http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a1eevkcEafV4

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aXKkOSyhCPgM

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An important research study.

http://geology.com/press-release/deepest-hole-in-oceanic-crust/

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Many years ago, Anne and I flew to New Orleans with friends Gary and Carroll. It was off-season, somewhere between Mardi Gras and the Jazz Festival, so we got a good rate on a French Quarter hotel. Not much was happening except for the Festival of the Tomato.

Cajuns and Creoles love their tomatoes and use them as ingredients in almost everything. While enjoying the Quarter during the festival, we tasted many wonderful variations of tomato dishes. We quickly learned, when topped with oils and spices, the tomato needs no other ingredients. Here is a standalone tomato recipe I think you will enjoy as much as I do.

Tomatoes Bonaparte

“Gas is mostly up on the weather, the cold has picked up again.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aod8KnYvB3q8

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Natural gas storage “flirting” with five-year average.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aBdgK7bcqJG0

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A potential influence on natural gas prices.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aSXgdAnhn.9k

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   My ninety-year-old Dad was born in Trees City, Louisiana, just after the First World War. An honest-to-God boomtown little remains of the once bustling town. My brother Jack and I are moving my dad, a World War II vet, to the world-class veteran’s facility in Norman, Oklahoma, so I am reprising my story about my last trip to Trees City.

The last time I visited northwest Louisiana, I visited Trees City.  The town was founded by the legendary oil finders Benedum and Trees.  These two wildcatters had moved to north Louisiana after finding large oil fields in Oklahoma.  They discovered the Trees City Field in far Northwest Louisiana.

Trees City quickly became a boomtown, complete with churches, honkytonks and a post office.  During the height of the oil boom, 25,000 people lived there.  Today, it is little more than a memory.

Thick trees, vines and creepers cover most of what was once a thriving city.  Permanent steel towers, constructed on site for the drilling of a single oil well, still peek up through the tall trees.  Even the post office is gone, located now at the Oil Museum in nearby Oil City, Louisiana.

Benedum and Trees sold their interest in the Field to Gulf Oil for a million dollars, an enormous sum of money at the time.  The amount pales compared with the vast riches recovered by Gulf Oil.  It doesn’t matter much now.  Where roughnecks once toiled to recover Mother Nature’s dark liquid bounty, only ghosts wisping silently over Jeems Bayou still remain.

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http://www.sgdchouston.com/Event.aspx?id=269414

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China’s technology “leapfrogging” the rest of the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/energy-environment/31renew.html

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Lily, my former mother-in-law, had eight children. All her kids and their families usually came to her house for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Lily was a Cajun, but like families across the country, she would usually cook the traditional turkey.

Unlike most of the country, she would stuff her bird with Cajun rice dressing. Lily cooked by feel and taste rather than recipe, but this is a close approximation. Try it sometime and enjoy.

Lily’s Rice Dressing

Ingredients:

§  4 cups chicken or turkey stock

§  2 cups rice

§  1 pound chicken gizzards

§  ½ pound chicken livers

§  ½ pound ground beef

§  ½ pound pork

§  ½ cup oil or meat drippings

§  1 large onion, chopped

§  2 stalks celery, chopped

§  1 bell pepper, chopped

§  2 cloves garlic, minced

§  3 tablespoons parsley, chopped

§  1 bunch green onions, chopped

§  Salt, pepper, to taste

Directions:

Bring chicken stock to a boil in a large saucepan. Add rice, reduce heat, cover and simmer until done, about 20 minutes. Set aside. Simmer chicken gizzards in water to cover until fork tender, about 30 minutes, add livers and cook about 10 more minutes until livers are done. Drain and remove the tender meat from the gizzards, discarding the tough gristle. Grind or process gizzard meat and livers together until coarse. Set aside.

In a large pot, brown the ground beef and pork, drain and set aside. In the same pot, heat the oil and sauté onions, celery and bell pepper until soft. Add garlic and sauté briefly. Away from the heat, add rice, meat, green onions, parsley and seasonings, and toss lightly.

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It’s not quite February yet, but Oklahoma finds itself in its first winter storm of the New Year, the second in little more than a month. While I stayed off the road most of the day, this storm reminds me of another that happened many years ago - when I was much younger, much braver and a whole lot dumber.

I was doing well-site geology work for Cities Service Oil Company in central Kansas. I had been on a well for two weeks. When it came time to leave and return to Oklahoma City, the weather was too bad to do so.

Management didn’t care about the weather. In the days before cell phones, email and fax machines the only way to get an electric log from one location to another was to take it in your car.

“Have it in my office by eight tomorrow morning,” my boss had told me. “We need to know what to do with the well.”

I already knew what to do with the well. It was dry as the proverbial bone, not a single show of oil or gas from the surface to total depth. Being a young geologist, nobody believed me and insisted on seeing the electric logs for themselves.

It mattered little that the highway patrol had shut down I-35, closing all the ramps. I left the location at midnight, heading south to Oklahoma City. When I reached a blocked ramp, I got out of the car, moved the obstruction and drove up on the frozen interstate highway.

A thick sheet of ice covered the surface of Interstate 35. It was a good thing that I had a full tank of gas because no stations were open. The trip took more than four hours and I never saw another vehicle the entire time. If I had gone into the ditch, I would likely have remained there until the spring thaw.

Four members of management met me at the door the next morning when I reached my bosses office. They took the electric logs and my geologic report, never asking me a single question. They finally told me that I could go home, never telling me what they intended to do with the wildcat well we had drilled.

When I read Dilbert each morning in the cartoons, I’m reminded of Cities Service Oil Company. The mismanaged company soon sold to another large oil company. I didn’t care because I had already moved on to work for Texas Oil & Gas.

Instead of driving on an off-limits sheet of ice tonight, I am sitting in front of my computer, pecking out this little remembrance while preparing to watch Arkansas play Mississippi State in basketball. Did I learn anything from that little escapade? You bet! I’ve worked for myself now for thirty-two years. Now, when management orders me to do something completely stupid, I have no one to blame but myself.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aENsrcyI23j4

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While oil consumption in the U.S. fell by 5% in 2009, it rose in China.

http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=2982

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Uncertain pricing scenarios affect budgets.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=acPwC1WaOcD8

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As predictions come and go, so does the market.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aPdXJOj5qb00

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Growing up in northwest Louisiana in the fifties, money was scarce but chickens were cheap. One of the meals my mom prepared at least once a week was southern fried chicken served with fresh-cut fried potatoes. Although I never thought about it at the time, the meal now ranks as my favorite southern comfort food.

My brother Jack and I both liked the wishbone, the piece of the chicken we called the “pulley bone.” He was older and usually ended up with it. Whichever one of us got it we would have a contest, each grabbing an end of the vee-shaped bone and pulling. The one of us ending with the biggest piece of the pulley bone could then make a secret wish guaranteed to come true.

The recipe is simple, with only a few basic ingredients, and the preparation straight forward. Still, no one could fry chicken like my northwest Louisiana mama. If I had a pulley bone wish today, it would be for a bite of her fried chicken and potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken, e.g. wings, thighs, etc.
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ½ cup flour
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 ¼ cups milk

Preparation:

Combine chicken, salt, pepper, and the flour on large plate; toss lightly to coat. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until golden on all sides, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove chicken, pouring off excess oil.

Return the skillet to the heat and add milk, scraping pan to loosen any brown bits. Add chicken, skin side up. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until chicken is tender and juices run clear, about 15 to 20 minutes.

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Approaching Arctic air prompts rise in natural gas prices. Analyst predicts price rise over $6/MCF in next 10 to 14 days.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aHcbGSXYktz4

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Hopefully, gas is back!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=aDOSI8jSvtCY

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http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=86015&hmpn=1

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