Oasis 4Q11 Earnings and Crude-By-Rail

Comment from Oasis earnings press release:

In February 2012, the quoted prices for oil coming out of the Williston Basin on pipeline (typically quoted at Clearbrook, Minnesota and Guernsey, Wyoming) ("Bakken Crude Oil") was substantially less than prices quoted for WTI due to refinery and transportation constraints. 

Transportation constraints were largely due to increased volumes produced in North Dakota in the second half of 2011.  In December 2011, oil production in North Dakota was approximately 535,000 barrels per day compared to approximately 386,000 barrels per day in June 2011. 

Oil from Canada also put pressure on the existing pipeline infrastructure that terminates in Mid-West refineries.

Although there was 300,000 barrels per day of railcar transportation capacity in place as of December 31, 2011, these railcar facilities are not running at nameplate capacity due to limited availability of railcars.  We believe the operators of these railcar facilities have railcars on order and expect utilization on these facilities to increase substantially during the first half of 2012. 

Additionally, during 2012 we expect to begin transporting a portion of our crude oil on gathering systems, originating at the wellhead, in the West Williston, which will eliminate the need to transport barrels by truck from the wellhead.  The gathering system is expected to provide us access to multiple pipelines and rail outlets where we can sell our crude oil.

NOG's CEO On Forbes List

Link here.

Michael Reger, the 35-year-old CEO of Northern Oil & Gas , was named by Forbes magazine as one of "America's Most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under."

Forbes ranked Reger as No. 13 on the list, which was led by Larry Page of Google and Andrew Mason of Groupon.

New Bypass West of Williston To Be Paved By July, 2012 -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Very, very impressive. Link to the Williston Herald.

The first phase of a proposed bypass around the west side of Williston will be completely paved by July and the state will do what it can to ease the burden on area schools and other public agencies severely impacted by the North Dakota oil boom.

Submarine to Be Commissioned: USS North Dakota

Commissioning in 2014.

Link here to the Williston Herald.

Unfortunately there is only an artist's rendition of the submarine; date of newspaper: February 23, 2012. 

Near the Heart of the Bakken, US Postal Service to Close Mail Center at Minot, North Dakota

Bureaucracies good at looking at old data; not so good at looking forward

Link here to newspaper of good news.

The U.S. Postal Service says it will eliminate mail processing centers in the South Dakota city of Huron and the North Dakota cities of Devils Lake and Minot in North Dakota.

I assume the mail center serving western North Dakota will be in Bismarck, ND.

National story link here.