Notes To My Granddaughters -- Not About the Bakken -- Saturday Morning Links -- Ramblings -- Mostly Links To The WSJ

I've often said that the Bakken is now the "gold standard" for oil companies. This lede caught me by surprise:

Can Roseneft and Exxon Mobil help make Siberia more like ... North Dakota?

I kid you not. Page B16, WSJ, "Heard on the Street" (at one time, years ago, my favorite section in the WSJ).  The article goes on:

When the Kremlin's oil champion and Big Oil's biggest sealed a strategic alliance in 2011, tight oil was little more than a footnote to ambitions in the Russian Arctic. But Friday's announcement of a deal to explore the enormous Bazhenov deposit makes Western Siberia suddenly much more important.

Like the Bakken shale under North Dakota, the Bazhenov is thought to contain vast oil reserves trapped in tight rock formations. At 570 million acres, its land mass is the size of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico combined, according to Sanford. C. Bernstein. Bazhenov could hold between 60 billion and 140 billion barrels of oil, and production could approach one million barrels a day, or around 10% of Russia's total, by 2020, analysts say. Commercial production in the Arctic will only just be getting started by then. [For newbies: the Bakken, much, much smaller, could hold 500 billion bbls of oil; without political interference the Bakken will easily hit one million bbls of oil per day; and that is about 12% of current US domestic production. Just putting things into perspective.]

But Bazhenov represents a grand experiment. America's tight oil boom was pioneered by small, innovative companies, aided by individual mineral rights and an array of oil services and infrastructure resources. While big boys like Rosneft and Exxon should enjoy the might of the Kremlin's backing—including hoped-for tax breaks—they are very different pioneers operating in a very different environment.

Top-rated companies borrowed more than $1 trillion (no typo) in 2012; here's a list of some of the more notable; first number, 2012; second number, average amount for previous five years:

• Abbott: $15 billion (rounded); $3 billion
• United Technologies: $10 billion; $2 billion
• John Deere: $9 billion; $5 billion
• Pepsico: $6 billion; $3 billion
• Intel: $6 billion; $5 billion

A must-read review of Ford's C-Max -- enough to make me consider buying one for my daughter. She has her heart set on a Ford Fusion.  I will stick with the Honda Civic.

Section C of today's WSJ is filled with book reviews, but at the moment, none catch my interest, except perhaps a new biography of Thornton Wilder. I always enjoy "A Personal Choice." Today, the editor features Janet Malcolm's five favorite books on "animals":

• Charlotte's Web, E.B. White, 1952
• Omar: A Fantasy for Animal Lovers, Wilfrid Blunt, 1966
• Born Free, Joy Adamson, 1960,
• A Sloth in the Family, Hermann Tirler, 1963
• Animal Liberation, Peter Singer, 1975

Born Free makes me think of Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa. I probably would not have read the book had I not enjoyed the movie. The story and the music made the music. The casting was important and I can't imagine any others in the title roles, but still it's the story and the music.

I have seen bits and pieces of Charlotte's Web, the animated movie, so many times with my granddaughters, I think I can say I've seen the movie. But I don't know the story at all. When I see an accomplished author put this at the top of her personal list it tells me I need to read the book. Maybe.

Speaking of books, I am currently "enjoying" reading selected papers of D. I. Mendeleev, edited by William Jensen, on the former's "periodic law" which ultimately resulted in the "periodic table.

And with that, we move on to Section B of the journal.

Oh, and what a great way to start, front page story: its battery drained, Fisker hunts for a partner. Unfortunately I didn't find a better link (for now). I particularly enjoyed this bit of writing:

Fisker has taken steps to reduce its cash use. In July, it halted production of its sole vehicle, the $110,000 Karma, to lower production costs. [That would lower production costs, as I've noted before.]

The Karma has been hobbled by recalls and quality problems. [A $110,000 vehicle.]

The company also has cut its staff by nearly half since January.

And so it goes.

In the end, the Canadian government did approve CNOOC's takeover bid for oil-sands operator Nexen, Inc. Also, the Canadian government approved a Malaysian company's acquisition of Progress Energy Resources Group. These are big stories for many, many reasons.

Russia's Gazprom, no doubt is reading this story with glee: a proposed pipeline that would have lessened European dependence on Russian natural gas is a no-go. A major participant has pulled out. Why? "There is no guarantee that adequate volumes of Caspian gas will be available." Wow. A page 3 story -- which tells you how important the editors felt this story is.

And still another GM article: GM sweetens discounts to move unsold cars. I think this is the third story this week about the huge GM inventory. Search for "pickups" on this site and you see what I'm talking about.

Preparing for the next big one: frustration with insurers following Sandy.

And, now, on to section A of the WSJ. 

This is a strange headline: in medical triumph, homicides fall despite soaring gun violence. I won't read the article until later, but I can only imagine all the story lines.

This looks promising for reading later: a lesson in conservative optimism: an interview with Ed Feulner, ending a 35-year fun as the president of the Heritage Foundation. The first paragraph reminds me why successful businessmen are successful. It's interesting: I first learned that "general truth" -- what makes successful businessmen successful -- when I worked for the Southwest Publishing Company in 1971, a period of stagflation. My employer told us to forget about the economic headlines: there is always a recession somewhere if one looks for it. Just get on with the job at hand and get to work. I had a very successful run with Southwest Publishing.

Peggy Noonan has her weekly essay, but as mentioned a few weeks ago, I lost some interest in reading her columns after her huge FAIL: her last column before the election.

And that's it for now. Except for this. Brings back "awful" memories.

The Phil Donahue Show: Greed and Capitalism