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Monday, July 21, 2014

The Green Energy Debacle In Germany In Clean, Concise, And Compelling English

Regular readers are well aware of this story; I can't begin to count the number of times I've talked about it. What is "unique," is how early this blog started talking about it. Now, mainstream media is about ready to start talking about it. Renewable energy has been a debacle for the Germans, and now they are going back to coal. The debacle is reported in clear and compelling English (my first language) over at The Daily Caller. How bad is it? Residential electricity is now called a "luxury good" by many media outlets. Not only has the direct cost to Hans and Agnethe increased (more than double), indirect costs through subsidies have also spiked:
Consumer energy bills have been spiking for years to the point where electricity in the country has been called a “luxury good” by major media outlets. German households have seen electricity prices more than double in the last decade “increasing from €0.14/kilowatt hour (kWh) ($0.18) in 2000 to more than €0.29/kWh ($0.38) in 2013,” according to FAA. This is compared to U.S. household prices, which have been stable at $0.13 per kilowatt hour over the last decade.
FAA also reports that German consumers will pay $31.1 billion for energy subsidies this year alone. Furthermore, in the past five years Germany has suffered $67.6 billion in net export losses from high energy costs — a huge blow to an export-led economy like Germany.
The good news: coal is so cheap, it will more than make up for the "luxury tax" Germans are paying for their electricity. Remember this rule of thumb: for every 1 megawatt of "green energy," public utilities need to install a half megawatt of coal-energy as backup when the sun ain't shining; and the wind ain't blowin'. Just another inconvenient truth.

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Global Warming Records Shattered

IceAgeNow is reporting more than 2,070 cold records were broken in the United States in the past seven (7) days.

At some point, all these weather reports will coalesce into a climate report. Until then, it's just a reminder that there has been no global warming for the past 18 years.

"Bouvert Island is running 40 degrees below normal...."

"Northern Portugal records coldest July in decades ..."

Bouvert Island is a Norwegian dependency located about a thousand miles off the north coast of Antarctica. Portugal is .... well, if I need to explain that....

The "Bakken" Is Changing American Cities -- July 21, 2014

Market Wired is reporting:
Shale zone communities have discovered yet another benefit from their surging economic growth: more of everything. Small towns like Williston, North Dakota, which has relatively little retail, are now catching the eye of major brands like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
With $80 billion expected in annual investments over the next six years and rapid population expansion, local infrastructure construction and real estate development in shale formation areas like the Bakken in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in Texas are turning small outposts into genuine boom towns.
According to JLL's new 2014 North American Energy Outlook, major metropolitan areas are benefitting too, with "surge cities" fuelled by oil and natural gas production -- growing at more than twice the pace of their peers. 
This is really quite a story. It's a must-read; must bookmark, or at least archive.
  • Boom Town: WIlliston, ND -- Bakken
  • Surge City: Denver, CO -- Bakken
  • Surge City: Houston, TX -- Eagle Ford
  • Surge City: Pittsburgh, PA -- Marcellus
  • Surge City: Dallas-Ft Worth -- Barnett
A huge "thanks" to a reader for sending the link to this article.

Trader Joe's in Williston? If that happens, I will eat my safari hat.

Delta Airlines Strikes New Deal For Bakken Crude Oil For Its Pennsylvania Refinery; July 21, 2014; New Poll

OMG! Delta Airlines still using jet fuel refined from highly volatile Bakken oil!

AJC is reporting:
Monroe Energy LLC, the subsidiary of Delta that operates its refinery in Trainer, PA, announced Monday that it struck a five-year supply deal with energy logistics firm Bridger LLC.
Bridger will supply 65,000 barrels of domestic crude oil to Delta’s refinery, or about one-third of the crude oil refined by the facility.
The domestic crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota costs less than the crude oil shipped to the refinery from overseas, reducing the overall cost of fuel for Delta.
Delta had been working to address the problem of how to transport the Bakken oil to the refinery. Bridger recently invested in $200 million to buy 1,300 new rail cars to add to its fleet, which will be used to transport oil to the Trainer refinery.
Time for a new poll. But first the results of the current poll in which we asked residents of Dickinson where they would like to live:
  • 0% want to live in Dickinson for just five more years
  • almost 20% want to live in Dickinson for the rest of their lives
  • almost 20% want to move to Williston, the heart of the Bakken
  • very few, only 6% want to move to Tioga, the oil capital of North Dakota
  • no one wants to move to Rugby, the geographical center of North America
  • slightly more than 20% want to move to Bismarck, the state capital
  • more than a third would like to move to Fargo, where there are a lot of big-box stores, if they could.
So, more than 50% of Dickinson folks would like to move to Bismarck or Fargo, if they could.

Even as many as 20% of folks currently living in Dickinson would consider moving to Williston if they could.

So, now on to the next poll.

Would you fly on any airline that admits to using jet fuel refined from highly volatile Bakken crude oil? Yes (as long as smoking was not allowed on the aircraft) or no. Pretty simple.

A big "thanks" to a reader for sending me the link to the article. It's a great article, by the way.

Active Rigs Near 200; News For Tuesday, July 22, 2014

 Active rigs:


7/22/201407/22/201207/22/201107/22/201007/22/2009
Active Rigs19720718213841

Refineries in the Rocky Mountains region, defined by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) EIA as Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) IV, are smaller and less complex than they are in the rest of the U.S. The region is landlocked and the 16 refineries – average size only 42 Mb/d - rely on U.S. light sweet crude produced locally or in North Dakota as well as Western Canadian heavy crude. The combination of rich supplies of crude and increased demand for refined products such as diesel means that refinery margins are high. These healthy economics are encouraging refinery expansions.
Miscellaneous Energy News

SeaCoastOn-Line confirms that Public Service of New Hampshire does indeed buy coal from Russia, as well as from Venezuela. Activists in New Hampshire, of course, do not want Canadian oil, however. I can't make this stuff up.

This is a pretty cool article; timing is everything. Coming on the heels of increased sanctions on Russia and the recently signed Russian-Chinese natural gas deal, four huge multi-national companies request permission to export LNG from Alaska: BP, Exxon, TransCanada (think Keystone), and COP. Bizjournals is reporting:
The application to the U.S. Department of Energy requests authorization to export up to 20 million metric tons per year of LNG for 30 years. It includes countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S. and non-FTA countries.
The proposed project facilities include a liquefaction plant and terminal on the Kenai Peninsula; an 800-mile, 42-inch pipeline; up to eight compression stations; at least five take-off points for in-state gas delivery; and a gas-treatment plant on the North Slope.
The Wall Street Journal

Getting too hot for the Obama administration? One's country is under attack, and the US demands an immediate Gaza cease-fire. I believe Israel already declared a unilateral cease-fire. We saw how that went.

Apple orders massive number of bigger iPhones -- Apple is preparing for its largest production run of iPhones this year.

Good. "The friend" of the Boston Marathon bombers was found guilty of obstruction.

EU set to approve new Russian sanctions. Game on.

Mobile-ad spending leaps.

Allergan to cut 13% of its workforce.

Natural-gas prices fall to near eight-month low.

Orange-juice sales fall to record low. Due to price; OJ is very, very expensive. Demand destruction?
The Los Angeles Times

Ukraine separatists allow access to Malaysian jet crash site. I assume all the "good" stuff has been taken.

Earnings: Reporting Tuesday
  • AAPL, $1.23, after market closes
  • CMCSA, $0.72, before market opens
  • MSFT, $0.60, after market closes
  • NBR, $0.23, after market closes
  • BTU, a loss of 29 cents, before market opens
  • KO, 63 cents, before market opens
  • VZ, 90 cents, 6:30 a.m. ET (T reports one day later, after market close, Wednesday)
  • XLNX, 61 cents, after market close

Newfield To Report A Gusher Tuesday; Fourteen (14) New Permits -- North Dakota; July 21, 2014

Oil (WTI): $104.50

Wells coming off confidential list Tuesday:
  • 26349, 167, Corinthian, Corinthian Starleaf 12-32 1H, Northeast Landa, a Spearfish/Madison well; t2/14; cum 17K 5/14;
  • 26489, 1,808, Newfield, Wahus State 152-97-12-1-4H, Westberg, t5/14; cum 27K 5/14;
  • 26861, drl, XTO, Ruby State Federal 34X-36F, Grinnell, no production data,
  • 27499, drl, Slawson, Alamo 8-19-18TF2H, Big Bend, no production data,
Active rigs:


7/21/201407/21/201207/21/201107/21/201007/21/2009
Active Rigs19620718013740

Fourteen (14) new permits --
  • Operators: Slawson (4), Legacy (4), QEP (3), CLR, Sinclair, KOG
  • Fields: Big Bend (Mountrail), North Souris (Bottineau), Spotted Horn (McKenzie),  Antelope (McKenzie), Sanish (Mountrail), Truax (Williams)
  • Comments:
Wells coming off the confidential list over the weekend, today were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

WTI Back Up To $104 -- July 21, 2014; Comparing MDU News Today With Whiting-KOG Deal Announced Earlier

I missed that, following the Yahoo!Finance page which has the "wrong" price again: oil is up almost another $1.00. Let's see, three shooting wars: the Ukraine, Israel-Hamas, and Iraq. Libya is pretty much out of control.

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The MDU (Fidelity) Sale of Bakken Minerals In Mountrail County
The Whiting - KOG Deal Recently Announced

[Update, July 22, 2014: That $200 million MDU deal? Buyer was Lime Rock Resources. A big "thank you" for Don to solving this "mystery."  Link hereOriginal post here. "Anonymous source" wrong unless there is a connection between EOG and Lime Rock.]

By the way, Don did a few "back-of-the-envelope" calculations regarding the announcement that MDU will sell a few Bakken acres in Mountrail County and a couple of observations:
  • first, MDU probably discussed whether to issue more shares (dilution) or sell some assets to raise the money necessary for earlier transactions and raise capital for drilling
  • a reminder that Fidelity bouth 24,500 mineral acres in the Powder River Basin (personally, I like to see the diversification this provides Fidelity)
  • the Powder River Basin purchase, located in Converse County, WY: primarily undeveloped mineral leasehold of approximately 24,000 net acres (accretive to 2014 earnings)
  • current production in this area is 80% oil (nice; Bakken is about 94% oil)
  • with regard to the Fidelity sale of ~ 4,000 acres for $200 million, this works out to $100,000 per flowing barrel ($200 million / 2,000 bopd)
  • the Whiting-KOG deal works out to about $162,000 per flowing bbl
  • 60% price difference for the KOG acreage?
A big "thank you" for Don for the observations and the calculations.

MDU (Fidelity) To Sell Some Mountrail Mineral (Bakken) Assets; $46,000/Acre -- July 21, 2014

Press release:
MDU announced today that its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Fidelity Exploration & Production Company, signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement for the sale of certain oil and natural gas production assets in Mountrail County, North Dakota, with an effective date of May 1, 2014. The sale price is $200 million plus customary closing adjustments with closing expected by Sept. 30.
The assets sold consist of approximately 4,363 net acres with net daily production of approximately 2,000 barrels of oil per day from 81 gross wells, 49 of which are operated by Fidelity. The company will continue to hold 12,000 net acres in Mountrail County.
$200 million / 4,363 acres = $46,000 / acre. Yes, I know some (all) of the acreage is in production and I assume all of it is derisked.

Don provided some observations with this announced deal

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Quote Of The Day
Without a well-articulated strategy that the public supports and the world understands, America will lack the legitimacy—and ultimately the power—it needs to make the world safer than it is today.–Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (2006), page 302.
The book is available at Barnes and Noble, with an "additional 10% off for members."

My hunch is Barack Obama will go down as one of the best orators, communicators, writers, this country has ever seen. Ronald Reagan, I don't recall, wrote so much. I'm not even sure Vladimir Putin writes that much.

One of the most literate, and best writers of history, was Julius Caesar. From wiki:
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, Consul, and notable author of Latin prose. Much of Caesar's life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns,...
I didn't really think about that, or maybe didn't even know much about that until reading the Memoirs of Hardian by the Belgium author Marguerite Yourcenar. And I discovered Marguerite through my enjoyment of reading Virginia Woolf.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

We had a great day in Los Angeles yesterday. Before I get started, two comments:
  • when folks tell me the economy is doing poorly, I always ask, "compared to what"
  • based on the number of tattoos I see and the average size of these tattoos, I am convinced the state of California could increase income taxes and property taxes by another 10 to 20 percent, and it would not have an adverse effect on the economy
We left early yesterday morning to get to the Getty Museum before it opened. There were already hundreds ahead of us and by the time we left, the parking structure was full. The Getty Museum is free; parking is $15, but one can access the museum via the outstanding public transportation system Los Angeles is known for.

I could not believe the luck. I have had many docent-led tours, but the tour of the James Ensor exhibit by Marilyn Ruman may have been the best I have experienced. The museum opened in 1997; Marilyn has been a docent since the doors opened. The museum owns one James Ensor painting, perhaps his most famous, Christ's Entry into Brussels. (Sort of reminded me of Washington, DC, January 20, 2009, but I digress.) 

Like Ms Ruman I had walked past that painting every time I visited the Getty; I never liked it, and I certainly never understood it. I also never understood why it was in the Getty. The Getty has paintings during a relatively "narrow" period: from the Middle Ages (14th century) to the Impressionist period (late 19th, maybe early 20th century), and this painting was clearly beyond Impressionism.

Through a stroke of superb planning, the Getty museum had a special exhibit of representing Ensor's entire works -- from his early beginnings to his scandalous works for which he is remembered. This may be the first and only time this will ever occur. Most of his works are in Antwerp, Belgium, and in Chicago. When the Antwerp museum went into renovation this past year, Getty took advantage to bring Ensor's paintings to Los Angeles. After the Los Angeles exhibit, the exhibit will go to Chicago, the only other venue in the United States before the Antwerp paintings are returned to Belgium. 

Getty never lends out its one Ensor painting. 

We were at the Getty until 2:00 p.m. and then drove the eight to ten miles on surface streets to Farmer's Market off Fairfax and 3rd, near Wilshire's "Miracle Mile." It's always one of the favorites of the older granddaughter who always looks forward to Brazilian churrascaria at Pampas Grill. Our older granddaughter had garlic sirloin, my wife and I had lamb; my wife also had fish stew which she likes even better than the beef or lamb. Our younger granddaughter had fresh strawberries. (Later this week I will barbecue another beer can chicken on the big grill, and lamb on the smaller grill. I mention that because we will invite Kei over for dinner.)

The line around Pampas Grill is always the longest line in Farmer's Market. It moves quickly, but it was the longest line I have experienced there, and I have been going for years. That's why when I mentioned above that when folks tell me the economy is doing poorly, I respond with "compared to what." 

The parking structure at Farmer's Market (servicing the co-located Grove, a high-end mall in west LA) is eight stories high. It was completely full when we got there on a Sunday afternoon -- well, not quite full; the top level had 26 available spaces. After we pulled in, there were 25 parking spots left.

We were there until about 8:00 p.m. We returned home via La Cienega Boulevard. Neither my wife nor I had ever taken this route home before. To say the least, it was incredible: several miles of an urban street, six lanes wide, cement barrier dividing the "highway"; pretty much non-stop all the way to I-405 with a speed limit of 55, most folks adhering to the posted limit. Coming to the intersection with traffic lights would have been sporty at 55 mph, but the city cleverly built a on-ramp directly to the I-405, allowing drivers to accelerate to 75. I was more like a NASCAR pace car and stayed in the far right lane at 55 mph until I got into the rhythm of high-speed urban driving (again). 

Earlier in the day, going north on the I-110 out of San Pedro, I noted a California highway patrol cruiser weaving back and forth across lanes behind me, about half a mile behind me. I immediately recognized that as a signal that there was a major "event" occurring on the interstate ahead of him (and by extension, ahead of us). Cars coming toward us were flashing their headlights. Cars continued to move at the posted speed limit, but most of us (I assume) were looking for an escape route if the "big one" appeared ahead of us. About 90 seconds later, there it was: a huge piece of furniture -- a wooden "sofa" of sorts completely blocking lane 2 of the four-lane highway going north. I was in lane 3 (to the left) fortunately, traffic was relatively light, and everybody made it safely. We were lucky not to be following the truck that lost its cargo.

Returning home was uneventful.

 Beer Can Chicken, Pabst Blue Ribbon

For Investors Only: July 21. 2014; HAL Hits "Lifetime" High; And I Thought They Were Talking About Michelle

Best picture of the day (the year?). This was taken on Big Cormorant Lake in northwest Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes. I-98 will pass through this area; the six-lane interstate will begin in Minneapolis, will proceed in a northwesterly direction up towards Grand Forks where it will cross the Red River into North Dakota.

Photo taken on Big Cormorant Lake, Minnesota; sent to me by a reader.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Reporting today:
  • a lot of banks (none of which I care about)
  • Halliburton (I don't invest in but it's a bellwether stock for what I do invest in)
  • Netflix (after market close)
Halliburton hit a "lifetime" high today. HAL's profit climbed 20 percent. Announced stock buyback. From The AP:
The Houston-based company said earnings increased to $774 million, or 91 cents per share, from $644 million, or 69 cents per share, a year ago.
The average per-share estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a profit of 92 cents.
Netflix: profits double; blow past estimates; up almost $8 during the day; up another $3 in after-hours trading. Trading near a 52-week high. Back on March 21, 2013, I talked about Netflix and "the next big thing."

Trading at new 52-week highs today: BK, HAL (again).

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Actually I Thought They Were Talking About Michelle

A reader sent me this note. He did not sent the source; if I get it, I will link it. 
In a news conference Deanna Favre announced she wishes to be the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers (for newbies: an NFL football team) next season.  
Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be the starting QB because she spent 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers. 
During this period of time, she became familiar with the definition of a corner blitz, the nickel package, and man-to-man coverage, and is now completely comfortable with all the other terminology involving the Packers offense.  
A survey of Packers fans shows that 50% of those polled supported the move. 
Does this sounds idiotic and unbelievable or familiar to you? 
Hillary Clinton makes the same claims as to why she is qualified to be the next president of the United States (for newbies: the country with the second largest economy and occasionally the most powerful nation on earth) and 50% of Democrats polled agree. 
Hillary has never run a city, county, or state during her "career" of being Bill Clinton's wife. She has written some books and given some very expensive speeches.
When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has 8 years in the white house, my immediate thought was "So has the pastry chef." 
When it comes to running the state department, her biggest achievements were         getting a US Ambassador and three other Americans killed by pretending terrorism had been defeated, and pushing a fictional  “reset” button with Russia.  
On the other hand, she does have more experience than Obama had.
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Common Core Mathematics

Back in April, Reuters was reporting:
Iran can produce fissile material for an atomic weapon in two months, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday told a Senate hearing in which he faced tough questions from lawmakers about negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
"I think it's public knowledge today that we're operating with a time period for a so-called breakout of about two months. That's been in the public domain," Kerry testified at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
That was in April. Now that talks have stalled, the Obama administration has give the Iranians "one last chance" (but not a red line) -- the Obamas have extended the July, 2014, deadline four months, out into November, 2014. (Previously reported at the blog.)

So, if I've done the math correctly, April + two months gets us to June, 2014. So, by November, the Iranians will have had almost half a year to inventory, store, and weaponize their personal supply of fissile material. I thought that was what the talks were all about in the first place.

I suppose this is where we could explain to students who are taking "English as a second langauge (ESL)" what the idiom "the horses are already out of the barn" means.

I can't make this stuff up. At least on this issue, SecState Kerry is not flip-flopping, simple extending meaningless talks. I do believe his goal is to accumulate more frequent flyer miles than his predecessor.

Monday, Monday -- July 21, 2014; Stabilizers: The Next Big Story In The Bakken; Obama Administration Investing In Depleted Oil Fields In Texas

American Eagle, drilling in northwest North Dakota, announces operations update and reaffirms 2014 production guidance. A reader sent me the PDF link. Some key data points:
  • drilled a four-well pad in 62 days (when the Bakken boom began, it often took 60 days to drill one well); averaged less than 12 days from spud-to-total-depth;
  • brought twice as many Three Forks wells as middle Bakken wells to production
  • on track to meet or exceed 2014 exit rate of production guidance of over 3,000 boepd 
Faulty ignition switches: It would seem an ignition switch should be one of the more basic things that an automobile company could get right; it can't be that difficult. A reader asks if Government Motors can make any automobile without a faulty ignition switch. Bloomberg is reporting:
GM has told its dealers to halt the sale of some Cadillac models, mostly used cars, because the company doesn’t yet have a fix in place for a defective ignition switch.
The Detroit-based automaker issued an urgent order dated July 8 to its dealers to stop delivery of 2014 Cadillac CTS sedans that use a standard key ignition. The order didn’t apply to the newest models with a push-button start.
Active rigs in North Dakota


7/21/201407/21/201207/21/201107/21/201007/21/2009
Active Rigs19420718013740

RBN Energy: the second part in a series on stabilizer capacity in the Eagle Ford. This is an important article: this is the next big story in the Bakken.
In 2010 Enterprise Products Partners signed a ten-year agreement with Pioneer Natural Resources to transport, process and market their crude, gas and liquids production from the Eagle Ford. Today that agreement seems to have put Enterprise in the catbird seat after the Department of Commerce softened rules governing the export of lease condensate. 
Today in the second of a two part series we describe stabilizer capacity and export routes to market for Pioneer, Anadarko and ConocoPhillips in the Eagle Ford.
Pioneer is developing its Eagle Ford assets in a joint venture with Indian company Reliance Industries. That joint venture includes a midstream asset development company called EFS Midstream. EFS provide gas and liquids gathering, treating and transportation services for Pioneer and have built 12 central gathering plants (CGP’s) connected by more than 400 miles of pipeline. These central gathering plants each have condensate stabilizers. We don’t know the capacity on these units, or their configuration, but it seems reasonable to assume that these stabilization units must at least have capacity to handle Pioneer’s existing production of about 50 Mb/d in the Eagle Ford. 
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Inappropriate Exuberance

A couple of stories that again point out the staggering changes coming out of the American energy revolution. First, a story on CO2 injection to revive dying fields. I've reported on this before. Don has been following the technology story for years. Motley Fool  has a nice review:
It is estimated that there are 160 billion barrels of oil still trapped underneath this country in what are considered depleted oil fields. That's a tremendous amount of oil given that America uses about seven billion barrels of it each year. In fact, if we could only find the key to unlock this trapped oil we could extend fleeting our reserves by more than 22 years.
That's why it probably comes as a surprise to learn that we've already found the key we need to unlock this oil. That key is none other than discarded carbon dioxide, with the primary source of this practically prized greenhouse gas coming from none other than coal emissions. It's a stunning turn of events to say the least.
America has actually been flooding depleting oil fields with carbon dioxide since the 1970's. Most of the carbon dioxide used has come from naturally occurring sources. The problem is that carbon is costly as getting it from those sources to spent oil fields requires pipelines. But thanks to technological advances in carbon capture and storage we're beginning to see new investments that are directed to cleaning coal and using the captured carbon to produce more oil. It's this combination that has the potential to breathe new life into some of America's long dormant oil fields.  
A positive forward was taken when NRG Energy announced earlier this week that it began construction on a billion dollar retrofit to its East Texas coal-fired power plant. [Posted earlier at the blog.]
While the project is being underwritten in part by $167 million from the Department of Energy, NRG Energy sees it being self-liquidating as the carbon dioxide that is captured will be used to yield a 30-fold increase in oil production from an aging oil field NRG Energy also co-owns. 
A second story was sent to me this morning by a reader. The link takes you to an article in Forbes Magzine but much of it references Carpe Diem which references other sources:
It is a truly amazing feat of engineering and science that enables drillers today to bore a hole 2, 3 or even more miles vertically below the surface, then literally bend heavy steel pipe to drill another mile or more horizontally through very dense underground rock, and ultimately hit a target no bigger than a quarter.  Although the image of this industry that one typically sees portrayed on television or in the rare movie that deals with the subject matter is of wild, crude, hard-drinking, oil-covered roughnecks carelessly tossing around equipment at a filthy drilling sight, the truth about today’s drilling operations is that they are scrupulously clean, incredibly safety-conscious, and deploy a higher level of modern technology than almost any other industry on the face of the earth.  It really is too bad the public seldom gets to witness that reality.
The article goes on to repeat much of what has been reported here regularly and often, on the blog. A nice article for newbies to read; others to archive. 

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The Rise Of China

Regular readers know I feel strongly that Americans, including myself, are too myopic, concentrating too much on the US economy, forgetting China (and even India, for that matter). Don sent this interesting article over at Seeking Alpha on automobile sales in China. This one data point caught my eye:
Ford, for example, added 88 new dealerships in China in just one day in June (the 19th), and management expects to reach 800 dealer points in China by the end of this year.   
I don't invest in automobile companies, but I do invest in the oil and gas industry. 

I think the two big stories in 2050 will be a) water; and, b) energy. The Maldives will still be around.

For Monday, July 21, 2014; Several Wells Coming Off Confidential List; XTO With A Nice Well But That's About It; Many To DRL Status

Wells coming off the confidential list Monday and the weekend:

Monday, July 21, 2014:
  • 25867, drl, Hess, HA-Thompson 152-95-2017H-3, Hawkeye, no production data,
  • 26274, 243, Fidelity, Dylan 22-15H, Stanley, t3/14; cum 14K 5/14;
  • 26987, drl, Hess, EN-Dobrovolny-155-93-2128H-7, Alger, no production data,
  • 27385, 75, Encuro, LDCMU 4-34-H1, Little Deep Creek, a Madison well, t3/14; cum 4K 5/14;
Sunday, July 20, 2014:
  • 25841, 469, Whiting, Babeck Federal 11-5PH, Park, t1/14; cum 18K 5/14;
  • 27178, 1,921, XTO, Cherry Creek State 44X-36D, Siverston, t6/14; no production data,
  • 27316, drl, Hess, EN-Joyce-2560-156-94-1720-1621H-3, Manitou, no production data,
  • 27348, drl, MRO, Winston 34-10TFH, Chimney Butte, no production data,
Saturday, July 19, 2014:
  • 24430, 410, Whiting, Talkington Federal 1-26PH,  Park, t1/14; cum 18K 5/14;
  • 25866, drl, Hess, HA-Thompson 152-95-2017H-4, Hawkeye, no production data,
  • 26127, drl, XTO, Rita 24X-34A, Tobacco Garden, no production data,
  • 26526, drl, CRL, Jerry 3-8H, Poe, no production data,
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The Wall Street Journal

Gaza battle deadliest in conflict to date: Israeli ground forces "waded" into Gaza's most densely populated city for the first time in nearly two weeks of fighting, destroying tunnels and drawing heavy fire from Hamas militants in the deadliest day of fighting for both sides since the conflict began. President Obama says he still supports Israel's right to defend itself. Okay.

The US leveled its most-explicit allegations yet of Russia's involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

EU at the tipping point: hit by the recession, a number of European governments cut capital spending on transportation, housing, education and other areas, a move that some experts say will harm economic growth.

James Garner's death, at age 86, made the front section news.

Hmmmm....anti-illegal immigration activists are organizing rallies across the country.

UN investigators move to take possession of Malaysian jet's black box. Black boxes aregenerally considered "tamper-proof." If Russia releases them, you know darn well there's nothing worth noting on the tapes, except the flight path and the altitude of the jet, both of which are already know by US intelligence.

Putin and the Kremlin have the Russian media on their side regarding the Malaysian jet shoot-down ... just like the Obama administration has mainstream media on its side in the US. I'm not sure why this is news.

Wow, at least five more articles on the shootdown. Provide perfect cover for Israeli operations in Gaza strip.

It turns out that GM quietly changed the design of faulty ignition switches back in 2003 and 2004 when they discovered the problem they have denied.

Investors are ignoring the shooting wars in the Ukraine, in Iraq, and in the Gaza strip. Are they? Dow futures are down.

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A Note to the Granddaughters
"Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, selfishness, evil, -- or else an absolute ignorance." Graham Greene is one of my favorite authors; a very interesting individual. The quote says more about Graham Greene than about "happy men." I'm happy, and I have a very, very strong ego (but wouldn't necessary call it "extreme." I wouldn't consider myself selfish but that's for others to decide; same with whether I'm "evil" or not.  I am very ignorant on many subjects, but I don't know if I would so far as to say I'm "absolutely" ignorant.