Tidying Up Wednesday's News -- March 25, 2015

When it rains, it pours.

Regular readers know that my primary job purpose in life is taking care of our three granddaughters. Right now, my wife is out in Los Angeles and I have the opportunity to spend more time with the granddaughters and thus blogging gets put on the back burner.

I take the two older granddaughters to school at 7:15 a.m. I am free until 10:00 but from 10:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. I am 100% occupied with the 8-month-old. Normally we take a 3-mile stroller ride during this period with lots of stops at parks and places to eat. It is one of the high points of my day, and I have many, many high points.

At 3:20 I walk the older granddaughter home from school and then my "real" day begins. I take the 8 y/o to soccer at 5:30 and then return to take the older granddaughter to water polo at 7:15. Water polo ends at 9: 15, so we get home about 10:00 p.m., when we have a late dinner together.

So, now it's 11:40 p.m. and I begin the blog for the evening. I have the DVD Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on in the background -- this is the fourth time in as many evenings that I've watched it. Last night I saw something in the movie I had not seen before. I now understand why Haydon was so upset when Prideaux was shot in Budapest. Until last night I did not know if Haydon was "putting on a act" or whether it was a genuine reaction. One more dot connected.

And so the blog begins.

The plane crash in the Alps. We now know what happened; over the next 48 hours we might learn why it happened. I follow the story elsewhere and because it has nothing to do with the Bakken I won't link the post where I track the story. As for me, the story is pretty much closed. [Early on I mentioned that the pilot better have a non-Arabic name, a happy marriage, two non-adult children at home, and no skeletons in his/her closet. Interestingly enough, the easiest thing to release -- the name of the pilot alone in the cockpit -- has not been released. Update, March 26, 2015, 9:16 a.m.: co-pilot's name is released -- Andreas Lubitz.]

Global politics: Saudi Arabia does not have a warrior culture. It depends on the US for protection. Saudi Arabia saw the US president throw the Israelis under the bus. Iran/Syria/ISIS/Yemen now surround Saudi Arabia. The price of oil is moving up overnight. The Saudis are bombing Yemen. For ISIS, the PRIZE is Saudi Arabia. The dots are easy to connect. Iran, without sanctions, could easily take Saudi Arabia if the latter is not protected by the US. Close reading of the stories coming out of the Mideast suggest that things are starting to implode across the whole region. About time for President Obama to go golfing. When was the last John Kerry was back in the US?

Back in the USA, Linda Ronstadt
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Whiting's recent action to issue 35 million shares and another $1.75 billion in debt has befuddled me. There are only two reasons why WLL would do this. I don't know which one of the two.

There's an interesting article on Oasis over at SeekingAlpha. Link is here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3025516-oasis-petroleum-solid-liquidity-100-percent-upside. This article will be archived; if you are interested in the Bakken or Oasis, I recommend you read the article before it is no longer available -- unless you have a paid subscription to Seeking Alpha.

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A new word for me and for newbies: "redetermination." Dallas Business Journal is reporting:

The process is called redetermination and it’s about to hit oil and gas companies as the first quarter wraps up.

Another shoe is about to drop on energy companies as banks adjust credit limits to meet the falling price of crude oil.

“Most of their credit is tied to reserves. A lot of people are facing cuts in their borrowing base. The value of those reserves are falling significantly. A lot of people are facing stress on their system.”

Fort Worth-based Quicksilver Resources filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. The driller got hit with a double whammy as natural gas prices remained depressed for years and then crude oil prices fell from $100 a barrel to less than $50 a barrel in the second half of 2014.

This was recently discussed over at Rigzone. 

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There's a headline elsewhere, I won't link here, North Dakota might challenge new federal fracking rule. The challenge, if done at all, will go nowhere. "We" can't even do anything about Hillary Clinton's outright lies about private servers. The fracking rules as presented to the public are pretty innocuous to the general public and that's why the challenge will go nowhere.

And down to less than 100 active rigs in North Dakota. 

Caught up with today's news. I guess that wasn't so bad; it just took one look.

Just One Look, Linda Ronstadt
It's now 12:40 a.m. and I'm into a fugue state -- I used to have a blog "YouTube Fugue" -- I don't know if it's still open to the public -- if it is, don't open it -- your computer will most likely lock up -- -- now that I have a great wi-fi connection, caught up with today's news, and YouTube taking me places I haven't been in awhile, I should keep going ... but I have to get up at 6:45 to take the granddaughters to school.

Obama fans' song?

I Will Follow Him, Peggy March 12:50 a.m.

Perhaps biggest news of the day: Apple will release three new iPhone models in the second half of 2015, according to a new report from DigiTimes. The site claims that a 4-inch iPhone model will join the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s and 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus.

This is exactly what Steve Jobs would have argued against, but ... I'm heading to bed.