Friday

Active rigs: 186

RBN Energy: the peculiar uses of isobutane -- what wind power cannot provide.

NGL volumes continue to climb because of all the surging “wet” shale gas production.  These days about 7% of gas plant NGL production is “isobutane”, (also known as IC4, I Grade, methylpropane, R600a, iso and “izo” to our friends in Canada).  Over the past two years gas plant production of iso is up about 25%, and that volume is expected to increase another 30% over the next two years.  Most isobutane is used by refineries to make high-octane alkylate, but what about the rest?  Today we take a closer look at this lesser known natural gas liquid (NGL) and the sometimes exotic uses it is put to.

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At 10:00 a.m. ET: TV crawler crude oil is trading above $100. All on demand. Dollar is strengthening, which usually results in oil dropping in price.

Where to live? Think taxes. First, this story: Bloomberg reports that east coast moguls have learned the best addresses are in South Dakota. Meanwhile, The New York Times is reporting that Florida will soon overtake New York in population. Incredibly the NYT article did not mention the word "taxes" except once and that was in terms of a proposal to entice new businesses with no tax commitments for ten years if they relocate in Florida. I wonder how many New Yorkers have "moved" to Florida, using their second home address as their residence for tax purposes. Minnesota has looked at this issue, too.

The Wall Street Journal

I was unaware of this bit of global warming. I guess it happened while I was traveling and visiting southern California. Apparently thousands are still without power after global warming ice storms hit the US from Michigan to the northeast. Although I always assumed this was where they expected cold weather this time of the year. Must be worse than usual.   

Power outages from ice storms that hit last week persist from Michigan to the Northeast as utility workers, often going street by street, work to fix downed lines.

Major utilities in Michigan on Thursday reported about 83,000 customers remained without electricity from a winter storm that hit Saturday, coating power lines with ice and snapping tree branches. Large-scale outages also continued in Maine and parts of Canada, including the provinces of Ontario and New Brunswick.

I read this article earlier this morning: it really doesn't shed any new light on the "UPS Christmas Even Snafu." Simply too many last minute packages and on-line retailers over-promised, and literally, under-delivered. I don't blame UPS.

All of a sudden natural gas inventories show a shift in market. It's all that global warming. I can't make this stuff up. Fortunately for the warmists, frackers came along just in time.

This is interesting: for Big Oil, asset-sale options shrink. This has to do with Europe's Big Oil, not the US.