On Track For About 1,500 New Oil And Gas Permits For North Dakota For CY19-- November 17, 2019

As of November 16, 2019, it is projected that there will be a total of about 1,466 new oil and gas permits for North Dakota (99% Bakken permits) for calendar year 2019 based on current permit activity. With permitting possibly slowing down over the holidays, final tally may be around 1,450.

Permit activity for 2019 are tracked here.

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North Dakota Budget

This is "old" news -- reported back in August, 2019, but I can't remember if I posted the data.

Here it is, from this site. Data points:

• North Dakota's 2017 - 2019 budget cycle ended June 30, 2019
• revenues collected was 5.4% ahead of its general fund revenue forecast
• general fund exceeded the March, 2019, legislative revenue forecast by nearly $250 million
• "largely thanks to a larger-than-expected transfer of Legacy Fund earnings and more robust collections of sales and income taxes"
• more than $455 million in Legacy Fund earnings were transferred to the state's general fund in July, 2019
• previously reported: state representatives are asking the public how to spend all this money

I suspect November, 2019, Legacy Fund deposits will be reported this next week. Link here.

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Life on Earth

I get a kick out of the space probes looking for water. It's pretty much universally agreed that life requires water. Period. Dot.

Earth has water. Big deal.

What's impressive is how much water it has. No one ever seems to mention that. Scientists would be thrilled to find an ounce of water on Mars to prove life could exist there (or did exist there). And yet, no one ever mentions how much water there is on earth in these kinds of discussions.

Just saying.

Off The Net For Awhile -- November 17, 2019

Most important Bakken posts so far this morning:

• the incredible CLR Carus wells in Cedar Coulee;
• the initial production data for wells coming off the confidential list this week; and, 
• the wells coming off the confidential list this week by day/date.

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For The Granddaughters

How did the Cape of Good Hope get its name?

Boa Esperança in Portuguese.

boa = good

esperança = hope

From various sources:

In 1421 the Far East was cut off from western Europe, literally overnight.

First, in December, 1421, the overland route to China and the Spice Islands -- the great Silk Road running from China right across central Asia to the Middle East -- had been blocked when the Ottomans surrounded Byzantium. In that same climactic month, on 6 December, the Mamluk Sultan Barsbey seized power in Egypt and nationalized the space trade.

The effect of the two events was to ruin the merchants who had controlled the spice trade, seal Egypt's borders to international trade and sever the sea route through the Bosphorus to the western end of the Silk Road.

With the canal linking the Red Sea and the Nile (completed in the tenth century) collapsing and unusable, all land and sea routes to the East were now closed to Christians.

A new ocean route to the East had to be found.

When the "forefront of Arika" was discovered and successfully rounded, the Pope said there was "good hope" that a new sea route to the East had been found. 

So, there you have it. The Cape of Good Hope.

For extra credit, what is the southernmost point of Africa?

Cape Agulhas, the "Cape of Needles." About the year 1500, it was noted that the direction of magnetic north (and therefore the compass needle) coincided with true north in this region.

Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, is about 90 miles east-southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.

And finally, the name of the two currents that "meet" and turn from each other at Cape Agulhas: the warm-water Agulhas current from the east, and the cold water Benguela current from the Atlantic. The oceanic meeting fluctuates between the two capes.