Purely Coincidental: US Debt Crosses the $16 Trillion Mark; DNC Convention Opesn

Just saying.

Link here.

Heckmann To Buy Power Fuels -- The "Face" of Watford City

HEK

Updates

March 13, 2013: Heckmann Corporation - together with Heckmann Water Resources, Power Fuels and Thermo Fluids - will become "Nuverra Environmental Solutions."   

October 1, 2012: Human interest story on Heckmann / Power Fuels, FargoForum.

September 23, 2012: Encana with mobile LNG refueling stations.

September 13, 2012: Heckmann acquires another fracking water treatment company -- Appalachia Water Services; to serve the Marcellus. Note press release of April 5, 2011: Heckmann to have largest fleet of LNG or CNG vehicles in North America.

September 10, 2012: story at Dickinson Press/InsideClimate News.

September 5, 2012: see first comment. To make it easier, click here to see video on Heckmann on CBNC/Cramer.

September 4, 2012:  Heckmann had a huge day today; popped a dollar from $2.70 to $3.70. Google "Heckmann natural gas trucks." Some of the google hits:

• Heckmann teams up with Encana; largest natural gas fleet in North America
• the American way to natural gas vehicles -- Motley Fool
• Heckmann to have largest natural gas fleet in North America

Don suggests this: the Heckmann / Power Fuels deal will be the catalyst to shift "all" trucks in the Bakken to natural gas; it will start with all Heckmann Power Fuels trucks in the Bakken refueling at the natural gas processing plants that are springing up throughout the Bakken; natural gas corridors are being developed from Wyoming to California;

Some may see this as just another merger, but this provides Heckmann with a huge entry into one of the biggest hydrocarbon laboratories in North America. This could end up being a much bigger story than it seems on the surface. It would be a hoot for me to come back to North Dakota to see natural gas refueling stations throughout the oil patch. Developers/proponents of the proposed diesel refineries in western North Dakota are probably watching this development closely.

Original Post

Link here. (A huge "thank you" to "anon 1" for alerting me to this story. I doubt I would have seen it until later this week. I will be curious to see if any of the "big" sites pick up this story today.)

Heckmann to pay $125 million in cash and 95 million shares (currently trading about $3.25).

95 x 3.25 -->  $300 million --> about a $500 million deal when all is said and done. Folks will correct me if I have the numbers wrong, which wouldn't be surprising.

Heckmann's market capitalization is not quite $500 million. With $5 million in cash and $6 million in cash flow, this is quite a chunk to bite off.  (Again, from Yahoo!Financial if I'm reading the numbers correctly.)

I've blogged about PowerFuels a number of times; pretty much a Watford City story (Power Fuels website).

From Heckmann's website:

Heckmann Corporation is an environmental services company. The Company operates through two business segments.

Heckmann Water Resources (HWR) is dedicated to the movement, treatment and disposal of water generated by energy companies involved in the discovery and production of oil and natural gas.

Heckmann Environmental Service (HES) is a one-stop-shop for collection and recycling services for oily waste products, including used motor oil, oily wastewater, spent antifreeze, used oil filters and parts washers. Heckmann Corporation is building a national footprint across its environmental service offerings. The Company has more than 1,500 employees and operates in 52 locations in the U.S. 

In this announcement:

"Just three years ago, in the summer of 2009, we set out to build the largest environmental services company in the United States, operating in a completely new market segment. We are well down that path, and one billion dollars in revenue is within our reach."

Note: he said the largest environmental services company in the United States, not in the Bakken. I constant theme of this blog has been to emphasize the national (and international) influence of the Bakken. 

From this blog, regarding Power Fuels:

• Fueling the Watford City growth
• Around the oil patch
• Power Fuels story from a reader in Bismarck Tribune
• Apartment complex in Watford City

Buyout Candidates -- Second Half of 2012 -- The Bakken

Mike Filloon link here, buyout candidates in the Bakken, Part III.

See first comment regarding Part I and Part II of this series.

From Part III, the first link:

Exxon, Conoco, and even Chevron, will be looking for big purchases if and when it begins to acquire acreage. The companies will be looking for acreage on and around the Nesson Anticline as most of the big players have done. This is why Continental Resources becomes interesting. It has approximately 1 million acres, and continues to add. Of this acreage, a very large portion is in the vicinity of the Nesson Anticline. Although I find it hard to believe that Harold Hamm would be motivated to sell, all three companies could come up with the $19 billion to purchase this company.  

This would be a great introduction to the Bakken for Chevron.  

Whiting is another target. It has 712,000 net acres in the Bakken, but its acreage position differs from Continental and the company would be easier to buy. Whiting's acreage is not as good, but still interesting. Its Sanish acreage is probably its best from a Bakken/Three Forks standpoint, but its Tarpon acreage has the best well to date in the Bakken. It also has the largest acreage position with the Pronghorn Sands as the main target.  

All three could also be interested in Oasis and Kodiak. It is safe to say that at least one of the Big Three will be the top lease holder in the Williston Basin sometime in the future.

Monday Morning Energy Links; Development of the Bakken Is Seen As Accidental By Some

The IPs for wells coming off the confidential list over the weekend have been posted here.

With all the news of new ONEOK natural gas processing plants in the Bakken, one might be interested in learning about "frack spreads" as they apply to processing natural gas. In this discussion, this has nothing to do with hydraulic tracking to complete a Bakken well. RBN Energy explains.

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Price of oil? What, me worry? Chrysler sales rise 14% on strength of pickup sales.

Chrysler says its US sales rose 14 percent last month as the Ram pickup truck had its best August in five years. 

Meanwhile, Volt production will be halted sometime later this year so that production can catch up with demand. To the best of my knowledge, the federal government is not offering any incentives for folks to purchase Chrysler products.

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Some irony in this story. Ohio may just be the most important swing state this election. And it is the "tracking boom" in Ohio that is giving a boost to Obama.

"We're moving to energy independence by accident," said Philip Verleger, who directed the US Treasury office of energy policy under President Jimmy Carter and is now an industry consultant.  

"Energy policy had nothing to do with it." 

The boom in oil and natural gas is setting up an election-year irony: a green-energy president who is getting a boost form fossil fuels. [Never mind his EPA will regulate tracking in his second term.] 

Oil and natural gas is on the rise largely because of hydraulic factoring, which has given drillers access to reserves in shale rock formations once too costly to produce. The so-called tracking injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals thousands of feet below the surface to free fossil fuels trapped there, a process that Obama's environmentalist allies say increases air and water pollution.

Hmmm. "We're moving to energy independence not by accident" is right up there with "you didn't build it."

I wouldn't call what is happening in the Bakken an "accident."

If "we" get to energy independence it will be in spite of efforts by the current administration.

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When you read this article, an article about a huge oil spill that may contaminate Albuquerque's drinking water, see if you can see what federal agency is not even mentioned:

As environmental disaster sites go, it doesn't look like much. A scattering of rushing wellhead covers and a machine noisily sucking hydrocarbon vapors from the earth scarcely hint at what has grown into a $50 million headache. 

But nearly 500 feet beneath this spot, a plume of aviation gas and jet propellant that leaked undetected for decades from an Air Force fuel depot has sunk into the aquifer, drifting toward wells that help supply Albuquerque's drinking water.

A "word search" of the article does not return "EPA."

Having said that, I assume the EPA is all over this one. Let's hope so for Albuquerque's sake.

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The president grades himself on the economy: incomplete. Very, very scary considering where he wants to take the country. An entire term to turn things around: a trillion-dollar stimulus and we still have 12% unemployment in some states; 8% overall; gasoline nearing $5.00/gallon on East and West Coasts; and, those are just the headlines.

Speaking of Megaloads

Long-time readers know the background to this story. For others, you may want to check this link first.

As far as I know, moving "megaloads" across Idaho and Montana caused absolutely no environmental impact; they were moved at night and caused minimal problems for traffic.

Take a look at the photograph on the front page at the LA Times today. 

But for some residents in South LA, the excitement of the shuttle rumbling through their neighborhoods quickly faded when they learned that 400 trees will be chopped down to make room for the behemoth.

Just a bit of irony for faux environmentalists. So 400 trees will be chopped down for movement of the space shuttle. 

It will be decades before the new plantings reach the stage of these beautiful trees coming down. But paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, once you've seen one magnolia, you've seen 'em all.