The Most Surprising Story Line About This Link ...

... the story is in The Atlantic.

I was surprised. This is a link from CarpeDiem: the case for shale gas in 5 charts. I didn't even bother going to the story initially. For me, it was a "dog-bites-man" story and held no interest for me. But Don sent me the link and I knew if I didn't check it out, I would not sleep all night, wondering what I was missing.

So, I went to the link. I didn't read much of the story -- I was too surprised to see that it was in The Atlantic and not Oil & Gas Journal or Schlumberger Today or Rigzone. 

I find The Atlantic to be "fair and balanced" and the editor uses graphs and statistics better than most mainstream media, but ever since their article questioning whether the Bakken boom has already ended, skews my view of the editors a bit. (I guess I'm a bit sensitive, a bit defensive when it comes to the Bakken). Be that as it may, this is great to see these graphs in this publication. Enjoy.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

I have neither the time nor the energy to write all I wish I could write about a "fun" little book I am reading. Without notes or index, the book is only 208 pages long, an easy read, which can be read in one sitting, if one were so inclined.

I was sent an advance copy back in 2009 -- "an advance reading copy, not for resale" -- but I didn't get around to reading it until now. I read enough of it and paged through it quickly enough back in 2009 to write a review, but I never really sat down to enjoy the book until now.

The book: Perfect Rigor: A Genius + The Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century, by Masha Gessen, c. 2009. I have a soft cover edition, but I see a hard cover edition is still available.

This is the story about a Russian mathematician, Grigory Perelman, who solved a century-old math problem, and by so doing was awarded a million-dollar prize. He refused the prize; at least to date he has refused it, but the offer is still there. By American standards, he might be described as destitute; if that's too hard a word, then certainly below the poverty line. But he does math for math, and not for money.

This book explains why the Russians are so "good" in mathematics. The author Masha Gessen was a product of that environment, but fortunately for her, she emigrated to the United States some years ago; it sounds like it was when she was in her teens/early 20's.

I had trouble not reading the book to completion every time I picked it up, but when I get a really good book, I like to slow down, read only a few pages, and then giving it a rest, to think about it, before picking it up again the next day. But about page 150, after the "proof emerges," I started to lose interest -- the story had been told; it now seemed anticlimactic. How was the author going to fill out the last 50 pages --

-- and then, page 174, as if a dam burst -- the excitement overflowed again -- unexpectedly the author went a completely different direction and all of a sudden the book is even more exciting than I could have imagined. Yes, it's a nerdy, geeky, science, medical book but for folks interested in that kind of thing, wow, it's worth reading.

One of the things that makes the book so "fun": the author has walked in Perelman's shoes to some extent, as a Russian mathematician. Her writing does not seem all that polished which is one of the reasons that makes the book so enjoyable delightful (I thought of the book, Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Sofran Foer, and the subsequent movie starring Elijah Wood). 

But surprisingly (?) Ms Gessen has written for Slate, the New Republic, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times.

Our older granddaughter was in a math club led by a Russian mathematician when they lived in Boston. Things now make a lot more sense. 

WPX Earnings, Revenue, Press Release, And Transcript

A big "thank you" to a reader for sending me this link; during earnings season I cannot keep up so I always appreciate it when readers send me links. Thank you.

Note that WPX has had some big successes outside the Bakken, namely in New Mexico and the Niobrara.

From the company's press release:

"In the Williston, we're now doing simultaneous operations like we've done in the Piceance, allowing us to both drill and complete wells concurrently on the same pad. This is one way we're driving down drilling days and costs in North Dakota, making it possible to do more drilling and completions this year than originally planned without increasing our rig count and all within our capital guidance range.
"Our continued Williston Basin operational improvements should facilitate seven more wells drilled and 11 additional completions this year for a new total of 46 spuds and 52 completions," Hill said.

"We expect this to increase the year-end exit rate for our Williston oil production by more than 2,000 barrels per day - or 15 percent - to a new total of 15,000 barrels of oil per day. For 2014, this additional activity should increase our Williston production by 8 percent. Our oil production growth rate in the Williston has been impressive - up 30 percent in the second quarter compared with a year ago.

If I read this correctly, I've learned something: I thought operators would not drill AND frack simultaneously on the same pad; it sounds like WPX is doing just that.

Although company's earning missed by 4 cents, revenues beat expectations. SeekingAlpha transcript.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

CarboCeramics Corporate Presentation

With the recent interest in ceramics/fracking, Don sent me the link to CarboCeramics corporate presentation for June, 2013. Of course, this is a dynamic link and the June presentation will probably be there until the company posts a new presentation.

It certainly appears the jury is still out with regard to sand, ceramics, resin-coated proppants. It will be interesting to watch.

Also, note the references to "slick water," something that was mentioned/discussed on the blog a long, long time ago. The blog's search engine should be able to find posts mentioning "slick water."

Waste Mangement Acquires Two Williston-Based Energy Service Companies -- Huge Story For Williston And For The Bakken

I don't know how familiar folks in North Dakota, or more specifically, Williston, are with regard to Waste Management but that's the company with the huge green waste hauling trucks. They are a huge company in the east.

A reader (thank you very much) sends me a link to Waste Management's webpage in which the company announces the acquisition of two Williston-based companies. This is a huge, huge deal for Williston:

Waste Management, Inc. today announced that it has acquired Summit Energy Services and Liquid Logistics, two Williston, North Dakota energy services companies. The acquisitions will enhance Waste Management’s environmental service offerings to oil and gas industry customers working in the Bakken Shale formation.

“While we work with oil and gas customers around the country, these acquisitions give us access to an element we haven’t previously served,” said Harry Lamberton, vice president of energy and environmental services for Waste Management. “They also add expertise that we will use in the other North American regions where we provide environmental services to oil and gas customers.”

Lamberton said the addition of 140 employees from the two companies would add skills and services including roustabout and oil well-site maintenance, road and well-site pad construction, storm water and erosion control management, aggregate crushing and sales, well monitoring pumping and more.

Lamberton added that WM eventually will add offerings such as rig maintenance and tank cleaning, drill cuttings solidification and disposal, based on customers’ needs.

This is another big story for Williston and the Bakken. 

Saturday Morning Links, News, And Views

I have posted several notes already this morning, including the summary of NDIC's August dockets -- scroll down. I have also updated two polls, and added a new link to a new Mike Filloon essay on ceramics vs sand.

[Odds and ends: Platts has an interesting article -- the western Canadian oil is going to displace Canadian's east coast offshore oil --

All the proposed pipelines across eastern Canada are capturing headlines, but are leaving three crudes out in the cold, literally.
Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose, the three grades produced from fields offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, have long been a part of the local market for refineries along the North American East Coast and eastern Canada.

Now, with the TransCanada announcing it will proceed on its Energy East pipeline project and Enbridge reversing the flow of its Line 9 pipeline, the three offshore grades are likely to be pushed out of those markets.

If and when these pipelines are completed (likely sometime around 2018), eastern Canada will be flooded with just under 2 million b/d of crudes from the fields in western Alberta. Since the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers expects production from this region to reach 4.61 million b/d by 2020, there should be plenty of oil to go around.

Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, is converting its 88,000 b/d Dartmouth refinery in Nova Scotia into a products terminal at the end of this year. It was one of the main buyers for Hibernia crude, cutting out demand for that grade.

Even if demand remained steady, however, the logistics of providing east coast crudes to area refineries is changing. The east coast crude operators use the 236-mile Portland-Montreal Pipeline to get their supply into the local market. But refiners have essentially stopped using the line in anticipation that it will be reversed along with Enbridge’s Line 9.]

Before I close down for the day, some quick WSJ Links.

The top story: low pays clouds job growth. 

The U.S. labor market's long, slow recovery slowed further in July—and many of the jobs that were created were in low-wage industries.

Employers added a seasonally adjusted 162,000 jobs in July, the fewest since March, the Labor Department said Friday, and hiring was also weaker in May and June than initially reported. Moreover, more than half the job gains were in the restaurant and retail sectors, both of which pay well under $20 an hour on average. 

"These jobs count as jobs in the jobs reports, but there's very little attention paid to the kind of jobs these are," said Arne Kalleberg, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina and the author of the book "Good Jobs, Bad Jobs." "They tend to be low-wage jobs, they tend to be in retail and personal-service-type sectors, many of them are part time.

The drop in the unemployment rate is also the result of a job market that remains too weak to draw back workers who have dropped out of the labor force. Some 6.6 million workers say they want a job but don't count as unemployed because they aren't actively looking, a number that has barely budged in the past year. The number of Americans working or looking for work fell by 37,000 in July; as a share of the population, the labor force remains near a three-decade low.

This is really cool; this was just a matter of time -- Prius tricked out as a lowrider!

Many Prius "pimpers" have followed the lead of comedian Tommy Chong. He turned his hybrid into a black lowrider, with its body lowered to the ground, and added red and gray detailing and tinted windows in 2006. Mr. Chong, 75, who came to fame as half of the Cheech & Chong comedy duo, installed hydraulics to lift the car up and down, blacked out the taillights, and added a loud exhaust.

Maybe I need to visit the Sports Bar earlier than expected this afternoon: Tiger Woods is chasing an elusive 59:

Tiger Woods thrilled golf fans Friday by drawing close to golf's magic number: 59.
A birdie-eagle-birdie start at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, followed by birdies on No. 7 and holes 10 through 13, pushed Woods to nine-under-par on the par-70 Firestone Country Club course.

But he missed a short birdie putt on 15, miss hit a wedge from 90 yards on 16, and missed another short birdie on 17—a microcosm, perhaps, of his disappointing final rounds while in contention at this year's U.S. and British Opens.

Woods salvaged par from off the green at 18 for a course record-tying 61 and a seven-stroke lead. Only five players in PGA Tour history have shot 59s. 

NASCAR this evening at 7:00 pm CDT.

Whatever happened to Syria. Mexico, Mali, Cambodia, and Bangladesh with headline stories, but nothing on Syria. Nor Benghazi, for that matter.