Just a Reminder: Dakota Oil Processing LLC -- Trenton Diesel Refinery -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

From their website:

Dakota Oil Processing, LLC is a privately held, development stage company formed for the purpose of developing, constructing, owning and operating a crude oil topping refinery near Trenton, North Dakota.

DOP intends to construct a 20,000 barrel-per-day crude oil diesel hydro-skimming refinery near Trenton, North Dakota. The Project will receive and process light sweet crude and sell No. 1 and No. 2 ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) refined as the primary products for the local and regional markets. The secondary products produced will be naphtha, residual fuel oil and elemental sulfur, which will be sold as commodities into various markets. Propane will be refined and separated and either sold or used as plant gas.

I don't know the exact location of the proposed refinery but it will no doubt be located very near the Trenton crude-by-rail oil-loading facility.  That's coming along very nicely. It appears track has been laid. It will be interesting to see the actual facility.

As far as I know, the refinery project remains on track.  [I went back to proofread this. No pun in intended in that last sentence.]

Coal to Liquid: China Using It; US Not -- Recipe for Disaster

It looks like I need to bookmark Institute for Energy Research.

Today alone there have been two great articles from that site.

This is the second one: China using coal to liquids technology, a technology that is not allowed in the US.

China is on a fast track to meet its electricity demand, but not through hydroelectric power or wind power, where it leads the world in capacity, but through coal-fired generation. China is now the home of the world’s largest coal to liquids plant that is reaping in the profits. Yet, the United States fails to learn from China’s lead. The United States has banned the use of coal-to-liquids technology because the greenhouse gas emissions over its life cycle will exceed those of conventional oil. This is despite coal to liquids costs estimated at $45 to $65 per barrel.Thus, U.S. military establishments will either continue to pay for imported crude oil or invest in biofuel technologies that have a long way to go before they will ever become competitive with conventional sources.

Whether one buys into the "greenhouse gas emissions" and "global warming," one has to admit that the playing field is not level. China has the advantage. The climate will do what it is going to do, and China will have the resources to react. The US will be playing catch up.

The Final Dot Completes The Picture -- Why Obama Will Scuttle the Keystone XL

This is THE reason I love to blog. Folks help me find the dots that complete the picture.

What industry would be hurt most by the Keystone XL pipeline? The railroad.

What famous democrat owns a huge railroad? Warren Buffett.

Where does Warren Buffett call home? Nebraska.

Where is ground zero for the Keystone LX. Nebraska.

Link here. When you get to the link, go to the first comment, or go direct here.

Spacing on Ward-Williston's Thompson 1, File Number 4383 -- North Dakota, USA

Elsewhere someone asked about the spacing on:

• 4383, 115, Ward-Williston, Thompson 1, Northeast Foothills, Madison (not a Bakken)

The spacing is listed as "SW" by the NDIC which should indicate the southwest quadrant, or the southwest quarter of the 640-acre section. Thus, the spacing appears to be 160 acres.

Fiction Writing in Business

I see there is a book: Business Writing in the Digital Age available at Amazon.com.

It appears there is also a small cottage industry of writing fiction for business. A reader sent me a particularly good example of fiction writing in business, link here.

Here are some of snippets from that story, with regard to GM's explanation of why they are not adding a second shift to build more Volts:

• The company said Friday it has found ways to make one shift more efficient, so it can produce the same number of cars as two shifts. [Comment: I wonder if the union agreed to doubling output on one shift.]
• GM said the change had nothing to do with Volt sales, which have been slower than expected. The company said demand for the car still is strong and it's sticking with plans to build 60,000 next year. [They sold about 4,000 this year.]
• "This decision will significantly reduce costs, and has no impact on the plant's ability to make 60,000 Volts and Amperas," Lee said in a statement. "This approach is just a more efficient way to make the same number of vehicles."
• GM engineers figured out a way to clear several bottlenecks that were slowing down the Volt plant and increase its assembly-line speed, the company said. For example, they were able to speed up the body shop, where the frame and other parts are welded together, by automating more tasks.
• "Dealers are still clamoring for them," he said.

When I read the opening paragraph of the story in which GM said it found ways to make one shift more efficient, my cynical mind immediately thought: yes, hire non-union workers.

But I honestly was not going to print that. It sounded mean-spirited.

But then I re-read the post for typos and read closely the second to last data-point, and GM is doing just that. To improve efficiency, GM is hiring non-union workers, i.e., automating more tasks by outsourcing to robots.

I cannot make this stuff up. Great fiction writing, all the same.