Washington Shelves Comprehensive Energy Bill

This is huge. Huge.

Senator Reid says his party has shelved a comprehensive energy bill for the indefinite future.

Update in The Dickinson Paper

Great article in today's Dickinson paper on the oil industry in North Dakota.

Some data points:

• Today: 138 wells; most are on 640- or 1280-acre spacing
• Record: 148 wells in 1981, but the spacing was generally 160 acres

• 2010: 100 million barrels to be produced (estimate)
• 2009: 80 million barrels produced

• May, 2010: 9.2 million barrels produced; most in any one month since oil discovered in 1951
• Some wells have been producing since 1951

• Natural gas, once seen as a by-product of oil, often flared off, is now being produced at record levels and being sold

I remain inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken. And the Three Forks Sanish.

Note: price of oil is surging again today; broke through $77 (again).

138

New record: 138 active drilling rigs in North Dakota. "We've" gone up four (4) rigs since the beginning of this week. I am very, very surprised to see this surge. I thought we would peak at 135, although experts predicted hitting 140 rigs sometime this year.

Established companies, such as BEXP, are still bringing in new rigs in as planned, and some established companies, such as CLR, have increased access to cash to expedite their drilling program this year. In addition, there are a few new companies still yet to bring their rigs into the state.

BEXP now has six (6), two more than they had at the beginning of the year. If I remember correctly, BEXP had four at the beginning of the year, added one in May, and now have added a second. They plan to have ten (10) rigs in North Dakota by the end of the year, again, if I remember one of their recent presentations.

Update on the Zenergy Saltwater Spill

Story dated July 8, 2010.

From the article: The company has rarely spoken publicly about the saltwater spill caused by a faulty pipeline in January 2006. It has been described as the worst environmental disaster in North Dakota's oil history.

Enbridge To Double Capacity in the Bakken?

This is too important an item to be buried in a longer post, so I will re-post it here:

Enbridge is working on plans to further double the company's pipeline export capacity in North Dakota. Since the news had not been announced, the spokesman couldn't elaborate on the projects, except to say that the projects, once completed, would further double Enbridge's export capacity in North Dakota. While she couldn't get into specifics, she hinted that expansion activity could center around the Beaver Lodge Station south of Tioga, North Dakota (USA). -- Tioga Tribune Supplement, July, 2010.

Takeaway capacity should meet production demands for the next year or so, based on frequently presented data (in almost every major Bakken corporate presentation). The railroad tankers are scalable, but more costly, and can make up the delta if necessary until more pipeline is laid.

But if Enbridge doubles its export capacity, takeaway capacity should be more than adequate. It sounds like Enbridge is going to move sooner than later on this project.