Talk About Bullish! Listen to EOG CEO Mark Papa With Jim Cramer -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

Data points:

• No dry wells in the Bakken! Huge. Only other place in the world with no dry holes: Saudi Arabia
• IPs range from 700 - 1,500; even the lowest IPs would be considered "monster" wells
• EOG values their Bakken acreage at $35,000/acre
• Average price EOG paid for Bakken acreage: $453
• MRO recently paid $21,000/acre (I may have that wrong; I missed it on the broadcast and didn't listen to it again; if I'm wrong, send me a comment, and I will correct it.

But the thing that impressed CEO Mark Papa is that there are NO dry holes in the Bakken. I used to talk about that two years go when I first started this blog. No dry holes.

Forgotten? -- Tolley 8-9H, Mylo Monitor 1-- North Dakota, USA

I'm sure there is some explanation but it was not obvious in the well file.

• 17719, PWI, Ballantyne Oil, Tolley 8-9H, Tolley field, Madison; no production data,

Okay, this well was spud on 9/17/2009 and according to the file report, yes, it did reach total depth, and was waiting to be "completed." Note this is a Madison well and a horizontal well.

So, waiting for completion since September 17, 2009. It's August 8, 2011, today. Perhaps this well has dropped into the Twilight Zone.

And some more:

• 18491, DRL, Marathon, Mylo Monitor 1, Reunion Bay, Bakken; spud 1/13/10; a monitoring well; no production expected
• 18550, dry, Sagebrush, Dieblier 25-16, Madison wildcat; spud 2/8/10; 

CBR? Paradigm Shift -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

After posting the story below, I went back to find another story that adds some background to crude-by-rail.  This was posted February 4, 2011:

According to a great Reuters story (sent to me by a reader), the producers are now increasing their rail loadings to ship highly sought after Bakken crude to points east and west to avoid Cushing, Oklahoma, where there is a glut. Highly sought after Bakken sweet oil? Enbridge announced recently it will ship only sweet oil going forward.

Original Post

Is there a paradigm shift staring us in the face?

Any pipeline oil spill, no matter how small, becomes a headline. Even the tiniest Enbridge pipeline spill gets national coverage.

At every step along the way, the Keystone XL project runs into adversity. Landowners as far away as Texas don't want the pipeline running through their property. The Keystone XL has become the poster child for environmentalists wanting to stop Big Oil.

Except for small pipeline projects, it seems there are more stories of pipelines not being approved than being built.

And then we get this story, posted earlier: by the end of this year, the region's railroads will be able to handle 400,000 bbls/day. I linked the story here with other stories of shipping crude-by-rail (CBR).

Yes, shipping by rail is slightly higher than shipping by pipeline, but there are some advantages.

I used to think that the big problem for Canadian oil sands oil is that the railroads don't run north / south. Something tells me that is no longer a problem. The Northern Plains Commerce Centre in Bismarck has access to the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Regardless of how it works out, the issue of takeaway capacity for the Bakken seems to be a non-issue.

I think there may be a tectonic shift in the way oil folks are thinking about transporting Bakken oil, and it has to do with the railroads. Who would have guessed? Warren Buffett. He bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2010.

For a nice PowerPoint presentation of North Dakota's CBR terminals, click here for NDIC's conference held earlier this year (February, 2011), a PDF file.

President Obama Says He Inherited "This" From the Previous Administration

Yup, he inherited a AAA credit rating from all three rating agencies.

[The president is on vacation. After all, it's August. And it's hot in Washington in August.]

Five (5) New Permits -- Another Great BEXP Well -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Daily activity report, August 8, 2011 --

Operators: Hess (2), XTO, Burlington Resources, and Whiting

Fields: Alkali Creek, Grinnell, Bell, and a wildcat.

Hess has a two-well pad permit.

BR has the wildcat in McKenzie County.

Take a look at that Bell field permit; remember, back in April, 2011, I posted a story about acreage in Bell oil field going for $9,000/acre.

As usual, when other operators are waiting to get their wells fracked, BEXP is getting them fracked and reporting great IPs:

• #19930, 2,670, BEXP, Russell 10-3 1-H, Painted Woods, Bakken