US Natural Gas -- A Reader Referenced "2014" Some Weeks Ago -- December 9, 2018

For background, see this post.

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Wow, What Would We Do Without Wiki?

From wiki, regarding "Into The Mystic":

According to a BBC survey, because of this song’s cooling, soothing vibe, this is one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to while performing operations.

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello has identified this song as one of his favourite songs on Moondance, one of his 500 essential albums.

Into The Mystic, song by Van Morrison, sung by Joe Cocker

Wells Coming Off The Confidential List Next Week; Enerplus Will Report A Huge Well -- December 9, 2018

Note:  eighteen wells are coming off the confidential list this week; only two of them have a "Three Forks" designation in their legal name.

Monday, December 17, 2018:
34869, conf, Hunt, Halliday 146-93-11-2H-6, Wolf Bay, producing;
34611, conf, Petro-Hunt, Klevmoen 153-95-17C-7-2H, Charlson, a huge well:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2018	38363	54924
9-2018	2606	598

Sunday, December 16, 2018:
34023, conf, Hess, BB-Chapin-151-95-0506H-7, Blue Buttes, no production data, 

Saturday, December 15, 2018:
34868, conf, Hunt, Halliday 146-93-11-2H-5, Wolf Bay, one month of production;
34202, conf, Hess, BB-Chapin-151-95-0506H-6, Blue Buttes, no production data,
32842, conf, BR, Remington 4A MTFH, Blue Buttes, no production data, the Remington wells are tracked here;

Friday, December 14, 2018:
34201, conf, Hess, BB-Chapin-151-95-0506H-5, Blue Buttes, no production data, 

Thursday, December 13, 2018:
33967, conf, Enerplus, Cobalt 147-93-09D-04H, Moccasin Creek; a huge well; the Enerplus "Heavy Metal" pad is tracked here:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2018	25330	19107
9-2018	28494	4887
8-2018	50811	2650
7-2018	22630	2650

Wednesday, December 12, 2018:
34115, conf, Lime Rock Resources, Neal 2-33-28H-144-95, Murphy Creek, producing, 
34114, conf, Lime Rock Resources, Twist 2-4-9H-143-95, Murphy Creek, producing,
33893, conf, Hess, SC-5WX-152-99-0310H-4, Banks, no production data, 

Tuesday, December 11, 2018:
33892, conf, Hess, SC-5WX-152-99-0310H-3, Banks, no production data, the SC-5WX wells are tracked here;

Monday, December 10, 2018:
33891, conf, Hess, SC-5WX-152-99-0310H-2, Banks, no production data,

Sunday, December 9, 2018:
None.

Saturday, December 8, 2018:
34117, conf, Lime Rock Resources, Neal3-33-28H-144-95, Murphy Creek, producing,
34116, conf, Lime Rock Resources, Twist 3-4-9H-143-95, Murphy Creek, producing;
33239, conf, Oasis, Muri 5198 12-4 8T, Banks, a nice well;
32531, conf, Petro-Hunt, USA153-95-4A-9-6H, Charlson, no production data,
30546, conf, Bruin, Fort Berthold 151-94-26A-35-9H, Antelope, producing,

It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn -- The Market, Energy, And Political Page -- December 9, 2018

Link here to SeekingAlpha:

• Chevron released its 2019 capital budget this week, but before we look at that, let's take a look at the company's YTD financial performance.
• Through the first three quarters of 2018, Chevron delivered an impressive $13.5 billion in FCF - which equates to $7.04/share.
• As a result, the company's strong $4.48 annual dividend (3.9%) and re-started share repurchase plans are in great shape.
• Chevron remains my top pick of the international integrated companies and is cash-flow neutral at $50/bbl Brent (it closed Friday at $61/bbl).
• The recent sell-off has the stock trading on the cheap. It's a great buying opportunity for excellent income and capital gains potential. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

From the linked article, two items:

and,

All of this free-cash-flow generation is the result of a production profile that continues to be the best of the integrated majors.

Average daily production is expected to be up ~7% this year.

Big Foot, a big project in the GoM that has had a checkered past, just recently achieved first oil. Big Foot is designed for a capacity of 75,000 bopd and 25 MMcf/d of natural gas. Chevron is the operator and has a 60% working interest. Equinor, the old StatOil, has a 27.5% stake.

Chevron's working interest in Big Foot equates to 45,000 bpd oil and 15 MMcf/d natural gas net to Chevron. That significant even for a company of Chevron's size and is a positive catalyst moving into 2019.

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Glass Ceilings -- And This Is Why We Have Them

From an earlier post with very slight editing:

Meanwhile, in the White House, lots of changes being announced for the second half of the Trump's first term. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert is Trump's choice to succeed Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations, even as the White House moved to downgrade the job from a Cabinet-level position. Nauert, a former Fox News host who arrived at the State Department in 2017, would be a relatively inexperienced newcomer in one of the most high-profile positions in US diplomacy. Her nomination sets the stage for a potentially tough Senate confirmation hearing, where [mostly old white men] will likely grill Nauert on her qualifications for the position.

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Pretty Boys

Is it just me or does it appear the three pretty boys of politics, across two continents and three nations, are starting to implode? Beto, Macron, and Trudeau. Beto could be the outlier but the other appear to have crashed and burned.

Preliminary Study Regarding The Middle And Lower Benches Of The Three Forks -- Geo News -- December 9, 2018

This was posted as an update to an earlier post but it is too important to be lost, so I am reposting it:

Don sent me a link to an article in the January, 2018, issue of Geo News. It should download as a pdf on your desktop:

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/documents/newsletter/2018Winter/Examination_of_Middle_Three_Forks_Hydrocarbon_Charge_and_Production.pdf

From that article:

There is currently limited geological information available regarding the petroleum geology and economic importance of the middle to lower Three Forks.

Resource assessments of the Three Forks Formation have ranged from approximately 2 to 4 billion barrels of recoverable oil, but these assessments have been limited to the upper Three Forks (Nordeng and Helms, 2010; Gaswirth et al., 2013).

This article reports the preliminary findings of a recently initiated study on the origin and distribution of oil saturations within the middle Three Forks. It also reviews the present production footprint of 2nd bench horizontal oil wells and projects their potential future distribution.

In addition, I am examining oil saturations and hydrocarbon production in the lower Three Forks (3rd and 4th benches).

The author is Timothy O. Nesheim.

As noted, this article is a "work in progress." Unless I missed it, the author did not provide estimated reserves in the middle or lower benches of the Three Forks.

Don suggests it is likely that this paper is part of the ongoing USGS survey of the Bakken/Three Forks.

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See How Many Faces You Recognize

Sun Records Medley

US Department Of The Interior Press Release -- December 6, 2018

Another e-mail from December 6, 2018, that I missed, from the USGS:

Date: December 6, 2018Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov 

USGS Identifies Largest Continuous Oil and Gas Resource Potential Ever Assessed

Estimates Include 46.3 Billion Barrels of Oil, 281 Trillion Cubic feet of Natural Gas, and 20 Billion Barrels of Natural Gas Liquids in Texas and New Mexico’s Wolfcamp Shale and Bone Spring Formation

WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the Wolfcamp Shale and overlying Bone Spring Formation in the Delaware Basin portion of Texas and New Mexico’s Permian Basin province contain an estimated mean of 46.3 billion barrels of oil, 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 20 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This estimate is for continuous (unconventional) oil, and consists of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources.
"Christmas came a few weeks early this year," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. "American strength flows from American energy, and as it turns out, we have a lot of American energy. Before this assessment came down, I was bullish on oil and gas production in the United States. Now, I know for a fact that American energy dominance is within our grasp as a nation."
“In the 1980s, during my time in the petroleum industry, the Permian and similar mature basins were not considered viable for producing large new recoverable resources. Today, thanks to advances in technology, the Permian Basin continues to impress in terms of resource potential. The results of this most recent assessment and that of the Wolfcamp Formation in the Midland Basin in 2016 are our largest continuous oil and gas assessments ever released,” said Dr. Jim Reilly, USGS Director. “Knowing where these resources are located and how much exists is crucial to ensuring both our energy independence and energy dominance.”    
Although the USGS has previously assessed conventional oil and gas resources in the Permian Basin province, this is the first assessment of continuous resources in the Wolfcamp shale and Bone Spring Formation in the Delaware Basin portion of the Permian. Oil and gas companies are currently producing oil here using both traditional vertical well technology and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
The Wolfcamp shale in the Midland Basin portion of the Permian Basin province was assessed separately in 2016, and at that time it was the largest assessment of continuous oil conducted by the USGS. The Delaware Basin assessment of the Wolfcamp Shale and Bone Spring Formation is more than two times larger than that of the Midland Basin. The Permian Basin province includes a series of basins and other geologic formations in West Texas and southern New Mexico. It is one of the most productive areas for oil and gas in the entire United States.
“The results we’ve released today demonstrate the impact that improved technologies such as hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling have had on increasing the estimates of undiscovered, technically recoverable continuous (i.e., unconventional) resources,” said Walter Guidroz, Program Coordinator of the USGS Energy Resources Program.
Undiscovered resources are those that are estimated to exist based on geologic knowledge and already established production, while technically recoverable resources are those that can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices. Whether or not it is profitable to produce these resources has not been evaluated.
USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources of onshore lands and offshore state waters. The USGS Delaware Basin Wolfcamp shale and Bone Spring Formation assessment was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocols.
The new assessment of the Delaware Basin Wolfcamp shale may be found online. To find out more about USGS energy assessments and other energy research, please visit the USGS Energy Resources Program website.