A History of Horizontal Drilling in the Tyler Formation -- Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

At the link, click on the second story from the top at the right: a history of horizontal drilling in the Tyler Formation in the Williston Basin, North Dakota.

Talk about perfect timing, and a huge thank you to Don for sending me this link. I would have missed it.

It's perfect timing because I've been blogging about the Tyler off and on over the past few weeks.

COP: Profit up 66% Despite Production Drop --

Link here.

I lost the bubble on this, but wasn't COP the one who put out a warning just a week ago saying their numbers would be down 20 percent due to natural gas price debacle?  I'm sure it was COP, but I could be wrong.

ConocoPhillips' said Wednesday its fourth-quarter earnings rose 66% compared with a year earlier thanks to higher oil prices and despite a drop in production and weak refining profits.

The Houston-based company reported a profit $3.4 billion, or $2.56 a share, up from $2 billion, or $1.39 a share, a year earlier. Excluding gains on asset sales and other items, earnings were up at $2.02 a share from $1.32 a share. Adjusted earnings bested analysts' expectations of $1.76 a share thanks to better-than-anticipated exploration and production results and a smaller-than-estimated drop in refining profits, said Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones.

Revenue rose 17% to $62.39 billion.

I guess we now know why Jim "Mad Money" Cramer keeps yelling his support for COP.

Huge Contract for McDermott -- Top Rigzone Story -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

Link here.

I've followed McDermott for a very long time; it's fun to read a story like this.

McDermott International has received a momentous contract, worth about $2 billion, from Inpex for the Ichthys gas/condensate field offshore Australia. The surf contract is the largest subsea contract the company has received to-date.

The Ichthys surf project includes engineering, procurement, construction, installation and pre-commissioning of production flowline systems, a MEG injection system, plus start-up condensate transfer and fuel gas transfer flowline systems, control systems, as well as other associated SURF elements in water depths of up to 902 feet (275 meters).

I can't recall the last time I heard/read the word "momentous" when reporting a contract. 

CLR On Mad Money -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

Ten (10) New Permits -- An Incredible Report -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, January 25, 2012 --

Operators: Petro-Hunt (2), Zenergy (2), G3 Operating (2), Liberty Resources, Hess, XTO, and Zavanna

Fields: East Fork, Murphy Creek, Blue Buttes, McGregory Buttes, Foreman Butte, Painted Woods, and Rosebud

G3 has two wildcats in Williams County.

Eight wells came off the confidential list; five were fracked.

Sixteen (16) wells were reported as plugged or producing, probably one of the longest lists in quite some time.

In addition, ten (10) more wells on DRL status reported IPs. All in all, an incredible report, including:

• 20160, 2,173, BEXP, Field 18-19 3H, Williams County
• 20845, 2,151, BEXP, Art 6-7 1H, Williams County

Hess reported some nice wells, as did CLR. They will be reported elsewhere.

But this was truly an incredible report, and typical of those going forward, I think. To recap:

• 10 new permits
• 8 wells came off the confidential list
• 16 wells reported as plugged or producing
• 10 wells on DRL status now completed and reporting IPs

That is a huge amount of activity by any standards.

Oh, by the way, "we" are back to 204 active rigs in North Dakota, tying the all-time high record.