Hold On To Your Hats -- Something Tells Me This Might Be The Best Spot In The Bakken? -- November 29, 2015

Perhaps that's a bit of hyperbole, the "best spot in the Bakken," but this is pretty incredible.

Before reading further, bring yourself up to date by looking at this original post from one year ago, October 14, 2014.

Now, we have two monster Enerplus "snake" wells that will be reported tomorrow after coming off the confidential list yesterday (Saturday). I can't wait to see the completion data:

26989, conf, Enerplus, Rattle 152-94-18B-19H, Antelope, after less than six months, 178,296 bbls:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	25394	0
9-2015	27343	76975
8-2015	38647	65774
7-2015	38286	63057
6-2015	47528	74585
5-2015	1098	25328

26988, conf, Enerplus, Bull 152-94-18B-19H-TF, Antelope, after less than six months, 210,391 bbls:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2015	35682	0
9-2015	41992	50122
8-2015	41606	61754
7-2015	43097	56943
6-2015	46640	76813
5-2015	1374	25498

Note where the Enerplus "snake" wells are relative to this vertical, monster well drilled in the same formation back in 1958:

• 1779, PA/301, P & P Producing, Inc., Harvey Hopkins A 3, t5/58; cum 1.123 million bbls 11/87.

Hop, Skip, And A Jump From Ireland For The Kennedy Clan To See All This Snow-- November 29, 2015

Iceagenow is reporting:

“Seventy-three patches of snow have survived on Scotland’s hills from last winter – the most for 21 years,” reports the BBC. 

These numbers come from a man who counts them, Iain Cameron.

“The reason so many patches survived is undoubtedly to do with the very cool spring, which saw frequent and heavy snow showers right through May and even into June,” says Cameron. 

Apparently Scotland didn’t get the memo that the entire globe is heating up.

And the day before, this headline:

Wisconsin snowfall buries previous record. 

And before that:

Scotland forecast to get two feet of snow. 

The Kennedy clan isn't going to be able to keep up with all this snow. By the way, is Venezuela still giving away heating oil to Massachusetts? This is interesting, from a year or so ago:

Compounding a budding emergency fuel assistance crisis in Western Massachusetts, officials with Citizens Energy, founded by former U.S. Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, report that the foundation has not received its annual fuel installment from Citgo and the Venezuelan government.

The 35-year-old nonprofit agency, also known as Joe-4-Oil, began by providing discounted heating fuel to low-income Massachusetts residents. It expanded its reach to 26 states in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when oil prices skyrocketed. Since Katrina, Citgo has partnered with the South American government to donate a half-billion dollars in oil.

In Western Massachusetts, emergency fuel providers said Citizens Energy typically offers assistance in January when many needy households are running low on federally funded heating fuel benefits. However, Kennedy recently issued a statement in response to a reporter's request that signals potentially grim news.

My hunch the program is dying on the vine. The best I've seen is from the website, a) you need to fill out an application ; and, b) there's a waiting list.

I think it would have been a lot easier and more reliable just to put in those pipelines from the Marcellus and the Utica. But "Joe" is such a nice guy.

Asia's Perspective On Oil As OPEC Meeting Draws Near -- November 26, 2015

From Bloomberg/Rigzone:

Oil buyers in Asia are sure of one thing as OPEC prepares to meet: They’ll emerge as winners from the group’s rift over production.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will gather Dec. 4 in Vienna, where Iran has said it will announce plans to boost production by 500,000 barrels a day. That may further lift the 12-member group’s output, which has exceeded its target for 17 months. The increase in volumes would exacerbate a global glut and benefit the biggest oil- consuming region’s refiners, which are seeking cheaper sources of crude.

OPEC is forecast to stick with its strategy of defending market share by maintaining output and driving down higher-cost production elsewhere, according to analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg . That’ll leave members including Saudi Arabia free to continue pumping even amid calls from Iran to make room for its extra supply after international sanctions over its nuclear program are lifted.

“This is probably the best time we’ve ever had as a buyer,” said Kim Woo Kyung, a spokeswoman for SK Innovation Co., South Korea’s largest refiner. “We are enjoying an overflow of oil.”

OPEC has exceeded its output target of 30 million barrels a day since June 2014 as it pumps near record amounts of crude, boosted by increases from its biggest members, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The group’s strategy to defend market share has helped lift refining margins for Asian processors, who have been treated to a steady flow of cheap cargoes from the Middle East to Mexico, Nigeria and Russia.

Profits from turning crude into naphtha, which is used to produce gasoline as well as petrochemicals, surged to $9.42 a barrel this month, the highest level since at least May.  Purchasing costs for refiners have slumped. Japan, Asia’s second-biggest oil consumer, spent an average of $51.22 a barrel in September for supplies, down from $113.47 in January 2014.

Much more at the link.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

What seven classic novels have to say about the stages of life, from Edward Mendelson's The Things That Matter, c. 2006. Here are the seven classic novels:

• Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
• Middlemarch, George Eliot
• Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
• To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
• Between The Acts, Virginia Woolf
• Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

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Sweeping Up

In anticipation of her grandmother coming home later this week, Sophia is sweeping the kitchen floor.

Sweeping Up

Week 47: November 22, 2015 -- November 28, 2015

There is no evidence of global warming here in North Texas; I had to turn on the heat to take off the chill, but the furnace -- or whatever it is that provides heat in these small apartments -- is now off and it's a comfortable 67 degrees. Last night, over at my daughter's McMansion it was way too warm; they have the thermostat set at 71 degrees. They were gone for the weekend and I took advantage of the opportunity to watch some football on their big screen television.

Wow, that was a digression. All I had planned to do was link the only story I plan to post with regard to all the excitement and hyperbole that will surround the 2015 Paris Peace Talks on Global Warming, where every western leader will be padding his or her resume to hopefully contend for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

The article, of course is  -- in fact, put this much in google: your complete guide to the climate debate -- see how few letters you have to put into the search box to get the WSJ article to show up. You will be surprised. I put in this much: your complete g and the article was the first hit. I didn't even get past the "g." I've read enough of it to tell me it is all I need to post on the 2015 Paris Peace Talks on Global Warming. The only reason folks will be tuning in is to see if ISIS (or as President Obama calls the JV team, ISIL) is able to crash the party.

The link to the WSJ article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/your-complete-guide-to-the-climate-debate-1448656890. I hate to think this is the 144,865,890th article the WSJ has had on the climate debate.

I suppose the big story of the week was the fact there is a glimmer of hope that Saudi Arabia has decided to hold the line at $40. Unfortunately, the fly in that oily soup is the fact that there are more than 1,000 wells waiting to be fracked in North Dakota and probably twice that many in Texas.

At the very end of the week, a reader sent me a fairly reliable hint that Shell United States is coming to North Dakota. I have problems with Shell. I really don't know whether it's Shell, or Royal Dutch Shell, and until the spill in the Gulf of 2010, I kept confusing BP and Shell. But whatever, at least someone has credible information to suggest "Shell" will enter the Bakken in a big way. I have a post on it in draft but won't post it until the credible information is ... well, a bit more credible. I don't want to get anyone into trouble.

So, what were the big stories last week? Not many. Perhaps the highlight was the autumn portfolio of North Dakota / Minnesota photographs sent by Vern Whitten.

Operations
Lime Rock Resources finally posts their Russian Creek acquisition
October's North Dakota oil production remained flat month-over-month
a second bench Three Forks well looks very promising
a birthday greeting to Mr Woodrow Star "A" 1, 57 years young

Flaring
EIA posts an update on flaring in North Dakota 

Refinery
Proposed Devils Lake refinery on hold

Miscellaneous
I formally added "propane" to the "next big story" page; it's been there all along but a bit hidden
the US officially gets on the top ten list of countries with proved oil reserves 
the US increased its proved reserves estimate for sixth year in a row
Katie Ledecky named female athlete of the year -- a three-peat
North Dakota's shortfall grows

Closing The Loop: Lime Rock Resources Announces Closing Its Third Acquisition In The Williston Basin -- The Russian Creek Acquisition -- November 27, 2015

Press release here, dated November 20, 2015.

Lime Rock Resources, acquirers and operators of producing oil and gas properties in the United States, today announces that it has successfully closed a third acquisition in the Williston Basin.

The Russian Creek acquisition of acreage and producing wells in the Williston is the Lime Rock Resources funds’ largest acquisition to date. The Lime Rock Resources team has begun leveraging operational synergies with its other Williston Basin properties and applying its operational expertise to the large-scale asset.

The three Williston Basin acquisitions:

• West Stanley
• Sanish
• Russian Creek

The entire description of the Russian Creek acquisition:

Lime Rock Resources acquired the North Dakota and Montana oil-weighted properties in the Williston Basin in 2015 from a large, publicly traded E&P company.

The OXY USA Russian Creek acquisition back in 2010 is described at this post. It is not known if the Lime Rock Russian Creek acquisition is identical to the OXYUSA Russian Creek acquisition.