Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Idle Chatter -- WTI Pricing; Amtrak Changes Its Schedule For The Bakken To Compensate For Crude Oil Derailments

I'm not going to provide the link (I think I linked it in an earlier post) but yesterday I was sent a link to a CNBC video with a talking head suggesting oil could go to $75 over the next five years.

Today, a talking head over at Yahoo suggests oil could surge to $150 this year. He even sees a $200-scenario.

I'll go on record here, based on RBN Energy posting this past year and futures trading going two months forward: it is more likely we will see $90-oil before the year (2014) is out than we will see $105-oil. I don't think we will ever see $75 oil again, in my investing lifetime, but I wouldn't rule out $85-oil. I'm talking WTI oil, priced at Cushing. [Update, April 5, 2015: boy, was I wrong.]

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A Little Bit of Humor

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:
Amtrak officials say the company is changing the schedules of its Empire Builder passenger train because of congestion from increasing oil freight along the line.
The Empire Builder runs daily between Chicago, Seattle and Portland, OR, passing through Glacier National Park and North Dakota. In recent months, it has been consistently late because of freight traffic, particularly trains from the Bakken oil region.
It's my experience -- after many, many trips on Amtrak -- that Amtrak is seldom late. The problem is in the definition. Airlines define an "on-time" take-off if they pull away from the gate no later than fifteen minutes after the scheduled departure time, regardless of how long they remain on the tarmac getting de-iced or waiting in line to take off.

Likewise, Amtrak needs to re-define "on-time" arrival. No one travels by train to get somewhere on time. From Williston to Spokane folks ride the train for the scenery. I always considered Amtrak on schedule if it arrived within 24 hours of scheduled arrival time.  That goes back to my days in high school (1967 - 1969) when I would help a friend pick up the Sunday edition of The Minneapolis Tribune for delivery here in Williston. If the train arrived on Sunday during the winter, I was always surprised.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I remember well sitting at the train depot waiting for the train and the Sunday Tribune. I then dropped off those papers to the various carriers--can't remember how many. Loaded those papers into that nice 1959Rambler station wagon. Did you help me or someone else?

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    1. I forgot that it was a 1959 Rambler station wagon. I do remember the car. Yes, you were nice enough to "hire" me for a year or so, I suppose. I forget how long I worked with you. It was relatively "hard" work because of all the waiting; ruined some perfectly good Sundays. But you were extremely generous with paying me. I have no idea how much you paid me but it was more than I required. Great memories.

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