Emerald Oil -- Yahoo!In-Play; Update; Acquires 4,500 Net Acres; $3,200/Acre;

VOG is now merged with Emerald Oil and operating under Emerald Oil.

Emerald Oil announces that it has commenced a public offering of 82,000,000 shares of its common stock (EOX): Co announces that it has commenced a public offering of 82,000,000 shares of its common stock. 

Separately:

Emerald Oil announces McKenzie County, North Dakota, operated acreage acquisition and reserve report update (EOX): Co announces it entered into a definitive agreement on September 6, 2012 to acquire approximately 4,500 net operated acres in McKenzie County, North Dakota, which the Company expects to close early in the fourth quarter of 2012. The Company has agreed to pay approximately $14.3 million in cash for this acreage, or approximately $3,200 per net operated acre. The average working interest on this acreage is greater than 60%. As part of the transaction, the Company will also acquire a recently constructed well pad and tank battery at an additional cost of $1.3 million in cash. These drilling and production facilities will allow the Company to drill some of its first operated wells on the acreage. From this well pad, the Company anticipates being able to hold by production three of the approximately nine operated drilling spacing units. Recently, certain offset operators to this acreage have announced wells that have had initial 24-hour production rates of over 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boe/d). The initial 24-hour production rates achieved by others may not be indicative of the results the Company achieves from its wells.  [Note for newbies: boepd includes natural gas; a) natural gas tends to decline very, very quickly; and, b) it's not worth that much compared to oil, though wet natural gas is significantly better than dry. Bottom line: the boepd matters less to me than the bopd (oil only).]

June 30, 2012 Estimated Proved Reserves: Emerald recently commissioned a reserve audit by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, on the Company's oil and gas reserves as of June 30, 2012. The results of this audit illustrate the reserve growth Emerald experienced during the first half of 2012 from total estimated proved reserves of approximately 3.5 million Boe with a PV-10 value of approximately $59.6 million at December 31, 2011, to approximately 4.6 million Boe with a PV-10 value of approximately $83.2 million at June 30, 2012.

As of September 4,2012:

DENVER, CO--(Marketwire -09/04/12)- Effective today, Voyager Oil & Gas, Inc. (VOG) ("Voyager"), will be conducting business under the name Emerald Oil, Inc. (EOX). Also effective today, the common shares of the Company will be trading on the NYSE MKT under the EOX symbol.

Spacing in the Bakken -- A Random Note

An interesting spacing unit:

• 19794, 446, EOG, Ross 34-0533H, Alger; t6/11; cum 80K 7/12; 4-section spacing (2560-acres; 2,704 acres to be exact)

The horizontal cuts across four sections, hitting the SW quadrant of section 5; the NE quadrant of section 6, hardly anything but the far SW corner of section, and the NE quadrant of section 33. The spacing is four section (2560-acres). That means a mineral owner in the far NE corner of section 34 is participating in this well, just as much as the mineral owner in the NE quadrant of section 6. With 640-acre spacing, a lot of mineral owners would be waiting for their well to come in.

Others will see it differently, of course.

Regardless of your thoughts on the spacing, it is what it is, and it is very, very interesting.

When I see some of the questions folks ask at other sites regarding mineral rights, all I can say is I am so glad I don't have any mineral rights. I know that doesn't make sense, but ...

What We'll Be Talking About Tuesday Morning -- Eighteen (18) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Updates

September 14, 2012: I suggested this strike would end by Friday of the week it started. Looks like I wasn't too far off the mark. I thought the political backlash against the teachers -- despite what they say -- would be too great.

September 11, 2012: 40 percent of Chicago's public school teachers send their children to private schools. They know best. At least we know why these teachers need an increase in pay; the cost to send kids to private schools has increased significantly over the years; public pay is not keeping up.

A Little Perspective Here

I never want to hear that roughnecks and Bakken truck drivers are paid too much. Chicago teachers go on strike because they won't accept a 16% pay raise over four years; they are already the highest paid teachers nationally; their average pay -- average is -- $79,000. Which means some of those teachers are earning well in excess of $100,000 before benefits, and they work 9 months / year, with generous vacation time during the school year: every federal and state holiday; no overtime; Thanksgiving 4 days; Christmas (or whatever they call it now) 2 weeks; spring vacation at least a week, probably 10 days. Their rooms are climate-controlled; I'm sure "snow days" are liberal, and you just know sick leave is very liberal. And I can bet they are out the door at the end of the school day faster than the students. No, don't tell me the Bakken roughnecks and truck drivers are paid too much. Finally, we see some perspective. The Bakken oil patch workers earn every bit of their pay if high school, middle school, and elementary school teachers in Chicago are averaging -- averaging -- $79,000 BEFORE benefits. And they go on strike because they can't accept a 16% pay raise. I sure hope the Chicago property owners enjoy paying their property taxes because they're going to get a chance to pay more.

So, it's either going to be a very, very short strike, or a very, very long one. By the end of the week, we will see whether parents are willing to take the strike in stride or whether they will let their city leaders know they want it over NOW. If the Chicago electorate supports the teachers, this will drag on long enough to possibly result in the loss of an entire school year.

On the other hand, if parents let their city leaders know that they will all be voted out of office if the teachers aren't back to work by Friday, it will be a short strike.

My hunch is the teachers won't be able to take the political heat, the popular backlash. The union leaders will push to keep the strike going but by Friday, they will be back in school "while negotiations continue."

This is a travesty at all levels. If this is still going on during the first presidential debate, it will be interesting if the moderator asks the question of the two nominees. My hunch is that the liberal media bosses won't let the question be asked. The question, of course: do you support the teachers who have gone on strike, who feel that $100,000 annual pay for 9 months work is not enough?

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Bakken Operations

Active rigs: 192

Eighteen (18) new permits:

• Operators: BEXP (6), BR (6), Fidelity (4), Whiting, CLR,
• Fields: Dickinson (Stark), Rosebud (Williams), Painted Woods (Williams), Zenith (Stark), Westberg (McKenzie), Alger (Mountrail), Stanley (Mountrail), Ukraina (Dunn), Sanish (Mountrail)

Wells coming off confidential list over the weekend and today reported earlier.

In addition, five producing wells reported IPs:

• 21142, 1,020, Oasis, Horse Creek Federal 5004 42-35H,
• 21489, 8,231, CLR, Antelope 4-23H, 
• 21488, 1,357, CLR, Antelope 2-23H,
• 21960, 1,220, MRO, Vance Strommetn 21-13H, 
• 22182, 463, CLR, Opee 1-23H, 

I'm quite sure #21489 is an error; most likely 823 bbls, but we'll see. Unfortunately the well file is not yet available at the NDIC web site that would show the source data. It has to be an error, but on the other hand, the gas units reported were very, very high ( I read very few summaries, but enough to know that these are very high numbers): "Gas shows were consistent through the drilling of the lateral, with background gas averaging 1,400 units at a 9.4 mud weight. Trip gases reached 10,000 units at the end of the lateral. Just below the gamma marker four and a half feet below the target zone was a very small zone that had good shows having background gas reaching nearly 2,600 units.

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Bakken Dispatch

You can find "Bakken Dispatch" at two places on the sidebar at the right for now. It is still down among the "external links," but I have also placed a link near the top of the sidebar for now for easier accessibility. If I have this correct, it used to be linked as "Bakken Zone." If that is incorrect, I'm sure the webmaster will let me know.

Abraxas Activity -- Random Note -- Acquiring a Few Acres in the Eagle Ford

From a SEC filing:

Under the terms of the Agreement, Abraxas retained a 100 percent interest in the Eagle Ford and shallower rights in Jourdanton, Atascosa County (4,401 net acres), a 100 percent interest in Yoakum, DeWitt County (1,868 net acres), a 25 percent interest in WyCross, McMullen County (695 net acres), and a 25 percent interest in Nordheim, DeWitt County (944 net acres).  

The producing wells are currently producing 205 barrels of oil equivalent per day (62 percent oil and 11 percent ngls) net to the interest retained by Abraxas. 

The proved reserves attributable to the Abraxas interests are approximately 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (27 percent oil and 25 percent ngls). The probable reserves attributable to the Abraxas interests are 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (54 percent oil and 15 percent ngls).  

Abraxas also received a $7 million cash payment, adjusted for various working capital components, and will receive 25 percent of the cash and working capital in Blue Eagle upon its final liquidation. Abraxas, as operator, and its working interest partner will commence a ten well drilling program utilizing one rig in the WyCross area in the near future.  

The first well drilled at WyCross, the Abraxas Cobra #1H has produced over 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent since going on production in March of 2012 and is currently flowing approximately 430 barrels of oil equivalent per day (86 percent oil and 5 percent ngls).

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site; this is for sharing information only.