ALEC Doesn't Deny Climate Change

April 6, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

As the highly charged debate over climate change rages, one conservative group is fighting back with claims they are being unfairly misrepresented in the media.

In early March, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) sent a cease and desist letter to the environmental group, Common Cause, demanding the group retract its assertion that ALEC denies climate change. The letter cites numerous examples where Common Cause made such statements in articles and blogs on its website.

Related: Keystone Pipeline Set for Vote

In the letter to Common Cause, attorneys go on to clarify: “ALEC’s position is clear. ALEC does not deny climate change.”

ALEC has been involved in hotly contested political issues for a long time, but there is speculation that this action is because the group recently lost many high-profile corporate sponsors, who are distancing themselves from companies who are at odds with mainstream science.

Common Cause responded swiftly that it will not comply with any of ALEC’s requests.

“ALEC’s demands and legal threats are an effort to shut down debate about its policies and matters of national importance. They seek to chill our right to advocate for the public interest,” said Miles Rapoport, President of Common Cause. “It won’t work.”

Bakken Rig Count Drops to 91

April 3, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

The Bakken-Three Forks rig count dropped by six at 91 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Thursday.

In recent Bakken news, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the latest data for crude by rail (CBR) across the country that shows a significant increase over the last five years. Crude by rail continues to be highly controversial as people question the safety for individuals and the environment.

Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

The number of oil rigs dropped to 91 rigs as of by midday Thursday. WTI oil prices decreased $.91 from the previous week, trading at $49.14/bbl on Friday afternoon. The WTI-Brent saw an increase of $2.75 by week’s end, landing at $54.95. There are currently no natural active gas rigs in the area and futures are trading at $2.71/mmbtu by midday.

McKenzie County continues to lead development but dropped to 40 running rigs this week. Williams (18) and Mountrail (17) counties are the next closest producers. View the full list below under the Bakken Drilling by County section.

Activity continues to be dominated by horizontal drilling:

91 rigs are drilling horizontal wells
0 rigs are drilling directional wells
0 rigs are drilling vertical wells

Bakken Drilling by County

Bakken Drilling by County Bakken Oil & Gas Rigs

Methane Emissions Drop

Oil Export Ban May Hurt Economy

Excellence Awards Honor Continental & Whiting

What is the Rig Count?

The Bakken Shale Rig Count is an index of the total number of oil & gas drilling rigs running across Montana and North Dakota. The rigs referred to in this article are for ALL drilling reported by Baker Hughes and not solely wells targeting the Bakken formation. All land rigs and onshore rig data shown here are based upon industry estimates provided by the Baker Hughes Rig Count.

Methane Emissions Drop

April 2, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

alt="Methane Emissions" — New Study on Methane Emissions

A nationwide study published this week shows that methane emissions across the United States have dropped significantly in the past two decades and are much lower than current Environmental Protection Agency estimates.

Researchers from Washington State University assert that the EPA is using old data from 1992 that grossly overestimates current emission rates by 36 percent to 70 percent.

These findings come on the heels of the Obama administration’s announcement in January that it plans to regulate methane emissions from the nation’s oil and natural-gas industry. There is a worldwide push to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions due to fear if climate change.

Reaction to the study by the Environmental Defense Fund was that there is still too much methane gas escaping local distribution systems despite the improvements, with the losses comparable to the carbon dioxide from as many as 19 coal-fired power plants and valued at up to $195 million.“While they remain a serious problem, the ongoing utility emissions also represent an important opportunity for companies and regulators to make a big dent in greenhouse pollution,” said Jonathan Peress, the EDF’s air policy director for natural gas.

Methane is being targeted because it is believed to be 28 to 34 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere over a 100-year period. These EPA’s proposed regulations will require reducing emissions by 40-45% over the next decade.

Proposed legislation would force companies to install technology to prevent methane leaks and to monitor their operations for possible leaks, but many companies are already using this kind of equipment. In fact, the Washington State study credits advancements in equipment, better maintenance and government regulations for pushing down emissions.

Read the published article at pubs.acs.org

Excellence Awards Honor Continental & Whiting

April 1, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

Every year, the Oil and Gas Investor honors the companies, deals and individuals who excelled in the North American energy industry for the prior year.

Honorees for 2014 OGI Excellence Awards will be acknowledged April 6th at Hart’s Energy Capital Conference in Austin. The event draws hundreds of executives from E&P companies, midstream operators, financial institutions and private-equity firms.

Best Discovery: Harold Hamm Harold Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources, will be honored for the year's Best Discovery for development of the Springer Shale oil play in south-central Oklahoma. Results released in September indicate that the play will yield top-notch initial output rates and economic returns.

More on Continental: Harold Hamm Gains More Bakken Acreage

M&A Deal of the Year Jim Volker, chairman, CEO and president of Whiting PetroleumCorp., wins the award for M&A Deal of the Year for purchasing Kodiak Oil & Gas in a $6 billion all-stock deal. This deal propelled Whiting to the top-tier position in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota.

Excellence Award Recipients:

Executive of the Year: Chuck Davidson, Noble Energy executive chairman
Financing of the Year: Eclipse Resources Corp.
Best Field Rejuvenation: Shell Oil Co.
Corporate Citizen of the Year: ConocoPhillips

Fore more go to oilandgasinvestor.com

Crude by Rail Up 1700%

March 31, 2015 Elizabeth Alford

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the latest data today for crude by rail (CBR) across the country that shows a significant increase over the last five years.

Total CBR movement in the United States and between the United States and Canada was more than 1 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2014, up from 55,000 bbl/d in 2010. The regional distribution of these movements has also changed over this period.

Crude by rail continues to be highly controversial as people question the safety for individuals and the environment. With production at an all time high, the CBR numbers will continue to escalate as producers must find a way to move their product.

The EIA developed a new tracking system that will gather data across all regions of the country and parts of Canada from January 2010 through the current month. CBR activity is tracked between pairs of Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) regions (inter-PADD), within each region (intra-PADD), and across the U.S.-Canada border.

“EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski says that “EIA expects that the new data it has developed using information provided by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) along with data from other third-party sources and our own survey data, will provide key insights into oil-by-rail movements, including shipments to and from Canada.”