Monday Afternoon - Miscellaneous -- April 13, 2015

Conoco to see non-core assets. Reuters is reporting:

ConocoPhillips is preparing the sale of noncore oil and gas producing acreage in the United States, in the latest sign that oil majors are becoming more accepting of lower oil prices, according to people familiar with the matter. 

While the world's oil and gas companies have been looking to buy assets on the cheap since oil prices plummeted, epitomized by Royal Dutch Shell Plc's agreement earlier this month to buy BG Group Plc for $70 billion, they have been reluctant to sell assets in case oil prices recover and they can fetch more. 

ConocoPhillips has hired Wells Fargo to sell some of its noncore U.S. assets, the people said on Monday. These assets include oil and gas properties in the Rockies, East Texas, South Texas and Northern Louisiana, according to one of the people.

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Whose Side Is Mr Obama On?

Reuters is reporting:

Russia paved the way on Monday for missile system deliveries to Iran and started an oil-for-goods swap, signaling that Moscow may have a head-start in the race to benefit from an eventual lifting of sanctions on Tehran. The moves come after world powers, including Russia, reached an interim deal with Iran this month on curbing its nuclear program. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ending a self-imposed ban on delivering the S-300 anti-missile rocket system to Iran, removing a major irritant between the two after Moscow canceled a corresponding contract in 2010 under pressure from the West. 

A senior government official said separately that Russia has started supplying grain, equipment and construction materials to Iran in exchange for crude oil under a barter deal. Sources told Reuters more than a year ago that a deal worth up to $20 billion was being discussed and would involve Russia buying up to 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day.

We have Iran and Saudi Arabia fighting a proxy war in Yemen.

We have Mr Obama and Mr Putin fighting their private war in the Mideast.

Mr Putin is firmly on the side of Iran and Syria. What a great chess game. Mr Obama made the opening move to "open" Iran to investment; Mr Putin immediately countered by taking advantage of the opportunity to begin trading. Mr Obama said the "deal was done" in an earlier speech, and now it's just a matter of working out the details. Apparently Mr Putin has begun working out those details.

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

Regardless of how the wars turn out, some observations:

• defense industry should do very, very well; Saudi has a lot of money to spend on arms
• defense industry should do very, very well; Iran has pent-up demand; the Obama-Iran deal will help 
• in the "old" days, the level of war-drum noise at this point would have raised oil prices to $150 range; with the current glut of oil, no one seems concerned

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The Kennedys Are Going Skiing

Is it just me or has this been the best year for skiing across the US? California was an exception; had a miserable year, but Colorado and the northeast did very, very well. It continues. Weather.com is reporting:

The calendar may say mid-April, but we have our eyes on a system that may produce significant snowfall for the Rocky Mountains, including the Denver metro area this week. 

The culprit is a sharp southward plunge of the jet stream which will drive into the Northwest Monday, then the northern Rockies and Great Basin Tuesday, bringing lowering snow levels to the Cascades, Bitterroots and Wasatch, not to mention high winds to the Great Basin. 

Winter storm watches have already been posted in the Wasatch of Utah and high wind watches and warnings have been posted from in parts of six states from Death Valley, California to Colorado's western slope, including the Salt Lake Valley.