Six (6) New Permits -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Producers: Zenergy (3), Hess, Whiting, Continental Resources

Fields: Murphy Creek, North Tobacco Garden, Sanish, Siverston and two wildcats.

The two Zenergy wildcats will be on the same pad in Williams County, Lot 2 4-157N-100W.

It was a huge day for announcing wells that came off the confidential list (24) and two more wells that were completed.

The results of these wells (IPs) are reported elsewhere.

Al Jazeera: I Can't Make This Stuff Up -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

I skimmed the article; will read it more closely later, but on first glance, pretty good reporting. I'm impressed.

I have to thank a reader for alerting me to this. I don't subscribe to Al Jazeera.  Maybe I will have to start. Smile.

Oasis With Another Great Williston-Area Well -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

It appears Oasis has another great well, this time west of Williston, in the Squires oil field.

• 18799, Oasis, Stowers 5502 43-8H

Although no IP has been reported yet, February production was reported at 14,838 bbls of oil. There was significantly less oil produced in previous two months (January, 11 days, 2,600 bbls; December, 9 days, 1,500 bbls), so obviously the well was fracked sometime in January.

The well was spudded 5/12/10.

There was some difficulty with this well so it's hard to say when it was ready for fracking. There is a report in the well file that says work on the well was completed (ready for fracking) dated November 23, 2010.

Be that as it may, this looks like a good Oasis well, and it's in an area that seems to be very, very good. I get a kick out of this since this is exactly where I grew up and I always wondered if there was oil west of Williston.

Again, I have been very impressed with the success of BEXP, Whiting and Oasis.

Update: Nuclear Disaster in Japan -- Getting Worse -- Not a Bakken Story

On March 16, 2011, I wrote this:

I wonder when they do the post-mortem on the Japanese reactors, if it will be determined that the disaster was compounded and events ended the way they did when the decision was made early on to try saving the reactor rather than the nation.

Today it is being reported that the operator of the Japanese nuclear reactors damaged by the earthquake/tsunami has admitted that it appears that the reactors are "lost," and will never be used again. This suggests to me that the primary effort all these weeks has been to save the reactors. Yes, I know that is very simplistic thinking and "saving the reactors" and preventing a meltdown or release of radioactivity go hand-in-hand.

But most Americans (I assume), including me, don't understand the fine points (nor the coarse points, for that matter) of shutting down a reactor, but if it turns out that immediate action to "bury" the reactor vessels would have prevented this ongoing disaster, pundits will have a field day.

It's my understanding that radioactive water is now likely to reach the ocean.

I keep thinking of US Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu's comment that "coal is [his] worse nightmare."

This Is Worthy of A Headline? Oil Slips to Near $104 After Jump in Supply Oil Crude

Yup, that was the headline.

I'm sure the story will be gone by the end of the day, and the link broken.

In that group of early-morning Yahoo!Financials, these were the stories that did not get headlines:

• Civil war in Libya; arming the rebels; arming al-Qaeda
• Nuclear disaster worsens in Japan; evidence of meltdown
• Leaked (trial balloon) of President Obama's energy security speech tonight
• Federal budget crisis deadline looms
• GE paid no US federal income taxes in 2010

But at least we all know that oil slipped to "near" $104/barrel.