 wells for the quarter

• 34752, 276, Lime Rock Resources, Schneider 12-34-27H-143-96L, Fayette, t11/18; cum 19K 1/19;
• 34741, 3,384, WPX, Young Bird 34-27HA, Spotted Horn, t1/19; cum 46K 1/19;
• 34642, 1,874, CLR, Anderson 9X-4H, Willow Creek, t11/18; cum 139K 1/19;
• 34250, 55, BR, Raider 3A UTFH, Twin Valley, t1/19; cum --;
• 31819, 542, Slawson, Atlantis Federa 4-34-35MLH, Big Bend, t1/19; cum --;
• 30365, 2,528, CLR, Brandvik 5-25H1, Corral Creek, t1/19; 17K over 8 days, extrapolates to 72K/30-day month;
• 23941, SI/NC, XTO, FBIR Ironwoman 21X-10A, Heart Butte, no production data,

Active rigs:

$58.56	3/14/2019	03/14/2018	03/14/2017	03/14/2016	03/14/2015
Active Rigs	65	58	46	31	112

 RBN Energy: Can Bakken producers finally put a lid on gas flaring?

Producers in the Bakken and the rest of North Dakota flared record volumes of natural gas in the fourth quarter of 2018 — an average of more than 520 MMcf/d, or about 20% of total production — far exceeding the state’s current 12% flaring target. What happened? For one, crude oil production in the play took off; for another, the gas-to-oil ratio at the lease continued to increase. And while some new gas processing capacity came online last year to reduce the need for flaring, the pace of the additions was too slow to keep up with the Bakken’s rising gas output. The good news is that 2019 will bring more incremental processing capacity to North Dakota than any year to date. Today, we discuss recent setbacks on the flaring-control front and the prospects for things getting better later this year.

Bringing gas flaring under control in the Bakken in the Shale Era has been akin to breaking in a wild horse: Just when you start to think you’ve accomplished the task at hand, the bronco’s bucking again and you’re holding on for dear life. 

Producers in western North Dakota have been struggling for the better part of this decade to process and pipe out an increasing share of the gas they produce — and to reduce the share of gas they need to flare off. Back in 2011 and again in 2014, as much as 37% of the state’s produced gas was being burned off due to a lack of processing and pipeline takeaway capacity. That spurred the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) to require producers to file a “gas capture plan” (GCP) with their drilling permits and to put in place flaring limits. The new rules limit flaring to one year after a well’s first production, by which time producers will have to either connect the well to a gas gathering pipeline, cap it, or link it to an electrical generator or a compression or liquefaction system that consumes at least 75% of the gas onsite. Regulators also set targets for reducing the share of produced gas that is burned off statewide: flaring no more than 26% of total gas production by November 2014, 23% by January 2015, 20% by April 2016, 15% by November 2016, 12% by November 2018 and 9% by November 2020.