Proterra Bus Update -- July 24, 2021

Updates

August 9, 2023: Just went broke.

September 3, 2021: Minnesota update here.

Original Post 

Last week I posted the most under-reported story of the day: Philadelphia's Proterra fleet in complete shambles. It's an amazing story. The battery life was ridiculously short. The batteries were  so heavy that the frames failed. The cost is ridiculous.

Well, someone must be reading the blog. 

This past week, I think it was Friday, a reader sent me this story, again, from the Washington Free Beacon: Proterra bus fire prompts California agency to consider shelving electric bus fleet. 

I can't make this stuff up.

This comes just after GM recalls (for the second time, the same) 70,000 Chevy Bolts due to fires.

But back to Proterra.

From the linked article:

• electric buses are melting in the sun;
• too-expensive-to-fix-an-electric-bus manufactured by Proterra caught fire while charging in a southern California city that is now considering taking the electric buses off the road, according to government records;
• the Foothill Transit agency, which serves the valleys surrounding Los Angeles, will decide on Friday whether costly Proterra buses purchased in the last decade are still operable. Problems cited by the agency include not only the bus that caught fire in what's described as a "thermal event," but also buses that melt in the California heat and have transmission failures. Roland Cordero, the agency's director of maintenance and vehicle technology, says the problems with the buses are exacerbated by Proterra's inability to help with repairs.

"Inability" or "unwillingness."

More:

"With the number of failures we are experiencing and the inability of Proterra to provide parts, these [Battery Electric Buses] BEBs will only get worse as we continue to operate them whenever the BEBs are available for service," Cordero wrote ahead of Friday's executive board meeting, where the agency will debate taking Proterra buses out of service.

The electric bus company, which has been hailed by the Biden administration as the future of mass transportation, has seen its stock plummet in the last month as reports pile up about problems with its product. In Philadelphia, mechanical failures and weak battery performance forced city officials to shelve buses received as recently as 2019. In Duluth, Minnesota, the buses were taken off the road because their brakes couldn't handle the city's hills. The publicly known failings of Proterra's buses have not deterred key members of the Biden administration, including the president himself, from touting the company on multiple occasions.

Proterra ticker symbol: PTRA.

On Friday, yesterday, PTRA fell another 4.46%.

One year performance:

• apparently went public in November, 2020: closed about $10.
• surged, with huge volume, mid-January, 2021: closed about $30
• by March 5, 2021: slumped to $16
• recent high: July 9, 2021 -- $17
• yesterday, July 23, 2021: $11, on a day and a week when the market surged;

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

Whiting To Acquire 8,752 Acres In The Sanish; $271 Million -- Geoff Simon -- Whiting Press Release -- July 24, 2021

Updates

September 10, 2021: was Kraken the seller?

Original Post

Somehow I missed this one.

From Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories this week:

Whiting Petroleum announced this week it has entered into an agreement with an undisclosed seller to acquire 8,752 net acres in Mountrail County for total cash consideration of $271 million. [Undisclosed seller in the Sanish. Slawson?]

To partially offset the cost of the transaction, Whiting plans to divest its Redtail oil and gas assets in Weld County, Colorado. The assets, which cover more than 67,000 acres with daily production of 7,100 barrels of oil equivalent, are being sold to a private entity for $187 million. 

The Bakken acreage includes 61 undrilled locations, five drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells, and currently produces 4,200 BOE/day, of which 80% is oil. Company officials say there is significant upside from Whiting Petroleum’s existing operations in the Sanish field.

“These two transactions result in a significantly deeper drilling inventory in our key Sanish operating area, while divesting of properties in Colorado that were not going to compete internally for capital," said Whiting CEO Lynn A. Peterson. "These transactions demonstrate our strategy to focus our attention on value-enhancing opportunities that compete for capital in a $50 oil environment."

Peterson said the company estimates that in a mid-$50s oil environment, it has more than six years of high-quality drilling inventory, assuming a two-rig drilling program.

Whiting Corp press release.

 

$271 million / 8,752 net acres = $31,000 / acre. Figures rounded.

$187 million / 67,000 net acres = $2,800 / acre. Figures rounded.

 

8,752 acres / 640 acres = 14 sections.

 

8,752 acres / 1280-acre  units = 7 drilling units

 

61 undrilled locations / 7 drilling units = 9 additional wells in existing 1280-acre units;

Whiting is tracked here, although it is rarely updated. 

"Deals in the Bakken" are tracked at the sidebar at the right. 

Week 29: July 18, 2021 -- July 24, 2021

Best story of the week:  

• Weber (as in grilling) to go public. 
  

Top story of the week:

• Joe Biden is still president. 
• The next frontier: Bezos vs Branson; Bezos launch/recovery: July 20, 2021;
  

Energy story of the year?

• Natural gas.

Least followed story of the week:

• Opening ceremony, Tokyo, Japan, Olympics 202One.

Top international non-energy story:

Top international energy story:

• Saudi Arabia suddenly cancels Motiva expansion plans;

Top national non-energy story:

• Dow closes above 35K for the first time ever; other major indices set all-time records;
• GM recalls Chevy Bolts (second time these cars have been recalled); serious, serious problems;
• Report: shortest recession on record, February - April, 2020;
• BLM national championship television ratings tank;

Top national energy story:

• WTI finishes the week at $72;
  

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

Top North Dakota energy story:

• Production "flat as a pancake"; lack of fracking crews;

Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories:

• Quick connects.
• May production: "flat as a pancake"; struggle to find frack crews;
• Whiting to acquire additional acres in the Bakken;
  

Operators:

Operations:

• Slawson brings an old Jackknife Federal well in Van Hook back on line;
• BR has taken most of its incredible Midnight Run wells off line;
• Well taken off line in 2015; brought back on line with good results;
• Petro-Hunt brings old well back on line; goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• Slawson bringing an old Mustang well back on line;

Other formations in the Williston Basin:

• Stonewall.

Wells:

• CLR Kukla Chimney Butte well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• CLR Dvirnak well in Jim Creek goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• A CLR Rath Federal well trends toward 600K bbls crude oil;
• A CLR Rath Federal well trends toward 500K bbls crude oil;
• MRO Ostlund Reunion Bay well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• A Zavanna Panther well goes over 550K bbls crude oil;
• A Bruin Antelope field well goes over 600K bbls crude oil;
• An MRO Elk USA well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• An Enerplus Baker well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• An old QEP Henderson well goes over 600K bbls crude oil;
• An old BR well drilled back in 2011 jumps 20x in oil production;
• A Rimrock FBIR Smith well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• Equinor brings an old Enderud well back on line; good results;
• After being off line fourteen months, Whiting brings a Brown well in the Sanish back on line;
• A Whiting Littlefield well in the Sanish goes over 600K bbls crude oil;
• Oasis brings a North Tobacco well back on line after being offline for more than a year;
• A not-atypical Petro-Hunt well: goes over 261K bbls crude oil in twelve months;
• A WPX well trends toward 600K bbls crude oil;
• A WPX Hidatsa North Three Forks well goes over 670K bbls crude oil in less than four years;
  

Fracking:

• Long pole in the tent in the Bakken: frack crews;
  

Pipelines:

• MDU begins construction on natural gas pipeline gathering expansion;
• Keystone XL doppelganger: flipping the Capline;

Refineries:

• Update: Dickinson renewable diesel plant;

Bakken economy:

• Legacy Fund July 2021 deposits posted;

Random Photo -- For Future Reference -- Carman's Store, Keene, ND -- July 24, 2021

I assume this is the correct location; taken directly from the website. 

There are a number of landmarks on this map which make it interesting for future reference. 

Pad Fire North Of Keene, ND -- July 24, 2021

Because I did not want to incorrectly identify a pad fire at the wrong location (and the operator by association), I pulled the original post regarding that pad fire off the blog.

A reader sent me a note saying the rig in the photo is a workover rig and would not show up on the NDIC map as a drilling rig. 

I thought it was a workover rig at the time I posted the original note and should have not gone further with trying to locate the pad based on that error. It was a huge rookie mistake on my part.

So, the original post has been pulled. [To complete the story, a reader went by the pad I identified in the original post and said there was no fire and there had been no fire at that site. The reader suggested where the pad was likely to be, but I won't post that until / unless confirmed by other sources. But my hunch: the reader has it right; I was wrong.]

Here are the photos again taken "north of Keene" and posted on Facebook. Apparently the photos were taken about 10:37 p.m., Thursday night, July 22, 2021.

The photos:

I searched the local newspapers for any oil fires in this area. I couldn't find the story Thursday night. But  Friday night, via twitter, I found the story. 

The link is to The Bismarck Tribune (https://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/crews-respond-to-fire-at-mckenzie-county-oil-well-site/article_c1f9e4be-5ec4-58c3-8a02-19f52622f290.html): the story may be behind a paywall but I was able to capture the story before I lost it:

The US Forest Service is monitroing an active fire on an oil well site just south of Lake Sakakawea in McKenzie County (and north of Keene, ND).

No injuries had been reported, according to a news release from the Dakota Prairie Grasslands office. The fire was contained to the well pad and no surface grassland or groundwater resources were affected Friday evening. Response teams are working to manage the incident.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

More at the link.

So, we're at square one. The pad fire could be at any number of locations north of Keene, ND, and south of the lake.