Wells Coming Off The Confidential List This Weekend, Monday

Futures fluctuating 

• Dow is down slightly
• Brent is flat
• WTI oil is up 50 cents, solidly above $107/bbl
• The Brent-WTI spread is almost exactly $5.00

Monday, June 16, 2014

• 25109, drl, CLR, Bonney 4-3H, Jim Creek, no production data,
• 25150, 759, CLR, Jerol 2-27H, Lindahl, producing, t4/14; cum 8K 4/14;
• 26311, 21, Whiting, BSMU 1910,  Big Stick, a Madison well, t3/14; cum 1K 4/14;
• 26842, drl, Hess, EN-Leo-154-94-2324H-3, Alkali creek, no production data,

Sunday, June 15, 2014

• 25189, 1,246, CLR, Patterson Federal 2-13H, Camp, t5/14; cum 2K 4/14;
• 25553, drl, Zavanna, Bear Cat 33-28 2H, Williston, no production data,
• 26156, drl, Statoil, Johnson 7-6 5TFH, Banks, no production data,
• 26806, 2,574, MRO, Tollefson 41-4H, Reunion Bay, t5/14; cum --
• 27025, drl, Hess, HA-Nelson A-2560-152-95-3427-3328H-1, Hawkeye, no production data, 

Saturday, June 14, 2014

• 24755, drl, Statoil, Melissa 31-30 3TFH, East Fork, no production data, 
• 26155, drl, Statoil, Johnston 7-6 6H, Banks, no production data,

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NBA Finals: San Antonio Spurs Rout

The San Antonio Spurs win the 2014 NBA Championship, taking 4 of 5 games. The Spurs continued the longest active playoff streak in the NBA at 17 straight appearances. The scores of the five games:

• Game 5: 104 - 87
• Game 4: 107 - 86 (rout, schooled -- words used by sports press, not me)
• Game 3: 111-92 (at Miami)
• Game 2: 96-98 (the one loss by Spurs, at San Antonio)
• Game 1: 110 - 95

A week or so ago my wife and I were disheartened to see California Chrome lose at Belmont, and thus not become a Triple Crown winner. Immediately after the race, both my wife and I heard the comments made by California Chrome's owner and there was some merit in his remarks. However, once our emotions settled down a bit we both agreed that a Triple Crown winner should be so impressive in all three races there would be no question about being named the Triple Crown winner. Maybe horse-racing is different, and maybe it isn't fair for the winner of the first two races to have to race against horses who had not raced in either of the earlier races. But I don't know: I think a Triple Crown winner needs to win each race convincingly despite the "fairness" issue. Which brings me to the Spurs. Having routed the Miami Heat in four of five games, and barely losing the second, there should be no question who the NBA champions are this year. What an incredible series. Who would have thought? 

**************************************

The Trainwreck

SeaCoast online is reporting: cities brace for impact of Obamacare.

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire — Officials from Portsmouth to Manchester are warning taxpayers and municipal workers alike about the potential profound impact of the Affordable Care Act's so-called Cadillac tax.

Portsmouth City Manager John Bohenko said this week that as the city negotiates with 13 of its 15 unions on new employee contracts, the impact of the Cadillac tax will have to be addressed. 

One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which is more commonly known as "Obamacare," is that starting in 2018 any health care plans that cost more than $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for a family will be subject to the Cadillac tax.

Those plans will be taxed at a rate of 40 percent for the amount of the plans that are in excess of the spending limits.

The tax would be paid by the health insurance companies, but Bohenko and others acknowledged the insurers would just pass those costs on to consumers.

The good news: this doesn't kick in until 2018. Not to worry.

***************************

UC Irvine? Really?
[Update: see first comment below regarding UC Irvine. Perhaps I stand corrected. The political explanation makes sense. In fact, now it makes a lot of sense.]

I notice that Obama got a standing ovation at UC Irvine. It did not dawn on me until now -- I'm sure UC Irvine was picked because it was close to where he was vacationing. But in the big, big scheme of things, UC Irvine is about as inconsequential as any venue in the country.

This was probably scheduled months ago. It is common practice for aides to schedule events where the president will be adulated, to "buck him up" when times are tough. I would not be a bit surprised if he was psychologically in a tough spot six months ago and his aides needed a place to get his energy back up and they picked a place that would be overwhelmingly energetic for him.

When I look at the headline, "standing ovation at UC Irvine," I assume those who know the UC system know that's about as low as one can go. (Don't take that out of context; this is not a "hit" on UC Irvine; I'm looking at it as a political venue.) (The bigger story would have been if he had not gotten a standing ovation at UC Irvine.)

A much more impressive venue would have been Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, but Californians know UC Irvine was a joke. In the big scheme of things, the Indian Reservation was important, perhaps to a few folks in ND/SD, but that, too, suggests a real, real "comedown" for Obama. No matter how you spin it, UC Irvine and SRIR are a long way from London, Berlin, Paris, Moscow, for a "world leader."

I think Peggy Noonan missed that story, but it would be amazing if she picked up on it and wrote about it. I don't know; maybe I'm making more out of it than I should, but one would think that the Barack Obama of 2008 or 2010 or 2012 would find bigger venues than SRIR and UC Irvine.

Until his visit, "no one" had heard of SRIR, and outside of California, I wonder how many have heard of Irvine. I honestly don't know how to get there, and I've spent much of my life out there. I certainly don't know where the campus is.

I assume we will see better venues for him going forward. He probably had some words with his aides after those two venues, suggesting they have to do better in the future.

UC Irvine? Really?