More good stuff on the open frontiers, energy edition – 1-16-14

Amazing things going on around us. Here is my latest list of a few articles about energy that help me make sense of the radical change taking place. Tomorrow, tidbits of the other newly open frontiers.

Energy

1-6 – CNS News – Saudi Billionaire Prince:  Fracking Competitively Threatens ‘Any Oil Producing Country in the World’ – Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal is pushing the Saudi government to diversify the country’s economy. Currently 92% of government revenue is derived from oil, he says. The rapid expansion in output caused by combining horizontal drilling with staged hydraulic fracturing presents a serious threat to any country that is reliant on oil. Big news. Bigger issue.

A delightful “problem” to have – 1-7 – Bismarck Tribune from the New York Times – Oil glut stirs up political brew – The surging production of crude is opening a discussion of whether to allow more exports of crude. Seems we have so much unrefined light, sweet crude we don’t know what to do with it all.  As a result, the politicians are getting involved. I wish we as a country and planet had another half-dozen “problems” like this.

(By the way, what Peak Oil?)

More downside to the Bakken boom – 1-10 – The Dickinson Press – Criminal defendants in fed court up 31 percent in western N.D. in 2013 – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers, energy edition – 1-16-14”

North Dakota oil production hits another record, approaching 1 million barrels per day

Oil production in the state hit 973,280 barrels a day, up from revised 945K bopd in October.

With increases in production typical over the last six months, the million point could be passed in December or January. However, the rough winter will probably slow the production amount for a few months. More likely it will be February or March before passing 1M bopd.

Value of the production

Production for the month was 29,198,385 barrels. The Director’s Cut says sweet crude prices were $71.42 for the month.  That means the value of oil produced was about $2.085 billion. With a higher price of $85.16 in October, the value of oil extracted was $2.5 billion. The higher price and extra day of production made October higher.

Two billion a month. Very cool.

Graphs

Here’s a few of my graphs:

Average production by month for the whole state and for just the Bakken and Three Forks wells. Continue reading “North Dakota oil production hits another record, approaching 1 million barrels per day”

How to make wind farms a worse idea – put them offshore

The Economist points out the astounding costs of building wind farms in the ocean – Rueing the waves – Britain is a world leader at something rather dubious.

England has over 1,000 turbines offshore. It gets more electricity from offshore than all other countries put together, according to the article.

By 2020, just seven years from now, the country is committed to generating 30% of all electricity from ‘renewable’ sources. Oh, nuclear doesn’t count in the calculation. Currently Britain is at 13% according to the article.

The cost of offshore turbines is staggering.

Continue reading “How to make wind farms a worse idea – put them offshore”

If you are still scratching your head over the recovery, here’s a graph to explain why

The recession ended way back in 2009. Sitting here in California is doesn’t feel like it is over.

Check out the graph at Carpe Diem for a visual explaining my confusion:  The current state of the US Economy explained in one chart.

Compared to the peak at the start of the recession, GDP has now increased about 5.6% and employment is down about 1.4%.  GDP is at record high with less jobs that the start of the recession.

Continue reading “If you are still scratching your head over the recovery, here’s a graph to explain why”

Great prediction from 1974 – one day a computer with the capacity of this mainframe will fit on your desk and you won’t be tied to the office where the mainframe is located

Check out these amazingly correct predictions in 1974 from a balding, gray-haired prophet. Check out the sideburns of the reporter:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sTdWQAKzESA]

First computer I worked with in high school was about 4 feet tall, 8 feet long, and about 4 or 5 feet deep. The printer was about 5 feet tall, 5 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. 

Continue reading “Great prediction from 1974 – one day a computer with the capacity of this mainframe will fit on your desk and you won’t be tied to the office where the mainframe is located”

More good stuff on surveillance – 1-7-14

Here is my ninth list of good stuff on our surveillance society that I’d like talk about but only have time to recommend with a quick comment.

1-3 – The Atlantic – How the NSA Threatens National Security – Bruce Schneier points out the extreme level of compromised systems caused by the NSA spying fiasco is a serious threat to national security.

It is also breaking systems that we have spent decades building in America. It is breaking us financially and diplomatically. It is tearing down our political, legal, commercial, and technical systems. It is destroying trust in government, tech companies, and the internet itself.

As for the potential for abuse, here’s an experiment for you.

Continue reading “More good stuff on surveillance – 1-7-14”

3 background articles on the energy revolution – – Energy boom may expand into Mexico, What energy crisis?, and Bakken in graphs

Bloomberg – North America to Drown in Oil as Mexico Ends Monopoly 

Potentially another game changer for world-wide energy – – the Mexican legislature has changed national law to allow foreign investors to own oil reserves. This will draw the major oil companies with their talent, equipment, funding, and infrastructure. Speculation is oil production from Mexico could double in a decade. 

Still some major obstacles, but the potential is huge. The Mexican government and her people could benefit tremendously. I really hope they handle this well, for their good and the good of everyone who uses energy.

Newsday – Remember the energy crisis? Fracking fixed it.

Notice that the constant stories of the “energy crisis” isn’t in the news anymore. If you were around in the ‘70s you remember long lines to buy gas on your assigned even or odd day. Crisis stories continued for years, through the entire Carter administration and beyond.

Continue reading “3 background articles on the energy revolution – – Energy boom may expand into Mexico, What energy crisis?, and Bakken in graphs”

The education bubble and a few ideas to address it

Glenn Reynolds has an essay based on his new book.  See today’s Wall Street Journal – Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off.  It’s the feature article in the Review section.

The full length book is at Amazon: The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself. I’ll be waiting for the Kindle edition, available next week.

Merely one tidbit from the article to illustrate the problem and one idea for transforming eduction to reduce the cost and retain the experience.

Continue reading “The education bubble and a few ideas to address it”

Hiring in North Dakota to pick up – “blitz” in ‘14

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Lots of production companies around Bakken are going to expand hiring in ’14. Bismarck Tribune reports Oil service companies on hiring blitz.

The rapidly increasing number of wells is creating permanent jobs to service the wells. Each well requires attention. I’ve read elsewhere that each well creates the need for one full-time position. That would be about 8,000 permanent jobs for the existing wells, with 2,000 new positions a year.

Two key comments, for me at least: Continue reading “Hiring in North Dakota to pick up – “blitz” in ‘14”

Where is the inflation?

It’s hiding. It is taking place outside those things measured by the CPI.

There’s not any inflation in the CPI. The annual inflation rate for the preceding 12 months was 1.2% in November ’13.  Notice something odd in the monthly inflation rates from January through November?  0.0%, 0.7%, (0.2%), (0.4%), 0.1%, 0.5%, 0.2%, 0.1%, 0.2%, (0.1%), 0.0%.

Three things jump out. First, three months had a decrease. Second, only one month had a large increase and it was followed by two declines. Third, the numbers are really small.

The ever-expanding Fed balance sheet

I’ve been scratching my head for years about the really low inflation shown in the CPI measurements. Why the head scratching?

Check out the ongoing explosion in the Fed’s balance sheet. Continue reading “Where is the inflation?”

More downsides to the Bakken expansion

Rental prices are sky-high in Williston and elsewhere around the Bakken. When I describe the rent situation in Williston to my friends here in California, I’m not quite sure if they believe me.

Here are five stories over the last few weeks describing the pain that causes.

Amy Dalrymple, writing at The Dickinson Press, describes Faces of the Boom: After return to hometown, 76-year-old struggles to stay. 

Continue reading “More downsides to the Bakken expansion”

About that video of lighting tap water on fire – Naturally occurring shallow methane occurs all across North Dakota, even where there’s no drilling

Naturally occurring shallow methane exists all across North Dakota.  Methane in water wells has been a known condition for 100 years. 

I don’t think fracking has anything to do with shallow methane 200 or 300 miles away. I seriously doubt fracking caused methane to seep into wells 80 years before fracking was used.

A video with over 400,000 views shows a guy lighting tap water on fire. Creator asserts he works in the North Dakota oil fields, which leaves you with the implication the methane in the water is caused by fracking. The commenters on the video quickly reach that scientific conclusion based on an unverified 54 second video from an undisclosed location.

Here’s the poorly known issue.

Continue reading “About that video of lighting tap water on fire – Naturally occurring shallow methane occurs all across North Dakota, even where there’s no drilling”

More good stuff on the open frontiers – 12-30-13

The change taking place around us is thrilling and confusing. The best way I have to put this in some sort of order for myself is to compare with the open frontier of the US west after our Civil War – The education, energy, space, and publishing worlds are each a new frontier and those frontiers are wide open.

A few articles to give some form to that open frontier:

Cyborg telemarketing

Three articles on the increasing use of computers making the pitch on cold call telemarketing:

Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 12-30-13”

Air travel in North Dakota continues rising in Nov. ‘13

The Dickinson Press reports ND airports set November boarding records.

With those increases, I’ll make a wild guess there will be more flights added to Dickinson and Williston.

Here’s the passenger boardings and percentage change from same month in prior year: Continue reading “Air travel in North Dakota continues rising in Nov. ‘13”