American Eagle Sells Non-Core Acreage In Divide County, About $8,000/Acre; Some Sweaty Palms Out There -- Apple Reports This Afternoon -- January 27, 2015

From the press release:

American Eagle Energy Corporation (NYSE MKT: AMZG) announces that it recently closed the sale of certain non-core, non-operated working interests in oil and gas properties located in Divide County, North Dakota, to an independent exploration and production company for a total sales price of $9.5 million in cash.

The transaction closed on January 22, 2015, with an effective date of November 1, 2014. The Properties represent approximately 120 net barrels of oil equivalent per day produced from approximately 25 gross (1.45 net) wells that consist of non-operated working interests in approximately 1,185 net leasehold acres.

$9.5 million / 1,185 de-risked net acres  = $8,000/acre.

This is kind of cool; compare with the Magnum Hunter sale last September (2014), for about the same price/acre.

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US Strippers Wells Being Shut In

From Reuters:

Now, with U.S. crude around $46 a barrel, operators are already closing some small old wells, known as strippers, and tens of thousands of similar wells are on the verge of losing money. A further slide could, by some estimates, idle an equivalent of up to 2 percent of U.S. supply, slowing overall output growth more than expected or even leaving it flat.

Ray Lasseigne, an oilfield veteran and president of TMR Exploration Inc in Louisiana, is deciding which wells to close. TMR looks to close old wells, which produce so much saltwater that disposal costs exceed what the oil can fetch today.

His most expensive stripper wells need oil around $70 to be profitable.

Back on January 12, 2015, I suggested stripper wells might be the first to go.

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Apple Could Set Record

Macrumors is reporting:

Apple is set to report its financial results this afternoon for Q1 2015, a three-month period spanning October through December that directly followed the launch of the highly-anticipated iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Despite offering guidance of between $63.5 to $66.5 billion in total sales, many analysts are predicting that Apple outpaced those numbers in what could amount to a record-breaking quarter.

Fortune has averaged the estimates of 35 analysts, including 20 professionals and 15 amateurs, and determined that expectations are for Apple to report earnings of $2.68 per share, a nearly 30% year-over-year increase, and revenue of $68.7 billion, about a 20% increase from the year-ago quarter and $2.2 billion higher than Apple's high-end forecast.