Delta, Bakken, and a Refinery

Here's that story about Delta Airlines bringing Bakken oil to its "new" refinery. I had read that Delta was "thinking" about this, but I had not seen the story.

A reader sent me the story. Thank you.

Link here the mobile edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is another incredible story on so many levels. Remember: the Trainer refinery had been slated for closure. A lot of things came together, including Bakken oil to save this refinery, and to save a few jobs.

Who knew that the economic solution for the region's beleaguered oil refineries would arrive on a slow train from North Dakota?  

Delta Air Lines, the new owner of the Trainer refinery that is scheduled to reopen later this month, on Thursday became the third fuel producer in the Philadelphia area to announce plans to bring in crude oil by rail from the Bakken oil field in the upper Midwest. Edward Bastian, the airline's president, told an investor conference in New York that Delta plans to replace some imported oil at Trainer with domestic crude brought in by rail.  

The cheaper North Dakota crude could enhance the airline's plans to produce its own jet fuel, Bastian said. "It's very early to draw any conclusions, but this could lead to even larger savings," the airline executive told the Deutsche Bank Aviation and Transportation Conference.  

Delta is counting on its subsidiary, Monroe Energy L.L.C., to generate at least $300 million a year in savings by refining 80 percent of the airline's domestic fuel needs. Delta joins a fast-growing queue of refiners who are building unloading facilities and securing rail cars to tie into the North Dakota shale-oil boom, where producers are employing the same hydraulic fracturing method used to extract natural gas from Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale.

Go to the link for so much more.

US Marines Set Record: 22-Mile Shot -- Direct Hit on the Taliban

Link here.

I thought Bakken roughnecks were good hitting a 5-foot seam two miles below ground, but here's a story of the US Marines hitting a target 22-miles away, setting a new record.

If the link is broken, google: US Marines 22-mile shot

Random Update on the Matthew Schmidt Well

A reader requested an update on this well:

• 18427, 876, OXY/Anschutz, Matthew Schmidt 1-35-2H-143-97, Cabernet, F, t5/10; cum 115K 7/12;

Earlier reports stated that this well was not stimulated (fracked). There is a sundry notice dated February 21, 2012, notifying NDIC that the operator had erected a 10,000 bbl tank for frac fresh water storage. That is the top sheet in the well file; there are no sundry sheets regarding stimulation. The NDIC documentation suggests there is no pump on this well yet (though others have said that information can sometimes be delayed/omitted/wrong).

So, note the erratic production of this well in a very, very good oil field, drilled by Anschutz before being acquired by OXY USA, with a question whether this well was fracked earlier this year. Over 30 days in June, 2012, it produced five (5) bbls of oil; in just nineteen (19) days in July, it produced almost 2,500 bbls of oil. Interesting well.

Cumulative Production Data    Pool: BAKKEN     Cum Oil: 115522     Cum MCF Gas: 44768     Cum Water: 14408 Production Test Data    IP Test Date: 5/22/2010     Pool: BAKKEN     IP Oil: 876     IP MCF: 115     IP Water: 0

Monthly Production Data Pool Date Days BBLS Oil Runs BBLS Water MCF Prod MCF Sold Vent/Flare BAKKEN 7-2012 19 2499 1593 2498 509 509 0 BAKKEN 6-2012 30 5 0 28 0 0 0 BAKKEN 5-2012 25 20 0 238 0 0 0 BAKKEN 4-2012 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 BAKKEN 3-2012 10 301 697 137 169 169 0 BAKKEN 2-2012 28 962 690 978 396 396 0 BAKKEN 1-2012 22 2166 2077 7032 1106 1106 0 BAKKEN 12-2011 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 BAKKEN 11-2011 5 279 502 0 176 176 0 BAKKEN 10-2011 29 4478 4728 25 2003 2003 0 BAKKEN 9-2011 30 4392 4279 58 2211 2211 0 BAKKEN 8-2011 31 4821 5106 77 2273 2273 0 BAKKEN 7-2011 31 5086 4647 77 2509 2509 0 BAKKEN 6-2011 30 5817 6209 35 2693 2693 0 BAKKEN 5-2011 24 3614 3438 281 1771 1771 0 BAKKEN 4-2011 27 4053 4411 60 1425 1425 0 BAKKEN 3-2011 31 4756 4654 2335 1946 1946 0 BAKKEN 2-2011 26 4031 4106 8 1517 1517 0 BAKKEN 1-2011 29 5160 5013 37 1936 1936 0 BAKKEN 12-2010 31 6268 6204 210 1266 1266 0 BAKKEN 11-2010 30 5829 5449 8 1954 1954 0 BAKKEN 10-2010 31 6632 6919 33 3168 3168 0 BAKKEN 9-2010 30 7010 6907 33 3223 3223 0 BAKKEN 8-2010 31 8458 8697 37 2525 2525 0 BAKKEN 7-2010 31 9972 9601 47 3728 3728 0 BAKKEN 6-2010 30 12116 12471 68 4152 4152 0 BAKKEN 5-2010 12 6797 6061 68 2112 2112 0

Politics: White House Will Miss Deadline To Report on the Fiscal Cliff

Link here.

Two data points:

• The White House on Friday said it will miss the legal deadline for delivering a report to Congress on the spending cuts from sequestration that are scheduled to take effect in 2013.
• The Office of Management and Budget has repeatedly failed to make legal deadlines. It delivered its presidential budget proposals and mid-session updates late both this year and last year.

Dog-bites-man story.

Under the terms of the Sequestration Transparency Act signed in August, President Obama was to tell Congress by Friday how the administration plans to implement the $109 billion in automatic cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act (the "fiscal cliff").

I had forgotten all about this (in fact, I don't know if I was even aware of this requirement). It will be interesting to see how the White House plans to implement $109 billion in budget cuts. My hunch: smoke and mirror projections, mostly involving the military (close out two wars; postpone the Long-Range Strike Bomber program; close GITMO).  

Who Wudda Thought? USA Today -- North Dakota Badlands Balances Oil and Tourism

Link here to the Travel Section of USA Today.

But on a ridge beyond the quivering cottonwoods and grasshoppers flitting through knee-high prairie grass, an oil well pierces the horizon. It's a symbol of the "carbon rush" that has earned North Dakota the country's lowest unemployment rate and ranked it second to Texas in oil production — and is rapidly transforming what the late CBS newsman and native son Eric Sevareid called the "rectangular blank spot in the nation's mind."  

This summer, citing threats from nearby development in the Bakken, a 13,000-square-mile, oil-rich geological formation that spans much of western North Dakota, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Elkhorn Ranch one of the 11 most endangered historic places in America.  

North Dakota's still-accelerating energy boom is "one of the best things that's ever happened to this state," says Bismarck-based humanities scholar Clay S. Jenkinson, author of For the Love of North Dakota.

Fascinating story at the link.

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Nothing to do with the post. I simply enjoy folk dancing.