Railcar Boom Being Fueled by the Bakken Boom -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

Greenbrier Cos Inc. and American Railcar Industries Inc. can’t expand their fleets fast enough as demand for sand used in the hunt for oil and natural gas helps power U.S. railcar production to a three-year high.

“Everybody is asking for cars right now,” Dale Davies, chief financial officer at American Railcar, said in a telephone interview from his Saint Charles, Missouri, office. “Everybody is trying to ramp their capacities up as much as they can. We’re pretty much full for 2012.”

Folks have been writing me asking about investment opportunities in railcars, wondering which companies to look at.

This is not an investment site; see disclaimer at sidebar on the right.

I think I've counted not less than ten (10) crude-by-rail oil loading facilities built or being built in the Bakken. It is amazing to see them being built. These are not going to be small operations. With the death of the Keystone XL pipeline the CBR industry will accelerate.

In this case, the rail enthusiasts see huge demand for trains hauling gold.

Trains transport as much as 2,500 tons of sand for a single hydraulic fracturing project, which involves splintering open tiny cracks about a mile beneath the earth’s surface to unlock stores of petroleum and natural gas. When the so-called fracking is complete, a different set of railcars hauls out the thousands of barrels of newly discovered fuel.

The data points at the linked article are incredible.

Bakken Bust? Basin Doesn't Bite -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.  (A reader alerted me to this story; thank you.)

The most important point in this story was buried near the end: "anticipated construction could start in 2014."

A big company is not going to announce a 190-mile 345-kw transmission line to help meet the energy needs in the Bakken if they didn't think the Bakken was going to be around for awhile.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative, a major player in the coal industry, has just made that announcement.

Basin's in-house projections show that by 2025, demand for electricity in the oil patch will increase another 1,300 megawatts, or about one-fourth of all power produced now in North Dakota.


The new line, as proposed, will run from the co-op's Antelope Valley Station in the heart of Coal Country to the Williston and Tioga region, served by Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative, where nearly 90 rigs are drilling.

In surface area, the North Dakota Bakken comprises a relatively small percentage of North Dakota, although that may change a bit over time. And to imagine it will require one-fourth of all power produced (not consumed) in North Dakota.

Discovery Channel's "Ice Road Truckers" May Be Here -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Remember this trivia posted a few days ago?

Carlson said CNN reporters did a ride-along with the department recently and other national news organizations have descended upon the town. He said producers of the Discovery Channel’s “Ice Road Truckers” reality show plan to soon come and follow Williston police officers for a new television series.

I just received a comment from a reader that "they" are here, apparently staying in the trailers / mobile homes / homes on wheels / whatever over at Williston State College. 


Ice Road Truckers, Driving Down Into the Bear Den, the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Oh, speaking of following the police around for a few days, here's a story on crime in Williston. For those who have not been keeping up with the news out of Williston, the oil boom has resulted in a crime wave, so bad that folks are being quoted as saying, "We want our town back."

In today's Williston Herald, there are five stories on the front page. Three of them are above the fold, including one on bus drivers petitioning the city to slow down traffic at 4-mile corner (I agree); one on zone changes approved for more homes (good); and, then the following story. Again, remember, this is on the front page, above the fold and the headline right below the banner, about the same location where the Herald headlined the D-Day Invasion, back in 1944. (I don't have an on-line link, so this is being re-typed.)

Headline: Thief Caught on Camera; Busted

This is the story (again, remember this is the crime wave folks are talking about in Williston):

A pop machine was broken into at the El Rancho Wednesday. Adam Wayne Ready, 23, Shoshone, Wyo., stole $80 in coins from the Pepsi machine.

He then exited the building, crossed the parking lot and entered a camper parked there. 

Hotel staff called the police and the rest is history: confession, arrest, open-and-shut case.

I don't think the details to the Michael Jackson death were this good: not just any pop machine, but a Pepsi machine. The perp was seen exiting the building, to cross a parking lot, to get back to his camper.

Law and Order. Had it been a Coke machine, it would have been Law and Order: SVU.

And then this story, November 3, in the Williston Herald:

But that’s just what happened last Saturday, said the 50-year-old Everitt, who moved to Williston seven weeks ago for work and has been living in his van.

Everitt was charged with theft of utilities after he pulled his 1997 Chevrolet Astro next to the Raymond Family Community Center and used an extension cord to plug in a space heater that he has in his van.

Everitt was sentenced to 10 days in jail, eight days suspended and a $200 fine.

Williston Police Lt. Mark Hanson said police typically don’t go looking for people who are illegally plugged into electrical outlets, but if they get a complaint they will react to it.

And stealing is stealing, Hanson said.

“I don’t care if it’s 12 cents worth of electricity. He’s still stealing it,” Hanson said.

And because the Raymond Center is a public facility, Everitt is “stealing from the taxpayers,” Hanson said.

Hanson said a misdemeanor theft charge such as this can carry a maximum $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail.

Wilder said the city attorney pushed for four days in jail, but he decided two would be enough.

Four days in jail for 12 cents worth of electricity; I hate to imagine what will happen to someone who steals $80 from a Coke machine. Sorry, a Pepsi machine.

I can hardly wait to watch these crimes unfold on Discovery Channel as Geraldo-Rivera-wannabees follow Williston police around town.

In Trace of TF: A Montana Hunter's Journey by Dan Aadland -- A Bit of Nature in the Bakken

Update

See comment below: for book lovers, a great site to find books.

Original Post

In 2002 I started an aggressive reading program. I had not "read" since my days in college. But for very private reasons I started reading with a vengeance in 2002.

I generally buy only used books, seldom paying full price. I now have a very nice library. The subject matter is not particularly important as long as it is "good" writing.  My attention span is such that it's difficult for me to read just one book at time; generally I have about four going, reading a few pages of each now and than, and eventually getting through them. I am not so worried about finishing a book; I simply enjoy reading "good" writing.

The four books on my bed or desk or couch right now are a) The Great Sea, by David Abulafia; b) Plains Folk: North Dakota's Ethnic History, by William Sherman; c) The Lakotas and the Black Hills, by Jeffrey Ostler; and, d) In Trace of TR: A Montana Hunter's Journey, by Dan Aadland.

In San Antonio my favorite bookstore is Half-Price Bookstore, a discount book store of used books. But in Williston, my favorite bookstore, and one of my favorite stores overall is Books on Broadway. And, yes, all four books above I bought at Books on Broadway. I have two copies of Plains Folks; my first copy is at home in San Antonio, but I enjoy it so much, I bought another copy so I could read it while visiting the Bakken.

I have just started reading Dan Aadland's book. Wow, it is awesome. Again, it is simply great writing; even if one does not get excited about the title or the subject matter, the writing is so good, one will enjoy reading it just for the sake of reading.

I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it three months ago, but now after being back in the Bakken for about that length of time, the book really hits home.

The author raises horses in south-central Montana. This is his third book (at least according to the jacket). Like Theodore Roosevelt, Aadland is a hunter on horseback and he is at home in Roosevelt's  North Dakota world. It is so much fun reading the words that are used out here to describe nature. I think my favorite phrase so far (I have not gotten very far in the book) is "mudded out." A driver and his pickup truck are "mudded out" during or shortly after a bit of rain that turns the clay to gumbo, and it's impossible for the truck to move. It does not bother him; in fact, he prepared for it, and he and his wife simply camp out in the nosecone of their gooseneck trailer (in which they are hauling horses) until the roads dry out.

I think out-of-state truckers, after about six months in the Bakken, would find this book very pleasing.

Harold Hamm on Bloomberg -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Bloomberg television: Harold Hamm on the Bakken

• Reiterates 24 billion bbls technically recoverable bbls of oil equivalent
• Despite possibility of additional Three Forks payzone, reluctant to go beyond 24 billion bbls
• Estimates 48,000 wells needed to drill out the Bakken

A big "thank you" to Gregg for alerting me to the video.