For Investors Only -- A Nice Review Of The Majors Over Past Few Months; Other News

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here. 

Yahoo!Finance/CNBC is reporting:

The movement in the price for Brent crude is somewhat different from the rise in the price of WTI. In mid-April, the spot price for Brent crude was around $97 a barrel, and it now stands at about $113 a barrel, a rise of about 16%. That change is much more in line with the best performers among the big oil companies.

The big gainers, both around 16%, are ConocoPhillips and France’s Total S.A. Chevron Corp. is up about 3.5%, BP PLC is up about 1.5% and Exxon Mobil Corp. is down about 1%. Because Brent crude has replaced WTI as the global benchmark, a gain of 16% to match the price hike in Brent crude is about as good as it gets.

Chevron and Transocean will settle with Brazil. Chevron is up about one percent. 

At Barclay's CEO-Energy conference, PSX said it would increase dividend in 2013. The company currently pays 2.2% and is currently trading up about 1.5%.

Chesapeake layoffs rattling employees:

The Oklahoma City television station K-FOR-TV reports that sources say as many as 2,000 jobs may be cut. Chesapeake has about 12,000 employees.

This week's layoffs occurred in the creative department and corporate development, according to a person at the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The person also said that there were layoffs in the government relations department two weeks ago.

Lawler's email hinted that there may be more layoffs to come.

The natural gas export industry will surge:

The development of the U.S. natgas export market is still in its infancy, and the idea of shipping stocks abroad remains a very touchy domestic issue. Still, Dominion's export terminal is seen by observers as the latest signpost on the ever-winding road to U.S. energy independence.

The move is more symbolic than substantive at this point—Dominion's export limit is a modest slice of U.S. production, which is expected to top 65 billion cf/d by January. Yet analysts say the facility, as well as the tentative embrace of natural gas broadly by U.S. officials, is clearly a harbinger of things to come.

The size of the deal was not as important as the short interval between this export license approval and the previous license approval. Once bureaucrats get a template for approval in place, things can move quickly. I recently renewed my passport. Because I was in no hurry to get it back, I did not pay extra for expedited processing. I got my new passport (and first passport card) in about two weeks turnaround time. I was quite impressed. Again, once a bureaucratic process is in place to get things done, things can move very quickly in the US.

Again, for investors, and this is a nice "case study" in "real time": shorting HK. An analysis by Forbes. Again, in case you missed it at the top, this is not an investment site. Do do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.