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ND population reaches all-time high

Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council addresses a large crowd during a 1 million barrel celebration held in mid-2014. The celebration was highly attended by long-time and new residents of the Tioga and surrounding area communities North Dakota’s population has reached an all-time high of 739,482 residents, an increase of roughly 15,600 from last year’s count, largely due to the increased activity in western North Dakota, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. “Our economic growth over the last decade continues to keep North Dakotans home, and we are attracting new residents who come for good jobs, a stable community and a quality of life that is second to none,” said North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the state’s population has increased 2.2 percent since last year, the largest percent increase in the nation. North Dakota is also in the midst of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Until oil prices recover, American Eagle suspends 2015 plans

Two American Eagle Energy wells shown producing in Divide County, North Dakota. PHOTO: AMERICAN EAGLE ENERGY American Eagle Energy may be situated in a Divide County, North Dakota, sweetspot, but the Denver-based exploration and production company has chosen to suspend its 2015 drilling schedule due to low crude prices. The company recently released its operations and guidance update, explaining that after drilling a well in November, the company has released the drilling rig and will complete two unstimulated wells before it halts drilling and completion activity for 2015 until oil prices recover. During the fourth quarter of 2014, American Eagle added three gross new operated wells and two gross operated wells that were recompleted to production. The Rick 13-31 well was stimulated earlier in mid-October and began producing oil in late October. During the first 30 days of production, the Rick well produced an average of approximately 267 barrels […]

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U.S. agency gives quiet nod to light oil exports

Full Article WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The main U.S. export authority is telling some oil companies that they should consider exporting a lightly processed form of crude oil called condensate without formal permission, according to people familiar with the discussions. In conversations that may help clear the way for more overseas sales of U.S. shale oil, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has told companies seeking clarification on the legal status of so-called "processed condensate" that self-classification – whereby companies export their product without any formal authorization – could be a way forward, the people told Reuters. An official familiar with the law said the agency’s discussions did not represent a change in policy since self-classification is allowed under U.S. export controls and is a routine, common practice for the majority of exports. Yet the message, though carefully couched as an informal suggestion, marks the first sign […]

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Polish shale still on international radar

BNK Petroleum, based in California, said it was looking for partners to help exploit potential shale natural gas reserves in Poland. (UPI Photo/Heinz Ruckemann) CAMARILLO, Calif., Dec. 31 (UPI) — Reservoir analysis of a natural gas well in Poland was encouraging enough to start looking for potential work partners, shale player BNK Petroleum said. BNK Petroleum, which has headquarters in California, said Wednesday it was reviewing data from a reservoir model analysis for a Polish shale natural gas well dubbed Gapowo B-1H. "The company believes that the encouraging modeling results, strong natural gas prices in Europe, and the company’s large Polish acreage position will be attractive to joint venture partners with the capacity to advance this project," it said in a statement. New drilling technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, dubbed fracking, are used in shale deposits to access oil and gas reserves previously out of reach. Those […]

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Russia takes more action to prop up ruble

With Russian President Vladimir Putin blaming external factors for economic woes, Central Bank reveals efforts to prop up nation’s currency. File photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI MOSCOW, Dec. 31 (UPI) — With low oil prices and Western sanctions taking their toll, the Central Bank of Russia said it was forced to take action to keep the national currency stable. The Russian currency is recovering somewhat, valued at about 56.45 to the U.S. dollar, up from recent lows of around 65 rubles to the U.S. dollar. In mid-December, the Russian Central Bank raised its key interest rate by 6.5 percent to 17 percent in an effort to arrest the decline of the nation’s currency. In a Wednesday statement, the bank said it sold more than $80 million on the national currency market this week in an effort to keep the ruble stable . With the value slipping from 33 rubles to […]

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Russia takes steps to prop up struggling companies

An OAO Gazprombank logo, right, sits illuminated outside a bank branch against a backdrop of St Basil’s Cathedral near Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, July 17, 2014. OAO Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, natural gas producer OAO Novatek and OAO Gazprombank, the third-largest lender, are among those hit by the penalties, the U.S. Treasury Department said. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg Russia has moved to support a number of large companies and banks as it tries to prop up a struggling economy and a banking sector battered by the rouble’s jitters. On Wednesday, the government said it would support Yamal LNG, the Arctic gas project of Novatek, with Rbs150bn. Separately Gazprombank, the country’s third-largest lender, said the government had bought Rbs39.95bn in preferred shares, using money from a subordinated deposit the bank had returned to the National Wealth Fund. “The conversion allows the bank to strengthen its capital structure […]

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Falling Oil, Commodities Prices Raise Headaches for Developing Nations

ENLARGE An aerial view of Petrobras’ Abreu e Lima oil refinery in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The drops last year in the prices of oil and other commodities are threatening to stunt growth in poor African and Latin American nations that sought to use vast natural-resource wealth to climb the development ladder. During a decadelong boom, governments on those continents vowed to use a windfall from surging raw-material prices to lift the vast underclass. Governments that sought big development leaps by funding social-welfare programs and ambitious infrastructure initiatives, such as building roads, ports and power plants, may now have less money to do so. “The good-governance records in many [Latin American] countries were linked to commodity prices, and this will be tested by the end of the commodity boom,” said Jorge Castaneda, Mexico’s former foreign minister. The commodity-rich nations of Africa and Latin America are also […]

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Are low oil prices here to stay?

What in the world? Pieces of global opinion A review of the best commentary on and around the world… Related Stories Today’s must-read Americans have become used to the bouncing cost of oil over recent years. Prices have spiked, causing angst and political posturing ("Drill, baby, drill" and all), and they’ve tanked following the economic upheaval of the Great Recession and the 9/11 attacks. The bottom has again dropped out of the oil market, as the cost per barrel has declined more than 40% since June. The change has been a welcome relief for consumers and energy-intensive industries, for which the change is an unexpected financial windfall. While most have a nagging suspicion that the drop is only temporary and prices will, at some point soon, begin an upward climb, Bloomberg View’s Mohamed A El-Erian isn’t so sure . What the world is currently experiencing is a "fundamental shift" […]

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Oil at $14 a barrel? Here’s how it could happen

No one really saw 2014’s dramatic plunge in oil price coming, so it’s probably fair to say that any predictions about where it’s going from here fall somewhere between educated guesses and picking a number out of a hat. In that light, it’s less than shocking to see one analyst making a case—albeit in a pure outlier sense—for a drop all the way below $14 a barrel. Abigail Doolittle , who does business under the name Peak Theories Research, posits that current chart trends point to the possibility that crude has three downside target areas where it could find support—$44, $35 and the nightmare scenario of, yes, $13.65. Make no mistake, she thinks that’s an extreme case. Her target for the more likely move is the $35 range, which in itself is quite a call considering light crude had been just above $100 a barrel this summer and the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple