Monday, April 18, 2016 -- The Day After Doha; OPEC In Tatters -- Reuters

Note: with road restrictions in McKenzie County announced last night, the number of active rigs could slump.

Active rigs:

	4/18/2016	04/18/2015	04/18/2014	04/18/2013	04/18/2012
Active Rigs	30	93	188	185	210

RBN Energy: 9th installment in the series on CBR.

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The Saudi - OPEC Myth

Over at "Big Stories" I have a link "the Saudi - OPEC myth" -- note the date when that "big story" was first posted -- May 21, 2013 -- about three years ago, and well before the October, 2014, trillion-dollar mistake.

Today, finally, mainstream media is picking up on the story. Better late than never, I guess.

Reuters is reporting:

Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran were blamed for the failure, which revived industry fears that major government-controlled producers will increase their battle for market share by offering ever-steeper discounts.

"OPEC's credibility to coordinate output is now very low," said Peter Lee of BMI Research, a unit of rating agency Fitch. "This isn't just about oil for the Saudis. It's as much about regional politics."

Morgan Stanley said that the failed deal "underscores the poor state of OPEC relations," adding that "we now see a growing risk of higher OPEC supply," especially as Saudi Arabia threatened it could hike output following the failed deal.

I'm sure the Saudis woke up this morning with a cacophony:

• we had another opportunity to take control, and we blew it
• what? we let a 30-year-old playboy call the shots?
• what? we did this because we hate Iran?
• it doesn't matter what we do; we've lost control
• we never were in control; it was all a myth
• well, we always have our "after-oil" plan to fall back on
• maybe we should liquidate our entire equity portfolio
• is it even worthwhile to hold the regularly scheduled OPEC meeting this June? 

As for me, I'm curious to see how much oil Saudi Arabia can actually produce/export.

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 Update On Canada.

From Oilprice -- for the archives. 

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Venezuela - Tick, Tick, Tick

Blame It On Global Warming -- Bloomberg

Bloomberg is reporting: 

The tap in her apartment yields water only every two weeks. It comes out yellow. Her 8-month-old granddaughter is ill. And as Yajaira Espinoza, a 55-year-old hairdresser, made her way down the halls of Caracas university hospital on Friday, Zika cases evident in the rooms around her, a dense ash-filled smog enveloped the city.

"I am so sorry for my daughter, because I know she suffers silently," she said. "This situation is hard."

It has been an exceptionally painful year for Venezuelans, suffering from violent crime, chronic shortages, plummeting oil prices on which they depend, declining health and fractured government. Yet this past week it seemed to reach a new low. A kind of resigned misery spread across a city that had once been the envy of Latin America.

A sudden combination of natural disasters joined man-made failures. The smog, called calima, is a meteorological phenomenon that involves ash and dust clouds fairly common for this time of year. Meanwhile a prolonged drought blamed on El Nino and related forest fires has arrived. Levels at the Guri dam in the south, which produces 40 percent of the country’s electricity, are reaching record lows.

And so it goes. Mother Nature.

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Completely Off My Radar Scope

A week or so ago there was a bit of brouhaha over the New York mayor saying he was late to endorse Hillary because he was on "CP" time. I honestly never knew there was an issue and thought this must be some kind of inside joke. Turns out I was completely oblivious to this issue.

Driving the granddaughters to school this morning, I heard on the radio that some of the "things" I grew up with while going to school in Williston all those years were nothing more than "white privilege." Who knew?

Apparently with regard to elementary, middle, and high school, teachers and administrators who obsess about the following are simply promoting "white privilege":

• speaking English correctly
• showing up on time (see "CP" time above)
• showing up at all 
• striving to get good grades

Google st cloud minnesota professor white privilege.

And so it goes.

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Bicycling In The Bakken

Despite all the murders, arson, robberies, burglaries, assaults apparently being committed in Williston, necessitating a "Special Operations and Response Team" with a half-million-dollar armored vehicle, this was the most recent story tweeted by The Williston Herald in the last 24 hours: rules of the road for bicyclists -- don't drive drunk.

Biking home from work one evening last month, Montanna Raynne was being cautious. At the intersection of Second Avenue West and 18th Street West, she waited for several cars to turn left before riding into the crosswalk, despite the fact that she had the walk signal, and the right of way.

But as she started to pedal across, heading north on Second Avenue, she was hit by an SUV making a right turn on red.

Raynne was knocked off her bike, but recovered enough to make it across the street. She says the man behind the wheel looked at her, and drove away.

“It was really scary; thankfully it wasn’t a super-hard hit,” she said.

She dusted herself off and kept on biking. Good for her.  

I don't know what I would have done in the same situation. Hopefully I never have to find out.

Anyway, with that, I'm heading out -- going biking -- no blogging for a bit.