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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Wells Coming Off Confidential List On Wednesday; Oasis Reports Two Huge Wells; 2/8 To DRL Status; XTO With Two Huge Wells

The wells:
  • 23318, 935, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22HX, Van Hook, Three Forks, t11/13; cum 387K 8/21; cum 410K 6/22;
  • 23412, AB/IA/2,074, XTO, Hegg 21-29SEH, Siverston, UPPER Three Forks, 78 hours to KOP; curve in 12.8 hours; lateral in 8 days; > 2,500 units gas; t7/13; cum 184K 3/20; off line 11/20; cum 192K 11/20;
  • 24037, 1,868, XTO, FBIR Darcie 34X-14H, Heart Butte, Three Forks; 30 stages; 3.2 million lbs; highest gas shows at 3,300 units; t6/13; cum 179K 3/20; cum 199K 8/21; cum 204K 6/22;
  • 24079, 3,581, Oasis, Anonsen 5393 14-3B, Sanish, a nice well; t3/13; cum 392K 3/20; cum 418K 8/21; cum 436k 6/22;
  • 24080, 2,627 Oasis, Flavin 5393 14-3T, Sanish, a nice well, t3/13; cum 265K 3/20; cum 271K 7/21; off line 8/21; recently off line; back on line; cum 272K 6/22;
  • 24196, 2,251 Whiting/KOG, P Evans 154-99-2-4-9-15H3, Stockyard Creek, Three Forks; t8/13; cum 223K 3/20; cum 234K 8/21; cum 241K 5/22;
  • 24656, 882, Oasis/SM Energy, Hartel 1-26HB, Siverston, no production data, on a 3-well pad, first to be drilled; middle Bakken, background gas in 1,800 range; t8/13; cum 371K 3/20; off line as of 3/19; remains off line 5/19; back on line as of 6/19; cum 438K 8/21; cum 462K 6/22;
  • 24969, TA/103, American Eagle, Karen 3-2N-163-101, Colgan, Three Forks, 35 stages; 2.7 million lbs (all sand); producing, t5/13; cum 18K 3/15;

 ********************************
 The Adam Good Bear Wells

The wells:
  • 19515, IA/826, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22H, Van Hook, t8/11; cum 467K 3/20; recently off line; now back on line, cum 469K 6/22;
  • 23317, 1,105, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22HW, Van Hook, t11/13; cum 454K 3/20; cum 482K 8/21; cum 496K 6/22;
  • 23318, 935, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22HX, Three Forks, Van Hook, t11/13; cum 347K 3/20; cum 387K 8/21; cum 410K 6/22;
  • 24461, 2,254, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22HC, Van Hook, Van Hook, t8/13; cum 369K 3/20; 398K 8/21; cum 410K 6/22;
  • 24462, 1,960, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22HY, Van Hook, t9/13; cum 307K 3/20; cum 330K 8/21; cum 340K 6/22;
  • 24463, A, WPX, Adam Good Bear 15-22HD, Van Hook, t--; cum 348K 3/20; cum 376K 8/21; cum 390K 6/22;
 ********************************

Early production
:
  • 24079, see above, Oasis, Anonsen 5393 14-3B, Sanish, a nice well:

DateOil RunsMCF Sold
6-2013132387208
5-2013134403772
4-2013183207182
3-20132561716
  •   24080, see above, Oasis, Flavin 5393 14-3T, Sanish, a nice well:
DateOil RunsMCF Sold
6-20131109610920
5-20131253113059
4-2013202248713
3-2013218891

Eleven (11) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; Abraxas Has A Nice Well; KOG Has A High-IP Well

Active rigs: 185 (trending up)

Eleven (11) new permits --
  • Operators: CLR (4), Triangle (3), QEP (2), Petro-Hunt, SM Energy
  • Fields: Ambrose (Divide), Rawson (McKenzie), North Tioga (Burke), Grail (McKenzie), Dollar Joe (Williams)
  • Comments:
Wells coming off the confidential list included a monster well; they were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

Seven (7) producing wells completed:
  • 22662, 1,369, Sinclair, Harris Federal 1-29H, Lone Butte, t6/13; cum 2K 6/13;
  • 23281, 411, CLR, Krehlik 1-11H, Billings, Barta, t7/13; cum --
  • 23625, 1,275, Abraxas, Lillibridge 20-17-4H, Pershing, t8/13; cum --
  • 24005, 634, CLR, Columbia 4-5H, Dollar Joe, t9/13; cum --
  • 24606, 2,118, KOG, P Wood 154-98-4-27-34-13HA, Truax, t7/13; cum --
  • 24762, 567, True, True Federal 21-3-3-10H, Bowline, t8/13; cum --
  • 25255, 1,926, Liberty Resources, Cavalli State 156-100-9-4-11TFH, East Fork, t7/13; cum --
The Barta oil field is located northwest of Dickinson; it's near Whiting's Pronghorn Prospect.

In addition, sixteen (16) more wells were reported as plugged or producing. We will see those results soon. 

49 Stages And 10 Million Pounds Of Sand Later: A Monster Well For EOG

24281, 1,833, EOG, Parshall 32-0225H, Parshall, middle Bakken, spectacular well; 137K in less than 4 months; 1920-acre spacing.

How did they do it? With 49 stages and 10,178,260 pounds of proppant and it looks like it was all sand.

With a total depth of 19,574 feet, this is not a particularly long horizontal -- about average for a "long horizontal" in the Bakken. 

For newbies: a long, long time ago, we discussed 60-stage fracks in the Bakken. "They" say they have the technology but to the best of my knowledge we have not seen a 60-stage frack in the Bakken,but I would love to corrected on that.

Mike Filloon has talked about the new completion strategies EOG is using. 

A rail hopper can carry up to 110 tons? 110 x 2,000 = 220,000 lbs.
10,000,000 / 220,000 = 45 hoppers. A mile-long train, I guess, is about 100 railroad cars. I could be way off on these figures. Just what I find on the net. I know as much about the railroad as I know about .... but if the figures are close, EOG can frack two wells with the sand they carry in a 110-car unit train.

Even The New York Times Is Starting To See Hypocrisy In The Green Movement

First it was the expose on the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Foundation. Now it's the story on the self-righteousness of Portland, Oregon. It almost seems that The New York Times is starting to see the importance of being a bit more fair and balanced.

At one time, these stories bothered me a lot -- stories about the environmental activists shutting down ports that ship coal -- but they bother me less every day, now that I know the five biggest coal-exporting ports are on the East Coast and on the Gulf of Mexico. If the northwest wants to close its ports, it will hardly be a ripple outside the region. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will be more than happy to pick up the slack.

But I digress.

The big story here is that even The New York Times sees the hypocrisy of the activist environmentalists in the Northwest. Good for The Times.

The story:
Now, plans by the energy industry to move increasing amounts of coal and oil through the region by rail, bound for Asia, are pulling at all the threads of that self-portrait.
Last September, the first trains of crude oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota began chugging through. Since then, energy companies have drafted proposals for new storage, handling and shipment capability almost equivalent to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which is facing a deeply uncertain path of federal regulatory approval.
Mile-long trains from the coal mines of Wyoming already run daily, and the load could more than double if three big proposed export terminals gain approval and financing.
The expected outrage has ensued.
The proposals “do violence to many Northwesterners’ concept of their place and what it stands for,” Alan Durning, the founder and executive director of the Sightline Institute, an environmental research group in Seattle, said in an e-mail.
Environmental groups led by the Sierra Club have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the BNSF Railway, which dominates the freight system, of violating the federal Clean Water Act by letting coal spill into waterways from its tracks. The State of Washington, in assessing the permit application of a proposed coal terminal near Bellingham, said in July that it would take a macro-environmental approach, looking at impacts of the project along the entire length of the coal transit route, including the burning of the coal in China.
But with the promise of jobs, the effort is moving ahead. The biggest oil shipment project yet proposed, which would be able to process about 360,000 barrels a day, was given an initial lease approval by the Port of Vancouver, Wash. The reality of the Northwest’s environmental image has always been more nuanced than the stereotype suggests.
Huge dams on the Columbia River make Washington and Oregon Nos. 1 and 2 in the nation in renewable hydroelectricity. But the cheap electricity from those dams fostered an aerospace industry that is hardly carbon neutral. A multistate planning compact made the region a national leader in energy efficiency. But Washington’s big oil refineries can pump out more old-fashioned gasoline than all but a handful of other states. 
More at the link. 

By the way, the only region mile-long oil trains are on the tracks is because the activist environmentalists have convinced "someone" pipelines are dangerous to the environment. LOL.

Crude Oil Inventories: Snapshot

I don't really care for these snapshots. Because that's all they are -- simply snapshots.

But I am ready to sign off for the day and want to leave an "oil story" at the top of the blog.

Market Realist is reporting:
On August 14, the DOE reported a decrease in crude oil inventories of 2.8 million barrels. In contrast, analysts actually expected a crude oil inventory draw of 1.5 million barrels. The larger-than-expected decrease in inventories was a positive signal for oil prices.
But:
... crude inventories had been much higher than where they were in the past five years at the same point in the year (though they’ve recently closed in under comparable 2012 levels). There’s been a surge in U.S. crude oil production over the past several years. Inventories had accrued because much of the excess refinery and takeaway capacity soaked up, and it took time and capital for more to come online. This caused the spread between WTI Cushing (the benchmark U.S. crude, which represents light sweet crude priced at the storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma) and Brent crude (the benchmark international crude, which represents light sweet crude priced in the North Sea) to blow out. However, over the course of 2013, this has closed in considerably, so that the two benchmarks trade almost in line again.
Most of this is already known by regular readers.

Thank you. By they way, my page views have gone over the 5-million mark. I lost interest in the number of page views when I lost viewers due to a hacker, but the blog is gradually coming back. 

Good luck to everyone.

Here We Go...Timing Is Incredible...In Fact, We Do Pick Sides

Updates

August 21, 2013: the dots are starting to connect -- blood is thicker than water.  If the link breaks, search Obama brother Muslim Brotherhood. If true, this could make a very, very interesting book. The tale of two brothers who separate, seek fame and fortune, succeed beyond their wildest dreams, and converge in late life.

But the story appears to be even bigger and messier:
WND reported in May that funds contributed in the U.S. to a 501(c)3 foundation run by Malik Obama have been diverted to support Malik’s multiple wives in Kenya, an expert on Islamic extremism has charged.
Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS tax-exempt division currently under congressional investigation, signed the letter approving tax-exempt status for the Malik Obama’s Barack H. Obama Foundation.

Lerner, currently on paid executive leave from her IRS supervisory position, took the Fifth Amendment before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on May 22 rather than answer questions on inappropriate criteria used by her IRS department to delay or otherwise deny tax-exempt status for tea party and “patriot” groups.
Talk about the dots starting to connect.
Original Post

A few minutes ago I pretty much completed my updates for the morning, at which time I posted this:
I predict that Obama will decide to withhold military aid to Egypt (he supports the Muslim Brotherhood as a community organizer) and Saudi will step in to fill the void.
Following that, I went to Drudge for the first time today, only to see this Fox News article:
Adding to the confusion over its Egypt policy, the Obama administration reportedly has decided to suspend aid to the military-backed government on a temporary basis -- despite avoiding taking a public position on the matter. 
The Daily Beast reports that, according to a U.S. senator and unnamed administration officials, the administration has temporarily suspended most of the $1.3 billion in military aid, as well as the delivery of weapons and economic aid amid a review of the financial support. 
The administration is openly disputing the report. But, if true, the move would be a step beyond what the administration acknowledges publicly. To date, officials have said that aid is merely under review, and that they would not make a determination on whether the ouster of ex-President Mohammed Morsi qualifies as a coup -- because such a finding would, under U.S. law, require the administration to cut off aid. 
Absolutely predictable:
  • President O'bama is an unabashed community organizer
  • deposed Egyptian Morsi is one of the world's best community organizers
This is not rocket science.

It is very, very clear who President O'Bama supports. As long as the Muslim Brotherhood was in power, the official White House line was "we do not choose sides" when asked if US aid would continue to flow to Egypt.

But when the tide changes, when the Muslim Brotherhood is losing, the White House clearly picks sides.

So,  how much money are we talking here? From Swampland:
Since President Obama scrapped the U.S. military’s role in September’s Bright Star joint training exercise with the Egyptian military last Thursday because of the government’s killing of close to 1,000 protesters, attention has shifted to his refusal to cut off the $1.3 billion in military aid Washington gives to Cairo each year.
We’re not talking pocket change here. A June congressional assessment suggested that “U.S. military aid covers as much as 80% of the Defense Ministry’s weapons procurement costs.”
Sure, $1.3 billion is 80% of Egypt's military procurement costs, but that's just procurement, and Saudi can easily -- easily -- make up the $1.3 billion shortfall. It sounds like Europe has come to its sense and will support the Egyptian military but won't provide direct financial aid because, for the moment, it's not politically correct.

For Investors Only

Last week, the Enercom conference, the best oil and gas conference of the year.

As usual, I couldn't keep up and unlike past years, I did not even try.

Good decision.

Raymond James did all the hard work and came up with their top investing picks after digesting all the news from the conference.

At least one name below is one of Don's favorite companies. Two of my favorite companies made the list.

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

The Raymond James picks:
  • Anadarko Petroleum ... is adding rigs in the Permian basin, bringing the program total to eight, and is particularly excited about recent results in the Wolfcamp section of the basin. The company’s biggest asset is in the Wattenberg field, DJ Basin, and there are 4,000 locations remaining in Anadarko’s inventory there. 
  • BPZ Resources ... may be a small cap investor's dream stock to buy. Its first well drilled in the Corvina field since 2010 was spudded in late July and likely will take about 12 weeks.
  • Cabot Oil & Gas ... focuses on the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, with approximately 200,000 net acres in the dry gas window of the play; the Eagle Ford in south Texas, with approximately 60,000 net acres in the oil window of the play; and the Marmaton oil play in Oklahoma, with approximately 70,000 net acres in the play.
  • Concho Resources ... CEO Tim Leach was enthusiastic about Concho’s recent growth in the Delaware Basin, which grew 37% quarter over quarter. 
  • Denbury Resources ... the possibility of the company forming an upstream master limited partnership (MLP) and potential tax consequences revolving around that structure and future drop-downs.
  • Energy XXI ...  hinted at its presentation that management is looking for opportunities to monetize its ultra-deep and conventional gas exploration assets.
  • Oasis Petroleum ... currently has 14 years of drilling in the Bakken shale in North Dakota. Eighty-seven percent of the company’s acreage is held-by-production, with the rest expiring in 2014, 2015 and 2016. 
  • QR Energy ... after a recent acquisition is now one of the largest producers (2,300 barrels per day) in the historic East Texas oil field.
  • Whiting Petroleum ... a 1,000 barrel per day test in Missouri Breaks driven by the new completion formula it had recently discussed on its second-quarter earnings conference call

Delaware Basin

I track the Permian here. Much more information on the Delaware is at the Permian link than on this page.

Part of the Permian Basin. The Delaware Basin is one of three basins that make up the Permian.

Delaware Basin:
  • Wolfcamp
  • Bone Spring
  • Red Hills 
Midland Basin:
  • Trend Area-Sprayberry
Marfa Basin

Nice map: Mike Filloon the Permian Basin.

Updates


April 23, 2017: update on EOG's huge wells in Loving County, Texas. Filloon at Seeking Alpha

January 17, 2017: Noble increases footprint in the Southern Delaware Basin (Permian); $38,000 / acre. 

January 13, 2017: WPX acquires more acreage in the Permian, $43,000  / acre

January 10, 2017: update on Permian valuation, Midland, Southern Delaware = $26,000 / acre.

December 14, 2016: new operator to pay about $40,000 / acre in the Permian (Wolfcamp, Bone Spring). 

December 14, 2016: one of the few plays in which the proved reserves increased in 2015 -- Wolfcamp and Bone Spring. 

November 21, 2016: Concho adds more acreage in the Red Hills play, northern Delaware. 

October 20, 2016: RSP Permian's Silver Hill acquisition, Filloon update.

June 21, 2016: update on the Permian, Forbes
 
May 11, 2016: Cool story on the Permian.

July 13, 2014: Rigzone update on the Permian; an important article.

April 3, 2015: Bone Spring play in the Delaware Basin could be huge for EOG.

April 5, 2015: EOG's Leonard play in the Delaware Basin

Bakken Production Increased 1.25% June Over May; Texas Eagle Ford Decreased Almost 4.5% Same Time Period

Rigzone is reporting:
Oil production from the Eagle Ford shale fields in South Texas rose to just above 621,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June, according to preliminary data released by the Texas Railroad Commission on Monday.
The field's oil output was 60.2 percent higher than a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations.
However, June production was down 4.47 percent from May's more than 650,000 bpd, the TRRC data showed.
There was no reason given why Eagle Ford June production decreased, though it did say figures could be revised.

Michigan Manufacturing: The New Normal?

Market Watch is reporting:
Base pay for new hires at Axle in Three Rivers is $10.50 per hour, half the going rate of 10 years ago. Workers get health care but must contribute to it. They have access to a 401(k) retirement plan. Benefits and the promise of incremental pay increases may explain the huge turnout at a company job fair on Aug. 10, which American Axle says yielded 250 qualified applicants.
Despite Michigan becoming a right-to-work state last year, new American Axle employees must join the United Auto Workers, whose contract with the company runs until September 2017. Company spokesman Chris Son describes relations with the UAW as good. He says the lower cost structure allows American Axle to be competitive in the globalized auto-parts industry.
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, a leader in the drive to roll back union power in Michigan, says employment gains over the past year, “make Michigan the come-back state.” That may be. But George Erickcek, an analyst at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, says a legacy of the great recession is lower wages and slow job growth. 
There are a dozen story lines in this article. Maybe I will have time to come back to this later.

Enbridge Officially Starts The Sandpiper Pipeline Project At The North Dakota Terminus

The Minot Daily News is reporting:
 [Enbridge announces] .... completion of its Bakken Pipeline Expansion Project and Berthold Rail Facility, along with starting its new Sandpiper Pipeline Project...
So, three stories there:
  • Bakken Pipeline Expansion Project completed;
  • Berthold Rail Facility completed; and,
  • ribbon-cutting for starting the Enbridge Sandpiper Pipeline Project
I follow pipelines of interest here, of which, the Sandpiper is one, and it's a huge one. The company is still working details in Minnesota.

Tuesday Morning News, Views, And Links; CBR Keeps Rolling -- Killing The Keystone (The Gift That Keeps On Giving); At The End Of The Day, The President Supports Morsi, A Fellow Community Organizer, And The Muslim Brotherhood

Active rigs: 183

Wells coming off the confidential list have been posted. EOG has another monster well in Parshall field: 137,000 bbls in less than four months. Remember when we considered a good well to be 100,000 bbls in the first twelve months? Lynn Helms said there would be some spectacular IPs this summer.

In addition, Whiting has some very nice wells on the far western side of the state, along the Montana border, an area not generally considered to be so go, but these are some nice wells in Sioux, Harding, and Estes oil fields.

RBN Energy: another great analysis; this time more on the CBR activities in western Canada --
At least 5 large-scale rail terminals are being planned or constructed in the heavy oil sands region of Western Canada to increase the volume shipped to the US by rail from about 100 Mb/d this year to more than 550 Mb/d by 2015.
When we added up the likely demand for transport capacity and compared that against the supply of pipeline + rail capacity, we concluded that there would be more than enough capacity available.  Thus if you assume that pipeline transportation is cheaper than rail, it implies that the  rail capacity is not needed if and when pipeline projects on the drawing board are completed.  But is that accurate?  
With regard to RBN Energy's analysis of CBR_Canada, look at this Reuters article that Don just sent me: CBR_US pioneer "moving" to Canada
Instead, USD is shifting its attention away from the best-known U.S. shale oil plays toward Canada, announcing plans two weeks ago to help build what might be the biggest oil-by-rail terminal to serve the northern oil sands patch.
And although USD has now sold off 10 of the 14 terminals it built over the past decade or so, it has several other irons in the fire such as an offloading terminal in Washington state, inland facilities in Ohio or Alabama and possibly a Texas coast terminal.
Additional background to USD can be found here.

For the archives: comparing the cost of charging an iPhone and the cost of running a refrigerator (on an annual basis) and the carbon footprint of each. MarketWatch is reporting. The article has a lot of facts and figures. But they miss the most important statistics. Read the article; see if you can find which statistic they do not mention -- at least I did not see it.

Huge Enbridge pipeline story here: three stories in fact.

This pretty much seals it: the future of the Keystone XL. 
The Interior Department has warned that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline could have long-term, damaging effects on wildlife near its route, contradicting the State Department's March draft environmental assessment, which concluded the project would have only a temporary, indirect impact.
In a 12-page letter sent as part of the public comment on the draft assessment, the Interior Department repeatedly labels as inaccurate its sister agency's conclusions that Keystone XL would have short-lived effects on wildlife and only during the project's construction.
"Given that the project includes not only constructing a pipeline but also related infrastructure, access roads, and power lines and substations, impacts to wildlife are not just related to project construction. Impacts to wildlife from this infrastructure will occur throughout the life of the project (i.e. operation and maintenance phases)," the letter says.
This is a non-issue. We've learned two things: a) with rail and all the new pipeline, there is more than adequate takeaway; and, b) forget new pipeline routing; use existing rights-of-way. This is not rocket science and nothing to be concerned about. If you look at the map, all TransCanada has to do is increase the capacity of the Keystone, which they should have done in the first place. 

It looks like Libya is still struggling to decide whether it wants to stay in the oil export business. Bloomberg is reporting:
Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp. declared a force majeure on crude and refined product exports from [several of] the country’s ports, ...
“The above mentioned sea port terminals are closed due to Oil Security Guards who are on strike at these locations since the end of July 2013, ...
.... the force majeure, a legal clause that excuses the seller from making deliveries because of events beyond its control. Libya is currently exporting about 500,000 barrels a day, using [other ports] ...
Brent crude prices may rise to $115 a barrel in the “very near term,” Goldman said in a report earlier today, raising its three-month price forecast for the benchmark grade to $110.
Considering Brent is $109.25 today, a forecast to $110 is hardly newsworthy. In fact, Brent oil is trending down today. I think folks have factored in Libya and Iran for quite some time now. The only news in this story is the announcement of the force majeure but that shouldn't affect the price of oil all that much.

Bloomberg is reporting: more problems for Japan -- another leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant --
Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported another breach of the defenses it has built at the Fukushima nuclear plant in its more than two-year struggle to stop leaks of radioactive water into the soil and sea.

Just weeks after the utility backtracked from earlier statements and acknowledged radiated water was flowing into the Pacific Ocean at a rate of 300 tons a day, it has found another leak from a storage tank.
Prime Minster Shinzo Abe weighed in on the disaster response this month, signaling that Tokyo Electric alone isn’t up to the task. The government has yet to say what other measures it’s considering to contain the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, including bringing in foreign expertise.
Sort of makes the concerns by the Secretary of the Interior regarding the Keystone XL pale in comparison. 

WSJ Links

Heard on the street: E&P investors fear the oil party hangover; oil-company stocks disconnect from the crude price --
Near-month crude-oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange have rallied almost 17% since the start of June. Goldman Sachs added fuel to the fire Monday by raising its Brent forecasts for this year. For much of the summer—indeed, most of the year—stocks of exploration-and-production companies have done even better than oil prices.
But even as oil prices have held up this month, E&P stocks have been drifting lower; shares of Exxon Mobil and Chevron have seen even sharper falls.
The reason? Exuberant oil prices, like exuberant partyers, ultimately foster their own downfall.
Estimates for the level at which oil prices start causing people to curb consumption—"demand destruction" in industry parlance—necessarily mix art with science. Doug Terreson at ISI Group puts it at about $125 a barrel for Brent, about 13% above the current price.
This is what I've been saying for quite some time: how long these high prices have been sustained --
But demand could fall back well before oil prices hit that level. While Brent is still below 2008's all-time peak north of $145, things look different when you look at 12-month average prices. These matter because it is sustained oil-price strength, rather than just a brief spike, that drains consumers' wallets.
Rolling average Brent prices first peaked in October 2008, but they have been sustainably above that level since the fall of 2011. Priced in other currencies, Brent averages look even more expensive. In euros, they are a fifth higher than in October 2008. In Indian rupees, the rolling average is now more than one-third higher.
 US manufacturing: Cummins to provide diesel engines for Nissan's Titan pickup trucks. Huge.

Front page, headline story: "allies thwart America on Egypt" --
The U.S.'s closest Middle East allies are undercutting American policy in Egypt, encouraging the military to confront the Muslim Brotherhood rather than reconcile, U.S. and Arab officials said.
The administration's support for the Muslim Brotherhood should not come as any surprise. The stories, however, coming out of the EU seem to be changing and confusing. Yesterday, the headline story said the EU wanted the military to stop the shooting.
The Obama administration first had sought to persuade Egyptian military leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi not to overthrow the elected government of President Mohammed Morsi and then to reconcile with his Muslim Brotherhood base.
Gen. Sisi has done the opposite—orchestrating the president's overthrow and a crackdown in which over 900 people have been killed since Wednesday—reflecting his apparent confidence in the Egyptian government's ability to weather an American backlash, U.S. and Arab officials said.
I guess this would have been like Abraham Lincoln asking US Grant/WT Sherman to stop their actions in the south and reconcile with General Robert E. Lee.

And later in today's edition: Egypt clash leaves Obama little middle ground; US has little role to play in epic struggle between those backing secular and Islamic rule. 
Why is the Obama administration having so much trouble finding middle ground in the Egyptian crisis?
Simple: Egypt has become the leading edge in an epic struggle now under way across the Middle East. This struggle isn't between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. It's between those who want secular governments and those who want Islamic governments, and this may be a defining moment.
The lines between these two camps have been drawn in the streets of Cairo, and they are hardening. That's why the search for some artful position in the center is so difficult. The middle ground is fast washing away.
This is the backdrop for the rapidly emerging debate in Washington over whether to continue U.S. aid to Egypt while its military leaders fiercely crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood.
I predict that Obama will decide to withhold military aid to Egypt (he supports the Muslim Brotherhood as a community organizer) and Saudi will step in to fill the void.

Update on Detroit. I could care less, or maybe I couldn't care less (the idiom is confusing) but I track Detroit here, so I feel compelled to link this story. It will be interesting to see how the court rules. To say the least.