For Investors Only: Berkshire Hathaway Hits a 52-Week High

And close to an all-time high.

interesting. Folks are not buying BRK-A or BRK-B for the dividend.

EOG near its 52-week high; within striking distance of its all-time high.

SRE near its 52-week high which would be an all-time high.

Wells Coming Off Confidential List Wednesday; Note A QEP Croff Well With 48K The First Month

Note: information on this page is tentative until official daily activity report is posted.

• 19662, 419, EOG, Van Hook 107-1411H, Van Hook, on natural gas pipeline by end of second month;
• 22193, drl, QEP, Kummer 1-6/7H, Croff, on natural gas pipeline almost immediately; huge well, see below;
• 22269, drl, WPX Energy Williston, Fettig 6-7HB, Eagle Next;
• 22668, drl, MRO, Diamond A 41-28H, Bailey,
• 22874, drl, BEXP, Pyramid 15-22TFH, Todd,
• 23121, drl, SM Energy, Holm 14X-12HA, Siverston

Comments: 

• 19662: no flaring after the first month
• 22193: no flaring at all based on preliminary stats once once production started

Of note:

• 22193, conf, QEP, Kummer 1-6/7H, Croff:

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	11-2012	30	34418	34098	5689	0	0	0
BAKKEN	10-2012	31	48373	47905	15916	39474	39474	0

Information Overload -- So Many Stories, So Little Time

A reader sent a link to a very long analysis regarding the current state of affairs and the economy:

In this final issue of Basic Points, we discuss what we consider The Final Problem for central banks, governments, and investors in the industrial world.

Tragically, capitalism's greatest triumph and the powerful global economic expansion were interrupted by capitalism's greatest infamy. The Crash was caused primarily by the major banks on Wall Street and Europe that we have long labeled as the B5—The Big, Bad, Bonused, Bail-out Banks.

A recession spread rapidly across the Industrial World, and panicky central banks and governments united to rescue collapsing banks, at enormous taxpayer cost. Interest rates were slashed to near-zero during the crisis, when outright defation loomed.

The ensuing recoveries have been so tepid that money continues to be astonishingly cheap for governments,and corporations—and, bizarrely, for banks. What we have called “The Financial Heroin” continues to flow into the veins of once-vibrant economies.

This is a week-end of reading. I may come back to it later, but not wanting to delay getting it out there, go to the link above.  The article was sent to me because of the bit on global warming but there is much more to it that might be of interest to readers.

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This is an interesting study -- the economic benefits of unconventional oil and gas production. In addition to the direct benefits measured in revenue for the federal and state governments, the study also pointed out the top ten states whose employment numbers benefit most from unconventional oil and gas production -- but with a twist: none of the ten are oil and gas producers.

The top 10 non-producing states in terms of jobs are New York, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, Minnesota, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

Florida? Minnesota? Wisconson? Hmmm... I assume there's a good chance that New York will eventually be added to the list of producers. Hopefully.

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Here we go again! Canadian company considering building a railroad to carry oilsands products to an Alaskan port.

Alison Redford’s cabinet is expected to decide in January whether the government will spend $10 million to study the idea of building a rail line to ship oilsands products from northern Alberta to a port in Alaska.

The money would help pay for a $40-million study that will investigate the feasibility of a proposed 2,400-kilometre rail line to carry landlocked oilsands products from Fort McMurray to Delta Junction, Alaska.

From there, Alberta’s oil would flow through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system to the Valdez Marine Terminal, and on to booming Asian markets.

This rail story just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

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Any thoughts on this one? I don't even know where to begin. From the New York Times:

Al Jazeera on Wednesday announced a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore, a former vice president, and his business partners seven years ago. Al Jazeera plans to shut Current and start an English-language channel, which will be available in more than 40 million homes, with newscasts emanating from both New York and Doha, Qatar.

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The United States with a 20-year low for oil imports -- graphs and story at CarpeDiem. 

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Basin Electric To Build Two More "Peaking Power Plants" -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota

From wiki: 

Peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, and occasionally just "peakers," are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. Because they supply power only occasionally the power supplied commands a much higher price per kilowatt hour than base load power.

From a reader, sent in as a comment:

Another project in the works west of Williston:  Basin Electric Power Cooperative plans to build two (2) more electricity generating stations, next to where they are currently building a 45 MW peaking plant (power station).  The filing is listed below for the two new peaking plants.

STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA
PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
Basin Electric Power Cooperative
Case No. PU-12-509
Pioneer Generation Station – Williams
County
Siting Application
NOTICE OF FILING AND NOTICE OF
HEARING
December 21, 2012

If I have the story correct, earlier last year I posted that Basin Electric Power Cooperative would be building two new power stations, the Lonesome Creek Stations west of Watford City, adjacent to one that is already there.

So, right now, when this is complete, for Basin Electric Power Cooperative:

• two new power stations next to an existing power station west of Williston (Pioneer stations)
• two new power stations next to an existing power station west of Watford City (Lonesome Creek)

The Pioneer stations will be constructed across the highway (the Grenora Road) from the new State Line I and II ONEOK natural gas gathering and processing plants.

The Grenora Road between US Highway 2 and the city of Grenora to the north will now be home to two (2) natural gas gathering and processing plants (Stateline I and II) and three natural gas powered peaking plants (Pioneer 1, 2, and 3).

The Definitive Reply to Different Fracking Technologies --- A Huge "Thank You" To a Reader

Earlier today I posted a link to a Motley Fool story regarding KOG: it got a fair bit of attention, and after receiving the first comment, I realized that I was in over my head, perhaps bamboozled by Motley Fool. It wouldn't be the first time (I've been in over my head when it comes to the Bakken).

Subsequently, I received a great comment that provided more explanation and background regarding fracking/completion technologies. Because some people may not read comments, I will post the part having to do specifically with the issue at hand (next paragraph). Before reading that, one should read the original post, the updates, and the comments (at the link above).

Now, the comment that provides a much fuller explanation:

The jury is still out on the swell packers/frack sleeves vs cemented liners. Cemented liners are old-school technology. Swell packers are new-school. Unfortunately, there is a big pressure drop across the ball seats in the frack sleeves which makes fracking the more distal sleeves less effective than utilizing plug-n-perf. Plus, sometimes the sleeves do not work and you have to skip that zone. Plus, if you want to go back in and recomplete a zone later, you have way less flexibility with the frack sleeves. Prices are coming down on the frack sleeves/swell packers, they were getting way out of line for awhile leading some operators to consider going back to cemented liners. I'm still on the fence with this issue and am not 100% sure which method will be the preferred down the road. My suspicion is the old-school plug-n-perf will eventually go back into vogue due to eventual re-fracks of the Bakken and Three Forks wells (like in the Barnett Shale of the Ft. Worth Basin), but that is only an educated guess.

As far as the 5 days to drill......normally you are doing good if you spud-rig release in 20 days. A few contractors who trip pipe exceptionally fast and have no break downs and just get lucky where everything goes well(i.e. no mud motor or mwd failures) can spud to TD in as little as 12 days, but that does not include the time to run the production liner. The 5-day number may come in as the number of days to drill a 10,000' lateral. Once again, you have to get lucky to knock it out drilling 2000' a day and have no failures. Plus, that is a Middle Bakken well. Three Forks are more difficult to drill that fast.

There is more to the comment but that should be read at the original link to put it in context.

I will ask for everyone's patience if I continue to link Motley Fool stories in the future, but will emphasize again that they may not be the best source (or perhaps not even a source at all -- smile).