Quick! Where's Bucyrus?

This is another incredible story coming out of North Dakota.

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Last week the easternmost elevator in a grain-chain owned by a Japanese global conglomerate, Mitsui and Co., was filling a unit train with golden North Dakota spring wheat bound for export from terminals in Vancouver, WA.

Including that near brush with fire, it's been a big year and an important one for Mitsui's subsidiary, United Grain Corporation, making inroads into some of the country's premiere wheat fields.

Tony Flagg, who heads development for United Grain, said the Bucyrus facility is one of three the company built to secure export-bound grain and the most important for topnotch spring wheat quality. The other two are in Montana at Conrad and Culbertson.
The Bucyrus Elevator is still a bit raw around the edges, but it's been a success since opening its doors in early August, Flagg said.

If anything, the company wasn't prepared for the amount of grain that came in the door. Three unit trains, each filled with 440,000 bushels, weren't enough to handle the incoming wheat. Two more are scheduled this month.

Go to the linked story to see how much wheat they are shipping, how they are going to out-compete Montana. 

Bucyrus is about 60 miles due south of Dickinson.

Incredible story.

By the way, the Japanese must be amazed how fast "they" can get things done in North Dakota: this project was announced less than a year ago, back in September, 2012. 

Twenty Important Concepts Not Taught In Business School -- Nate Hagens, The Oil Drum

Another great article at The Oil Drum -- if you have the time. It's a long article, and only Part I.

One more reason it's sad to see The Oil Drum call it quits.

[Update, August 17, 2015: I could not find Part II of this article.]

Week 37: September 8, 2013 -- September 14, 2013

New production record
New record: production surges 6.43% month-over-month
One million bopd -- the next milestone
BNSF and Enbridge meet takeaway demand
The accolades will roll in all week
Record production is a bigger story than most folks realize

Fracking
Packers Plus in the news

Geology
Another Bakken payzone? The Lower Bakken Silt

Operations
Some huge wells being reported
Halcon has a huge well in Eagle Nest
On track for 2,500 permits
Number of wells going to DRL status might be a record
Bakken as laboratory: 48 wells in a spacing unit

Economy
New Frontier to build rail/industrial yard in Williston

Natural Gas
45-MW natural gas plant comes on line near Williston; more coming

Deals
Halcon to sell non-core conventional assets
Steve Zachritz on the Oasis Big Buy

Presentations
KOG at Barclay's CEO-Energy Conference
EOG at Barclay's CEO-Energy Conference
Whiting's Corporate August presentation

Miscellaneous
Random update of some Bakken highlights since June, 2013
A flurry of stories on Whiting
A nice story on Kathy Neset

Obama Administration Throws The Unions Under The Bus; Obama Double-Crosses AFL-CIO -- Forbes

The Hill is reporting:

The Obama administration on Friday denied a request from labor unions to have their healthcare plans receive tax subsidies under ObamaCare. 

A White House official said the Treasury Department has determined that the healthcare plans used by many union members — known as multi-employer or Taft-Hartley plans — cannot be made eligible for subsidies that are intended to help uninsured people afford coverage.

That's the lede, but I'm sure the Obama administration will find a way, deus ex machina, November 1, 2014, to figure out a way to help the unions.

Forbes is reporting: Obama to labor unions with multi-employer health plans -- drop dead!

Well played, Mr. President.

Last week, prior to the big AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles, President Obama personally spoke to AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka, asking him to water down several anti-Obamacare resolutions that union leaders were planning to pass there.

Trumka obliged, keeping calls to repeal Obamacare out of the official AFL-CIO resolution on the health law. Then, on Friday evening, after the convention was over, the Obama administration revealed that it would ignore unions’ demands to subsidize their members using Obamacare. As a result, some unions fear that they will wither away.

“I guarantee you by your next convention four years from now, you won’t meet a quarter of this room,” said Joseph Nigro, president of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union. “We won’t be here.”

Wall Street Helping North Dakota Farmers, Ethanol Refiners

North Dakota ethanol refiners, farmers helped by Wall Street.

The New York Times is reporting:

It was supposed to help clean the air, reduce dependence on foreign oil and bolster agriculture. But a little known market in ethanol credits has also become a hot new game on Wall Street.

he federal government created the market in special credits tied to ethanol eight years ago when it required refiners to mix ethanol into gasoline or buy credits from companies that do so. The idea was to push refiners to use the cleaner, renewable fuel, or force them to buy the credits.

A few worried that Wall Street would set out to exploit this young market, fears the government dismissed. But many people believe that is what happened this year when the price of the ethanol credits skyrocketed 20-fold in just six months, according to an analysis of regulatory documents and interviews with more than 40 people involved in the market, including industry executives, brokers, traders and analysts. 

A reminder of what we are talking about:

Every time they mix ethanol into gas, or import fuel already blended with ethanol, energy companies get a credit from the government, and that credit can be sold to other companies that don’t blend ethanol to help them meet federal requirements. If refiners fall short of their obligation, they can face fines of $32,500 a day. To monitor compliance, each gallon of ethanol is assigned a 38-digit Renewable Identification Number, or RIN. Six billion of them were generated in the first six months of this year.