A Must-Read First-Person Account Of One's Experience In Williston, The Bakken -- December 7, 2014

Folks send me a lot of "stuff" on the Bakken, and some days I get pretty worn out going through all the stories.

I think I've read just about every "faces of the Bakken" story and every "feel good" story and every "feel bad" story that's been printed in the past several years about the Bakken, or about North Dakota, or about Boomtown.

Tonight, I got what I thought was going to be another "ho-hum" first-person account of the Bakken.

The story was anything but "ho-hum."

This is really a must-read first-person account.

The "interview" said it all.

I hope this story is picked up by a major media outlet and circulated to a much larger audience.

Here's the link. Enjoy.

And a huge "thank you" to the reader who took the time to send this to me. Much, much appreciate.

[I have not yet read all the comments to the story yet.]

I've added "Rachel" to the list of "Featured Blogs" at the sidebar at the right.

[Note: with regard to "ho-hum," I was referring to the way stories take on a formulaic style of writing; I was not referring to the individuals themselves. Hopefully that makes sense.]

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A Good Time To Remind Folks: Contribute To Your Favorite Charity

Mine: Salvation Army.

Energy Demands Driving Rail Car Industry Backlog -- TribLiveBusiness

Updates

Monday, December 8, 2014: see update on Greenbrier at this post.
 

Original Post

TribLiveBusiness is reporting:

There are 124,000 rail cars on back order as of September 30, [2014] according to the latest figures available from the Railway Supply Institute in Washington. That's up 25 percent from June 30, and an all-time high.

The larger manufacturers such as Trinity Industries Inc., FreightCar America Inc., and Greenbrier Co. Inc., have backlogs that represent as much as two years of deliveries at the current rate.

....strong demand for car types apart from tank cars and frack sand, especially for automotive, plastic and grain cars. Coal cars are one of the only car types for which demand remains lukewarm.

McKees Rocks is located in western Pennsylvania (think Marcellus), population, 6,000 or so. From wiki:

In the past, McKees Rocks was known for its extensive iron and steel interests. Also, there were large railroad machine shops, and manufacturers of locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and springs, enamel ware, lumber, wall materials, plaster, nuts and bolts, malleable castings, chains and forgings, tin ware, concrete, and cigars. The Pittsburgh, Allegheny and McKees Rocks Railroad is located in an area known as the "Bottoms."

At McKees Rocks (think Marcellus), according to the linked article:

At least 600 rail cars filled with sand arrive each month by train at Jim Lind's shipping terminal and warehouse in McKees Rocks

They're destined for Marcellus shale wells.

Each hopper car carries 100 tons of the sand, said Lind, president and co-owner of McKees Rocks Industrial Enterprises, one of a dozen companies in the region that handle sand for shale-gas drillers, much of it delivered by railroads.

“Frack sand is white-hot right now,” Sterne Agee analyst Sal Vitale said. It has been one of the principal drivers of the all-time high rail car industry backlog of 124,000 rail cars. That includes tank cars for oil, covered hoppers for sand, grain and other agricultural products, and multi-stack cars for vehicles.

Lind's company handles 3,500 to 4,000 rail cars of sand a year. The demand required him to more than triple employment from 20 to 70 since 2009, he said. “We've added more sites in Youngwood, Sayre and two in Ohio, Niles and Hannibal,” he said.

Switching gears, EOG is using upwards of 14 million lbs of sand to frack a single Bakken well. Divided by 2,000 lbs/ton, that works out to 7,000 tons.

7,000 tons divided by 100 tons of sand/hopper works out to 70 hopper cars. That sounds about right. A 100-unit fracking sand train for one to four Bakken wells depending on how much sand is going to be used.

A reminder: I often make simple arithmetic errors. If this information is important to you, go to the source and confirm the calculations.

This article was of interest to me for two reasons:

• a reminder of the backlog in tank cars for the railroad industry
• the sand-delivery industry in the Marcellus

By the way, it's my understanding the US truck manufacturing industry also has a backlog.

Dual-Fueled Trucks Coming To The Bakken -- Diesel/CNG -- December 7, 2014

This is an interesting story over at TheBakkenMagazine.com: Trident Resources brings dual-fueled trucking to the Bakken.

Several interesting data points in the article. I may come back to this article and post some of those data points. The technology could also be used to power diesel-powered oil well pumps.

Six Days On The Road, Dave Dudley  

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At Least It's Hard To Catch

FoxNews is reporting: the tenth (10th) Sierra Leonean doctor has died from Ebola.

Because Ebola is transmitted through the bodily fluids of the sick and dead, it is sometimes called the "caretakers' disease." Hundreds of health workers have been infected in this outbreak.

In the current outbreak, Ebola has sickened more than 17,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of those, about 6,200 have died. It is currently spreading fastest in Sierra Leone.

Yes, I missed the opportunity to name another Geico Rock Award nominee for 2014 when I forgot to nominate the individual who first told America "Ebola is NOT" easy to catch."

But that's water under the bridge.

2014 Geico Rock Award -- Voting Now Open -- December 7, 2014

These were the four nominees for the Geico Rock Award for 2014:

• Patrick Sullivan, Center for Biological Diversity, who is concerned California's oil and gas industry could "go the way" of North Dakota's oil industry (see photos at link)
• Scott DiSavino and Edward McAllister, Reuters, for suggesting the cold winter (last 2013-2014) was the cause of all "our" energy problems last winter
• Marguerite Coyle, assistant biology professor at the University of Jamestown, voices concern over a proposed transmission line with regard to migratory birds and never said anything about all the wind farms in North Dakota
• US Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, who seemed surprised about the North American energy revolution that had been going on since at least 2000

I will leave it up to the readers to vote for the 2014 award winner: Geico Rock Award:

a) Patrick Sullivan
b) Scott DeSavino and Edward McAllister
c) Marguerite Coyle
d) US Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz

Proposed Grand Forks Fertilizer Plant Receives Water Authorization; Pearl Harbor Over At The Los Angeles Times -- December 7, 2014

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

The State Water Commission granted permission Friday for Grand Forks to pump additional water from its wastewater lagoons and the Red River to meet the needs of a proposed fertilizer plant and other industrial users.

Northern Plains Nitrogen is proposing a $1.85 billion, 340-acre fertilizer plant on the north edge of Grand Forks. Construction is scheduled to start next year, with startup expected in 2018.

The plant would produce about 1.5 million tons of fertilizer products per year.

To meet the plant’s water demands, the city sought permission to pump 7,287 gallons per minute from its wastewater lagoons, or 11,755 acre-feet of water annually. Currently, the wastewater is treated and released back into the Red River.

I track the proposed Grand Forks fertilizer plant here.

Back-of-the-envelope: the state-built Devils Lake outlet can discharge up to 100 cubic-feet of water per second. One-hundred cubic-feet was of water = 0.0023 cubic-acre of water.  At 0.0023 cubic-acre/sec, that is 8.3 acre-feet per hour, or about 72,000 acre-feet per year. Yeah, it looks like there should be more than enough water most years. [I often make simple arithmetic errors; if this information is important to you, go to the source and confirm the calculations.]

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73 Years Ago -- The Day That Continues To Live In Infamy

Even if you don't have a subscription you might be able to catch some of the photographs and some of the stories remembering Pearl Harbor. At the link, scroll down until you get to the photos. This is a dynamic link and the stories will be gone by tomorrow, I suppose.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

My dad -- your great-grandfather -- was discharged from the US Navy following the end of WWII in the Pacific; he was discharged at Wilmington, CA -- near the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach.

He hitchhiked home to Newell, South Dakota, following his discharge. Prior to beginning his trip home, he visited San Francisco to see a cousin.

Your great-grandfather spent about 2/3rds of his WWII time in the Atlantic, and about 1/3rd of his time in the Pacific. He served on the USS Wakefield.