Nine (9) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; EOG Reports A Monster Well In Parshall Oil Field; 1/3 Of Wells Go To DRL Status

Active rigs: 183 (no change)

Nine (9) new permits --

• Operators: BR (3), QEP (2), Oasis (2), SM Energy, MRO
  Fields: Blue Buttes (McKenzie), Cottonwood (Mountrail), Grail (McKenzie), Charlson (McKenzie)
• Comments: MRO has a permit for a wildcat in Slope County

Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier today; see sidebar at the right.

One producing well was completed, and a very nice well it was:

• 24858, 1,790, XTO, Star 21X-14F, Grinnell, t7/13; cum --

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Wells coming off the confidential list Tuesday:

• 21548, 1,437, Whiting, Taylor 34-7H, Sioux, a nice well, t2/13; cum 39K 6/13;
• 23281, drl, CLR, Krehlik 1-11H, wildcat, no production data,
• 24005, drl, CLR, Columbia 4-5H, Dollar Joe, no production data,
• 24128, 1,304, Whiting, Miller 34-8-1H, Harding, t3/13; cum 42K 6/13;
• 24281, 1,833, EOG, Parshall 32-0225H, Parshall, middle Bakken, spectacular well; 137K in less than 4 months; 49 stages; 10 million lbs of sand;
• 24558, 834, Whiting, Langwald 31-17-1H, Estes, t3/13; cum 25K 6/13;

Sioux oil field is just south of Indian oil field, south of the river, south of Williston, and just west of US 85 south. It appears to be all of 3 sections in size.

Krehlik is northwest of Dickinson, near Whiting's Pronghorn Prospect.

Harding oil field, five sections in size, is north/west of the river, along the Montana state line

Estes oil field, about 18 sections, is immediately south of the river, along the Montana border.  

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24281, see above, EOG, Parshall 32-0225H, Parshall, spectacular well:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2013	37082	9180
5-2013	33175	11290
4-2013	47862	0
3-2013	18526	0

Living The American Dream -- Socialism -- The Gift That Keeps On Giving

This story is not unlike all the other stories we've heard from countries like Cuba and Zimbabwe, but it has a very, very happy ending. For American capitalists.

Prior to Mr Chavez nationalizing large farms, redistributing land, and controlling food prices to help the poor, Venezuela was a net exporter of rice. Venezuela is now a net importer of rice. And that's great news for some Americans.

But don't cry for me, Argentina -- oh, that's Argentina, not Venezuela -- whatever --

Don't Cry For Me, Argentina, Madonna
[Is it just me, or does she remind you of Hillary in this clip, especially the line, "I had to change"? But I digress.]

American capitalists are getting rich, exporting rice to Venezuela. I can't make this stuff up. I would have completely missed the story had a reader not mentioned it to me, front page of today's Wall Street Journal. 

Steve Orlicek, a rice farmer here, is living the American dream. He owns a thriving business; he vacations in the Bahamas.

His good fortune springs from many roots, including an unlikely one: He is a prime beneficiary of the socialist economic policies of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's late president and critic of what he called U.S. "imperialism."

It is a paradoxical legacy of Mr. Chávez's self-styled socialist revolution that his policies became a moneymaker for the capitalist systems he deplored. During his 14 years in power, he nationalized large farms, redistributed land and controlled food prices as part of a strategy to help the poor.

But these policies turned Venezuela from a net exporter to a net importer of rice—from farmers like Mr. Orlicek. "The rice industry has been very good to us," Mr. Orlicek said, sitting in his newly renovated home, appointed with a baby grand piano played by his wife, Phyllis.

And so it goes.

What an incredibly good story, front page. I missed it because I was reading the digital edition and "rice" in the headline did not attract my interest. I doubt I would have missed it had I been reading the print edition. Lousy excuse.

A big "thank you" to the reader. 

For My Benefit: I Can Never Remember RINS

Platts is reporting as way of background:

RINs prices have soared for much of 2013 on aggressive buying ahead of the impending "blend wall." The term describes when the maximum amount of the US gasoline pool has been blended with 10% ethanol. Refiners will then be under pressure to run higher ethanol blends or buy RINs, unless Congress is pressured to alter the RFS.

The EPA issues a RIN to track renewable fuel usage throughout the supply chain.

Refiners, importers and blenders -- called "obligated parties" -- use them to show the EPA that they have fulfilled their mandated government use of renewable fuels. If the obligated party has not used enough physical product, it can buy RINs to satisfy the quota.

Now, the news:

All current-year US RINs assessments strengthened for the sixth straight session Monday, marking the first such streak since Platts began the advanced biofuel (D5) assessment on January 3, 2011.

Platts began assessing corn-based ethanol (D6) RINs in 2009 and biomass-based diesel (D4) in 2010.

Corn-based ethanol (D6) RINs for 2013 were assessed 1 cent higher at $0.8150/RIN, and both current-year advanced biofuel (D5) RINs and biomass-based diesel (D4) RINs a half-cent higher at $0.90/RIN and $0.95/RIN, respectively.

Buying interest heated up last week after a week-long selloff that followed the US Environmental Protection Agency's August 6 announcement of a four-month extension for meeting 2013 Renewable Fuel Standard-2 blending requirements, sources said.

Job Watch -- Details From Last Week's Report; Alabama -- Unemployment Rate Drops But Total Employment Plunged (Not Often Have We Seen The Word "Plunge" In These Reports)

Updates

August 20, 2013: same story, as reported by The WSJ:

The labor market's progress was uneven across the U.S. in July, with many states and regions experiencing rising unemployment despite an overall decline across the country.

The unemployment rate rose in 28 states and the District of Columbia, fell in eight states and held steady in the remaining 14, the Labor Department said Monday.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate fell to 7.4% from June's 7.6%, partly because the number of employed people rose, though some also left the labor force. That was the lowest overall level since December 2008.

The unemployment rate grew the most in Alaska and Georgia, at 0.3 percentage point. Rates stand at 6.3% in Alaska and 8.8% in Georgia. Mississippi made the most progress on the labor front, with its rate declining 0.5 percentage point to 8.5%.

The numbers reflect frustratingly slow economic growth. Employers have been adding jobs but the pace hasn't been fast enough for the 11.5 million Americans who want a job but can't find one; in July, employers added 162,000 jobs, the lowest total since March.

No matter how you report it, the unemployment news is bad and shows no signs of improving under this administration.

Original Post

Reuters is reporting:

Nationally: unemployment rate drops to 7.4, according to Reuters:

Nationally, the jobless rate fell to 7.4 percent in July, the lowest level since December 2008, largely due to people giving up on the job hunt and dropping out of the work force.

This is the first time I have seen Reuters so blunt about the truth.

At the state level, the news was no better.

• jobless rates rose in 28 states month-over-month in the latest reporting period (July, 2013)
• jobless rates dropped in only eight states (of those, six states dropped 0.1%)
• one state, for example, from 9 percent to 8.5 percent, Mississippi (the largest drop)
• in most states where jobless rates fell, rates fell 0.1 percent (insignificant)

Reuters continiues:

In neighboring Alabama, where the rate dropped to 6.3 percent from 6.5 percent in June, the labor force also shrank. While manufacturers in the state gained jobs, total employment "plunged this month, dropping by 14,700," according to Alabama's labor department, with most losses in construction, educational and health services, leisure and government.

Conversely, Virginia pointed to an expanding labor force as the reason its jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent in July from 5.5 percent in June. At the same time, local governments' elimination of 4,500 jobs created a drag, with nonfarm employment increasing by 1,400 jobs last month, according to the Virginia employment department.

In Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Hawaii, Nevada and New Jersey, the jobless rates edged down 0.1 percent.

By state:

• highest rate: Nevada, 9.5%
• second: Illinois, 9.2%
• lowest rate: North Dakota, 3%

Re-Cap Of Oppidan In The Bakken

The Star-Tribune is reporting:

Joe Ryan was certain he had a solid sales pitch.

His company, Minnetonka-based Oppidan Investment Co., has built shopping centers nationwide. And Watford City, a fast-growing locale on the western edge of North Dakota’s oil-rich Bakken region, has struggled to provide grocery stores and restaurants as its population surges.

On paper, the two seemed like a match.

But the town planner “looked at my pretty pictures and said, ‘Joe, I could meet with guys like you all day long. Show me something.’ ”

With that blunt-but-earnest challenge, Oppidan stepped outside of its comfort zone. The firm, known for its work with retailers such as Cub Foods, Gander Mountain, Goodwill and Orchard Supply, built an apartment complex, of all things, in nearby Williston.

“We really needed to put our money where our mouth was,” Ryan said recently. “It was so obvious that they desperately needed housing” with the influx of new residents and workers in the region.

Oppidan’s 36-unit apartment complex, called the Gables, leased up so quickly that a second Gables opened earlier this year. Then, in June, the company opened Pheasant Ridge Apartments, a 42-unit complex in Watford City.

“That was the fastest way for us to prove that we were for real,” Ryan said. Since then, Oppidan has completed $150 million in retail and residential projects in Dickinson, Minot, New Town, Stanley, Tioga and Williston. More than 1 million square feet of commercial projects have been done in just over two years.

The rest is at the link. Enjoy. Send to me by a reader. 

Also, search this site for many other Oppidan stories.