Whatever Happened To All Those Stories About The US Running Out Of Crude Oil Storage? -- June 13, 2015

Earlier this year there were many, many stories that the US would run out of crude oil storage by May, 2015. There were suggestions it could happen as soon as April, 2015. Then in April, "they" found new storage capacity. LOL.

Here it is June, and I haven't seen any recent articles on shortages in US crude oil storage -- amazing how fast free market capitalism can respond to these things.

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 Fracking

Tea Leaves Are Swirling

Rigzone is reporting:

On a more promising note, Flemming said some of HII’s smaller oilfield customers have indicated that they would resume fracking schedules as soon as the end of July or August of 2015.

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NOAA Fakes Images

Rigzone also noted that story posted earlier about NOAA fudging satellite images showing flaring in North Dakota.

Using new processing methods and subpixel techniques, researchers at the University of North Dakota (UND) shined new light on whether photos portraying the North Dakota night sky as bright as major U.S. cities were accurate.

UND researchers decided to investigate how satellite photos taken of the North Dakota sky – which shows lights as bright as major U.S. East Coast cities – were processed after seeing inadequate explanations given for how the images were derived. 

It's a long article; it will be archived.

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Problems At Statoil

More Off-Shore Production Coming Off-Line

This has been talked about before; problems for Statoil. Now this article from Rigzone:

Around 2,200 oil and gas sector jobs could be lost in Norway by 2016 at Statoil and Aker Solutions. Statoil could potentially make 2,000 job cuts by the end of 2016.

Discussions between Statoil’s management and representatives from unions were held on Thursday and it is believed that a decision will be finalized in the near future. The cuts would form part of Statoil’s technical efficiency program announced in February, which aimed to reduce the company’s annual cost by $1.7 billion.

The news follows Aker Solutions’ announcement late Thursday that between 150 and 200 positions could be affected at the oilfield services company’s subsea services facility in Ågotnes, Norway, as it adjusts the plant’s workforce capacity due to a decline in activity in the Norwegian market.

I could be wrong, but it's my feeling that off-short projects don't stop and start "on a dime." I still see risk in "someone" setting us up for $200 oil.

By the way, when I say "$200 oil," I don't mean literally $200 oil. Rather, I am suggesting that there is a risk that the price of oil will surge unexpectedly in 2017 (and possibly as early as 2016) with pundits/talking heads suggesting we could see $200 oil. Whatever the price of oil is in 2017, I don't think Saudi Arabia plans on giving away their oil for $50 / bbl "forever."

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Meandering Maureen

Dowd in The New York Times:

President Obama has vowed to degrade, destroy and defeat ISIS, but it seems more like delay, so it won’t look as though he lost Iraq on his watch. He’s putting a bandage on the virulent gash, sending American advisers to work with Iraqi troops and tribesmen in “lily pad” bases near the front lines.

It appears to be a sad, symbolic move by a country and president fed up with endless war and at wit’s end about how to combat the most murderous terrorists on the face of the earth. If we drowned in quicksand going full-bore for a dozen years beside Iraqi soldiers who did not want to fight, what good will 450 more American trainers do?

A lame duck sending sitting ducks to lily pads is not a pretty sight.

I wish I had said that.  This Maureen Down piece is very meandering, but it hits every hot button.

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The Los Angeles Times

Side-by-Side

If you can't access the link, google key phrase: California's commercial drone industry is taking off.  

Side-by-side with: Boeing auctions off equipment as it closes C-17 plant in Long Beach.

Once there were so many workers building military cargo jets at Boeing's sprawling plant in Long Beach that employees put flags on their cars to find them in the vast parking lot.

Now the parking lot is nearly empty. There are no "going out of business" signs posted out front, but this month the company is holding its first auction of the plant's mammoth equipment.

The 25-acre factory that assembled 279 of the workhorse C-17 air haulers is being disassembled.

Workers are putting the final touches on the last eight planes, but already four of the five manufacturing bays sit nearly silent.

By the way, the graph above is similar to the same graph showing the number of folks attending Hillary Clinton events.