Well Fire Reported In McKenzie County -- Sounds Like "All Is Well" -- August 18, 2018

Sounds like everyone involved did a great job responding to this emergency -- a well fire in McKenzie County, Tobacco Garden area. From myndnow:

Multiple anks caught fire in McKenzie County earlier the evening.

The McKenzie County Sheriff's office was notified of an oil well fire northwest of the Tobacco Gardens Resort.

They received several calls reporting black smoke, the ground shaking, and numerous explosions.

Keen Fire Department, McKenzie County Ambulance, and the Sheriff's office all responded to the scene.

The oil pad well had about 27 tank batteries, 16 crude oil tanks, and 10 water tanks on location.

Approximately 50 barrels of crude oil was in one tank at the time of the fire and was contained inside the dike of the well pad.

It was reported the well site was not producing oil at the time and was shut down earlier in the day due to work needing to be be done on location. 

Workers were on the location at the time the fire started, but no injuries were reported.

Wow -- that last line was the most important: no injuries were reported.

Contributor At Seeking Alpha Suggests Oasis Was The Seller In The Whiting "Bolt-On" Acquisition -- August 18, 2018

At the sidebar at the right, "Deals in the Bakken," about one-third of the way down, the most recent deal posted was the "Whiting bolt-on": 55,000 acres for $130 million.

Today, Don found an article completing the story. Apparently Oasis was the seller. Over at SeekingAlpha:

• Whiting Petroleum acquired nearly 55,000 net acres in the Williston Basin for $130 million
• this appears to be Oasis's Foreman Butte position, which it had categorized as lower-quality acreage
• Whiting believes that it can achieve stronger results with its Generation 4.0 completions
• the new acreage is on trend with Whiting's strong performing Mallow 34-8H well, although that well is located a fair bit to the east of the acquisition
• Whiting is able to take a relatively low priced risk due to its improved financial position and cessation of Redtail development spending

I would not have guessed. I did not think Oasis owned that much acreage in this area.

Oasis, August, 2018, corporate presentation --

• slide 4: net acres in the Williston Basin -- 503,000 net acres
• see note below: at end of 2017: 520,000 net acres
• so, something doesn't add up
• selling 55,000 net acres should have put their total acreage well bellow 500,000
• perhaps the deal has not closed yet and Oasis is not yet reporting it?

From "Bakken operators":

• enters the Permian; announces that it will buy 20,000 acres there; December 12, 2017
• expects to raise $500 million by selling non-core Bakken assets 
• had 517.8 thousand net acres in the Bakken prior to the announcement
• announces interest in spinning off an MLP, May 19, 2017
• Daily activity report: 156 SM Energy wells transferred to Oasis
• Record two-month production for Oasis? February 2, 2017.
• January, 2017: Motley Fool update; very, very bullish; SM Energy deal a big, big deal
• November, 2016: with SM Energy deal closing December 1, 2016, Oasis should have 540,000 net acres

From Whiting's presentation, the "bolt-on":

Bolt-on appears to be mostly Tier 2 (by 2018 norms) but some Tier 1.

Now compare Oasis acreage in the Williston Basin:

The SeekingAlpha contributor references this Oasis deal earlier in the year:  $283 million / 65,000 acres = $4,500 / acre.

CLR With Plans For Ten More Putnam Wells -- August 18, 2018

Active rigs:

$65.91↑	8/17/2018	08/17/2017	08/17/2016	08/17/2015	08/17/2014
Active Rigs	59	53	32	74	194

Four new permits:

• Operator: CLR
• Field: East Fork (Williams)
• Comments: permits for a four-well Putnam pad in NENW 25-156-100; back on August 10, 2018 -- from the daily activity report -- CLR has permits for a 6-well Putnam pad in NENE 25-156-100;

And that was all.

****************************************

The Putnam Wells

The graphic:

The wells: 

• 27049, 1,189, CLR, Putnam 1-25H, East Fork, t3/14; cum 359K 6/18;

Making Mexico Great Again -- August 17, 2018

Wow, I'm in a great mood. My seasonal allergies are kicking in but other than that ...

... I just got back from a 8-mile bike sprint. I took my usual 3-mile "relaxing" ride to Starbucks early this a.m. I got my blogging done and then had a "brain storm." I jumped on my bike and rode as fast as I could to Schwab in Southlake (TX), made an appointment for next week, and then continued the sprint back home.

First thing I see is this link sent to me by Don: NAFTA deal on track -- could bolster US - Mexican natural gas trade. Anyone who has been following this story and politics in Mexico, this is an incredible story on so many levels. From the article:

After some strong rhetoric on both sides, it now looks like the Trump administration and Mexican counterparts could have a preliminary NAFTA deal by the end of the month. This would be quite timely given that Mexico's newly elected President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will take office in December and has indicated he would respect renegotiations. In particular for my field, a bigger and better NAFTA would boost the growing U.S.-Mexican energy relationship built on free-trade.

As the go-to fuel, natural gas will increasingly be the story between the two nations. Mexico has accounted for the bulk of U.S. gas exports, with 90% coming from pipelines and the rest from LNG. The U.S. now accounts for 60-65% of Mexico's total gas supply. Since its domestic output comes along with crude oil extraction as "associated gas," Mexico's gas production has fallen 30-40% since 2010 alone, as its oil production has been spiraling since the 2004 peak.

And now, with AMLO wanting to ban fracking, U.S. gas could gain even more market share in Mexico. Although fracking isn't expected to be a significant source of domestic supply for at least five years, Mexico does have great shale potential: an EIA-reported recoverable shale gas resource of 550 trillion cubic feet. AMLO will serve just one 6-year term but has made answering the question of "When Will Mexico Start To Frack For Natural Gas?" even more difficult to gauge.

Mexico's goal is to expand oil production by 30% or so to ~2.6 million b/d, but the coming stream of new gas supply that would bring won't significantly reduce the need for more U.S. supply anytime soon. Just recently, as new pipeline capacity has been added and some lines became fully operational, pipeline imports into Mexico are breaking the 5 Bcf/d mark for the first time. That's over 6% of all current U.S. natural gas production  - and could reach over 6 Bcf/d next year. Ultimately, without the Mexican gas outlet for U.S. sellers, our prices would be ~40% lower, which again, could do more harm than good.

More at the link.

Now this.

I wrote this on the blog a couple of days ago:

My wife has signed up for a financial management course. It's a free course. Won't cost her a thing. She says she doesn't know anything about managing money. Actually she does quite well. I will be her instructor. The financial management course will be to show her where our assets are and how to access them after I die ... which, of course, could be sooner than later.

A reader noted that and suggested this video in response:

Taps
That suggestion can be interpreted at least two different ways: one humorous, one more serious. I took the suggestion as a very humorous suggestion.

But. having just talked with Schwab -- and, no this is not a paid advertisement -- I think I have a four-point plan that will work just fine.

Reveille Wow, what a great country.

Mr Klug Goes To Washington -- August 17, 2018 -- The Market, Energy, Political Page, Part 2 -- T+4

Making America great again, link here:

Mayor Howard Klug and City Administrator David Tuan are among a select group of North Dakota leaders, invited to the White House on August 30, where Trump administration officials are eager to hear about the North Dakota miracle. Chiefly, how western North Dakota has helped to not only feed the world, but keep its engines running. 

New airport on schedule, link pending -- original source has wrong link.

New airport construction is continuing to move forward and was the main focus of the Williston City Commission meeting Tuesday evening. The XWA project team received approval on two task orders for construction on the commercial parking lot and navigational aide installation. They also discussed a new provider for electronic advertising opportunities for the current airport, Sloulin Field International.

DAPL to expand, link here:

The CEO of Energy Transfer Partners said Aug. 13 he hopes to announce an expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline soon. Kelcy Warren, CEO of the company that developed the $3.8 billion pipeline, participated in a roundtable discussion with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry and other energy industry leaders at the University of Mary in Bismarck.

**********************************

The Market, Energy, And Political News Of Note Today, Continues/Continued 

Does he ever sleep? Does he ever quit thinking? Wow, whether you love him, hate him, or somewhere in between, this president never quits. Now this: best advice ever -- Trump asks SEC to mull half-year corporate filings. Poll at the sidebar at the right: what are your thoughts? Perhaps base it on market cap? Perhaps by exception -- with SEC approval on case by case basis -- for companies like Tesla with huge market cap but earnings make little difference. I don't know.

Wow: the Dow held today; not up much, but up, after a 400-point surge yesterday. The other indices "red" but not by much. Correction: only one major index is still red, the NASDAQ -- think tech.

Nimble traders yesterday did well. I see some of the oil companies bounced back. But look at this:

• AAPL: up another percent, trading at new all-time highs, now at $215/share, and this is after going "ex-div" as the big guys say
• BRK-B: up a bit
• WMT: green, but not by much; still not at $100
• TSLA: dropping like a rock again
• UNP: in a trading range; one to watch with expanding economy and all that talk about truckers not able to keep up 
• ENB: up 3%
• ETP: up 2.5%