Remember: Jim Cramer Reporting From the Bakken All Day Wednesday

CNBC will be reporting from the Bakken all day Wednesday, August 24, 2011.

On Amtrak today, between Seattle, Washington, and Chicago, Illinois, on the Empire Builder, I heard this conversation:
"If you have your CDL (commercial driver's license), you can get a job in Williston in fifteen minutes."

Fifteen minutes.

I overheard a similar conversation in McDonald's a few months ago: a roughneck was talking to a friend. He had arrived in Williston from Texas on Friday and by Monday he had a choice of roughneck jobs with several oil exploration companies, and he was looking at going with the "best" and the safest.

Why I Love To Blog: Magnesium Chloride and Dunn's Dusty Roads

Link here.

Dunn County has spent nearly $200,000 to have a contractor apply liquid magnesium chloride in about 70 hard-hit locations in that county, about one-third of that amount this year alone.
The county has about 900 miles of road; 300 of those are considered heavily impacted by oil development.

In Dunn County, the magnesium chloride solution is applied to roads running alongside farmsteads to help improve the quality of life for those people, but it turns out for some of them, life is not that good.

Link here.

Stunning Graph, Sad Story, and Staggering Reassessment -- And Nothing About the Bakken

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx

Meanwhile, toxicology reveals no illegal substances in Amy Winehouse's blood at time of death.


Back to Black, Amy Winehouse

Nothing to do with the Bakken, but I had to get those two news stories out of my system. And that's that.

I'm still blown away by the new Marcellus estimates.

Uncompleted Well Count Continues To Rise

I've been beating this dead horse for about six months: uncompleted wells continue to rise.

Link here.

The number of oil and gas wells either waiting for completion or for access to pipeline in the onshore United States continues to increase, as operators allocate billions in additional capital for domestic development programs.

In the past two days along, nine wells in North Dakota came off the confidential list, and only one had been completed.

I 've been saying fifty percent of wells reaching total depth are not being completed within six months, but it appears I am being too optimistic.

Crude Oil From the Midwest Being Shipped from Tulsa Port -- A Historic First

Link here.

Crude oil is being shipped out of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa for the first time in history, thanks to a strange disparity in oil prices between Oklahoma and the Gulf of Mexico. On July 29, PetroSource LLC shipped 45,000 barrels of crude oil from various suppliers down the Verdigris River on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. The company, which is an oil and gas accounting firm with a terminal at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, is looking to make another shipment soon.  

Later in the story: 

Capacity to move crude oil in the United States is lacking somewhat, and Gulf Coast refiners are clamoring for more product. Gilbreath said the oil is coming from various suppliers as far away as North Dakota. The company is hoping to make another shipment as soon as maintenance along the Arkansas River is completed. "It's such a weird thing that's happening," Gilbreath said. "The numbers just work in our favor right now." Shipping via the waterway is easier and cheaper than by rail or truck, he said. PetroSource has a terminal at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and regularly uses the waterway to ship other products. Several companies at the port's industrial complex ship gasoline, asphalt and other petroleum products on the waterway, but the crude shipment is a first, said port director Bob Portiss.

Wow, does the federal government (EPA, Homeland Security, FTC) know this?