The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog)

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Annual Permit Summary -- 2020

Permits, #37296 - #38059

14 of them were salt water disposal wells
three carbon capture and storage
746 gas and oil permits

Counties:

Dunn: 148
McKenzie: 272
Mountrail: 150
Williams: 134

Field (top ten):

Alkali Creek: 14
Antelope: 56
Bailey: 18
Beaver Lodge: 10
Big Bend: 29
Cedar Coulee: 23
Dimmick Lake: 16
East Fork: 10
East Tioga: 21
Elidah: 17
Elm Tree: 27
Hofflund: 21
Little Knife: 17
Mandaree: 18
Moccasin Creek: 19
North Fork: 23
Oliver: 16
Pershing: 28
Reunion Bay: 39
Sanish: 39
Stony Creek: 15
Westberg: 14

Not on the list above:

Grail
Haystack Butte
Hawkeye
Oakdale
Parshall
Truax
Van Hook

Operators: number of permits:

CLR: 125
BR: 110
MRO: 99
Hess: 50
Whiting: 50
XTO: 46
Enerplus: 45
Petro-Hunt: 38
Slawson: 29
WPX: 28
Kraken: 24
Zavanna: 20
Crescent Point: 17
Petroshale: 15
Oasis: 13
Sinclair: 9
KODA Resources: 8
Lime Rock: 6
Equinor: 5
Iron Oil: 4
Nine Point Energy: 3
Liberty Resources: 3
Bruin: 1
EOG: 1
Red Tail Energy: 1
SHD: 1
True Oil: 1
Rimrock: 1

Note: in a long note like this, there will be content and typographical errors. If this information is important to you, go to the source.

Number of new permits by year:

2008: 944 permits

first permit: 17002
last permit: 17945

2009: 625 permits

first permit: 17946
last permit: 18570

2010: 1,676 permits

first permit: 18571
last permit: 20246

2011: 1,924 permits;

first permit: 20247
last permit: 22170

2012: 2,522 permits

first permit: 22171
last permit: 24692

2013: 2,667 permits

first permit: 24693
last permit: 27359

2014: 3,010 permits

first permit: 27360
last permit: 30369

2015: 2,055 permits

first permit: 30370
last permit: 32424

2016: 818 permits

first permit: 32425
last permit: 33242

2017: 1,189 permits

first permit: 33243
last permit: 34431

2018: 1,466 permits

first permit: 34432
last permit: 35898

2019: 1,397 permits

first permit: 35899
last permit: 37295

2020: 751 gas and oil permits

permits, #37296 - #38059 (first year in which permit numbers included O&G; CCS; SWD)
nine of them were salt water disposal wells
three carbon capture and storage
751 gas and oil permits

Two New Permits, Twenty Permits Renewed -- New Year's Eve -- 2020

Active rigs:

	12/31/2020	12/31/2019	12/31/2018	12/31/2017	12/31/2016
Active Rigs	13	55	67	49	39

Two new permits, #38058 - #38059, inclusive:

Operator: Whiting
Field: Sanish (Mountrail)
Comments:

Whiting has permits for two Littlefield Federal wells in NWNW 34-154-91; both 2485 FSL and 390 - 435 FWL; Sanish oil field

Twenty permits renewed:

Operator: NP
Permits renewed:

two McDonald permits, 32-143-102, Billings
three Little Mo Federal permits, 12-142-102, Billings
one Mosser Federal permit, 22-143-102, Billings
three Audrey permits, 35-143-103, Golden Valley
five Trotter Federal permits, 26-145-102, McKenzie
six Roosevelt Federal permits, 28-143-102, Billings,

The EIA "914" Has Posted -- December 31, 2020

Link here.

First things first. This is really cool. When the NDIC Director's Cut came out in mid-December with October, 2020, data, the preliminary numbers suggested that month-over-month there was a slight decline in North Dakota crude oil production, October/September.

My "blog title" at the time: October production exceeded that of September. I was pretty sure that when the official figures came out later the "newer" / revised numbers would show that increase. And, in fact, they did, according to the EIA 914 for October, 2020.

The preliminary data at that time, from the NDIC Director's Cut:

Crude oil production:

October: 1,222,871 bopd (preliminary)
September: 1,223,107 bopd
delta: 236 bopd
delta: 0.00%

Now, the EIA data for October, 2020.

In kbpd.

Texas:

Oct: 4,632
Sept: 4,631
up 0.1%

North Dakota:

Oct: 1,218
Sept: 1,212
up: 0.5%

Whoo-hoo.

Over at the sidebar at the right, I asked, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, which would survive the meltdown best -- the Bakken or the Permian.

In the big scheme of things, the Permian did better through the slowdown, but at least for the most recent production numbers, North Dakota proved more resilient, up 0.5% m/m vs 01% for Texas.

But I'll give "it" to the Permian.

Anything else of note in the most recent EIA figures? Month-over-month, change:

US: down 4.1%
Alaska: up 4.0%
Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico: down a whopping 29.8% (even worse, year-over-year, down 44.8%). That should please the Biden enviromentalists.
New Mexico: up 5.6% month/month; up 13.3% y/y

For The Archives -- For The Grandchildren -- Nothing About The Bakken -- December 31, 2020

Updates

Okay: this blog is closed. Comments will be accepted but no more updates. Enough is enough. Time to move on.

Later, 1:53 p.m. CT: first it was the buskers about six months ago; now, through Emmylou Harris, it's "the basket houses": a cafe or similar establishment where musical performances are given and the performers are then paid with money placed in a basket by members of the audience.

Later, 1:46 p.m. CT: and, of all things, this all led me to this Emmylou Harris interview, posted just two weeks ago -- December 17, 2020. I'm always looking for "news" WRT Emmylou Harris.

Later, 1:35 p.m. CT: and that brings us to the Farfisa and Sam the Sham.

Later, 1:24 p.m. CT: more on Doug Sahm (and Charlie Pride, and Bob Dylan). Some may recognize Doug's backup vocalist on this song:

Later, 1:12 p.m. CT: flashback: when Sir Doug died in New Mexico. From that link, provided by the reader who started this whole digression from the Bakken:

In the 1970s [Doug Sahm] became an icon of the ``Cosmic Cowboy'' scene in Austin, along with Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker.

In 1973 he recorded an album called Doug Sahm & Band, which featured appearances by Bob Dylan, Dr. John and Flaco Jimenez.

In the late 1980s Sahm teamed up with Freddy Fender, Jimenez and Meyers to form the Tex-Mex super group The Texas Tornados, which had hits with songs such as "Who Were You Thinking Of ?" and "Hey Baby Que Paso?"

Original Post

We lived in San Antonio, TX, for over ten years before moving to north Texas in 2013 (during those ten years or so we also spent much time visiting and living in Portsmouth, NH; Summerville (Charleston), SC; and Boston, MA). But we have huge emotional ties to San Antonio, TX.

A reader sent me links to two Flaco Jiménez videos -- one of them on this page. My reply to the reader after watching the videos:

So much could be written.

1. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes was famous for identifying the geographical origin of an individual based on accent, dialect, whatever. Well, I about fell off my chair listening to Flaco Jiménez -- he sounded exactly like my father-in-law. Flaco was born/raised in San Antonio. My father-in-law was born / raised in Beeville, a small town just south of San Antonio.

2. I had forgotten all about Freddy Fender and the Texas Tornados. I used to listen to them frequently; don't recall if I've ever posted anything by them on the blog.
3. Finally, all that blue. Let's call it indigo. You can read about it on the blog when I get it posted later this morning.

Okay, so here's the video: