Thursday, May 1, 2014

Active rigs:

	5/1/2014	05/01/2013	05/01/2012	05/01/2011	05/01/2010
Active Rigs	187	189	209	173	112

RBN Energy: the crude oil tsunami.

Yesterday (April 30, 2014) the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported yet another increase in Gulf Coast inventories as of April 25 - adding 5.7 MMBbl to set a new record of over 215 MMBbl of crude. Stocks in the region are now 27 MMBbl above the 5-year average and even if refiners cranked up output to the highest levels ever (96.5 percent utilization) the surplus would take at least 3 months to get back to “normal”. Crude prices are being impacted as the premium of Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS) crude at the Gulf Coast over West Texas Intermediate (WTI) delivered to Cushing, OK has narrowed close to $2/Bbl. With no crude exports allowed to ease the surplus it looks like Gulf Coast prices will remain under pressure. Today we look at prospects of reducing the crude surplus.

The Wall Street Journal

Five weeks ago, Torrance, CA, Mayor Frank Scotto was celebrating the opening of the city's new athletic fields with officials of Toyota Motor Corp. The city's biggest employer and a prime benefactor had given a half-million dollars toward the project. This week, Mr. Scotto has had a less pleasant duty to perform: Figuring out how Torrance can fill the 101-acre hole the giant auto maker will leave behind when it vacates its sprawling campus and moves 3,000 jobs to a new North American headquarters in Texas. Toyota's decision to consolidate much of its U.S. operations in Plano, Texas, by 2017, officially announced Monday, caught Mr. Scotto by surprise. Toyota's own employees in Torrance were informed just minutes after the mayor got a courtesy call. State of California officials, too, had been in the dark about the move, which Toyota had been exploring for the past year.

GOP says one-third of ObamaCare enrollees did not pay first-month premium. Comment: and by the fifth month the number will continue to increase -- the number who do not pay.

Crude oil CBR derailment in Lynchburg, VA. -- previously posted. First reports: no injuries, no deaths. Compare with deaths of four people in aircraft mishap -- private plane flies into wind turbine in South Dakota. Did that story get reported in the national press?