Anything To Kill The Oil And Gas Industry

Reuters via Rigzone is reporting:

The White House said on Friday it will take a hard look at whether new regulations are needed to cut emissions of methane from the oil and gas industry, part of President Barack Obama's plan to address climate change.

Regulators will start by proposing new rules later this year to reduce venting and flaring from oil and gas wells on public lands, one way to begin slashing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, said Dan Utech, Obama's top energy and climate aide.

Most oil and gas production takes place on privately owned land.

The Environmental Protection Agency is going to study this year whether additional broader regulations are needed for methane emissions under the Clean Air Act, Utech told reporters on a conference call.

If the agency deems more regulations are needed, they will be completed before Obama leaves the White House at the end of 2016. Obama has set he wants to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020.

The only good thing: presidents come and go. Having said that, this suggests President Obama will never approve the Keystone XL 2.0 North.

Eagle Ford Gas Is Drawing Steelmakers To Texas' Coastal Bend (Corpus Christi)

Rigzone is reporting:

Upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry have long contributed to the economy of South Texas' "Coastal Bend," a 12-county region whose hub city is Corpus Christi. Not only is the region accessible to onshore and offshore oil and gas fields, but it boasts the infrastructure necessary to ship, store and process hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon products.

Lured by the region's growing port facilities and ready availability of cheap natural gas from the prolific Eagle Ford Shale play, two foreign-owned firms are bringing a newcomer – iron and steel manufacturing – into the Coastal Bend's economic fold.

"The addition of iron and steel manufacturing to the regions' economy will further diversify and strengthen our growing economy," said Roland Mower, CEO of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corp. "In fact, this region is experiencing an uptick in interest from international manufacturers interested in leveraging our low-cost, politically stable supply of natural gas as a fuel source for their manufacturing processes and our immediate proximity to the U.S. (Western Hemisphere) markets." 

While living in San Antonio for nearly twelve years, we often visited Corpus Christi and the surrounding area, especially to go birding. I always thought, economically, Corpus Christi seemed a bit depressed. This new steelmaking activity should really do wonders for the economy and employment. 

Random Note On Oasis Permit Inadvertently Omitted From Recent Daily Activity Report

Updates

April 4, 2014: see comments below. The "Pow" wells are for monitoring; they will not be producing wells. 
 

Original Post

In the March 27, 2014, file #28007 was overlooked. This is #28007:

• 28007, conf, Oasis, Straw Pow 5602 42-17, Bull Butte, 

I wouldn't have made a big deal of this except to note that a) this permit has no "H" designation" and b) based on siting of other wells in this oil fields, this permit is for a well in an unusual location if targeting the Bakken/Three Forks.

Note also this "Pow" well, reported January 25, 2014:

• 25763, drl, Oasis, Cornette Pow 5300 34-26, Willow Creek, no production data,

Oasis is known to be interested in testing the Lodgepole in this area.

From the well file of #19131, a Bakken horizontal in this same section:

The Lodgepole Formation top was drilled at 9,742 feet TVD. Approximately 581 feet (true vertical thickness) of argillaceous, skeletal lime mudstone were drilled in the Lodgepole Formation. Oil and gas shows were absent while drilling in the upper Lodgepole despite known fracture zones in the upper Lodgepole locally and no visible porosity was observed in samples. Fracture porosity is inferred near the base of the formation, and a 1,245 unit gas show along with a second, highter 1,673 unit recorded gas show were attributed to sourcing by fractures within the lower Lodgepole Formation.

It should be noted that some vertical wells in the Bakken are monitoring wells. 

The Williston Wire

No links; it is easy to subscribe to The Williston Wire.

This is quite a nice story; brings a lot of the past, present, and future together:  

The Williston Sea Lions will celebrate the grand opening of the new 50-meter Olympic sized pool at the Williston Area Recreation Center with an Olympic Gold Medalist!  Katie Ledecky, the swimming phenomenon who won the 800-meter freestyle during the 2012 Summer Olympics, will help dedicate the EJ Hagan, MD Natatorium, on Saturday, March 29, beginning at 10:15 a.m. The pool, which is housed in the Williston Parks and Recreation District's ARC, is named after Ledecky's grandfather, the late EJ Hagan.

Sean Hannity, host of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show and FOX News' Hannity with Sean Hannity, will be a keynote speaker at the 22nd Annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference. Hannity will join several oil and gas industry leaders and CEOs to address this year's theme, "Bakken Strong," and discuss the role oil and gas has in strengthening our state and nation's economy, job growth and energy security.

While Cash Wise grocery store is preparing to open in Tioga's north side, an adjacent strip mall is also taking shape.  Slated for occupancy in the 10,000 square foot strip mall is an Anytime Fitness franchise location, a China Express restaurant and a Cash Wise Liquor store, said Jay Moore of Oppidan Development.

Oil companies asked, and Sanford Health listened.  In a step to meet the tremendous challenge of providing health care in the booming oil fields of western North Dakota and eastern Montana and after working with leaders in the Bakken, Sanford Health is introducing an innovative new service - O.P.C. mobileMED. The service will provide health care services directly in the oil fields for oil-producing companies (O.P.C.) and their subsidiaries.  Sanford Health will deploy two mobile clinics on wheels and one modular clinic - initially in Watford City.

With no affordable rental housing available in Bainville, the school district is considering building two apartment buildings with two to four units each to accommodate housing needs for new teachers.  School trustees considered options during their monthly meeting recently.  As the oil boom spreads across the state line into eastern Roosevelt County, real estate and rental housing prices have risen due to the demand caused by oilfield workers looking for housing in Bainville and Culbertson and commuting to oilfield jobs at Sidney and Williston or farther.

For a group of self-described "over-educated and underemployed" young men from Minnesota, the lure of an "urban legend" is too great to ignore. That's why members of the team first came to the oil patch about 18 months ago and why they've returned this spring for another look. Everywhere in Minnesota, it seems, someone knows someone who went to the Bakken for a good-paying job, finding along with it high housing costs, long hours and a culture under siege.

International Manufacturing Company Buys Into The Bakken

This is a big story. When I was up in Williston last month, I learned about the huge oil tank manufacturing operations that are needed in the Bakken. The need has not been lost on others.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Steffes Corp. has announced the sale of its oil tank division in Dickinson to an Ohio company, according to a release sent out Friday afternoon.

The sale was made to Worthington Industries, a leading diversified metal processing company with annual sales of approximately $2.6 billion headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Worthington operates 83 facilities in 12 countries, according to the release.