Dueling Thermometers

An avid reader noted the Grapevine, Texas, thermometer posted yesterday ...

.... and sent me this:

Owner/operator of the Phoenix Metro RV Park, Larmon Haugen, says he enjoys the blog, and invites y'all to stop by and visit if in the Phoenix area.

It's dry heat, so it doesn't feel all that hot, they tell me.

Fracking, Politics, And Pennsylvania -- An Important Story To Follow

Link here to Platts.

Fracking became a hot issue after the Democratic State Committee voted 118-81 for a statewide moratorium on fracking. Following the June 15 vote, former Democrat Governor Ed Rendell told the Patriot-News newspaper the resolution was “very ill-advised.”

Rendell asserted that John Hanger and Kathleen McGinty, both former secretaries of the state Department of Environmental Protection, are the state’s “biggest environmentalists” and noted “both approved of fracking, permitted it and moved to put in place changes that have dramatically reformed the fracking process.”

The bottom line is the race for the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination will be anything but boring. Most state’s environmental groups passionately oppose fracking while many labor unions and business groups support it with enthusiasm. Urban area voters, many concerned about possibility of drilling in their backyard, are generally opposed, but many rural voters who profited from royalties and leases support it.

My hunch: the mineral owners are in deep trouble.  Class warfare. Demagoguery. The haves vs have-nots. Fear-mongering. Dimock.

An Old Madison Well >750,000 Bbls Since 1972 North Of Carpio, North Dakota; Lake Darling Oil Field

Check out this post first, posted earlier this morning, about homebuilding in Carpio and some Madison oil activity in the general area.

Lake Darling is a very irregular-shaped field, about 25 miles northwest of Minot.  

Then this: never underestimate the Madison.

About six miles north of Carpio,

• 25695, conf, Flatirons Resources, Stoa 41-1 2H, Lake Darling, producing as of July, 2013; looks like a fairly decent well, probably a Madison well

A well drilled in almost the exact location a few years has been mildly successful:

• 15732, 25, Flatrirons Resources, Stoa 41-1H, Lake Darling, Madison formation; t6/05; cum 84K 4/13; it has leveled off at about 1,600 bbls/month

Should folks be excited about this area? I'll let the reader decide. Less than five miles to the east of these two wells is this one:

• 5166, 30, Genesis St Operating, Vendsel 1 (a vertical well), Lake Darling, Madison, t4/72; cum 758K 4/13; it was shut in for awhile, but NDIC shows it now active, though very little production.

This well has been producing since 1972, was a simple vertical well, and has produced three-quarters of a million bbls of oil.

In the same section, 1,500 feet away from #5166, is:

• 5514, 264, Arsenal Energy, Federal Darling 1, t3/75; cum 688K 4/13; stripper well still active; 

And there are other Madisons with similar success.

So, some takeaways:

• a story today on new homebuilding in Carpio, ND (northwest of Minot)
• some spectacular Madison wells in this area from the past (and some still active)
• two rigs on site in this area at the current time (June, 2013)
• a cluster of new Madison sites northwest of Minot
• speculation for quite some time that the area north of Minot could be of interest again

Dracula

In this morning's edition of "links and news" I noted a WSJ book review regarding Dracula.

Bram Stoker

... did most of his research and writing while on holiday, holed up in the public library at the Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby. The thin historical background to the character appears to have been stitched together from a handful of references. From an article on Transylvanian superstitions, Stoker took both his setting and various details of vampire lore, including the tradition that the creatures are best killed with a stake through the heart. He invented other tropes, not least the inability of a vampire to cause a reflection, cross water or endure sunlight.

I had the wonderful fortune to actually spend a full day at Whitby, Yorkshire, some years ago.

A friend and I walked the English coast from Robin's Hood Cove (north of Scarborough) to Whitby.  It must have been a 15-mile trek along the very tortuous coastline. After walking about two hours, and very, very tired, we came across a Yorkshireman, and asked about Whitby. He said we were almost there. It was another two hours of walking.

Coming back, we took the main road, back to where we had parked the car -- that was a 5.5 mile walk.

At Whitby, I was also introduced to "jet" -- from wiki:

Jet is a geological material and is considered to be a minor gemstone. Jet is not considered a true mineral, but rather a mineraloid as it has an organic origin, being derived from decaying wood under extreme pressure. The jet found at Whitby, England is of early Jurassic (Toarcian) age, approximately 182 million years old.

Jet as a gemstone was fashionable during the reign of Queen Victoria, during which the Queen wore Whitby jet as part of her mourning dress. Jet was associated with mourning jewellery in the 19th century because of its sombre colour and modest appearance, and it has been traditionally fashioned into rosaries for monks.

I bought a small Whitby jet Christian cross for our younger daughter who, at the time, had spent several successive (and successful) summers as a missionary in Africa and Peru. I wish I had bought much more Whitby jet at the time as gifts or as artwork for our apartment walls, but I was already transitioning into my downsizing lifestyle.

Speaking of which: I updated my new address with my insurance company with regard to rental insurance. The agent asked if $75,000 was enough coverage for personal property. I had to laugh. I had trouble, as I looked around the one-room apartment, to think if I could come up with $50,000 in personal property. A tenth of $50,000 might be closer to what I really need.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Grapevine, TX, 2:30 pm, Saturday, June 28, 2013.

I think the thermometer above needs to be re-calibrated. The weather service reported 102 degrees, not 118 degrees.