Three Wells Coming Off Confidential List; Impact Of DAPL Closure -- RBN Energy -- July 9, 2020

Breaking: US Supreme Court rules NY grand jury can see President Trump's tax filings. Will rule later (probably today) on whether grand jury can release that information to US Congress.  Market drops after announcement. Apparently investors were just joking about wanted a Biden presidency.  

Later: US Supreme Court denies US House from access to Trump's tax filings. Comment: pretty funny. The headline is bigger than the bite. The US Supreme Court threaded the needle again, and failed to make a definitive ruling. Bottom line: nothing will be released between now and November 4, 2020. Social media comments suggest few have actually read the entire ruling. Now back to the original headline: US Supreme Court rules NY grand jury can see President Trump's tax filings. Turns out to be not quite accurate.

Top story: Ivy League suspends all sports this fall. Link to CNN but it's not fake news. Canceling sports will add significantly to financial woes for universities and colleges. Dorms will be empty, as will bookstores and cafeterias. No wonder Harvard cannot afford to reduce tuition despite going all on-line.

Jobless: numbers came in better than expected. Before the opening:

• Dow: goes green after report, but just barely.
• AAPL: could open at another all-time high; right not, up 1%; up another $3.73, trading at $385
• MSFT: up 1.6% -- could MSFT, today, overtake AAPL as company with largest market cap?
• TSLA: up almost 2%
• AMZN: up over 1%

See disclaimer below.

Fast and furious:

• Blue flu; NY police department retirement applications surging; link here.Think: strain on pension fund. Huge strain.
• Apple bonanza: universities go on line. Apple launches back-to-school promotions. 2 + 2 = 4. Link here.
• Back to the future; algae biofuels drowning. Link here. 
• Walgreen's: in trouble. Here.Who wudda thought? 
• BBBy: will close over 200 stores over the next two years. Story on every corner.
• TSLA: dumbfounded by Tesla, Morgan Stanley analyst issues $1800 price target. Link here. 

More fast and furious:

• Oof-da! Norway has a $100 billion bill to pay to decommission old North Sea rigs. Link here. Or here.
• Convent: Shell may sell its 240,000 bopd Louisian refinery. Link here.
• Gasoline demand: at pre-pandemic levels but not yet where it should be -- Bloomberg.
• Chesapeake bankruptcy: old story but being re-posted. Won't lose federal leases during bankruptcy. Link here.
• Shell game: Pemex plans $22.4 billion debt swap.
• Heavy oil? US refiners up up crude imports from Mexico to 8-year high. Link here.
• OPEC basket, link here: up slightly at $43.44. 

And even more fast and furious:

• Wow: three "strong buy" micro-cap stocks -- link here -- IMUX leads the list. Then BFYT, and then SALT.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Mortgage rates: all-time low. Rates fell while investors were freaking out over America's skyrocketing cases of COVID-19, which could disrupt the economy's fragile recovery. Link here.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$40.83	7/9/2020	07/09/2019	07/09/2018	07/09/2017	07/09/2016
Active Rigs	11	57	65	56	29

Three wells coming off the confidential list -- Thursday, July 9, 2020: 34 for the month; 34 for the quarter, 480 for the year:

• 37247, drl/NC, CLR, Xavier 3-10H, St Demetrius, t--; cum --; 
• 36696, drl/NC, WPX, Pronghorn 22-15HX, Spotted Horn, t-- cum --;
• 36633, drl/NC, Sinclair Oil, Renae 16-21-1H, Lone Butte, t--; cum --;

RBN Energy: the challenges posed by shutting down DAPL. Archived.

A federal judge’s order that the 570-Mb/d Dakota Access Pipeline be taken out of service for a year or more starting August 5 has the potential to wreak more havoc for producers in the Bakken Shale at a time when they are still reeling from drastic, COVID-related production curtailments.

While those production cuts have opened up at least some capacity on other takeaway pipelines out of western North Dakota and crude-by-rail terminals may be able to ramp up their operations, that may not be enough to make up for the loss of DAPL — still more well shut-ins may be required. Then there’s the matter of taking the 1,172-mile, 30-inch-diameter pipeline offline in only four weeks’ time — it involves much more than flipping a switch and may not even be possible within that time frame. Today, we consider the hurdles and implications of removing DAPL from service.