Week 29: July 12, 2020 -- July 18, 2020

Biggest story not being reported:

• The erasure of the Native American. Native American headdresses coming down faster than Confederate statues. The only place Native Americans are winning: stopping critical pipelines.

Top story of the week:

• North Dakota oil production drops below 900K bopd; and, here;
• North Dakota oil production still 3x what it was at beginning of the boom 
• Another 98 ND Bakken permits renewed
• North Dakota: last state in lower 48 to finally get a Tesla supercharger;

The week's best graphic:

• Mortgage delinquencies spike; 
• Gasoline demand;
• Chinese crude oil imports hit all-time record;

What were they thinking?

• White culture: even the Smithsonian realizes it screwed up; pulls chart;

Most under-reported story:

• US retail sales surge (and that's without money spent on gasoline); 
• Apple wins court case over Irish taxes;
• Tesla vehicle registrations in California dropped by half in 2Q20. Link here.

Smallest story with the biggest headline:

Biggest non-surprise:

• North Dakota oil production drops below 900K bopd

Top international non-energy story:

• Israeli target practice; here; and, here;

Top international energy story:

• Drilling to hit 20-year low (and there will still be a glut; rigs don't matter)

Top national non-energy story:

• 30-year mortgage rate reaches lowest level ever: under 3%; 
• EV trucks, SPACs; EV truck excitement off the chart; all roads lead to Amazon;
• Federal government denies disaster aid for Minneapolis riots;

Top national energy story:

• DAPL can keep flowing: US Court of Appeals;

Top ND non-energy story:

Top ND energy story:

• North Dakota oil production drops below 900K bopd

Geoff Simon's top ND stories:

• "A five-alarm fire" -- ND crude output falls 30% in May, 2020
• DC court grants stay of DAPL shutdown order
• Mercer County affirms wind moratorium

Operators:

• CLR with four more Carson Peak / Morris permits; 
• Oasis to report high-volume frack; high-production Joplin well;

Operations:

• CLR Wahpeton: 150K bbls crude oil in less than four months; and, here;
• Three spectacular CLR wells in Oakdale oil field;

500K wells:

• MRO June in Antelope oil field;

Fracking: Hi-Crush crushed; files for bankruptcy.

Bakken 101:

• Bakken wells come back strong after being off line for a few months;

Commentary:

• More on the Berkshire Hathaway -- Dominion deal;
• Vertical wells;

Whiting With Four New Permits; Another Eight Permits Renewed -- July 17, 2020

Active rigs:

$40.59	7/17/2020	07/17/2019	07/17/2018	07/17/2017	07/17/2016
Active Rigs	11	56	69	59	29

Four new permits, #37717 - #37720, inclusive:

• Operator: Whiting
• Field: Sanish (Mountrail)
• Comments: 
• Whiting has permits for a 4-well Holmberg pad in SESE 24-153-93; all 1050' FSL and about 350' FEL
• see graphic below

Eight permits renewed:

• BR (4): four Ivan permits in McKenzie County
• Petro-Hunt (2): two Mongoose permits in McKenzie County
• XTO: one Edwards Trust Federal permit in McKenzie County
• Hunt Oil: one Oakland permit in Mountrail County

Five permits canceled:

• PetroShale (5): five Tailgunner Federal permits in McKenzie County

Change of operator, from Prima to NP Resources:

• Evoniuk, Tree Top oil field; Billings County

Change of operator, from Berenergy to Ballard Petroleum:

• Borstad wells (3): Bottineau County

Change of operator, from Texakota to Murex Petroleum:

• H Borstad (11): Williams County
• M Borstad (2): Williams County

*************************************

Whiting's Four-Well Holmberg Pad 

The existing Holmberg well:

• 21472, 669, Whiting, Holmberg 44-24TFH, Sanish, t3/12; cum 158K 5/20;

TGIF -- The Music Edition -- Just A Matter Of Time -- July 17, 2020

Just a matter of time: I knew it was just a matter of time. Bubba goes ballistic. Plays the "race" card. Payback is hell. Story (and video) was on the internet yesterday; on sports TV this morning. Bristol Motor Speedway. Eliminated from All-Star Race. Wrecked after initiating the sequence that led up to the hook-up. Hey, it's racing.

All-Star Race: Chase Elliott won, first career all-star win. Looked like a nice crowd on hand. First time All-Star Race on short track.

Next up: Saturday, 5:00 p.m. CDT, Texas Motor Speedway.



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Here we go:

• SRE to use Bloom Energy fuel cells.
• BlackRock profit beats Street estimates. Profit jumps 21% on fixed-income boost.
• Market finally notices: retail sales jump 7.5% in June, 2020. Excluding gasoline, US retail sales have come all the way back ot pre-pandemic trendline growth.
• Retail investors napping up stocks amid coronavirus volatility: Charles Schwab. Google for link.
• Tea leaves: crude oil glut to continue; demand destruction to worsen.
• Analyst: Amazon will beat 2Q20 earnings estimate. Calls for revenue of $81.3 billion, a 28% year-over-year increase and above the high end of Amazon's guidance of between $75 billion and $81 billion. The estimate is 0.8% above consensus. 
• US housing starts accelerate in June, 2020
• Dow: pre-market up 120 points; early morning trade, down 50 points. 

Reasons To Quit, And No Reason To Quit, Merle and Willie, 1983, by Merle Haggard

Ninety-Eight Permits Renewed In The ND Bakken This Past Week -- July 17, 2020

Ninety-eight permits renewed this week in the ND Bakken. This follows one-hundred-eighteen permits renewed last week. In total, 216 permits have been renewed in the ND Bakken in the past two weeks.

Friday, July 17, 2020: eight permits renewed:

• BR (4): four Ivan permits in McKenzie County
• Petro-Hunt (2): two Mongoose permits in McKenzie County
• XTO: one Edwards Trust Federal permit in McKenzie County
• Hunt Oil: one Oakland permit in Mountrail County

Thursday, July 16, 2020: twenty-three permits renewed, ninth day of 20+ renewed permits:

• XTO (9): four Ruby State Federal permits, four Prairie Federal permits, and one Edwards Trust Federal permit, all in McKenzie County;
• Rimrock (5): two Citrine permits; one Sapphire permit, one Amethyst permit, and one Emerald permit, all in Dunn County
• Hess (4): four K-Quilliam permits in Dunn County
• BR (3): two George permits and one Bailey-George permit in McKenzie County
• EOG (2): two Burke permits in Mountrail County

Wednesday, July 15, 2020: twenty-four permits renewed -- the eighth consecutive day that 20+ permits have been renewed in the ND Bakken:

• Bruin (10): ten Forth Berthold permits, all in section 19-148-94, Dunn County;
• CLR (5): two Olympia permits; two Charleston permits, and a Juneau permit all in Williams County;
• Lime Rock (5): three Mariner permits in Burke County and two Reuben Schneider permits in Dunn County;
• XTO (3): one Harley Federal permit in McKenzie County
• Whiting: one USA Federal permit in McKenzie County

Tuesday, July 14, 2020: twenty-three permits renewed (the seven consecutive business day in which 20 or more permits were renewed):

• BR (7): one Sanmuri permit,  four Muri permits, two Remington permits, all in McKenzie County;
• EOG (7): seven Burke permits in Mountrail County;
• Equinor (6): three Larsen permits and three Lucy Hanson permits, all in Williams County
• Enerplus (3): one Ridley, one Loggerhead, and one Aldabra permit, all in McKenzie County;

Monday, July 13, 2020: twenty permits renewed:

• Hess (9): three EN-Kiesel permits in Mountrail County; six SC-JW Hamilton permits in Williams County;
• CLR (5): three Morris permits and two Carson Peak permits, all in McKenzie County; the scout tickets show these permits were PNC'd, so it's nice to see them renewed; the CLR Carson Peak/Morris wells are tracked here;
• XTO (4): four Twin State Federal permits in McKenzie County
• Petro-Hunt (2): one USA permit and one Louis Tully Federal, both in McKenzie County

The Sports Page -- July 17, 2020

Writing is on the wall. Tea leaves: there was no love lost between the owner and the quarterback. A number of story lines in the screen shot below. I think the bigger question is not being asked: will Dak be the starting quarterback? If so, will he be the starting quarterback at the end of the 2020 - 2021 season?

Excuses: amazing how much time the color commentator made listing excuses for Tiger Woods after an incredibly bad second round: no time to practice -- foundation events; time for his children; bad back; etc. It's very likely that Tiger Woods will miss the cut at the course where he has had a history of incredible rounds and tournament wins. Later: right now he's tied at 65 and inside the cut line. At 3+ he's one off Phil Mickelson at 2+.

NASCAR: 2:00 p.m. CDT, Sunday, NBCSports Network; Texas Motor Speedway. Fourteen hours driving time from Bristol, TN, to Texas Motor Speedway. They raced in Bristol, earlier this week.