The Energy And Market Page, T+103 -- May 3, 2017; "Plus-Size" iPhones And Connecting The Dots

47.74: WTI. 

Thinking outside the box: Trump's US looks past energy independence to global dominance -- Bloomberg.

The lede (memo to self: note to Jane Nielson):

The U.S. is in the position to be energy-dominant, not just independent, thanks to fracking and plans to loosen drilling regulations, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Monday.

Some data points

• oil production may increased by 17% to 10.24 million (currently 9.2 million; EIA suggested some time ago US could reach 9.9 million by 2018)
• "God has a sense of humor -- he gave us fracking" -- Zinke

Nice. BP's profit triples on higher oil prices, higher output.

Who wudda guessed? Crescent Point Energy Corp -- in past five years has snapped up more oil assets than any of its peers in North America. -- Bloomberg. Data points:

• drilling new wells in Uinta Basin, Utah
• developing operations in the Bakken
• from 2012 through last year; completed 15 acquisitions -- the most of any oil explorer and producer on the the continent
• value of those acquisitions: $6 billion; ranked 5th -- overshadowed by megadeals from giants such as Devon and Encana; 
• acquisitions averaged about $400 million/transaction
• most recent acquisition: bought 8,500 acres in North Dakota, $100 million in cash; sold conventional assets in Manitoba for about same amount; essentially trading one property for the other

Permian-related? I don't know. Anadarko Petroleum posts bigger-than-expected loss as costs rise -- Reuters.

Noble to exit Marcellus: Reuters.

U.S. oil and gas producer Noble Energy Inc said on Tuesday it would sell all its natural gas production assets in the Marcellus shale field for $1.23 billion, as it shifts focus to liquids-rich, higher-margin assets.

Devon announces similar asset sale: Reuters.

U.S. oil producer Devon Energy Corp said it would divest about $1 billion of its assets, and also reported a quarterly profit that beat analysts' estimates.

The assets include certain portions of its Barnett shale properties focused around Johnson County, Texas.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling. CNBC. Or not. All morning CNBC has been reporting that Apple shares are plunging after disappointing results yesterday. Reality: Apple shares down 0.83%. Reality: EPS beat. Reality: will return $60/share to shareholders through 2019. Reality: largest dividend payer in the world. The dots connect: MSNBC - CNBC - Apple.

Connecting dots:

• Tim Cook was surprised to see that "plus-size" iPhones outsold "standard-size" iPhones
• CNBC noted that almost a million folks "cut" their cable cord in first quarter
• but it took Cramer to connect the dots: millennials using large iPhones to stream Netflix, Amazon 

Get real (adult language):

Reality: movies looking pretty good on iPhones -- The Verge, March 30, 2017:

But months later came the first iPhone, with Steve Jobs touting the new device as a great way to watch Pirates of the Caribbean on the go. Jobs, of course, had famously said he was “not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen” years before introducing video-capable iPods. And although the first iPhone was notably larger than those iPods, it has to have been the device Lynch was thinking of when he derided the idea of watching movies on phones.