Category: Energy

More good stuff on the Bakken oil field – 5/18

A few articles on what’s going on in Bakken:

5/5 – Dickinson Press – Stark County wind energy permit rejected – Previously mentioned 87 slice-and-dicers operated by Dickinson Wind LLC, a sub of NextEra Energy were moving toward construction. Project has a buyer for the electricity, which I’m slowly learning is one of the biggest hurdles to clear.

With one abstention, the Stark County Commissioners unanimously denied a conditional use permit. An outpouring of public complaints persuaded the commissioners to vote down the application.

5/5 – Bismarck Tribune – Communities continue to expand in and around the oil patch – Continue reading “More good stuff on the Bakken oil field – 5/18”

March oil production in North Dakota increases 12K bopd

The preliminary March production info is in – average daily production increased to 1,190,538 bopd from a very slightly revised 1,170,082 bopd in February. That increase of 12,501 bopd essentially offsets the decrease of 13,116 bopd in February.

Here is a graph of current production on a long-term perspective:

5-15 oil prod 1990 to mar 15

The peak in December 2014 was 1,227,529 bopd. March 2015 production is a drop of 36,946 bopd.

Last few months look kinda’ sorta’ like a plateau, doesn’t it?

Take a look at the following production graph. Do you suppose that is the change that OPEC wanted to see when they decided to maintain production in order to crush the American shale sector?

Continue reading “March oil production in North Dakota increases 12K bopd”

Minor updates on Powerwall battery

A few more tidbits on the new batteries from Tesla I discussed here, here, and here. Accumulating the info here in case I go into more detail in the future.

5/1  Bloomberg News – SolarCity Taking Orders for Tesla Batteries Starting at $5,000 – You can place an order now for a Powerwall backup battery. The 10 kWh backup can be purchased for $7,140. Price for just the battery is $3,500, so the inverter and installation will run you $3640. Installation only runs about $1,500 I think, which means the inverter is running around $2,000. Need to add that into all of the previous calculations I made. That further reduces the economic value of batteries, solar, and going off-grid.

5/6 – Bloomberg News – Tesla’s New Battery Doesn’t Work That Well With Solar – Continue reading “Minor updates on Powerwall battery”

More good stuff from the wide open energy frontier – 5/8

Some articles on the amazing things going on in the energy world:  oil factories, fracklog, greener fracking and calculating the Saudi cash burn rate.

5/6 – Russell Gold at Wall Street Journal – What the Future of Oil Drilling Will Look Like – think “oil factory”. Liberty resources is developing a 10,000 acre complex that will have 96 wells when complete. It will be called Stomping Horse.

A pipeline corridor will link all the drill sites to each other allowing oil and natural gas to be gathered to one location. Freshwater can be pumped from a central location and saltwater gathered by pipe at the disposal well.

Continue reading “More good stuff from the wide open energy frontier – 5/8”

Going off-grid. Would merely triple what I pay for electricity.

One of the most fun things about blogging is learning as you go. If you like watching an uninformed person slowly get informed, get a fresh cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy.

I previously discussed Battery storage for the home. Extremely expensive, but available. Update: merely double my costs.

(My math was off. Read to the end for my new calculation.)

Also More followup on the Tesla Powerwall home battery.

To analyze the concept of home batteries and solar power, I’m looking at the concept from the perspective of going off-grid.

I found a few websites that provided some info on the solar array needed. I won’t list the specific sites to avoid causing any unexpected problems, like, oh, exposing commercial businesses to unwanted ridicule.

One site gave helpful tools to calculate how many panels are needed. To go off-grid and cover our actual electricity use last August would call for a 7Kw system. That would involve $18,000 of their panels plus $1,500 or $2,000 for an inverter. Installation and permits are extra.

Continue reading “Going off-grid. Would merely triple what I pay for electricity.”

More followup on the Tesla Powerwall home battery

More comments on the nifty new battery for home use. Mentioned this earlier.

5/3 – Seeking Alpha – The Silliness of Tesla’s 10kWh Back-up Battery – Just a few silliness tidbits from the author’s long list of silliness factors: Continue reading “More followup on the Tesla Powerwall home battery”

More good stuff on the Bakken – 5/4

Here’s some fun notes on interesting news around the Bakken. Big change on the oil tax. Slowdown is drilling is having some interesting impacts on the housing market. Also, tracking the rig count.

5/1 – Dickinson Press – North Dakota still on track for oil tax break – Oil prices in April were below the level which will trigger the “big trigger” tax reduction on oil. If West Texas Intermediate is below a threshold, currently $52.29, for five consecutive months the 6.5% oil extraction tax is waived for two years on wells started after the trigger is pulled. One more month below the cut off will trigger the drop.

Continue reading “More good stuff on the Bakken – 5/4”

Battery storage for the home. Extremely expensive, but available. Update: merely double my costs.

Tesla announced a new home battery product called Powerwall. A very cool idea. In spite of what you might think from reading my blog, I think this is a good idea.

5/1 – AP at Daily Bulletin – Tesla charges into home battery market despite challenges

It is merely the next step in a very long journey, but I can grasp the great idea. Someday storing electricity at home may be viable.

On the other hand, it is astoundingly expensive at the moment. On the other, other hand, that’s what happens at the front-end of breakthrough technology.

You can find more info on the battery at Tesla’s Powerwall site.

I’m going to stretch my knowledge, probably beyond the breaking point. Let me know if I slip a digit or miss a step.

Continue reading “Battery storage for the home. Extremely expensive, but available. Update: merely double my costs.”

Dropping oil prices slow down North Dakota economy from previous breakneck speed

Rapid drop in drilling activity is backing off the economy in the Bakken oil patch from crazy out of control growth to merely the level of economic boom most places in the country would love to have seen anytime in the last 5 years.

4/18 – Star Tribune – In wake of oil slump, watchful North Dakotans adjust expectations – Title could have been Williston backs down from crazy out of control growth to merely as wild as four years ago.

The state jobs service in Williston has twice as many openings as applicants. Continue reading “Dropping oil prices slow down North Dakota economy from previous breakneck speed”

More on the economic damage caused by solar and wind power

Still have more catching up to do on describing the damage caused by wind and solar power. Here are two articles on the economic disruption involved.

11/29 – Forbes – Levelized Cost of Electricity: Renewable Energy’s Ticking Time Bomb? – I don’t quite understand the whole concept, but apparently there is a new technique in circulation that cooks the cost of renewable energy.

The core error is based on the idea that there are several times a year when the cost of electricity goes skyhigh for a short time. Those peaks in prices are what makes the power plants profitable. If the electricity is not available at those minutes, the bottom line for the year suffers.

Continue reading “More on the economic damage caused by solar and wind power”

More info on the timeline in documentary “The Overnighters”

I watched the director’s cut last night. Want to add some more data points to the timeline. Eventually I will integrate all these comments into one large post. In the meantime, I am building the story one post at a time.

8/12/13 – director’s cut – This is the date on the letter from the zoning and planning commission directing the church to close the program within 30 days.

At issue is violations of city code.

The ironic thing is Jay Reinke states in the director’s cut that the Fire Chief did a walk-through of the facility a year earlier knowing what the program involved and said it would be okay to continue the program. A year after the walkthrough? Time to shut it down.

9/12/13 – director’s cut – This would be 30 days after the city’s letter and therefore approximately the day the program closed. Continue reading “More info on the timeline in documentary “The Overnighters””

More on the environmental and ecological devastation caused by solar power

I’ve been remiss in my coverage of the damage caused by wind and solar power. Have lot of articles to discuss. Will get started with articles I’ve accumulated on wing toasting solar power.

2/24 – Investors Business Daily – Crispy Critters – Nevada Solar Plant Not For The Birds – The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonapah, Nevada is scheduled to open in March. During a test run, it fried 130 birds. Here is a mental exercise to understand the lack of outrage you have noticed: Continue reading “More on the environmental and ecological devastation caused by solar power”

North Dakota oil production drops 1.2% in February, or 14K barrels a day

Numbers are out for February 2014. Average production in February was 1,177,094, which is down 14,104 from the very slightly revised January amount.

Here is the production in graphs:

4-15 production 

For a longer term perspective:

 4-15 prod long term

Using the average sweet price mentioned in the Director’s Cut, here is the value of monthly production.

 4-15 value by month

Reason for the drop in value is the price per barrel:

 4-15 price by month

That slight recovery in current month is good but not a lot of help. On the other hand, at least the price isn’t still falling.

More graphs for February production are here.

 

Rig count and wells waiting for completion in North Dakota – 4/14/15

For more depth behind the slowdown in production mentioned in the previous post and a hint of what is to come, consider the count of drilling rigs in the field and the backlog of drilled wells that need to be completed. After drilling, the wells need to be fracked and then they start producing.

The count of wells is dropping fast:

 4-15 rig count by month

As you look at the graph of estimated number of wells waiting to be completed (i.e. fracked), keep in mind state regs only allow a site to sit for a year before it must be completed. Otherwise it has to be plugged. That means there will be a surge of wells getting completed late in 2015.

Speculation is that if the ‘big trigger’ is pulled, dropping the tax on production, the completion activity will take off fast. Continue reading “Rig count and wells waiting for completion in North Dakota – 4/14/15”

More good stuff on Bakken – 4/14

A few articles on what’s going on the Bakken oil patch. Williston keeps growing. Rig count falling. Neither a surprise.

3/16 – BakkenShale.com – Population Grows 20% in Williston – Researcher Nancy Hodur of NDSU has done a tally of the total number of people in Williston and Williams County. She started with the census numbers and added hotels, man camps, and RV parks. Her estimate:

  • 2012      2014      % chg  area
  • 25,915   31,143   20%     Williston
  • 44,308   52,778   19%     Williams County

4/3 – Reuters Media at Dickinson Press – Clock keeps ticking toward North Dakota oil tax break – Continue reading “More good stuff on Bakken – 4/14”