Thursday, February 27, 2014

Thursday -- February 27, 2014; First Time Unemployment Claims Surge

Holy mackerel! How the mainstream media spins the jobless report: the report simply said it was a one-month high. I was surprised how high it jumped in one week, up 14,000, to 348,000. Due to the weather, my hunch the revised report will be even worse as late reports flow in. And then the boiler-plate spin:
We still have a fairly constructive view on the labor market,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy head of U.S. research and strategy at TD Securities USA LLC in New York, whose claims forecast of 345,000 matched the highest estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
“There have been some weather-related setbacks in hiring [global warming?], but as it warms up, you’re going to see much better performance in labor market activity.”
The median forecast of 53 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected 335,000. Estimates ranged from 325,000 to 345,000. The prior week’s claims were revised down to 334,000 from an initial reading of 336,000.
Active rigs in North Dakota:


2/27/201402/27/201302/27/201202/27/201102/27/2010
Active Rigs19318120516996


RBN Energy: the propane shortage of 2014 -- the rest of the story.
The recent propane shortage is being called a “crisis” and for good reason. But like so many “crises” there is more to the story than is generally known and in this case it’s worth a careful examination of the events involved.  Clearly it was a perfect storm in the balance of supply and demand, resulting in huge price spikes.  And the consequences included panic, headline news, government intervention and of course, lots of finger pointing.  Today we look at how the market responded and why the propane industry will once again be stronger for it.
Summary:
The “winter season” for propane officially ends March 31. That’s still a few weeks away so much can still happen.  But whatever challenges remain ahead of the propane industry this winter, we are confident that the community will continue pulling together and as a whole will be stronger in the future for having gone through this winter “crisis.”
Big thanks to some of those veteran propane experts who helped with this blog, like Harold Poland, Poland and Associates, LLC, who we like to refer to as the “Godfather of Propane.” Its folks like Harold who shaped the foundation of this great industry and we toast Harold and all of the others that have contributed to building the propane industry we have today!
 The Wall Street Journal

In a largely gridlocked Washington, spending on highways and other transportation infrastructure is emerging as a potential point of agreement. Plans to improve roads, bridges and tunnels received a boost from several quarters on Wednesday, as President Barack Obama laid out a proposal for infrastructure upgrades, paid for by unspecified changes to the tax code.

Tesla plans $5 billion battery factory: looking at sites in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

Target's profit fell 46% as the retailer took a hit from its holiday data breach and mounting losses from its push into Canada.

barnes & Noble swings to profit on cost-cutting.

Chesapeake energy swings to loss.
Excluding asset-sale write-downs and other items, adjusted fourth-quarter earnings rose to 27 cents a share from 26 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting Chesapeake to report a per-share profit of 41 cents excluding items. Revenue increased 28% to $4.54 billion. The company has struggled to reduce its spending while boosting oil and natural-gas production. Chesapeake said its average daily output rose 2% during the fourth quarter over a year earlier, but the prices the company were paid for its oil, gas and other liquids were lower than analysts were expecting. Chesapeake's average natural-gas price in the quarter was just $1.90 per thousand cubic feet, down 8% from a year earlier and 27% less than analysts were expecting.
Investors getting back into solar. Solar stocks are not for the faint of heart. Price swings in the sector are often dizzying.

The Los Angeles Times

Congress is considering renaming a Yosemite peak for Jessie Benton Fremont, wife of John C. Fremont and once "the most famous woman in Los Angeles." But the National Park Service is opposed.
The measure, a tribute to Jessie Benton Fremont's efforts to preserve the land that would become the park, comes on this year's 150th anniversary of President Lincoln signing the bill granting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove, a stand of some of the world's largest trees, to the state of California as a public trust. Yosemite became a national park in 1890.
Mammoth Peak, not to be confused with the popular ski attraction Mammoth Mountain, would be renamed under the legislation.

2 comments:

  1. we recently noticed arig on my wifes family land on the reservation 2/12/2014.it was on there for 12 days now we don't see it there any more.it was on section 8 t148 r93 can you explain the process on how this works? , if you can.

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    Replies
    1. I assume you are talking about the NDIC GSI map.

      It's my understanding that the "green rig" means this is an active rig drilling the well. Once the well is drilled to depth the rig is moved, and at some later date the well is fracked. The wells can remain on "confidential" status for six months; if the well is not fracked/completed/tested at the end of the confidential period, it will go to DRL ("drill") status even though it has been drilled to depth; it is just waiting to be fracked. But again, the four wells in 8-148-93 are all on confidential list.

      Twelve days is very, very fast, but it is possible that a smaller rig drilled the upper portion, and then was taken off and the well was drilled to depth with a bigger rig. It is possible for the big rig to get to total depth in 12 days but that seems awful fast. There are two producing wells in 8-148-93 but they were drilled awhile ago. There are two new 2-well pads; these four wells are on the confidential list and I cannot find anything about them, until they come off the confidential list.

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