Here’s another field to watch – the Southern Central Oklahoma Oil Province, or SCOOP.
Motley Fool is asking Could This Oil Field Be the Next Bakken?
Category: Energy
More good stuff on the open frontiers – 12-20-13
It is so exciting to look at the change taking place around us. There’s no better time to be alive and no better time to be engaged in living a full life. Here are a few articles that caught my eye to show the wide open new frontiers. A new space race? Amazon might get avian resistance to their new aerial delivery systems. China puts a rover on the moon.
Space
12-8 – Bloomberg Businessweek – Let the Space Price War Begin – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 12-20-13”
Multiple wells on one site – Pad drilling
A major part of the efficiencies well drilling in Bakken is putting multiple wells on one site. This saves a huge amount of time to set up and take down the rigs. Instead of disassembling/ transporting/ re-assembling, the still-assembled rig side-steps a few feet and the crew resumes drilling.
Continue reading “Multiple wells on one site – Pad drilling”
First sliced eagles, then toasted migratory birds. Now sharks are getting in the way of clean energy.
Now basking sharks are getting involved. Not basking as in getting a summer tan in a chair on the beach, but basking as in appearing to lounge near the surface catching some rays when they are actually just catching plankton. In this situation though, the sharks are shutting down a wind farm instead of getting killed by the farm, which is the way we do things in the US.
Wikipedia says basking sharks are not aggressive. They have large mouths and a different sort of gill arrangement so they can catch plankton, their main food.
North Dakota oil production increases just under 1% in 10-13
Production in the state increased to 941,843 barrels of oil per day in October from a slightly revised 933,191 bopd in September.
The Director’s Cut report says bad weather is the reason for a small increase in production: Continue reading “North Dakota oil production increases just under 1% in 10-13”
Full development of Bakken to involve ten times the wells now in place. Will take another 20 years.
Wow. Ten times more drilling than has already happened. Speaking to the state legislature, Mr. Lynn Helms, who is the director of the Department of Mineral Resources, said
…the western part of the state had 6,447 wells in the oil-rich Bakken and Three Forks formations. Fully developing the formations will require drilling another 60,000 wells over the next 20 years …
Minor updates on slice-and-dice & wing-toaster projects
A few minor pieces of news on the solar and wind power industries.
Possible end of 2.3 cent/kilowatt subsidy
The Wall Street Journal hopefully describes Powering Down the Wind Subsidy. Unless Congress affirmatively acts, the large subsidy to wind power will expire on 12-31-13.
Continue reading “Minor updates on slice-and-dice & wing-toaster projects”
Another wind farm approved in North Dakota
I’m slowing learning about wind farms. An article in The Dickinson Press provides good background: $350M wind farm approved in Stutsman County.
Status of Courtenay
The article focuses on the Courtenay Wind Farm, which is developing 100 turbines rated with a potential capacity of 200 megawatts (2MW/turbine). The state Public Service Commission approved the plan November 13..
Continue reading “Another wind farm approved in North Dakota”
3 articles for background on fracking and oil
Several great reads on energy. Lots of info. Since they are long, you might want to get a fresh cup of coffee and settle in for some good learnin’.
NBC News – Meet Harold Hamm, the billionaire behind America’s ‘great renaissance of oil’
Superb background on Harold Hamm and Continental Resources. Mr. Hamm has a couple of fun quotes in the article. For example, some people say the oil industry is creating carbon pollution. He points out that all humans exhale carbon dioxide. Should we all quite breathing?
I think not.
How about enough oil for a hundred years? Check out this sentence: Continue reading “3 articles for background on fracking and oil”
Opportunities are wide open in Williston – providing mailboxes as just one illustration
When I visited Williston in October, I had a wild idea of interviewing a provider of private mail boxes in town. Time didn’t allow any effort to pursue that idea.
Amy Dalrymple has published the interview I could only dream of: Faces of the Boom: Entrepreneur delivers solution for those without an address.
Wind farms will soon be able to apply for official permission to slice-and-dice a negotiable numbers of eagles for 30 years
A rule expected to be final soon will give wind farm operators official permission to “take” eagles for 30 years. Unintentional deaths of protected birds will not be prosecuted. For 30 years.
Currently, permits are available for 5 years, but reports I’ve read say no permits have yet been issued under those rules.
A document that appears to be the near-final rule is here. That has the same document number, RIN 1018-AX91, as the OMB announcement here. You can read it for yourself.
I read the first 18 pages of the 87 page rule, up to the point where the document gives responses to comments in the draft rule. Sort of understood it.
Here are a few of the key ideas: Continue reading “Wind farms will soon be able to apply for official permission to slice-and-dice a negotiable numbers of eagles for 30 years”
More good stuff on the open frontiers in energy and publishing – 12-6-13
Today, three articles on energy and publishing.
Publishing
12-4 – The Business Rusch – The Fierce Urgency of Now (Discoverability Part 3) – Kristine Kathryn Rusch summarizes what’s been long discussed: the days of get it now or you’ll never get it are gone.
Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers in energy and publishing – 12-6-13”
Bakken and Eagle Ford in the elite of super-giant oil fields
[youtube=http://youtu.be/0ks2ua4imgU]
Production of Bakken oil in North Dakota will soon hit one million barrels a day. When it does, it will be one of only 4 fields in the U.S. to hit that level. Those 4 are part of an elite group of only 10 super-giant fields.
Applying some new trend analysis concepts, the EIA is predicting Bakken production will be 976K bopd in 11-13 and 1,002K bopd in 12-13.
I’m not sure if that estimate includes production from legacy wells. Even if it does and we back out September production of 65K bopd that only changes the date of crossing the 1M point by a month or so. That doesn’t matter for purposes of this discussion.
Their calculation shows Eagle Ford has already passed the 1M point. Permian production has been over the 1M point (again?) for a while and is at an estimated 1,340K bopd in December.
Along with Prudhoe Bay that makes four American fields that passed the 1M point.
Continue reading “Bakken and Eagle Ford in the elite of super-giant oil fields”
Natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar. Which is easiest on water, land, and wildlife? Um. Keep it quiet, but that would be gas.
Here’s an analysis you won’t see trumpeted very widely – The Dickenson Press carries an article by Deroy Murdock – Fracking outgreens “green” energy.
After describing the unobtrusive scene of five producing gas wells running from a three-acre pad he previously visited in the middle of drilling, he describes the ecological footprint of gas versus the ‘green’ energy sources.
He compares different industries in terms of a common size. Here is his data:
Water used to generate one million BTUs of energy output: Continue reading “Natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar. Which is easiest on water, land, and wildlife? Um. Keep it quiet, but that would be gas.”
Upside and downside of the Bakken boom – in-depth article & videos
The Telegraph has a full length article on Boomtown, USA. In addition to a great feature in words, there are 9 videos, of about 2 minutes each.
Upside
The upside of the oil boom is incredible. Lots of guys are making $100K to $150K by working hard doing difficult work. The article guesses there are 10,000 men living in crew camps. Each of them is making, by my guess, between $70k and $125K a year.
My guess is most of those guys would be making $40K to $70K if they were working back home. Assuming they even had a job. Most of them wouldn’t.
Business is booming. Consumer stores are crowded. Construction is going as fast as the city can permit projects.
Continue reading “Upside and downside of the Bakken boom – in-depth article & videos”