News Summary, June 24, 2010

I will be posting a bit less often for the next few days. I am traveling for the next few days.

I see the market had another tough day but oil held its own. I haven't checked share prices of any of the energy companies, but for long term investors this could not be a better time to accumulate shares. It's possible (and likely) the market will go down some more, and it could drop significantly. But I am not a market timer. I mostly dollar cost average, but when the market is down, I try to find cash to accumulate more shares for the long term.

I see Anschutz was granted two new permits today; the wells will be in two different fields in Dunn County: Fayette oil field and Manning oil field. They will sit on the same pad; one long horizontal going north into Fayette and one long horizontal going south into Manning.

I also noted that the number of active rigs has dropped from a high of 130 (it was there for just one day) back to 122 today. Not sure what that's all about, except I assume it's just normal rotation of rigs. However, one has to keep in mind: a) backlog of fracking crews; b) shortage of manpower; and, c) significant drop in oil price from $80+ with indications that global economy isn't going to turn around any time soon.

I see the Federal government lost the first round with regard to the executive order to shut down new drilling in the gulf. In fact, the Federal government has lost several recent high visibility cases in front of the Supreme Court, including one favoring Enron today.

I see aviation folks are unhappy (on both sides of the issue) regarding wind power and interference with radar. This was a major concern with the Cape Wind project off the Massachusetts coast, also. It certainly appears wind power is not the panacea some make it out to be.

I reported yesterday (or was it the day before) about Hess building a oil loading railroad facility. I see a major North Dakota newspaper picked up on that story and is reporting it today. This is a big, big deal: $48 million project; 120,000 barrels a day on two 100-unit trains daily. Other news in that article:

North Dakota's pipeline, rail and refining capacity is about 400,000 barrels a day and more than double the volume two years ago, said Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

North Dakota surpassed Louisiana last year as the fourth-largest oil-producing U.S. state, with nearly 80 million barrels of oil. Hess was the fifth-biggest oil producer in North Dakota last year with about 6.6 million barrels, industry records show.

Hess announced in April that it also plans a $325 million expansion to its natural gas plant in Tioga. The company said it wants to increase capacity at the plant from 100 million cubic feet of natural gas daily to 250 million cubic feet.

And that's about it for now. But again, I apologize for few postings for the next few days. Thank goodness for the internet and particularly the Drudge Report. There are breaking stories on both the internet in general and the Drudge Report in particular that are very significant and not yet being reported by the major newspapers, such as the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times. We could have an interesting summer.