Monday Morning Links

RBN Energy: the Niobrara.

Far from a recent discovery – Niobrara has been producing oil for nearly a century from vertical wells. The Niobrara is organic rich shale with the potential to generate 10-20 MMBbl of oil per square mile. As a result this 200 to 400 feet thick layer of sedimentary rock has long attracted the attention of producers.

However Niobrara is not easy to work with – frustrating even. The shale has many different layers and rock types that make horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing particularly difficult. Incidentally the oil rich part of the formation running north to south from Wyoming to Colorado is shaped like a banana. For the operators at least it turns out that the Niobrara can be one tricky banana to peel.

WSJ Links

Section C (Money & Investing):

Section B (Marketplace):

• Oil-tanker operations struggle to stay afloat: For the largest ships—so called Very Large Crude Carriers, which can carry up to two million barrels of oil—the average charter rate on the Mideast-to-Japan route is around $7,085 a day, far below the operation cost of $10,000 to $12,000 a day. The rate peaked at $309,601 a day in 2007.

• 'Kon-Tiki,' a biopic made in two languages lands in US: The result is two versions of the same film, one in English due in theaters on April 26 and another in Norwegian. The Norwegian-language version, released in 2012, was nominated for this year's Academy Award for best-foreign language film (the Oscar went to Michael Haneke's "Amour"), and is the second-highest grossing film in Norway at about $14 million behind Messrs. Rønning and Sandberg's 2008 movie "Max Manus: Man of War." Weinstein Co., which acquired the rights to both films in November, plans to distribute only the English-language version in the U.S.

Section A:

• SecState Lurch blinks; offers direct talks to North Korea; taking the high moral ground; "giving peace a chance";
• Race for support before key gun vote: looks like this, too, will pass; will be the most significant gun-control legislation in years; if passed, it will never be repealed;
• Looks like a good week for the criminal mind: first, law-abiding citizens will have gun ownership abridged making them targets for the criminal mind; second, Supreme Court could stop routine DNA sampling; and, of course, due to overcrowding in California, criminals are being released even earlier than parole guidelines; yup, a good week for the criminal mind. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with any of these three "events." Just noting the obvious. It is notable that the most heinous gun crimes occur in gun-free zones.
• The Sierra Club is never satisfied: El Paso says goodbye to landmark. Asarco smokestacks are demolished as part of effort to clean up and redevelop industrial site.
• Republicans are never happy; now they are upset that the President's labor-secretary nominee may have lied.
• Any surprise? Venezuela says Chavez successor wins vote. One more reason it would have been nice for the Keystone XL to be on-line by now.  Canadian heavy oil = Venezuelan heavy oil. One arrives by pipeline; one by ocean-going vessel. One comes from America's closest ally; one comes from .... well, from Venezuela.
• China GDP growth slows to 7.7%. Gonna be an ugly day on the market.
• Palestinian Prime Minister resigns just days after visiting with Sec State Lurch. The meeting must not have gone so well.
• Cash-strapped Egypt will spend $18 billion until 2017 to build new refineries and modify existing plants in a move to increase its annual fuel output -- now why else would a country build new refineries and modify existing plants if not to increase production?