Apple's New iPad -- Pre-Orders Exceed Apple's Expectations

Updates

March 13, 2012: Already facing shortages, NYT.

The sell-out left Wall Street analysts guessing how many new iPads Apple sold since it became available for order on March 7, with Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray speculating that pre-orders exceeded one million and Ben A. Reitzes of Barclays Capital saying the figure was likely in the millions.

Apple frequently reveals first day or first weekend sale of new products, and sometimes pre-orders. In the case of the original iPad, Apple sold 300,000 during its first day on sale in April 2010. Apple sold its millionth iPad 28 days after the original went on sale.

March 12, 2012: AAPL trading at new all-time highs. 

Original Post

Shipments will be delayed slightly.

Earlier in the week, Apple had promised the newest tablet would arrive at customers' homes on the launch date.

Trudy Miller, an Apple spokeswoman, said the change was made because customer response to the new iPad had been "off the charts," quickly exhausting the supply set aside for pre-order and delivery by March 16.

Apple's new product releases are some of the hottest events on the tech calendar, scrutinized by investors, the media and industry insiders alike.

To the company's devoted fans, who vie to be the first to own the latest device, a three-day delay would be an eternity and could add to the crowds at the company's retail stores.

I can't wait to see the "Fast Money" folks talk about Apple "going forward."

Another article on this shortage here.  As a trader, I would hate to be short AAPL going into Monday. But, good luck to all.

Week 10: March 4 -- March 10, 2012

Contender for top story of the year: North Dakota, passing California, now 3rd in oil production

Williston makes top ten list of best oil capitals in North America

24-hour Wendy's and Chester's Chicken coming to Williston

New record for active drilling rigs in North Dakota: 207

Dickinson's new man camp, north of the county line, has grand opening

Former Elks building in Williston: now Hawaiian take-out

Reminder: Magic Maps

Canadian Pacific's new crude-by-rail terminal, near Vank Hook, North Dakota, now on-line

TransCanada to build Keystone XL southern leg this year

New 500-bed man-camp near Dore, North  Dakota

Murex to sell 5,000 net acres in the Bakken

Best lateral spacing

WSJ: Advice to California -- Take a Fact-Finding Trip to The Bakken

Link here to the WSJ. Generally a subscription is required, but this seems to work without a subscription. A big "thank you" to Dave for alerting me to the article.

The byline is Williston, North Dakota, suggesting the staff reporter filed the story from the Bakken.

Williston, N.D.
 
In his speech last week responding to high gas prices, President Barack Obama insisted that "we can't just drill our way out of" our energy woes. Actually, we can—and if the president wants proof, he should travel to boomtown USA: Williston, North Dakota.

Williston sits atop the Bakken Shale, which will later this year be producing more oil than any other site in the country, surpassing even Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, the longtime leader in domestic output. This once-sleepy town is what the Gold Rush might have looked like had it happened in the time of McDonald's, Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

And the oil rush is making Dakotans rich in a hurry, with farmers and other landowners becoming overnight millionaires from lucrative royalties and leases. One retired farmer tells me that, thanks to oil rigs churning on his property, he suddenly has a net worth north of $30 million.

But the article is about much more than individual Dakotans. It's important for all Americans, in general, and Californians, specifically:

Now contrast this bonanza with what's going on in another energy-rich state: California. While North Dakota's oil production has tripled since 2007 (to more than 150 million barrels in 2011), the Golden State's oil production has fallen by a third in the past 20 years, to 201 million barrels last year from 320 million in 1990. The problem isn't that California is running out of oil: In 2008, when the USGS estimated four million [sic: should be "billion" -- see 1st comment] barrels of recoverable oil from the Bakken, it estimated closer to 15 million [sic: should be "billion"] barrels in California's vast Monterey Shale.

Rather, California's problem is politicians—at the behest of their green-energy allies—deciding to wall off the state from developing evil fossil fuels. With its prohibitive environmental regulations, state cap-and-trade law, costly renewable energy mandates and 40 years of prohibitions on almost all offshore drilling, California ranks worst in the country and 91st in the world in its hostility to drilling, according to the Fraser Institute's 2011 Global Petroleum Survey. This month, according to North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources, California is no longer America's third-largest energy-producing state—leapfrogged by North Dakota.

Great article.

Request For Information From Readers: Crude Oil Sales at the Oil Pad

I was sent a question via comment earlier. Since some folks may not read comments, here was the question:

Do oil companies in the basin sell oil directly from the tank on the surface at the well site? Does it go through a 3rd party between the oil company and the refinery?

If I recall correctly, sometime in the past two years, I read that up to 75% all North Dakota oil is still trucked at some point. I don't know if that figure still holds true. I would assume the "some point" is from the well pad to the nearest pipeline terminal or crude-by-rail terminal. Regardless, to answer the question, oil trucked from the site to the terminal (pipeline/rail) is a third party trucker.

I also seem to recall that almost all Spearfish oil in northern North Dakota is trucked into Canada where it goes into a pipeline and returned to the states.

Again, I'm not sure how accurate or current this information is, but those are my thoughts. The reader who sent the question, I'm sure, would appreciate any corrections/updates.

“I’m going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future" -- The President

... and the first thing we're gonna do is stop drilling. We've already killed the Keystone.

North Dakota's -- home of the Bakken -- governor gave the GOP weekly address:

In the Republican weekly address, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple accused the Obama administration of blocking projects and technology that would allow greater energy production. He singled out the Keystone XL pipeline project, which Obama deferred.

Deferred? He killed Keystone XL 1.0.

TransCanada will submit a new application after the November elections. And the Democratic-majority Senate just killed TransCanada 2.0.

“We can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices — not when we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil,” Obama said in the address, recorded during a visit Friday to a Virginia jet engine component plant.

We drilled our way to lower natural gas prices. So low that some drillers are shutting down their natural gas rigs. Others are moving their rigs from natural gas fields to oil fields.

The president's solution: algae. Link available upon request. But it's pretty easy to find: google "algae fuel Obama." Okay, here's one link because I know I will be asked if not provided.

North Dakota Production 3rd In the Nation -- Another Story

Previously reported -- another feel-good story

California drops to 4th

California with 49,000 active wells

North Dakota with 6,600 active wells

Link to the Bismarck Tribune here.

Production totals released Thursday by both states show North Dakota pumped 16.9 million barrels of oil in January, compared with California's 15.8 million barrels. North Dakota had a daily average of 546,000 barrels, besting California by more than 36,000 barrels.

A record 152.9 million barrels of crude was produced in North Dakota last year, up almost 40 million more barrels than the previous record set a year earlier, the state Industrial Commission said.

North Dakota had a record 6,600 wells producing in January, up about 200 from the previous month. California had more than 49,000 active wells, records show.