Whiting Reports Three Wells; BR WIth a Huge Well; CLR, Zenergy, MRO, Whiting All With Nice Wells; Wells Coming Off the Confidential List Thursday

Active Rigs:  185

Wells coming off the confidential list today:

• 21655, 1,123, Whiting, Solberg 34-11PH, Bell, t7/12; cum 38K 11/12;
• 22054, 535, G3 Operating, Boyds 1-29-32H, Strandahl, t9/12; cum 14K 11/12;
• 22094, 608, Whiting, Lydia 41-14PH, Bell, t7/12; cum 27K 11/12;
• 22594, 1,303, Whiting, Solberg 44-11PH, Bell, t7/12; cum 33K 11/12;
• 22640, 1,443, MRO, Henry Charging USA 31-3TFH, Reunion Bay, t9/12; cum 51K 11/12;
• 22790, 2,325, BR, Kirkland 21-28MBH 2SH, Pershing, t1/12; cum --; 4 sections;
• 22892, 1,552, Zenergy, Dwyer 27-34H, Rawson, t9/12; cum 22K 11/12;
• 23101, drl, QEP Energy, MHA 1-06-32H-150-92, Heart Butte,
• 23157, 446, MRO, Paul Rohde 31-29H, Werner, t9/12; cum 9K 11/12;
• 23213, 1,703, CLR, Hartman 3-28H, Chimney Butte, t12/12; cum --

Is it just me, or are others noting a lot of activity in the Strandahl oil field?

Brent Pipeline Off-Line Due To Incident [Update: Should Be Back On-Line]

Updates

January 17, 2013: Link to Oil & Gas Journal.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) has begun restoring the flow of an estimated 80,000 b/d of crude oil in the Brent pipeline system following a precautionary pipeline shutdown because of a hydrocarbon release into a platform leg on the Cormorant Alpha platform, which remains shutin.

The pipeline system and platform are operated by TAQA Bratani Ltd. Investigations found no connection between the Brent pipeline system and the pipeline involved in the release. The process of restarting Brent throughput follows a technical evaluation determining it is safe, TAQA said.

Oil, by the way, rose about $1.30 today with WTI in the $95 range; Brent in the $111 range.

 

Original Post

Not sure if this is a "big" story or not. It's the first story at Oil & Gas Journal today but I didn't see it elsewhere in the mainstream media. Rigzone says the leak shuts down 10% of UK's oil production.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) shut down Cormorant Alpha platform in the northern UK North Sea and the Brent System pipeline infrastructure extending through the platform as a precaution following a hydrocarbon release into one platform leg.

There was no hydrocarbon release into the environment, TAQA said. It evacuated 92 noncore personnel following detection of a hydrocarbon release Jan. 15.

Cormorant Alpha platform handles about 90,000 b/d of crude oil feeding the Brent system pipeline, including 10,000 b/d from Cormorant field.

TAQA Bratani Ltd. operates Cormorant Alpha, which is 232 miles from Peterhead, Scotland. The Brent system transports crude oil from more than 20 North Sea fields to an export terminal at Sullom Voe in the Shetlands Islands.

So, we'll see tomorrow if it's mentioned anywhere else. 

EPA Shenanigans in Weatherford, TX

This is an incredible story that MDW first linked on March 24, 2011, then again an update on April 12, 2011.

The story continues, this time in the Casper, WY, startribune.com.

Earlier links:

• March 24, 2011: story here.
• April 12, 2011: story here.

This whole story stinks, as we used to say, to "high heaven."

**************************

At the March 24, 2011, link, this key paragraph:

During a hearing in January, David Poole, Range Resources’ general counsel, said the expert testimony would show the company’s gas wells were not responsible for the contamination of nearby water wells. The EPA did not send witnesses to testify at the January hearing.

In the latest story (the first link):

When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun "bubbling" like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.

At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.

Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.

Does anyone truly believe that the EPA gave up another investigation for reasons cited in this article? Really? The EPA drops a case against an independent oil and gas company simply because the country threatened to withdraw from a national study on fracking? You have got to be kidding.

This is just one of many scientific articles that explains the phenomenon. This link will take you to a "quick view," but one can download the original PDF file from there. Another article here that is easier to read.

North Dakota's School Land Permanent Trust Now Reaching $2 Billion

This is an excellent article in The Minot Daily News.

North Dakota's school land permanent trust fund is growing by leaps and bounds thanks to the Bakken development.

"It took 122 years to hit $1 billion," said deputy land commissioner Jeff Engleson of the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands. "It took two and two quarter years to hit the second billion."

North Dakota has about 743,000 surface acres of trust lands, located primarily in the western part of the state oil country. The land was granted to the state as it was to the majority of westward expansion states by the federal government at its founding and is intended to support public education for as long as the state exists.

This is one of those articles I hope it not lost due to archiving. I may come back to it and post data points so that if the article is lost, we have the major points.

I don't know if the trust lands referred to in this article are the same as those discussed in one of my earliest posts, and linked at the sidebar at the right, at the very bottom:

The origins of granting sections 16 and 36 of each township to public education.

Early History of North Dakota: Essential Outlines of American History
by Clement Augustus Lounsberry, p. 628.

"The idea of assigning a constant share of all United States public lands, for the support of free education, wherever the public domain might extend beyond the limits of the original states, was first engrafted upon this nation, by our Revolutionary forefathers, in the general ordinance for public surveys, passed by Congress May 20, 1785; this great statute devoting section 16 in each township "for the maintenance of public schools within the said township."

From the North Dakota Department of Trust Lands:

In 1889 the brand new State of North Dakota, through an act of Congress called The Enabling Act, received a gift of over 3 million acres of land from the Federal Government for the purpose of funding public education in the State to perpetuity. Typically, that transfer included Sections 16 and 36 in every North Dakota township. To manage the assets, Article IX of the North Dakota Constitution created the Board of University and School Lands, more commonly referred to as the Land Board. The Land Board is comprised of the Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer and Superintendant of Public Instruction.

If so, and if I understand the article correctly, it begs the question why we are still hearing about funding issues for the states public schools....maybe someone can enlighten me.

[Added: see comments below -- 3 million acres originally; then to 1.8 million acres and most of this was in the west.]

Other data points from the article:

North Dakota is in good shape compared with many other states, according to a recent study that examines the management of school trust lands for all 50 states. The team from Utah State University found that 30 states have lost school trust lands; 20 states still have permanent trust lands. Of those states, not all of them have managed their income as well as others.

Richard West, executive director and professor at the Center for the School of the Future at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, said other states have lost school trust lands due to mismanagement or neglect of fiduciary duty. California, for instance, had lost 92 percent of its original school trust fund acreage as of 2011 and had just $61 million in a permanent trust fund. Nevada had lost 100 percent of its original 4 million acreage and has $307 million in its permanent trust fund for schools. Wisconsin had lost nearly 100 percent of its original 1.5 million acreage and had a permanent trust fund valued at $836 million.

Other states, like North Dakota, have benefited from energy development. Texas, for instance, had $31.2 billion in its permanent trust fund in 2011.

ONEOK Increases Dividend

According to a press release: the board of directors of ONEOK, Inc. today increased the quarterly dividend 3 cents per share, or 9 percent, to 36 cents per share from 33 cents per share, effective for the fourth quarter 2012, payable Feb. 14, 2013, to shareholders of record at the close of business Jan. 31, 2013.

According to one reader who sent me this note, historically, OKS will follow with a similar announcement.

Looking at the chart/history of OKE, dividend increases are fairly frequent and irregular. I only began to follow ONEOK after they started operations in the Bakken.