What You Will Be Talking About Monday; Frac and Trade; Wells Coming Off Confidential List -- Looks Like XTO Has a Nice Well, OXY - A Nice Well; Shipping NG To Europe? Already Happening - WSJ

School's Out in Chicago: summer vacation extended

Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits. The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year. Yet the teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase over four years at a time when most families are not getting any raises or are looking for work. Three months summer vacation? Liberal vacation during the school year -- all federal and state holidays; four-day Thanksgiving; two-week winter holiday; one-week spring holiday. What am I missing?

GOLF: BMW Champion -- Rory
NASCAR: Richmond short track -- Jeff Gordon, 3rd, and in the Chase! NFL: Peyton doesn't touch the ball for almost an hour (half-time included) and scores his 400th career touchdown pass in 36 seconds!

******************** Housekeeping: Stony Creek oil field has been updated.

*******************

Energy Links for Monday; Other Links

Bakken buyout candidates, Part IV -- Mike Filloon
RBN Energy: Part II on natural gas processing economics.
Chevron's dividend: I generally don't care for this kind of article, but I assume some readers do
Japan's growth worse than that of France? Japan cuts GDP estimate to 0.7%; Hollande said French GDP will probably be 0.8% for 2013 (about 0.3 percent now)

********************
Wells coming off confidential list over the weekend and Monday:

• 22421, drl, WPX/Dakota-3, George Evans 11V, Van Hook,
• 21738, 536, Hess, BW-ABM 149-100-1819H-1, Ellsworth, t7/12; cum 9K 7/12;
• 21861, 1,388, BEXP, Myron 9-4 1H, Squires, t5/12; cum 19K 7/12; 
• 22080, 781, Hess, EN-Fretheim 154-93-0508H-2, Robinson Lake, t6/12; cum 41K 7/12; 
• 22243, 1,313, Zenergy, Martin 16-21H, Trenton, t5/12; cum 34K 7/12; 
• 20078, 632, OXY USA/Anschutz, Robert Sadowsky 1-2-35H-143-96, Manning; t3/12; cum 25K 7/12;
• 21364, 130, CLR, Nordness 1-18H, Wildrose, t6/12; cum 5K 7/12; 
• 22311, drl, XTO, Thompson 44X-20E, Blue Buttes; cum 60K -- no IP yet;
• 21207, 182, Petro-Hunt, Stromme Family Trust 157-101-11C-2-1H, Otter; t5/12; cum 13K 7/12; 
• 21737, 571, Hess, BW-KKMP-149-100-0706H-1, Ellsworth, t7/12; cum 14K 7/12; 
• 21955, drl, BEXP, Cvancara 20-17 3H, Alger,
• 22056, drl, BEXP, Wagenman 29-32 2H, Todd,
• 22151, 1,538, Denbury, Tobacco Garden 41-18SH, Tobacco Garden, t6/12; cum 34K 7/12; 
• 22226, 819, G3 Operating, Johnson 1-25-36H, Strandahl, t5/12; cum 24K 7/12; 
• 22455, 1,780, MRO, Mylo Wolding 24-11H, Reunion Bay, t6/12; cum 29K 7/12; 

A lot of wells coming off the confidential list these last three days; noticeably absent: EOG.

********************* US Shipping Natural Gas to Europe (sort of) The first new plant to export natural gas from the US may not be completed by 2015, but yet the WSJ (p. C14) suggests it's already happening -- it's a stretch and the kind of circuitous thinking of which I am often accused. Here are the dots:

a) US switching from coal to natural gas --> excess coal b) Europe switching to coal c) US sends excess coal to Europe (this is the "NG export) d) natural gas costs $9 per mcf in Europe; $2.50 in the US e) Europe's coal-fired plants generate margins five times higher than those burning gas (wind/solar?) f) US coal exports to Europe were up almost 30% yoy in 1Q12, and up more than 70% than the 4Q10

On the same page, there is an article suggesting oil supplies are not all that tight. The SPR holds 700 million bbls; by international agreement, Citi sees the US requiring only 117 million bbls by 2020; between now and then the US could dump a fair amount of oil on the open market; at $100/bbl could help with US budget. Hey, more spending. Deficit? What deficit?

********************* What the president's fracking regulations will cost us: $1.5 billion/year.

The Obama administration’s plan to tighten regulation of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas on public land may cost more than 20 times U.S. estimates, energy companies and local governments said.

The $1.5 billion is manageable. What will be frustrating to the hundreds of thousands of small mineral rights owners:

“The proposed rule will also place undue economic burdens and time delays on independent oil and natural- gas producers that will inevitably drive many smaller companies away from exploring for oil and natural gas on federal lands.”

Note: the article was posted exactly 2 minutes after the end of the business day on the last day of the business week. A reader noticed that; I did not. Little matter: even had this been posted during the news cycle, the mainstream media would not have picked up on it.

**********************

For Chester.

There's a long story how I came back to this video, but I will spare you the pain of reading. Enjoy:

Extreme Sheepherding

It seems to me this video was removed from YouTube at one time; regardless, it is here.

********************** School's Out, Alice Cooper