?

12:03 p.m. CDT -- off the net for awhile. Active rig count: 199.

See first comment: on further review -- it turns out that the actual count is well less than 199 due to some "double counting" or "double reporting."

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Micro-, Mobile-LNG Plant 

A reader sent this to me some time ago; I've been so busy I forgot to post it:

Dresser Rand is set to introduce into the market shortly the world's first micro, mobile LNG plant.they are calling it LNGo.

More can be found at this link.

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We've been at 199 active rigs in North Dakota for the past 72 hours. My hunch is that Lynn Helms is in McKenzie County right  now cheering the roughnecks on, maybe even in flame-resistant Carhartt coveralls and steel-tipped boots and a hardhat helping to get another rig up and running before another one comes down. I'm sure there's a phone call into CLR's Harold Hamm to delay taking down any active rigs. All we need is a few more hours. Closer than 4th down and inches in an NFL game.

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The Texas oil and gas industry is in its golden age. 

Lebas pointed out to the Energy Resources Committee that jobs in the oil and gas production sector rose above the 400,000 level last year for the first time, at an average wage ($125,000) that is three times the state average.  Tax collections from the industry via the sales and production taxes exceeded $13 billion during 2013, and will be even higher this year.

Oil and gas development also helps to create jobs in other industries.   The advent of massive new reserves of affordable domestic natural gas has in recent years led to a nascent manufacturing renaissance in the U.S.   Industries that use natural gas as a feedstock  – fertilizers, chemicals, clothing, plastics, steel, and many others – have begun to invest tens of billions in new plant and equipment here in the U.S., creating domestic jobs that had been sent overseas over the last quarter century.

For the state’s government, this Golden Age in oil and gas has also led to a bit of a Golden Age in the state’s fiscal situation.  Prior to the boom’s beginnings in 2010, Texas state government had been in a state of chronic budgetary shortfalls for about a decade.  In fact, when the legislature convened in January 2009, that shortfall was estimated to be as high as $25 billion for the following  2 year budget cycle.  In 2007, the legislature and Governor had to figure out how to close about a $10 billion shortfall.

When the legislature convenes in January of 2015, Lebas estimates that it will enjoy a budgetary surplus in the vicinity of $7 billion.  In addition to that, Lebas agrees with the Comptroller’s estimate that the state’s Rainy Day Fund will have a balance of about $8.4 billion, and that is assuming that Texas voters approve a ballot initiative in November that would allocate about $1.7 billion in Rainy Day Fund money to the Texas Department of Transportation to help pay for road improvements and repairs.   Guess how the Rainy Day Fund is funded:  via severance taxes levied on oil and natural gas.

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For The Archives: Negawatts

Chicago Business is reporting:

The decision has significant pocketbook ramifications. Eliminating negawatts to meet peak demand would tend to raise prices because it would force consumers to buy from less-efficient, higher-cost power plants that otherwise wouldn't qualify for capacity payments. The independent market monitor for PJM, which plays a market-referee role for the power grid stretching from Chicago across all or parts of 13 states to North Carolina's Outer Banks, estimated late last month that—if the court ruling stands—the annual cost to reserve enough power capacity to meet demand during peak periods would rise as much as 124 percent from today's levels.

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A Red Line "Among The Greens"

Yahoo!Finance is reporting: President Obama says that if Syria shoots an American airplane out of the air, that means WAR! So I guess we have another red line:

Apparently Obama now has a red line in the sky. He's put red lines in the yellow sand, red lines in the Black Sea, and now a red line in the blue sky. Quite artistic, he is. But he loves green the best. As in the "greens" at Martha's Vineyard.

The Great Unraveling. From The New York Times, no less. The Obama legacy.