WTI Drops Well Below $63 -- One Well Coming Off Confidential List -- August 20, 2021

Deflation: talking heads on CNBC now talking about deflation, not about inflation. At "best," inflation concerns for the market (for investors) has now moved to 2022. Investors are still looking for the global economy to open, and now that the delta virus is pushing that opening to the right, the Fed will remain wary. I still maintain this market is the absolute best ever. 

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.

Renewables: Big Oil's foray into renewables has changed everything. Link to Irina Slav. This is another story that interests me not but it may be important for the archives:

Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies, on the other hand, can afford to pay millions upon millions to beat competitors for new renewable energy projects. They are highly motivated, with shareholders, governments, and environmentalists looking over their shoulders at how they are tackling their carbon footprints. And however blasphemous it may sound to the ideologically inclined, they are partnering with renewables companies.

The thing about business is that it is not driven by ideology. Business is driven by the need to turn in a profit. Orsed, Vestas, and Siemens Gamesa know this, as do BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies. The influx of competitors in the wind and solar space is bound to sooner or later result in partnerships of mutual benefit. This would help Big Oil morph into Big Energy. Like it or not, it would be the natural way.

"Skimming Stones": link to Alex Kimani. Forecasting oil prices is a fool's errand.

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Back to the Bakken

Liberty Resources: I'm being told by a reader to watch Liberty Resources drill two wells north of Tioga in the near future. 

Active rigs:

$62.82	8/20/2021	08/20/2020	08/20/2019	08/20/2018	08/20/2017
Active Rigs	24*	12	63	58	53

*Active rigs: current list posted COB daily.

One well coming off confidential list: 

Friday, August 20, 2021: 11 for the month, 22 for the quarter, 202 for the year:

• 37989, conf, CLR, Harms Federal 17-33H1, Antelope, first production, 6/21; t--; cum 30K 6/21;

RBN Energy: the surprising simplicity of many rocket fuels.  

The high-tech space programs of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sir Richard Branson may seem far removed from the down-to-earth business of producing and processing hydrocarbons. In fact, however, the multibillion-dollar efforts by SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic to normalize space travel — and maybe even put the first men and women on Mars! — depend at least in part on some pretty basic oil and gas products, including regular jet fuel, highly refined kerosene, and LNG. Oh, and hydrogen too — or, more specifically, the liquid form of the fuel that has recently caught the attention of a number of old-school energy companies. In today’s blog, we look at what’s propelling the latest generation of space vehicles.