A reader commented on my Bakken blog.
I replied but the reply was too long as a comment.
So, I have moved that comment here:
The blog started simply because I grew up in Williston, saw several "boom and bust" cycles but was never involved in oil. The closest I ever came to energy was working as a "gopher" one summer with MDU, helping to build and maintain utility lines (think: Glenn Campbell's "Lineman for the County." LOL).
In 2007, I would retire from the USAF; I was aware of the Bakken in Montana and maybe (I forget) some activity in North Dakota). I sensed that somehow this "boom and bust" cycle would be different. I have no idea why I thought that.
But I was really, really curious. I really, really wanted to learn about "oil" was all about. I was going to follow the Bakken but it was going to be with a word document and hyperlinks when I realized doing it in HTML was made for this.
The USAF taught me how "to do" HTML and how to establish a website -- well, actually, a middle-aged civil servant in one of the IT departments gave me a book to read and told me to figure it out myself -- she said it was insanely easy.
And, so with nothing more than a lot of time, the internet, and a website, I started following the Bakken. I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about oil, conventional or otherwise, although I had read "The Prize" by Daniel Yergin some years earlier.
Two things happened, which confirmed that I made the correct decision.
One, a few readers started sending me comments anonymously and through direct e-mail which steered me in the right direction. I learned a lot from my readers and still do.
Two, I realized that a lot of mom-and-pop mineral owners probably had no clue what was going on and I wanted to help explain the Bakken at that level. I've said many times on the blog that my level of "reporting" has not improved much since I began. I don't have the resources to do better, but, in fact, that's good: I've tried to keep the writing at a level average mom-and-pop mineral owners can understand.
Since I've began blogging, I've become a much better investor but almost entirely outside of companies drilling in the Bakken. I made some huge investing mistakes early on but was quick enough to get out or move in another direction.
Sometimes one thinks they know too much about their subject which can lead to bad investment decisions. That's the same reason, I have almost no investments in the health care arena even though I spent 30+ years in medicine.
My energy holdings were almost all acquired between 1984 and 1990, well before the Bakken. And if any did well, it was purely serendipity.
So, any "monetary" (investing) interest I might have in the Bakken has absolutely nothing to do with blogging but does have something to do with the altruistic (?) joy I have sharing what I think I know about the Bakken.
Two things:
I am truly humbled when many folks who know this subject much better than I do, actually write me and don't call me an idiot.
Second, I am often embarrassed with regard to what I write that does not pertain to the Bakken and my political views which should not be on the blog. But it's impossible for me not to write some of these things. Having said that, I feel I am much more fair and balanced in my comments; I hope I have grown a bit over the years.
Before I started blogging, I was part of a "Bakken discussion group." I had no minerals, no experience, nothing, and I was pretty much told to leave the discussion group since I was clearly an outsider. I learned a lot from that discussion group but was eventually banned ("kicked off the island" as they said at that time).
Much, much more could be said. My biggest worry now is (not) stepping on the toes of my readers so I'm sure I disappoint others with my wishy-washy comments; or my flip-flopping, but it is what it is.
That's why I have no subscription fee. I don't want to feel I have any conflicts of interests. It's bad enough as it is trying not to step on toes of regular readers.
Much more could be said.
