Top Ten News Stories for January, 2013; 2012; 2011

These lists will end up being the hardest for me to compile.

Top Stories for March, 2013

US regulatory body denies another pipeline permit; this time denies Enbridge's permit for the Sandpiper pipeline that would have carried 225,000 bopd out of the Bakken; huge win for rail
Harold Hamm, CLR/CEO, divorce proceedings; affair in 2010
Whiting and Bakken Hunter have raised the bar on flaring; taking steps to minimize flaring
First new US refinery in almost 40 years; breaks ground in North DakotaUnitization and water flooding in the Canadian Bakken; Crescent Point Energy; Williston Basin Bakken next?
Everything investors need to know about the Bakken and natural gas

Top Stories for February, 2013

Karen Harbert's presentation at IPAA archives

New national standard: acceptable for wind farms to slice and dice up to 15 bald eagles/year for 30 years

Emerald signs deal with New York City equity firm

Random update of 7 WPX wells on one pad

North Dakota #1 for food, for the nation, for the world

Fourteen wells sited in one section in Truax oil field

WAWS water at 13-mile corner, north of Williston

The Bakken is a beast -- Motley Fool

Obama promises to expedite oil production in North Dakota if "sequester" is killed; [note: the sequester was not killed; the Keystone XL 2.0 decision is delayed indefinitely; what was that about a woman scorned?]

Top Stories for January, 2013

Berthold Oil Terminal; can fill one unit train in 14 hours; 8 unit trains/week

EOG 3-mile long horizontal; 213,000 bbls in less than 5 months

Whiting's Sanish wells model to 2 million bbls EUR

Enbridge keeps adding to its $6 billion pipeline project

Well density keeps increasing; CLR has 14 wells in one corner of a 2,560-acre spacing unit

ONEOK to add fifth natural gas gathering and processing unit; this one near Watford City

Williston will need $625 million/year for next six years for infrastructure

WTI/Bakken near parity

North Dakota takeaway capacity to hit 1.5 million bopd this year (2013)

Five-lane highway, Williston to Watford City, announced

Slawson pays $19,500/acre in the Bakken

Top Stories for 2012

New estimate of original oil in place (OOIP) for the Bakken: one trillion bbls
Well density in the Bakken
Helis
More Bakken oil moved by rail than by pipeline

All the deals (see sidebar at the right)
CLR: one million acres in the Bakken
Chesapeake to leave Dickinson area; may leave Williston Basin
Bakken could produce 4 million bopd by 2025
$14,000/acre bonus: North Dakota state land lease sales results; XOM-DNR $15,000/Acre deal
Monster wells 

Top Stories for 2011

Williston Development

• 720-Acre Industrial Park and Major Truck Stop North of Williston
• Williston Doubles Taxable Sales 1Q11 -- Despite Worst Winter on Record
• Hampton Inn: Part of Mercy Hospital Campus

Man-Camp Approvals

• 900 Unit Man-Camp Approved for North of Williston

International

• Venezuelan Reserves Surpass Saudi's Reserves in 2010
• USA: net exporter of oil; first time in six decades

Dollars

• Tioga Reels in $8 Million From State For Impact Dollars
• Williston taxable sales surge past Fargo's; second quarter in a row

Set Backs

• Bakken Pipeline project scaled back due to uncertainty of Keystone XL