Investing - September 25, 2026

Locator: 51818INVESTING.

I don't own any shares of SCHW (The Charles Schwab Corportion). I can't recall if I still own any MCD in my own accounts. 

Foot traffic going forward:

• McDonald's will remain flat for the forseeable future. MCD CEO. 
• Schwab: 
• my Schwab account will live on after I die through my wife; she will need significant professional help managing her account; 
• to take delivery of their share of our estate, each of the five grandchildren will be required to have a Schwab account. 

Venn diagram, as I see it:

• circle A: Vanguard, Fidelity 
• circle B: Schwab
• circle C: SoFi, Robinhood

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Disclaimer

Briefly: 

I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.

I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.

I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.

See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 

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. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.

If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.

I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 

And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution. 

I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom. Now, I've added Amazon. And QCOM. Nothing on this site should be seen as recommendations for the general public. On the other hand, I have no problem if members of my extended family "see" recommendations I might be making - but only members of my extended family, limited to my children and my grandchildren.

Longer version here.

 

Case 33188 -- Up To 15 Wells In One Spacing Unit -- XTO -- Eagle Nest -- September 25, 2026

Locator: 51817B.

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Back to the Bakken

NDIC Hearing Dockets

Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Link here. 

Case #31888: reminder -- this is a case and not a permit -- 

Fifteen wells in a four-section spacing unit works out to the standard seven- to eight-well pad in a 1280-acre spacing unit.

Application of XTO Energy Inc. for an order amending the field rules for the Bear Creek-Bakken Pool and/or Corral Creek-Bakken Pool, Dunn County, ND, as follows: 

(1) create and establish a 2560-acre spacing unit comprised of Sections 29, 30, 31 and 32, T.148N., R.95W., authorizing the drilling of a total not to exceed fifteen horizontal wells on said proposed 2560-spacing unit; and, 

(2) terminate two existing 1280-acre spacing units comprised of Sections 30 and 31; and Sections 29 and 32, T.148N., R.95W., authorizing the drilling of a well on each existing 1280-acre spacing unit, and/or such further relief.

Existing: an 8-well pad in section 36-148-96, just outside this new 2560-acre spacing unit.

• 30829, 1,221, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36A, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 705K 7/26;
• 30830, 485, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36E, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 268K 7/26;
• 30831, 963, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36B, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 535K 7/26;
• 30832, 245, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36A, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 464K 7/26;
• 30833, 630, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36G, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 360K 7/26;
• 30834, 326, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36D, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 387K 7/26;
• 30835, 408, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36H, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 560K 7/26;

 The maps:

Case 33188 In The Bakken, NDIC -- Meanwhile, France Is Sending Military Resources To Saudi Arabia To Help Secure Saudi's Port City Yanbu On The Red Sea -- September 25, 2026

Locator: 51816FRANCE.

Saudi Arabia is seeking / taking aid from France: this speaks volumes. What has Saudi Arabia been doing for decades to protect its interests even as Iran spent billions? Oh, that's right. The US has provided coverage all these years with huge payouts from the US to Iran to keep things quiet. 

US equity market: S&P 500 heads for winning week despite Treasury yield surge. Not on my bingo card. At one time the S&P 500 hitting 7,800 had everyone excited. Currently the S&P 500 is trading at 7,738.

US equities: a surging US equity market -- S&P 500 trending toward previous highs. BRK-B? Up 20 cents on a $500-stock. AAPL? Up almost $4 on a $300-stock.   

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Back to the Bakken

NDIC Hearing Dockets

Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Link here. 

Case #31888:  

Fifteen wells in a four-section spacing unit works out to the standard seven- to eight-well pad in a 1280-acre spacing unit.

Application of XTO Energy Inc. for an order amending the field rules for the Bear Creek-Bakken Pool and/or Corral Creek-Bakken Pool, Dunn County, ND, as follows: 

(1) create and establish a 2560-acre spacing unit comprised of Sections 29, 30, 31 and 32, T.148N., R.95W., authorizing the drilling of a total not to exceed fifteen horizontal wells on said proposed 2560-spacing unit; and, 

(2) terminate two existing 1280-acre spacing units comprised of Sections 30 and 31; and Sections 29 and 32, T.148N., R.95W., authorizing the drilling of a well on each existing 1280-acre spacing unit, and/or such further relief.

Existing: an 8-well pad in section 36-148-96, just outside this new 2560-acre spacing unit.

• 30829, 1,221, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36A, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 705K 7/26;
• 30830, 485, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36E, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 268K 7/26;
• 30831, 963, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36B, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 535K 7/26;
• 30832, 245, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36A, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 464K 7/26;
• 30833, 630, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36G, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 360K 7/26;
• 30834, 326, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36D, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 387K 7/26;
• 30835, 408, XTO, TAT State Federal 14X-36H, Bear Creek, t7/17/ cum 560K 7/26;

 The maps:

Friday -- September 25, 2026

Locator: 51815B.
Locator: 51815ELONMUSK.

Anticipation: chart of the day -- 

Weather: strong nor'easter along the eastern seaboard this weekend; most at risk starting Friday evening and lasting through Sunday morning -- Boston down to Long Island -- much damage anticipated. This reminds me of the 1971 tropical Storm Doria, which has its own wiki page, and which struck the New York and New Jersey region between August 27 and August 28, 1971. 

Schwab HQ hosted an evening with Michael Townsend Managing Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Schwab Center for Financial Research: last night, September 24, 2026. Two takeaways (and, no Liz Ann Sonders was not there; she is based in NYC; Michael Townsend, 26 years with Schwab, 30 years in DC; photos may be posted later):

• the market doesn't care about politics; it is so important to "keep investing"; don't let the current political events keep you from investing (Schwab talking their book, of course, but had the data to back it up); and, 
• people in the audience were truly freaking out about the bond rout. 

Query: what is driving the bond rout; what is this all about? Mom-and-pop retail investors should continue to do well with yields? If not trading bonds, they do not have an issue?

Middle East: Saudi and its allies are standing firm with the US and against Iran. This speaks volumes.

I honestly/literally cannot get my head / brain / hands "around" Elon Musk.  

Google and Elon Musk just announced a new space-LDC partnership / initiative.  

Elon Musk: NY Times and The Wall Street Journal -- 

• across Texas -- link here --   

• it appears the increased interest is due to the effect Elon Musk is likely to have in the mid mid-term elections -- 

•  across the US -- link here -- most striking -- avoiding the entire eastern seaboard -- and Ohio -- 

Key to map above:

• yellow squares: Tesla
• blue squares: Boring Company
• light blue: Neuralink
• red: SpaceX

Query: what is Elon Musk's boring company doing in Tennessee? You might be surprised. 

YouTube: Terafab -- link here. Is Elon Musk also taking on ASML (start about 9:45)?

 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $92.98.

New wells reporting: 

• Sunday, September 27, 2026: 51 for the month, 131 for the quarter, 488 for the year,
• 42282, conf, Formentera, Fonda-23-02-BAL N513HF, 
• Saturday, September 26, 2026: 50 for the month, 130 for the quarter, 487 for the year,
• 42281, conf, Formentera, Fonda-23-02-BAL N611HF,
• Friday, September 25, 2026: 49 for the month, 129 for the quarter, 486 for the year,
• 41769, conf, Hess, EN-Will Trust A-157-94-2734H-5, 
• 41533, conf, Devon Energy, Borsheim 33-28 4H, 

RBN Energy: market fundamentals as essential as ever in changing energy landscape. Link here. Archived.  

The North American energy landscape has changed dramatically since our first School of Energy way back in 2013, but the need to understand market fundamentals has not. Technology, infrastructure, refining constraints, LNG demand, data-center growth and geopolitics are all reshaping how energy markets work — and how they interact — so it’s essential to be able to connect the dots across commodities and stay grounded in supply, demand and infrastructure, even (and especially) when markets inevitably get noisy. That was the focus of our School of Energy: Fundamentals and the subject of today’s RBN blog. Warning: Today’s blog includes some blatant plugs for a newly available replay of our recent conference in Houston.

When we held our first School of Energy, the world was a very different place than it is today. More than a decade later, U.S. crude oil production (dark- and light-blue layers in left graph in Figure 1 below) has jumped to nearly 14 MMb/d. It’s a similar story for natural gas (middle graph), where Lower 48 output has risen to ~110 Bcf/d, and NGLs (right graph), where production from gas processing is now approaching 8 MMb/d. But those production increases weren't because oil and gas prices went up, as they might have in the old days. Instead, we produced more because we figured out how to produce hydrocarbons in ways that were previously thought impossible, bringing on an era of energy abundance in the U.S. that many now take for granted, with markets increasingly balanced on a combination of producer discipline and exports. The share of U.S. production destined for export markets (orange line and right axis) has sharply increased for all three commodities over the past decade, especially crude oil and natural gas (the latter primarily in the form of LNG).

Five New Permits; Four Permits Renewed; Four DUCS Reported As Completed -- September 25, 2026

Locator: 51814CLR.
Locator: 51814B.

WTI: $92.81.

Active rigs: 30.

Five new permits, #43337 - #43341, inclusive:

• Operator: CLR
• Field: East Fork, Williams County
• Comments:
• CLR has permits for three Stockton wells and two Billings wells, NENE 21-156-99, 
• to be sited 460 FNL and 738 / 900 FEL. 

Four permits renewed: 

• Zavanna, four Beth permits, Glass Bluff, McKenzie County;

Four producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 40058, 1,111, CLR, Brakken FIU 4-6H, McKenzie County;
• 40059, 2,107, CLR, Brakken FIU 5-tHSLF, McKenzie County;
• 42093, 402, Zavanna, Boxer 22-3 2H, Williams County;
• 42096, 373, Zavanna, Boxer 22-3 3H, Williams County;