Monday, February 1, 2016 -- Minimal Blogging This Morning; Off The Net For Now

New Venezuela US imports graph posted at an earlier link. 

Dominion Resources to buy Questar: link here.  Data points:

• $4.4 billion in cash
• 27,500 miles in gas distribution pipeline
• 3,400 miles of gas transmission pipeline
• 56 billion cubic feet of working gas storage
• will operate an additional 15,500 miles of NG transmission, gathering, and storage pipelines
• 24,300 MW of power generation
• combined: 2.5 million electric utility customers, 2.3 million gas utility customers in 7 states
• $25/share; a premium of nearly 23% to Questar's Friday close
• other recent deal for comparison: Duke to buy Piedmont, $4.9 billion, announced last October
• other recent deal for comparison: Southern Co to buy AGL resources, $8 billion, announced last August

Active rigs:

	2/1/2016	02/01/2015	02/01/2014	02/01/2013	02/01/2012
Active Rigs	45	146	192	187	203

RBN Energy: LNG —A Market in Turmoil Moves to Right Itself.

Vertical wells in the Bakken over at Seeking Alpha.  This is an interesting story, perhaps, to tell us a bit about the Bakken, but I believe it's pretty much a non-story in the big scheme of things. If I don't forget I will come back to this story. At the story, some of the comments are completely off-base/wrong; other comments are very good.

Saudi oil. WSJ, Heard on the Street: "Oil-Price Poker: Why Saudi Won't Fold 'Em." Nice graphic at the link.

The Shiite powerhouse is ramping up production following the lifting of nuclear sanctions. And its export surge is occurring against the backdrop of ongoing proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. Those make it difficult for Sunni champion Saudi Arabia to take the lead with output cuts.

Russia, meanwhile, is pumping the most crude ever, hitting a post-Soviet Union peak. But it may have difficulty maintaining today’s pace given a lack of investment in its aging Siberian fields. The chief executive of Russian oil giant Lukoil predicted that Russian output would drop in 2016 for the first time in several years.

And then there is the additional wrinkle that Russia is actively on Iran’s side in Syria. For those reasons, not only have occasional statements from Russia about nonexistent agreements been something of a bluff, so too might be the country’s willingness to voluntarily curb its own output.

In other words, Russia is holding weak cards and the Saudis know it.

For now, politics, if not economics, suggests the Saudis will remain all-in. That alone could keep a lid on an immediate oil-price recovery.