A Shout-Out to My Australian Readers

This is way off-topic, but I owe it to my Australian readers, who have been most faithful.

I also have to admit I have a "romantic" relationship with Australia but to discuss it would be maudlin and treacly (like "fracing," "treacly" needs a "k" in it), so I won't go there.

North Dakotans complain about the truck traffic in the oil patch. They should be so lucky: here's what it's like in the outback in Australia:

Roadtrains

 
Slim Dusty

My favorite is the third of these three, and there are plenty more at YouTube.com.

Again, thank you to all my Australian readers.

Update: because you asked, here's a couple more:

BP Prepares to Pay! Fishermen Haven't Kept Records!

In preparation for and in anticipation of paying fishermen whose livelihoods may have been harmed by the oil spill, BP has asked for tax records to help them assess claims.

The only problem: some of these fishermen have not kept records for generations. Some of them often get/got paid in cash and have never reported the income. Hmmm.

"I worked for an uncle last year who paid me in cash," said a crab fisherman who asked to remain anonymous. "The BP guy wanted my tax statements, but how can I pay taxes if everything I earned was in cash?"

How can I pay taxes if everything I earned was in cash? Hmmm.

I can't make this stuff up.

Apparently some of these "companies" haven't even been able to produce a business license, permit, or other evidence of a legitimate business. I suppose BP could ask, "How can we reimburse you for damages if you don't know how much you made last year?" This is going to get real interesting, real fast.

By the way, two years ago I had a conversation with a fresh fish broker in Charleston, South Carolina. He said the same thing. Much of the seafood business is done in cash.

Oops! Hess Did It Again! An Orion Belt. Round 3.

For a full description of a Hess Orion Belt, click here.

Here is a very nice presentation by Hess regarding their multiple-well pads. 

This is really cool. Hess was granted six permits, again, to place six wells on one pad, this time in Robinson Lake, 21-T154N-93W, Mountrail County. They will go in the SWSE subquadrant and three horizontals, all long laterals, will go north; and, three will go south.

Specifically, the Frandson wells will go north into sections 21 and 16; and, the Trinity wells will go south into sections 28 and 33. I assume this is considered 2560-acre spacing which has generated a lot of discussion elsewhere. Some folks were concerned that a company was going to drill a 4-mile lateral on 2560-acre spacing, but obviously one can drill 2560-acre unit with standard "long laterals."

Specifically:

• EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-1, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-2, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-3, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-1, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-2, SWSE 21-154N-93W
• EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-3, SWSE 21-154N-93W

For another discussion of a Hess multiple-well pad, click here. 

119!

Yup, a new record: 119!

That's how many active rigs there are in North Dakota, May 28, 2010.

I still think there may be as many as 125 rigs: a couple days ago when I checked all companies individually, I noted that about ten companies had decreased their active rig count by at least one rig. I assume most of those rigs were in the process of being moved to a new site and not "active."

The big players in the Bakken have all increased their rig count substantially this year (EOG, CLR, and WLL) while one of the bigger voices out there, BEXP, has not increased its rig count in several months: it remains at five. It is hard to believe that the company almost synonymous with the Bakken, Hess, has only six active rigs compared to 17, 14, and 12 for CLR, EOG, and WLL, respectively.

For a more complete listing, click here.

Another Natural Gas Play

Shell pays $4.7 billion to buy private natural gas company.

I have opined for the past year or so that I think something is going on in the natural gas industry. Some smart folks are investing a lot of money in natural gas when prices are at historic lows.

I have accumulated shares in natural gas companies since I first started investing in 1984. I do very little trading, very little selling. I simply include shares of these companies in my overall portfolio. Most of the companies in which I buy shares pay dividends which I reinvest in the same companies that paid them. It hasn't been a pretty picture these past few years, but I continue to accumulate those shares. Time will tell how this all works out but it is interesting to see these natural gas plays.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story about Shell's purchase is full of "bad news."  Be that as it may.