Charolais Cattle -- McKenzie County -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

McKenzie County, North Dakota, Charolais:

One of the nice things about blogging is observations made by other folks. I never thought about it, but it turns out the oil companies have contracted with a manufacturing firm to provide cattle guards in the Williston Basin.

On one of my first road trips, it was not uncommon to drive across four cattle guards to get to a well site. The cattle guards are identical and it is obvious they are being mass produced by a mom-and-pop operation with five employees. (I'm making that up, but you get the point.)

I was told the cattle guards are individually made at the site, and that may be true, but the cattle guards I drove over yesterday all looked alike. Until told differently, my hunch is they are being mass produced in a steel building somewhere in western North Dakota. [Update, June 23, 2012: being built by Steffes Group, Dickinson-based; business has doubled; recently added capacity west of Grand Forks.]

Why I Stay Excited About the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I wish I could say more, and I apologize that I cannot. This is a trivial posting but it's a datapoint that may prove interesting in hindsight.

There is a Fortune 500 company expanding in Williston. The company already has operations in the Bakken but is in the process of "building."

Based on comments, it sounds like there may be more potential than even the most optimistic scenarios (notwithstanding CLR's prediction of 24 billion barrels of recoverable oil).

Hydraulic Fracturing -- Fracking --

From PennEnergy:

What is the process of extracting natural gas from deep shale formations supposed to be called in its condensed version? Is it fracing or fracking? How about fraccing? Frac, frac-out and frac job also have been bandied about.

Fracking seems to be the short choice among most folks, although some industry officials and online media bloggers tend to favor fracing. But, fracing makes it appear the term rhymes with tracing when it actually rhymes with tracking.

Fracturing, fracing, fracking? In the end, it’s only a word.

I am attempting to be consistent throughout the site, and use the "k" when appropriate.  The AP style book and Modern Language Association will eventually sort this out. My hunch: the "k" will win out. 

I originally posted on this some time ago; one can find more at FAQ and scroll down to #34.

Still Think Price Of Oil Is Going To Go Down? Germany To Exit Nuclear Energy By 2022

Link here.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition declared on Monday it would shut all German's nuclear reactors by 2022, in a policy reversal drawn up in a rush after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The coalition, sensitive to accusations it may increase dependence on highly polluting brown coal, said it planned to cut power use by 10 percent by 2020.

"Highly polluting brown coal"?

"Cut power use by 10 percent"?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to sort out the carbon footprint on this one.

Bullwinkle Lurks

Neil tells me "they" have counted about 100 moose who have made their home in the Missouri Basin area.

My number one goal this trip to Williston is to get a photograph of a North Dakota moose. My niece has a photograph but it is taken with a smartphone at a mile or so away, and it looks like a brown speck.