Seventeen Bakken Permits Renewed In North Dakota; PDVSA Could Default As Early As Next Week -- My Hunch: One Big Bluff; Update On The ObamaCare Trainwreck -- October 18, 2016

Active rigs:

	10/18/2016	10/18/2015	10/18/2014	10/18/2013	10/18/2012
Active Rigs	32	67	190	184	186

No wells coming off confidential list Wednesday.

Three new permits:

• Operator: Oasis
• Field: Siverston (McKenzie)
• Comments: permits for a 3-well pad, Patsy, section 17-151-98 

Seventeen (17) permits renewed:

• CLR (11): three Elveida permits and three Bliss permits, all in Divide County; three Cuskelly permits in Dunn Count; two Boulder Federal permits in McKenzie County
• Whiting (2): two niemitalo permits in Mountrail County
• QEP (2): two MHA permits in Dunn County
• Petro-Hunt: one Hoiby permit in Mountrail County
• EOG: one  West Clark permit in McKenzie County

No DUCs reported as being completed. 

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The 2017 Trainwreck

WSJ reports here:

Finalized rates for big health insurance plans around the country show the magnitude of the challenge facing the Obama administration as it seeks to stabilize the insurance market under the Affordable Care Act in its remaining weeks in office.

Market leaders that are continuing to sell coverage through HealthCare.gov or a state equivalent have been granted average premium increases of 30% or more in Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi and Texas, according to information published by state regulators and on a federal site designed to highlight rate increases of 10% or more.

In states including Arizona, Illinois, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, the approved rate increases for the market leader top 50%.

In New Mexico, the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan agreed to resume selling plans through the online exchanges after sitting out last year, but has been allowed to increase rates 93% on their 2015 level.

Dominant insurers in Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland and Oregon have been allowed to raise premiums by 20% or more, and rate increases from similarly situated carriers in Colorado, Florida and Idaho are brushing up against that threshold.

Does anyone even care any more? At least you can keep your insurance plan if you like it.

HillaryCare will solve problem overnight: Federal government will be payer of last resort for those unable to find "affordable" rates. By executive order.

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Tic, Tic, Tic: Venezuela's Giant Oil Company Could Fail Next Week

Link here.  Probably a bluff. The company wants its debt repayment schedule to be delayed three .... years. One would think that if PDVSA defaults, the government default won't be far behind.

Sway, Dean Martin

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Connecting The Dots -- Or Note

I'm sure I'm completely wrong on this one, but it's kind of fun. One of my favorite movies is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. One of the supporting characters is Toby Esterhase, "a self-serving Hungarian refugee hungry for promotion." There are a number of "interpretations" for this particular name.

Today, while reading something inconsequential, I came across the "Dreyfus Affair" -- which I finally understand after all these years -- and then discovered this name: Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, "an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898. He gained notoriety as a spy for the German Empire and the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused and convicted in 1894 (see Dreyfus affair)."

The names are too similar to be completely coincidental. But perhaps they are.