Thursday -- Tuscaloosa Marine Shale -- A New Bakken? Still The Gold Standard

Active rigs: 181

RBN Energy: Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Trying say that seven times fast. (Regular readers, I'm sure, remember that I first posted on the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale back on August 13, 2013.)

With the crude to natural gas price ratio (crude in $/Bbl divided by gas in $/MMbtu) continuing in historically high territory many energy companies are looking for more opportunities to shift from producing cheap gas to producing premium-price oil. For that reason, one tight-oil play long in the background—the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in central Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi—is attracting new attention; particularly from drillers who think they’ve figured out how to deal with TMS’s challenging characteristics. But is TMS all its fracked up to be? Today we begin a new series on TMS with a primer on this 6.6 million-acre shale play that’s said to have seven billion barrels of oil in place deep below ground but only a stone’s throw from the pipeline networks and refineries of the Gulf Coast.

The current set of players in TMS—the pioneers assembling leased acres, seeking permits, tweaking completion formulas, and generally working on the science—include EnCana, Goodrich Petroleum, Sanchez Energy, and EOG Resources. EnCana and Goodrich, for example, each have more than 300,000 acres in TMS under lease. Goodrich and Sanchez in recent months have been expanding their holdings significantly, Goodrich through the July 2013 purchase of Devon Energy’s two-thirds share of about 277,000 TMS acres, and Sanchez through its August purchase of about 40,000 acres in the play.

The Wall Street Journal

 Top story, page 1: Worried, Democratic Senators turning on Obama over ObamaCare.
Democratic senators took their complaints about the troubled launch of the federal health law directly to the White House, as some in the party warned they would face voter backlash next year if the problems weren't fixed. I don't think they have to worry; 47% will vote for Mr O'Bama's supporters no matter what.

ObamaCare: another exemption. The Obama administration plans to exempt some labor unions and businesses from paying part of a contentious reinsurance fee under the health-overhaul law, but many unions and companies say they wouldn't benefit. I find it interesting how the president can unilaterally pick and choose which parts of the plan he wants to keep. Even better than than the one-line veto President Reagan wanted.

The ObamaCare exchange site needs "hundreds of fixes" according to Ms Sebelius. Something tells me "a couple of hundred" -- her exact words -- are a bit off the mark (sort of depends whether one is a lumper or a splitter, I suppose. The clock is ticking. The website is supposed to be flawless by midnight, November 1, 2013. Another line in the sand, no doubt.

Of note: Energy companies in Colorado are girding for a statewide battle over fracking next year after voters in three communities passed bans on hydraulic fracturing.

Here we go again. Another SecState runs out of things to do, I guess. John Kerry tries to rekindles Israel-Palestinian talks. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry devoted a day of shuttle diplomacy between Israelis and Palestinians in an effort to defuse a crisis in peace talks exacerbated by recent Israeli plans to expand settlements in disputed territory. Better him than me. And to think he could be surfing off Hawaiian coasts.

And no headline story on Syria in today's front page, on-line edition of the WSJ.

Most US blockbuster stores will close. 

Chesapeake's plans concern investors. Chesapeake Energy said oil out from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas would be lower this quarter, spurring concern among investors.

This is a good question: Why did the country's mortgage delinquency rate rise so slowly even as unemployment soared above 26%? I've wondered the same thing for years. Finally, the answer:

A big part of the answer—revealed by a spate of bank earnings reports in recent days—is that Spanish lenders had been making their loan books look healthier than they really were by refinancing big numbers of loans to struggling homeowners and businesses.

The lower interest rates and easier terms of refinancing helped hundreds of thousands of Spaniards like Juan Carlos Díaz, who stopped making mortgage payments more than a year ago, remain in their homes and keep their businesses afloat longer than otherwise would have been possible. It has also helped banks bury a growing risk in their credit portfolios and avoid recognizing losses on debts they are unlikely to recover.