Posted on 04/17/2014 8:44:54 AM PDT by Hostage
This report is exclusive to freerepublic.com and is intended only to pass observed on-the-ground information to readers. It is not carried on any major news outlet and it won't be in our opinion. You can file this report as conspiracy if needed but it is more suitably filed as accumulation of unexplained Fed action for future analysis. I do ask relevant and pertinent questions throughout the question that Freepers can help answer.
One question for which I have affirmative answers is can the federal government move in on oil and gas drillers and takeover at any time declaring any oil discovery to be part of the strategic reserve?
The report comes from one of my business partners doing business on behalf of our company in the North Dakota Bakken region where he was astounded to find on Tuesday of this week outside Stanley ND that a six-pad well, the largest in the entire Bakken region, had hit an 'OCEAN' of oil causing all six wellheads to gush out of control.
The six well heads were quickly taken care of by the drilling company but on the same day it is reported that federal officials swooped in and shut the wells down declaring the oil discovery as under federal control and made part of the strategic petroleum reserve. I am told the drilling companies and investors behind them will be compensated but we have no details. We are told no one will hear about this.
If all the above is true, then I lean towards believing the blackout on news is true because my experience in doing business there in the recent past has led to hearing many accounts of national security protections regarding location of oil including details of logistics, pipeline and rail facilities. In other words information is not widely disseminated for either reasons of national security or commercial competitiveness.
There are business 'bullies' in the region who think nothing of cutting out, double crossing and tripping up business entrepreneurs in the region, of misrepresenting their intentions. of breaching contracts and agreements, of circumventing and breaching non-disclosure by handing private information to third parties that act against other businesses. It's a classic 'wildkat' environment with different parties heating up to cheat and fight each other.
I have not heard of the federal government acting as a 'bully' in the region but there is a report of federal gunships on the road witnessed by my partner on I-94 between Dickinson and Bismarck. I would not be surprised to learn of our federal government backing 'selected drilling businesses' in the region. That would sound like conspiracy nonsense to me had the federal gunships' not been witnessed driving on the road by my partner. More on this below.
The report is that drillers had drilled 22,000 feet deep (yes, many miles beneath the surface) and hit an 'OCEAN' of oil as it was described. The proven reserves of oil in the Bakken shale formation are already at least ten times that of Saudi Arabia. If the report of hitting an 'ocean of oil' is true, then this would make the Bakken bigger than anything the world has ever known.
Next it is reported that on the same day of the strike that federal agents swooped in to shut the wells down and take over the drilling site. How could they have known so quickly? Is there a requirement to report to the county, state or federal governments immediately upon striking oil? I admit I could find out about this on my own but I am involved in so many business deals spanning the globe that I haven't had time to get answers.
I have met drillers on-site in the Bakken but I don't call them with pestering questions because they are usually a terse no-nonsense bunch. And asking them for information can get some nasty glances as if I were asking a pro poker player what cards he holds in his hand. Not only that but some will lie through their teeth to steer an outsider in the wrong direction. So it's serious business out there with a bit of pirate spirit and honor of thieves in the mix.
I could call state offices in North Dakota to get answers but I can just as easily search for online rules and procedures but that's time consuming for me. So I thought to throw these questions out to Freepers who may know answers from their experience and in any event can add this report to their pile of anecdotes regarding federal militarization of agencies inside the borders of the USA.
After leaving Stanley my business partner headed for I-94 towards Bismarck and called me to report he was behind a very long convoy of federal vehicles with multiple 'gunship' vehicles leading and tailing the convoy.
Trust me on one thing. you can see a long distance ahead on roads in North Dakota. Do a Google street view on I-94 going towards Bismarck and you can confirm that the view ahead is for miles and the roads are very straight, there are almost no trees and the land is flat.
I asked him what was in the middle of the convoy, could he see it? He said there were 'cars with officials' bracketed by multiple gunships on each end. His voice tome was one of shock and awe. I asked how he could see this on a straight road and he said when the road would be in a long curve he could see the whole convoy. I asked him how long the convoy was and he said AT LEAST a half mile and most likely longer.
I asked him could he identify the agency. He said it looked like it was the US Army but it wasn't because there was no Army star on any of the vehicles and the troops manning the gunships wore different uniforms.
I will get more of a brief from him when he returns to Seattle this weekend.
Now here's my analysis. Some may think it conspiracy, I call it points of speculation surrounding facts. Connect the dots as you will.
1. Enormously large oil strikes can throw oil markets into turmoil causing severe price volatility. Although oil futures are controlled by JP Morgan and others through a maze of derivatives. The influence of large oil strikes can penetrate the price control mechanisms and damage all the interests of derivatives behind them.
2. I believe the price of oil is to a great extent 'rigged'. Take that for what it's worth.
3. Oil as a commodity is 'controlled' to a certain price level to balance inflation with economics. If the price is too high, inflation can be difficult to manage. If the price is too low, shale drillers using hydraulic fracturing technology 'fracking' can go out of business.
4. Environmentalists especially militant ones, the same ones who control Obama, want to shut down as much drilling as they can. They have already pretty much locked drillers 'frackers' out of California. I believe environmental extremists would like to see a good portion of us die actually. Wiping out human traces as a solution to problems underlies I believe a good portion of the foundation of their philosophy.
5. A manager of one of the USA's largest oil logistics companies remarked last week direct to my ears that environmentalists told Obama they will 'crucify' him if he issues a presidential permit for Keystone to go forward. Another top logistics manager of a company with offices in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado made the BIZARRE statement to me in a hostile tone over the phone that NORTH DAKOTA CRUDE STAYS IN NORTH DAKOTA! In my experience I am getting close to federal influence when people start acting belligerently without good reason.
6. In 2008 Obama said what is needed is a civilian army as large as our military armed forces. We are witnessing the militarization of a plethora of federal agencies. We are witnessing the federal purchase of enormous quantities of ammunition including by such GSEs as the US Postal Service which seems bizarre.
7. We are witnessing a never-ending attempt to disarm Americans outside of federal and state control.
8. We are witnessing budding range wars and skimishes between federal officials and citizens.
9. And now there is a witness to the shutdown of perhaps the largest oil strike ever on record together with a witness a day later of a long federal militarized convoy on an interstate just outside an area where the enormously large oil strike was reported.
If a well drilled 22,000 ft. TVD, they drilled better than 7000 ft. into basement rock in that part of the Williston Basin. Not only would that be a colossal waste of time, but it would take a lot of time and be very expensive. My BS meter is pegged.
Many different things in the story don’t make any sense to me either.
A very long convoy of federal vehicles with multiple ‘gunship’ vehicles leading and tailing the convoy was seen and reported by no one else in an area of busy oil field construction. On the only East-West Interstate in the state.
As others have said, Color me Skeptical.
Very Beautiful indeed. We were in Eagle River, between Anchorage and Palmer/Wasilla.
Tough place to grow old and unsteady on your feet. Too many slopes with icy conditions for up to 8 months a year.
The thread does not hold out as true the report or misreport or gossip of a six head oil gush shut down by federal agents. The report and its message could very well be garbled.
It goes back to what most of us learn in primary school. When a message is passed from person to person, it is most often the case the original message bears no resemblance to the final message.
A message’s veracity depends on the number of degrees of separation and the time the message has been ‘out there’.
For example it was reported that a rabbi named Jesus was the Messiah. It was reported he rose from the dead. It is reported he was a subversive, a liar and a womanizer (Mary Magdalene). It is reported he was a treasonous fraud. It is reported that he attacked businesses by overturning business tables near a temple. It was reported this happened a long time ago like almost 2000 years ago.
It is recorded that the world changed because of this man named Jesus.
The only thing we can safely infer with cold bloodless reptilian reasoning is that something ‘big’ happened a long time ago concerning a guy named Jesus.
With this speculative thread, the same principle applies. A lot of drillers near Stanley are talking in the field, lots of gossip going on in local bars, cafes and at home with family and friends that something big happened the other day in oil drilling.
But a cold hard fact is that the very next day an enormously long militarized federal convoy of federal agents were observed be be heading away from Stanley and onto I-94 towards Bismarck.
That’s all we can know for sure.
I know Eagle River very well. Some of my favorite restaurants where there. ;) I filleted a large number of Salmon and King Salmon in the backyard of my friend’s house there, which we would catch out of Willow Creek, up the road toward Denali.
For now, and for me, I have not been convinced of that which you claim as fact.
It is not an accusation of you, or those that reported it to you.
It is a statement that I remain unconvinced.
God Bless.
I asked him what was in the middle of the convoy, could he see it? He said there were 'cars with officials' bracketed by multiple gunships on each end... I asked him how long the convoy was and he said AT LEAST a half mile and most likely longer.
So he could tell officials were in a vehicle in the middle of the convoy at least quarter mile down the road. I don't think that is feasible.
As I thought, violation of any combination of Amnd 4, 7 and 8.
First, I-94 is roughly 120 miles from Stanley, ND as the crow flies.
Second, armed convoys are not unusual from Minot AFB, considering there are missile silos in the Stanley area. I have seen those myself, but they have nothing to do with the oil industry.
Only one well on the pad is being drilled at any given time, at most two (extremely rare), so hitting something that would cause six wellbores separated by better than 1250 ft. laterally to "Gush out of control" simultaneously would indeed be a feat, and defy well documented reservoir characteristics in the Bakken.
If there was a six well blowout, I can guarantee the following: The Feds would not be the ones to shut the wells in. It would be news all over the region, whether in the papers or just on the grapevine. Bad news travels fast in the patch.
Until you come up with some sources, I will file this under completely undocumented bullshit.
This sort of fabricated garbage is best left to the more far out of the UFO sites.
And anyone who asserts the federal government's powers to control intrastate commerce [or non-commerce] via the Commerce Clause
obviously doesn't understand its purpose, intended operation, or function… and yet it is used to assert a great deal of control over the states and the people.
I’ll tell my business partner that you as a poster on FR are thinking him to be a liar or he is hallucinating. He’s a gentleman and won’t think anything of it.
But the observation of the convoy was ‘yesterday’? Have you instant connections to the region that allow you to infer that no one else is talking about it? Do you not know that wells are remotely positioned away from the interstate? Do you expect drillers to be able to see with precision a large federal convoy from where they are and immediately report it to you or a news organization?
This is not an attack on you. This is just asking you to explain your skepticism in the context of the questions above.
I find it hard to understand how you would conclude the convoy observation is suspect given I would stake my representation on it. It’s pretty insulting but you have the right to your views however flawed I think they are.
But not of any place near Stanley, ND.
The town is on the map I posted about 70 miles north of the pink rectangle of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
“Yes, I asked that question above in the main body; how in the world would they know so quickly? Maybe it is a requirement for drillers to report to government offices immediately when oil is struck?”
There is no requirement to notify the government or the state immediately. The state does have overseers that make visits out to the various sites just to make certain the the drilling plans filed at permit time are being followed and that the water levels close to the surfaces are being protected. Possibly one of the so called overseers happened to be visiting that day.
“I understand the six well heads are used with directional drilling with attached cameras and sensors.
I would expect the different drill heads were taken in different directions out many miles from each other and many miles deep. When all well heads gushed (if truely reported), this would give credence to an ‘ocean of oil’.”
Even in horizontal drilling, they drill one hole at a time. You have a site pad that will hold up to 6 or 8 bores at the surface level but all are going out in different directions, like a star burst, below the surface. Because these bores are on the same site pad on the surface and in close proximity to each other, they only drill one at a time.
A wellhead is surface equipment that connects to the pipe put downhole. It regulates the well bore and allows products and pressure to be maintained.
There is not way IMHO that while drilling a well out in a particular direction mostly the opposite of all the other wells on that same site pad, could it blow the wellheads off of any of those other bores AND make them gush.
If that were to happen then possibly either an underground blowout occurred or a surface blowout occurred and that pressure knocked/blew those other wellheads off of the casings.
You can tell your business partner anything you want about me. But I have made no accusation of him. And this topic isn't about me.
This is just asking you to explain your skepticism in the context of the questions above.
I-94, which is 160 miles from Stanley, ND, is well traveled. So are some of roads connecting each of them. The quickest route would be through Minot where there is a large Air Force Base.
My doubts are many. But specifically on the convoy, a half mile long convoy with gunships isn't exactly stealthy.
Have you instant connections to the region that allow you to infer that no one else is talking about it?
Yes.
Do you not know that wells are remotely positioned away from the interstate?
Some are, some are not.
Do you expect drillers to be able to see with precision a large federal convoy from where they are and immediately report it to you or a news organization?
Immediately, no. But it has been far longer that required for immediate reports. And such observations are not limited to drillers.
I find it hard to understand how you would conclude the convoy observation is suspect given I would stake my representation on it.
I do not know you. Several on Free Republic know me. We have worked together for many years, gathered as FRiends and continue to meet outside of the Internet world.
That said, based solely on the words you post on Free Republic, I suspect that you and I have different opinions about the value of your "representation". But this isn't about you or I, or opinion of either of us. It is about events in the real world
Name some names, unless you are just trying to slander the whole industry at once.
The Elk Hills Reserve in California was part of the ‘strategic reserve’ & Clinton sold it to Occidental Oil- and then Gore bought Occidential Oil control when Armmand Hammer died.
Connect the dots.
No. Not the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Elk Hills was a Federal Reserve, specifically Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1.
But it was separate and far different from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The SPR contains oil that has already been produced and initial water, gas, sand, etc separation completed. Each salt dome contains oil with it's one Assey of qualities. It is connected by pipe to commercial crude oil terminals for direct sale to many different possible buyers. The entire system is capable of delivering 4.4 million barrels per day to the market.
The SPR is quite different than produced reserves still in the original oil field.
Slight correction here.
If those other wells were already producing, which they probably were since they had wellheads on them, a blowout of the well being drilled that knocked the wellheads off of the existing wells would made them gush because they were already producing and you just knocked their regulators off and left an open pipe to flow at will.
No.
If you knew anything about the upstream end of the industry, you'd know the Feds are only directly involved if it is all or in part a BLM lease.
Notifications are sent to the State of ND at spud, running surface casing, running intermediate casing, logging, and TD. Well information has to be submitted to the state within 30 days of TD, including .las data files, raster files of all logs, and the wellsite geologist's report. Data must also be submitted detailing well construction. A set of (washed, dried, and labelled) drilled samples and slabs of any cores taken are sent to the State Core Library in Grand Forks. BOPs must be tested upon nipple up and if the well takes more than 30 days to drill, they have to be fully pressure tested every 30 days. Unless a wellbore has to be cemented and sidetracked (which has to be reported to the State), normal drilling operations only report to partners in the well. This is all pretty much oil well 101 in ND.
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