Something's Going On -- Bakken Rigs Continue To Climb -- March 12, 2020

 Active rigs:

$30.97	3/12/2020	03/12/2019	03/12/2018	03/12/2017	03/12/2016
Active Rigs	56	64	60	45	32

No wells coming off the confidential list today.

RBN Energy: US LNG exports grow in a weakening, highly uncertain market.

New U.S. liquefaction trains and export terminals have added LNG to an oversupplied global market. International gas prices are at their lowest levels in several years, price spreads between the U.S. and destination markets have collapsed and — to make matters even worse — a coronavirus pandemic threatens to undermine LNG demand growth. U.S. LNG exports nevertheless have been increasing with each new liquefaction train that comes onstream, though, mostly because their long-term offtake contracts make cargo liftings relatively insensitive to global prices. The question is, will dire global market conditions somehow undo U.S. LNG production growth? Today, we discuss highlights from our new Drill Down Report on the future of U.S. LNG exports.

U.S. LNG exports have increased rapidly in the past four years. Exports began in early 2016 with the start-up of the first liquefaction train at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction (SPL) in southwestern Louisiana. Since then, Sabine Pass has completed four more trains and five other export terminals, some with multiple trains, have come online. They include Dominion’s single-train Cove Point facility in Maryland; two trains each at Cheniere’s Corpus Christi, TX, terminal and Sempra’s Cameron LNG, also in southwestern Louisiana; two trains at Freeport LNG near Houston; and the first five mini-trains at Elba Liquefaction’s terminal in Georgia. Start-ups in 2019 alone included the Cameron, Corpus Christi, Freeport and Elba projects.

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Idle Rambling

Alexa: The other day I mentioned how much I enjoy jazz on the Amazon/Echo .... oh that reminds me. I seldom listen to Mark Levine but [last night] I actually caught less than a minute of him while changing the car radio from AM to FM. He was ranting about how ATT, Amazon, Comcast, others are cheating us.

I love Amazon. I have no idea what Levin was talking about ... how Amazon was cheating us. If one feels that way, don't shop through Amazon. It's not like there aren't other brick/mortar choices or on-line choices, including Target and Walmart. I love Amazon. Generally lowest prices out there. Couldn't be more convenient. Free shipping if you are willing to wait two days and not nickle and dime Amazon with purchases less than $25 for free shipping. And if you want same day delivery and don't want to worry about the $25 threshold, pay the annual fee for Amazon Prime. And Amazon Prime comes with so much more than free shipping and fast shipping. Prime Video is free with Amazon Prime, for example. But I digress.

Back to Amazon Echo -- which is a one-time $25 cost and no additional subscription costs or fees. Twenty-five bucks? Are you kidding me. One of best deals out there. Can the average 70-year-old tell the difference between a Bose radio and an Echo speaker? I think not. The Echo: $25 and you can talk to it. Bose? A dumb radio and still costs $500. If you want to talk about a company taking advantage of you, Mr Levin, maybe you should take a look at Bose.

Wow, what a digression.

The other day I mentioned how much I enjoy the jazz selections Alexa finds for me. Tonight, while driving home, after switching from AM to FM I was listening to the classical music station, my favorite station at the 7:00 p.m. hour. Tonight, "they" were featuring Franz Schubert.

And, so of course, for the first time, I had Alexa "play Schubert" for me. I'm listening to that in the background while typing this -- 12:01 a.m., March 12, 2020.

I would not have been typing this but I did not want to forget this. While listening to Schubert in the background, I was reading The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, Edmund de Wall, c. 2011.

I read very, very slowly when I'm re-reading a book I really enjoy. I might read just one page at a sitting. Tonight I was doing just that, reading very, very slowly, savoring every bit of writing. I had read the book before. And there it was on page 10:

I washed up after lunch while Iggie had his nap, and I would try to do my kanji homework, filling one chequered paper after another with my jerky efforts. I'd stay until Jiro came back from work with the Japanese and English evening newspapers and the croissants for tomorrow's breakfast. Jiro would put on Schubert or jazz and we would have a drink and then I'd leave them be. 

Wow, out of nowhere, de Waal mentions putting on "Schubert or jazz." What a coincidence. Exactly what Alexa is putting on for me.