Thursday Morning

The Bakken: just what the US economy needs -- SeekingAlpha.com
 
CNBC is reporting that the S&P has hit 1500 for the first time since 2007.

CNBC with long interview with Union Pacific CFO; huge 4Q12 for UNP; one US railroad with access to all six Mexican railroads. CNBC actually mentioned the Bakken, and then UNP mentioned unit oil trains and supporting the Bakken. UNP 4Q12 earnings beat expectations; recent highs, but pulling back a bit on stock market today. BNI was one of my longest-held holdings; bought it decades ago; reinvested dividends; when Warren Buffett bought BNI, I replaced BNI with UNP. Idle chatter. This is not an investment site; do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here.

RBN Energy: Part 5 of Ethane Economics

Active rigs in North Dakota: 190

Wells coming off confidential list have been posted; scroll down or see sidebar at the right. KOG with another nice well. 

WTI/Bakken spread at Clearbrook, MN: $3.25
WTI/Brent: $96/$111 -- spread -- $15

Fargo Jet Center expanding in to Williston -- The Bismarck Tribune

Data points:

• will build a 6,400-sq ft facility next to main terminal at Williston airport
• will offer a/c fueling, a/c maintenance, flight instruction, a/c charter  mgmt, a/c sales
• will compete with Western Edge Aviation; already operates at the airport

Initial jobless rates: decrease 5,000 to 330,000. This is a huge surprise. Analysts had expected an increase to 360,000 -- at least that's what CNBC is reporting. They sounded genuinely surprised at this "incredibly" good number. 

Elephant oil field discovery in Australia?

Brisbane company Linc Energy yesterday released two reports, based on drilling and seismic exploration, estimating the amount of oil in the as yet untapped Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy ranging from 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil.

At the higher end, this would be "several times bigger than all of the oil in Australia", Linc managing director Peter Bond said.

This has the potential to turn Australia from an oil importer to an oil exporter.

Whole Foods founder: "global warming not that big a deal."

I’ve been smeared quite a bit in the media about it – all of a sudden, I’m a climate change denier. I mean, climate change is obviously occurring. So -- it's gotten a little bit warmer. I guess my position on it is that I don't think that's that big a deal. Actually, humanity’s flourished usually when temperatures gradually warmed. And humans gradually adapt to it,” he told Off the Cuff.

CNBC reporting the weather in the northeast much colder than the average over the past several years (as part of the energy report). And speaking of which, the energy market today is very bullish.