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Oil Booms in North Dakota


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This makes two oil companies with large holdings in ND contributing to UND (Hess and Continental Resources). A bunch still to go: Statoil, Oasis, XTO (Exxon Mobil), Burlington Resources (Conoco), Whiting, Kodiak, and even more smaller ones plus midstream companies like OneOK, Enbridge, TransCanada, Enterprise, Energy Transfer, Kinder Morgan, Williams, Plains All American. Doubt NDSU will see a drop of corporate oil funds.

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This makes two oil companies with large holdings in ND contributing to UND (Hess and Continental Resources). A bunch still to go: Statoil, Oasis, XTO (Exxon Mobil), Burlington Resources (Conoco), Whiting, Kodiak, and even more smaller ones plus midstream companies like OneOK, Enbridge, TransCanada, Enterprise, Energy Transfer, Kinder Morgan, Williams, Plains All American. Doubt NDSU will see a drop of corporate oil funds.

Why?

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Why?

NDSU doesn't have the programs the oil industry is interested in: geology, petroleum engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, law, and even medicine. The majors NDSU have that are slightly relevant are business and mechanical engineering, but oil companies can one stop shop at UND.

For field hands, Williston St and BJC have cornered the market, as I believe they have been granted donations to those programs. Dickinson St and Minot St will see more oil company donations than NDSU.

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NDSU doesn't have the programs the oil industry is interested in: geology, petroleum engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, law, and even medicine. The majors NDSU have that I are slightly relevant are business and mechanical engineering, but oil companies can one stop shop at UND.

For field hands, Williston St and BJC have cornered the market, as I believe they have been granted donations to those programs. Dickinson St and Minot St will see more oil company donations than NDSU.

I wonder if there will be/is some backlash against the oil companies coming from the university of agriculture and applied science...maybe not the school itself, but from the faithful fry cooks?

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I wonder if there will be/is some backlash against the oil companies coming from the university of agriculture and applied science...maybe not the school itself, but from the faithful fry cooks?

I am sure BV will start another thread about this and be all pissy about it. They will look for their share since Jan wants what Marcia gets. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.

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I am sure BV will start another thread about this and be all pissy about it. They will look for their share since Jan wants what Marcia gets. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.

They all are pissy about it, but won't say it out loud on the internet where they can be quoted. They'll have to rely on their legions of fans who own mineral rights or have high positions in oil companies to individually donate. :whistling:

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http://www.strata-x....news140626.html

Interesting press release about a shallow well drilled between Linton and Wishek to only 1600 ft. It was drilled for its natural gas potential, but has gas and oil. No word yet if it has commercial quantities yet but drilling that shallow is awfully cheap (and fast). Natural gas can't normally be just put into a pipeline (there are fields in Texas etc than can, but those are unusual), it has to been cleaned of extraneous gases (like nitrogen, H2S, SO2, radon, water, and the heavier carbon species like propane, butane, etc must be removed). More wells are being drilled, so it will be interesting to see if a new hotbed of gas activity starts SE of Bismarck.

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Bowman ND might double in population because an oil company, Denbury Resources, is attempting CO2 injection to force much of the rest of the oil out of the formation. They are building a pipeline from Wyoming where CO2 is separated from nat gas.

http://www.bowmannd....ails.asp?ID=237

This might be a small scale preview of what could happen throughout the Bakken. Only problem is, there isn't enough CO2. A solution could be that the CO2 from the power plants be compressed and piped to the wells and injected. Dakota Gasification at Beulah is already piping their CO2 to Canada for enhanced oil recovery. It actually might be feasible to start other plants if the CO2 is needed badly enough (a paid byproduct).

McKenzie, Williams, Dunn, and Mountrail Counties may see much more intense industrialization, not only below ground, but above.

UND's and the EERC expertise and training of people will be very big if this comes to pass. Hess's donation to UND of $5 mill in only less than 1% of the billions Hess is sinking into ND with wells and their gas plant expansion. Hess has more engineering needs then other companies because of their gas plant, so Hess has a vested interest in finding North Dakotans willing to locate in Tioga and Minot. Few Texans want to work there.

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Any guess when ND will see the population hit one million? They are predicting Fargo to hit 300,000 by 2040, and we aren't in the oil field.

ND pop might hit 850 by 2020. Maybe a million in 2025, but a lot of things can change. If UAVs hit, and Grand Forks is a UAV center, Grand Forks can explode. Just imagine a Polaris / DigiKey like company with 10,000 employees in Grand Forks that are relatively well paid. UAVs are potentially a life altering technology. Imagine a enclosed Polaris that flies (or a Cirrus plane) that is computer controlled like cars that can be controlled by Google. A UAV can have a passenger but still be unmanned control. Grand Forks could be the future home of the Jetsons. All the ingredients are right in the neighborhood.

There is increasing talk about the Bakken becoming a petrochemical center, using all the ethane from the Bakken. If projects are announced around Williston, I bet that Williston metro goes from 150,000 in 2025 to a new estimate somewhere around 400,000 instead. Fargo and Bismarck would be left in the dust and Williston would be like Calgary or Edmonton in the 1950s. Williston would be the by far the biggest city between Spokane, Denver, MSP, and Canada. The potential of the Bakken grows daily, with more industries. Midland/Odessa, the Texas oil cities in the Permian, don't have a significant petrochemical industry because all its ethane is piped to Houston. Ethane (and NGLs )is what gave rise to Houston and could really boost Williston further.

http://blogs.platts....akken-ethylene/

“We’re effectively taking the molecules from natural gas liquids, and instead of fuel, we’re getting value for molecular value of products,” Bari said. “To get into the industry, it’s a pretty much a done deal you need to get into feedstocks. Bakken has these.”

Lynn Helms, head of North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources, echoed Bari’s sentiment in a separate speech to the conference.

“Gas production, in 2013, we broke the 1 Bcf/d barrier,” he said. “This creates critical mass for NGLs — and Bakken gas is richer than any on the planet — and will trigger petrochemical interest in North Dakota.”

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http://www.strata-x....news140626.html

Interesting press release about a shallow well drilled between Linton and Wishek to only 1600 ft. It was drilled for its natural gas potential, but has gas and oil. No word yet if it has commercial quantities yet but drilling that shallow is awfully cheap (and fast). Natural gas can't normally be just put into a pipeline (there are fields in Texas etc than can, but those are unusual), it has to been cleaned of extraneous gases (like nitrogen, H2S, SO2, radon, water, and the heavier carbon species like propane, butane, etc must be removed). More wells are being drilled, so it will be interesting to see if a new hotbed of gas activity starts SE of Bismarck.

I sorta skimmed the article rather quickly so it's possible I missed it, but I didn't see anything about oil, just natural gas production. I'd have a hard time believing they could find oil that far from the other producing areas, let alone find it at 1600 feet. It does look like there is a good potential for NG, but considering ND is already flaring 1/3 of the gas it produces, why would anyone go looking for more?
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I sorta skimmed the article rather quickly so it's possible I missed it, but I didn't see anything about oil, just natural gas production. I'd have a hard time believing they could find oil that far from the other producing areas, let alone find it at 1600 feet. It does look like there is a good potential for NG, but considering ND is already flaring 1/3 of the gas it produces, why would anyone go looking for more?

Every county in ND (except Sioux County) supposedly has nat gas that can be drilled commercially if the price gets high enough.

Supposedly there is oil, but not too much. Nat gas and NGLs are why they drilled the well. NGLs especially are often several time the value to the nat gas.

The problem with Emmons Country is that there is no natural gas plant to clean up the nat gas and separate the higher and more valuable ethane, propane, butane species. Probably 200 wells would need to be drilled before a Midstream company would agree to build one, as its cost around $200 MILL for a commerical gas plant. The company drilling is probably hoping to be bought out by a major, and the major commits to drilling 200 or more wells because of potential. Its still a crapshoot if it happens. Maybe they could put a small electrical generator at each well and burn the gas and sell electricity to utilities, but their are environmental limits that probably couldn't be met.

It could be the well is filled even though it has commercial potential.

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http://www.ogj.com/articles/2014/07/north-dakota-gives-teeth-to-flaring-reduction-plan.html

Looks like flaring may be a thing of the past.

According to Helms, wells where only 60% of associated gas is captured could be subject to a cap of 200 b/d of oil production, and wells that collect less than that amount could see production capped at 100 b/d.

There are no exceptions for wells that are connected to gas gathering systems with insufficient capacity. In April, about two thirds of flaring came from connected wells.

There are several relatively new technologies available to help producers meet flaring reduction targets. Among them are GE’s CNG In A Box, a mobile system the size of a shipping container that compresses gas into CNG at the wellsite for use in bifuel rigs, vehicles, and other equipment. A partnership between Gtuit and Corval Group offers similarly sized units capable of extracting NGL from the gas stream at the wellsite.

David Reif, vice-president of business development for Corval, said Gtuit’s technology enables producers to bridge the gap until permanent gas gathering infrastructure is installed and manage high gas flows during the initial production phase.

Statoil North America Inc. is pilot testing the CNG In A Box System and Hess is expanding its use Gtuit’s mobile NGL extraction system.

The CNG can then will used to power rigs or heavy equipment or can be sent to a natural gas treatment plant.

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Just spent two weeks in the Bakken and am even more grateful UND has aligned themselves with these companies the way they have. The plans these companies have layed out not only in the Bakken but where they are headed 5 and 10 years down the road is very detailed and impressive. If UND can work with these companies to help develop the type of employees they need, the new program will be very valuable to the midwest with a great ROI for the university.

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2014/07/03/txndpa-the-u-s-axis-of-energy-independence/

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s Declaration of Independence on Friday, it would also be appropriate to take a moment to celebrate those states who are currently leading our nation down the path towards energy independence. No issue facing America today is more important than where we will continue to access sources of abundant and affordable energy.

Get out a map and draw lines from North Dakota down to Texas and then back up to Pennsylvania. If you draw the lines straight, you get a “V” for “Victory”. If you draw them with a curve, you get a big ol’ smiley face. Either way, you get a reason to celebrate this 4th of July, as these three great states form the axis of real leadership that is marching our country towards its Declaration of Energy Independence.

God Bless Texas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania, and God Bless America this July 4.

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Without shale oil from the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Permian, we would be at the mercy of Putin and ISIS, we would be paying $6 gasoline, our economy would be worse off than ever, and most of you couldn't read this because wind electricity would be too expensive.

U.S. production of crude oil, along with liquids separated from natural gas, surpassed all other countries this year with daily output exceeding 11 million barrels in the first quarter, the bank said in a report today. The country became the world’s largest natural gas producer in 2010. TheInternational Energy Agency said in June that the U.S. was the biggest producer of oil and natural gas liquids.

“The U.S. increase in supply is a very meaningful chunk of oil,” Francisco Blanch, the bank’s head of commodities research, said by phone from New York. “The shale boom is playing a key role in the U.S. recovery. If the U.S. didn’t have this energy supply, prices at the pump would be completely unaffordable.”

http://www.bloomberg...king-saudi.html

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I'm hoping the next problem doesn't happen.

Getting the NGLs out before shipping, doing the chemical extraction and processing in North Dakota, would mean building those plants in the Bakken region* and they'd need chemical engineers.

*Right now they are predominantly on the Gulf Coast.

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What's the over/under before another explosion forces the Bakken producers' hand to stablilize their product before shipping?

http://online.wsj.co...RightTopStories

This company wants to start stripping off the gases before the oil ships by building facilities at all the railcar loading facilities in ND. The loading companies, the railroads, and probably the oil companies don't want it because of the added cost. The NGLs stripped can be piped to connect with OneOK NLG pipeline that was just built that goes from Watford City to Kansas (and finally Texas after that). Or the NGLs can be processed separately into ethane, propane, and butane and sold directly in ND.

http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/19810/

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