Update on Diesel Refinery Southwest of Williston -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here to Oil and Gas Journal.

This story seems to be a bit dated. I blogged about it quite some time ago.

Dakota Oil Processing LLC, Williston, ND, is seeking financing and permits to build a $200 million, 20,000 b/d topping refinery in Williams County 16 miles southwest of Williston to produce mainly diesel to support the Bakken oil play and other local markets. [Trenton, North Dakota]

A 2011 design study indicates that the project would involve a 20,000 b/d atmospheric tower distillation unit and associated boilers, desalters, and other equipment, an 8,000 b/d distillate hydrotreater and associated hydrogen generator for producing ultralow sulfur diesel, a naphtha stabilizer, 667,500-bbl of tankage, and related facilities.

Two middle distillate products, kerosene and diesel, are to be blended to maximize the production of diesel fuel, the primary product for which the plant is designed. At capacity the plant could produce as much as 8,000 b/d a day of ultralow-sulfur diesel.

I would have expected a story on ground-breaking by now.

Mike Filloon on KOG -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here to SeekingAlpha.com.

I agree completely. KOG has the best acreage in the bull's eye of the Bakken. Infrastructure is in place.

This is not an investment site; be advised of disclaimer at the sidebar at the right. I accumulate shares of KOG on pullbacks, although I doubt KOG will pullback to the level at which I would buy more.

Something Tells Me We Will See the Sequel In the Not Too Distant Future

Link here to the New York Times: Libya's new government unable to curb militias as chaos grows.

TRIPOLI, Libya — As the militiamen saw it, they had the best of intentions. They assaulted another militia at a seaside base here this week to rescue a woman who had been abducted. When the guns fell silent, briefly, the scene that unfolded felt as chaotic as Libya’s revolution these days — a government whose authority extends no further than its offices, militias whose swagger comes from guns far too plentiful and residents whose patience fades with every volley of gunfire that cracks at night.

The country that witnessed the Arab world’s most sweeping revolution is foundering. So is its capital, where a semblance of normality has returned after the chaotic days of the fall of Tripoli last August. But no one would consider a city ordinary where militiamen tortured to death an urbane former diplomat two weeks ago, where hundreds of refugees deemed loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi waited hopelessly in a camp and where a government official acknowledged that “freedom is a problem.” Much about the scene on Wednesday was lamentable, perhaps because the discord was so commonplace.

Five (5) Oil and Gas Companies for the Long Haul -- For Investors Only -- SeekingAlpha

Link to SeekingAlpha.com here.

Companies mentioned: CVX, EOG, MRO, APA, DVN.

I hold and accumulate shares in two of the above. This is not an investment site; see disclaimer at sidebar at the right.

Eight (8) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, February 9, 2012 --

Operators: Whiting (3), Hess, BEXP, CLR, Crescent Point, Zargon

Fields: Truro, St Demetrius, Williston, Divide, Westberg, Ellsworth

Four wells were released from "tight status," and not one of them was completed/fracked.

One well on DRL status reported an IP;

• 20485, 762, SM Energy, Barnes 2-2H, McKenzie, Indian Hill, south of Williston, south of the river, a bit west of the Bakken bull's eye

I'm not real familiar with Zargon. Their last well was also a Truro field well, a Madison well, that is actually a pretty good well, producing a consistent 1,500 to 2,000 bbls of oil per month. The Truro field is about 25 miles north of Minot.  Zargon has about 100 permits in the Williston Basin going back back to to the late 1950's, including this one as just one example (this well is still listed as being active, but it hasn't produced since 2009, producing about 150 bbls/month at that time):

• 2330, 30, Zargon Oil (ND), Inc., Edwin Engstrom 1, North Haas, Madison, s5/59; t6/59; cum 135K 6/09; the North Haas field is about three miles south of the Canadian border, almost directly north of Minot