EEP: 2Q 2010

Enbridge Energy beats by $0.14, beats on revs; raises 2010 net income above consensus.

Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.85 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.14 better than the Thomson Reuters consensus of $0.71; revenues rose 34.5% year/year to $1.75 billion vs the $1.61 billion consensus. The company said, The Partnership's record earnings for the second quarter were primarily driven by strong performance in our Liquids segment and the continued benefits of its cost containment measures implemented in 2009. As a result of strong year-to-date results and its confidence in the continued strength of both its Liquids and Natural Gas segments the co is increasing its full year earnings guidance to a range between $410-430 million vs. Thomson Reuters consensus of $336.2 million.

Note that last line: Analyst estimates full year earnings to be $336 million. EEP has raised its full year earnings guidance to $425 million.

I continue to opine that 2010 will be a watershed year for the Bakken.

Newfield

Yahoo!Financial: NFX.

Conference Call, 2Q, 2010.

NEWS

February 28, 2011: SeekingAlpha update.

February 7, 2011: Proved reserves increased 20% in 2010; significant increase accounted for 80% increase in dollar value of proved reserves over 2010. Newfield announced its 2011 CAPEX will be $1.7 billion; no mention of the Bakken.

January 16, 2011: Update on NFX. 

August 7, 2010: Barron's: NFX Shares Are Cheap.

July 22, 2010: Earnings, press release, 2Q, 2010.

Washington Shelves Comprehensive Energy Bill

This is huge. Huge.

Senator Reid says his party has shelved a comprehensive energy bill for the indefinite future.

Update in The Dickinson Paper

Great article in today's Dickinson paper on the oil industry in North Dakota.

Some data points:

• Today: 138 wells; most are on 640- or 1280-acre spacing
• Record: 148 wells in 1981, but the spacing was generally 160 acres

• 2010: 100 million barrels to be produced (estimate)
• 2009: 80 million barrels produced

• May, 2010: 9.2 million barrels produced; most in any one month since oil discovered in 1951
• Some wells have been producing since 1951

• Natural gas, once seen as a by-product of oil, often flared off, is now being produced at record levels and being sold

I remain inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken. And the Three Forks Sanish.

Note: price of oil is surging again today; broke through $77 (again).

138

New record: 138 active drilling rigs in North Dakota. "We've" gone up four (4) rigs since the beginning of this week. I am very, very surprised to see this surge. I thought we would peak at 135, although experts predicted hitting 140 rigs sometime this year.

Established companies, such as BEXP, are still bringing in new rigs in as planned, and some established companies, such as CLR, have increased access to cash to expedite their drilling program this year. In addition, there are a few new companies still yet to bring their rigs into the state.

BEXP now has six (6), two more than they had at the beginning of the year. If I remember correctly, BEXP had four at the beginning of the year, added one in May, and now have added a second. They plan to have ten (10) rigs in North Dakota by the end of the year, again, if I remember one of their recent presentations.