Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Update On The CBR Derailment Earlier Today -- December 23, 2020

Link here

Federal and local authorities were investigating a fiery oil car train derailment north of Seattle near where two people were arrested last month and accused of attempting a terrorist attack on train tracks to disrupt plans for a natural gas pipeline.

Officials were asked about recent attempts to sabotage oil trains, but they said the investigation was just beginning.

Last month federal authorities in Seattle charged two people with a terrorist attack on train tracks, saying they placed “shunts” on Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks. “Shunts” consist of a wire strung across the tracks, mimicking the electrical signal of a train. The devices can cause trains to automatically brake and can disable railroad crossing guards.

Much more at the link.

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A Musical Interlude


EIA's Weekly Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Gasoline Demand Data -- December 23, 2020

Weekly petroleum report, link here.

  • US crude oil in storage decreased by 0.6 million bbls from the previous week;
  • US crude oil in storage is now at 499.5 million bbls;
  • refineries are operating at 78.0% of their operable capacity;
  • distillate fuel inventories increased by 2.3 million bbls last week and are about 10% above the already-fat average for this time of year;
  • US crude oil imports averages 5.6 million bbls per day last week, up by 140,000 bopd from the previous week;
  • jet fuel supplied was down 32.9% compared with the same four-week period last year;

Natural gas fill rate, link here:

Gasoline demand, link here:

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Lego

There are many ways to "filter" items over at the Lego website. One way is by price. At the highest price, over $199, every set is "out of stock."

Lego has three pages of "high-price" sets, about eighteen sets on each page. 

I couldn't get a screenshot of whole page even after zooming out, but here is an example of what I'm talking about:

Every high-priced Lego set is now "out-of-stock."

There is a retired pirate ship that can be had for $240 at our local "Bricks and Mini-Figures" store which is about the price it originally sold for. One can also find it from a third party seller on Amazon for $599. Pretty amazing. 

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Fanciful AppleCar Reservations And Pricing

The tea leaves suggest it is only a matter of time before a monthly subscription will be the way folks buy EVs in the future. 

For example:

  • Apple sets the base price of their 2024 model for $100,000;
  • one can reserve a 2024 model by subscribing;
  • the initial down payment is $1,000 and then a monthly "fee" of $500 until the car is delivered;
  • the initial down payment gets you a coupon to purchase the car at 75% of the advertised price ($100,000 in this case);
  • the delivery date is stamped on the coupon (first come, first served method) and guaranteed; every month delay would require the regular $500 subscription fee but the price of the AppleCar would come down by a similar amount each month until delivery;
  • the AppleCar like all Apple products would have a warranty for one year, with an extended AppleCarCare warranty up to ten years, also at a subscription/streaming price;
  • the coupon is transferable with no strings attached, and can be bought and sold like any other equity; the AppleCarCare warranty would also be transferable.

The price points shown are just pulled from thin air, but "Disney analysts" could easily come up with the best price points for the initial down payment and the monthly "fees."

China Isn't Alone Cutting Off Electricity To Its Residents; Same Thing In Another Third World "Country" -- December 23, 2020

Link here


Summary:
  • Southern California Edison and Sempra Energy could cut power to 225K homes and businesses on Christmas Eve as a possible wind storm raises wildfire risks in the southern and central portions of the state. 
  • Edison says it may cut power to more than 193K homes and businesses across seven counties from the hills north of Los Angeles east to the Mojave Desert, and Sempra's utility serving the San Diego area says it may need to switch off electricity to more than 31K homes and businesses starting today, with the blackouts possibly lasting into Christmas morning. 
  • The blackouts could affect more than 670K people based on the size of the average household. 
  • Utilities across California have cut electricity repeatedly this year over fears that power lines could fall into dry brush, and power shutoffs in the southern half of the state earlier this month affected nearly 1M people.

Again, Californians will never be told the "real" reason for this. 

If Californians aren't buying diesel generators .... in fact, it seems like a better idea to buy a diesel / natural gas / propane generator than to install solar panels on one's roof. Just saying. $1200 and free shipping from Amazon. Link here.

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Tusk

Well, That Didn't Last Long -- The UK Re-Opens It Borders -- Apparently That "New" Virus Isn't All That Bad; WTI Recovers -- December 23, 2020

UK border re-opens: link here

It will only get better under Biden: US 2020 exports to China through November, 2020, 26% higher than in 2019. 

COP: from yesterday -- announces significant oil discovery in the Norwegian Sea. This marks the fourth successful well on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the last sixteen months. Link at SeekingAlpha. And, today, again at SeekingAlpha: this discovery highlights the strength of this company.

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.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$47.89
12/23/202012/23/201912/23/201812/23/201712/23/2016
Active Rigs1456695341

One well coming off the confidential list today --  

Wednesday, December 23, 2020:

  • 37213, drl/A, Hess, TI-Nelson-LE-157-94-3031H-1, Pleasant Valley, t--; cum 91K 10/20; fracked 4/18/20 - 4/29/20; 11 million gallons of water; 89.7% water by mass; no neighboring wells of interest; initial production --
    PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
    BAKKEN10-20203118151181771857626685245822103
    BAKKEN9-20203022777227243711031560303281232
    BAKKEN8-20202717760177893027627385192738112
    BAKKEN7-20203123117230673715131375258455530
    BAKKEN6-202088700860613131939681071289

RBN Energy: imports remain key to Rockies and West Coast refiners' crude slates, part 5. Archived.

PADDs 4 and 5 — the Rockies and the West Coast regions, respectively — are each outliers in the U.S. refining sector. Refineries in the Rockies, for example, are generally far smaller than those in other PADDs and, due to pipeline flows, source their crude oil from either Western Canada, the Bakken, or in-region production, including the Niobrara and Utah’s Uinta Basin. West Coast refineries, in turn, have no crude oil pipeline links with U.S. points to the east, and depend on a mix of imported crude from Canada, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as domestic oil from California, Alaska, and rail receipts. Today, we conclude a series on region-by-region crude oil imports and refinery crude slates with a look at PADDs 4 and 5.

Futures: All Major Indices Turn Green — December 23, 2020

 Futures: all indices now green. AAPL turns green.

Bakken Oil Train Derails — Tankers Burst Into Flame — North Of Seattle — December 23, 2020

Updates

Later, 10:04 p.m. CT: investigators looking into derailment. Link here

Federal and local authorities were investigating a fiery oil car train derailment north of Seattle near where two people were arrested last month and accused of attempting a terrorist attack on train tracks to disrupt plans for a natural gas pipeline.

Officials were asked about recent attempts to sabotage oil trains, but they said the investigation was just beginning.

Last month federal authorities in Seattle charged two people with a terrorist attack on train tracks, saying they placed “shunts” on Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks. “Shunts” consist of a wire strung across the tracks, mimicking the electrical signal of a train. The devices can cause trains to automatically brake and can disable railroad crossing guards.

Much more at the link. 

Original Post

Link here: https://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/train-cars-from-north-dakota-carrying-crude-oil-derail-burn-north-of-seattle/article_54115f41-dd86-5fe3-ac7e-e8d6901d2d6c.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_bistrib.

Link here: https://www.inforum.com/news/accidents/6814222-BNSF-train-carrying-North-Dakota-oil-derails-starts-on-fire-in-Washington-state.

Link here: https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/wa-town-urged-evacuate-after-train-derails-catches-fire. ZeroHedge reports the train was “carrying up to 30,000 gallons of oil.” Think about that for a New York minute.

Inforum link here. It might behind a paywall. I was able to access with no difficulty using the "twitter" link to inforum. The article provides no additional information that isn't included in the above links.

Twitter link: