Oil Back Up To Over $75

While traveling, I forget to check on a few things. I see price of oil is trending back up.

Confused, As Usual

Jobless claims dropped more than expected.

I assume jobless claims are tied with unemployment benefits claims -- otherwise, why would people even go to agencies to report they are jobless except to claim benefits?

If true, then, the benefits are starting to run out for 99-weekers. Thus, less folks would show up at agencies to claim benefits and the "jobless" numbers would go down.

I must be missing something. I don't think the jobless numbers mean much any more.

Update: someone came to my rescue and explained my confusion -- the numbers are for FIRST-TIME claims. I suppose at some point there are just no more people to layoff or fire; companies are down to bare minimum, I would think, with 11 million jobs lost.

With 11 million jobs lost in this recession, many not likely to return, when I see numbers of 1,000 or so up or down, that just doesn't mean much.

Corporate earnings, for investors, will be the story.

Even in Italy, They're Writing About theBakken

This is in Italian, but the translation can be found here: look for El Dorado. The original article is here.

And I thought I was irrationally exuberant.

Dockets and Permits

Permits on yesterday's daily activity report:

• Hess to drill three wells on one pad, Mountrail County, Big Butte oil field
• Wesco has another permit, Golden Valley, Bicentennial

Dockets for July have been posted by NDIC: July 28 and 29

• I will summarize the dockets but it will take awhile since I am traveling
• It's another big month: 21 pages on July 28 and 13 pages on July 29

Producers

• Again, the NDIC reported no new producers yesterday
• Is it just me, or does there seem to be a disconnect between all the drilling and NDIC reporting results?

For newbies, the blurb above about Hess drilling three wells on one pad is not news. Many producers have been doing this for the past year or so, but it is of interest to some folks. One thing that may be new is that more and more of the spacing is 2560 acre. Historically, 640-acre spacing was the rule, then it went to 1280. In fact, it's my understanding that producers no longer need permission to convert from 640-acre spacing to 1280-acre spacing. They do need permission to create 2560-acre spaced units.

For Natural Gas Investors, A Nice Story

A move from coal in the US would put a strain on natural gas supplies. Most of us knew that.