Thursday, February 13, 2014 -- LSS Changes Everything -- RBN Energy

Active rigs:

	2/13/2014	02/13/2013	02/13/2012	02/13/2011	02/13/2010
Active Rigs	189	183	205	165	92

RBN Energy: WTI, Brent, and LSS pricing.

The Brent/WTI spread can no longer be looked at in isolation because comparisons to LLS are now central to the relationship between US crude supply/demand and the international market. The key dynamic for 2014 revolves around how much pressure Gulf Coast prices for LLS come under from rising inventories and new flows from Cushing. We may yet see the LLS premium to WTI flip to a discount. In the meantime Brent prices are dancing to their own tune although the backwardation in the futures prices suggests the world market believes current crude supplies are more than adequate to meet demand.

Bottom line: RBN Energy expects WTI to trend down over the next few years unless the US allows oil to be exported -- and that is not going to happen, not to the extent producers are hoping.

This is an RBN Energy post one should read.

Yes, LSS has changed everything. Sort of like, money changes everything:

Money Changes Everything, Cyndi Lauper

The Wall Street Journal

Very first story: health options limited for many. What an ObamaCare disaster. But at least Michelle had a nice dress when Mr Hollande came to visit. "Let them eat cake."

Comcast acquiring Time Warner Cable in all-stock deal. That's a pretty good deal -- no cash. 

Winter storm knocks out power for thousands.

Wind taken out of the sails of the NY Times: GOP approves debt limit "thingie."

And then this: the Senate votes to roll back military pension cuts.

Trainwreck: some 3.3 million people signed up for health coverage via insurance exchanges through January, but enrollment from young Americans remained tepid, new Obama adminstration figures showed. So: a) not enough healthy folks enrolling; b) the plan needed 7 million (minimum) and they are barely at 3 million; and, c) the word on the street is that ObamaCare will be delayed thorugh 2016, and maybe longer. D.E.A.D.

Toyota recalls 1.9 million Priss hybrids for software/electrical glitch.

Deere earnings grow on boost in equipment sales.

The Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles may be on the hook for $26-million legal payout:

L.A. officials wanted to make absolutely sure the city's trash truck drivers would not get caught sleeping in their trucks — a sight sure to enrage taxpayers or possibly attract a TV news camera.

So they laid down a set of break time rules prohibiting naps and placing other restrictions on where and how drivers could have lunch.

Now, that effort to avoid offending delicate public sensibilities has the city facing a $26-million legal payout, most of it for more than 1,000 trash truck drivers who said they were improperly barred from catching a few winks during their 30-minute meal breaks.
The City Council, meeting behind closed doors, moved ahead Wednesday with the payout, designed to end an 8-year-old class-action lawsuit. The drivers would receive an average of $15,000 each in back pay, according to Matthew Taylor, their attorney. He argued that they effectively were required to remain “on duty”— but not paid — during nine years of meal breaks.

Taylor said the no-napping rule created dangers on the road involving heavy city garbage rigs.

“It's a hazard to the public if you have commercial truck drivers who are fatigued and are not allowed to take a nap during their breaks,” he said.

In addition to banning naps, the Bureau of Sanitation also prohibited drivers from congregating in large groups or traveling to locations away from their pickup routes during lunch breaks. Those rules were abandoned last summer.

City lawyers warned council members that they might have to pay as much as $40 million if the court battle over the drivers' work rules continued. A Superior Court judge and a state appeals court panel have already sided with the drivers.

I'm with the drivers on this one.