Three-Fourths Of Wells Coming Off Confidential List Are Not Completed -- July 24, 2015

At this rate, it's going to take a lot of fracking to whittle down the 925 wells waiting to be fracked.

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Crazy Accounting

There are several story lines in this article, but in the interest of time, I'm moving on. Bloomberg/Rigzone is reporting that after a deadly blast tore through one of its off-shore platforms, Pemex cannot account for 2.7 million bbls of oil.

Oh-oh.

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More Layoffs

Weatherford raises layoffs target to 11,000. The company completed 97% of its planned workforce reduction of 10,000, but has now raised the number to 11,000.

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Upstream Without A Paddle

Rigzone is reporting:

Upstream MLPs have long swam against the current of traditional infrastructure-focused and fee-based traditional MLPs. The upstreamers buy shallow producing assets and hedge their bets, and often enough, they make good on a promise to investors that they’ll enjoy stable quarterly distributions. But dismal — even record-low — unit prices at the trading desks may push investors to reconsider the structure as an upstream device for MLPs as commodity prices have sent distributions tumbling.

It’s a combination of factors that have rendered upstream master limited partnerships (MLP) to be particularly vulnerable to a pullback in commodity prices, Ethan Bellamy, managing director at R.W. Baird & Co. told Rigzone. And there are some upstream MLPs that have performed better than others, he added.

But as a group, he said, “They weren’t hedged enough and/or had too much ‘unhedgeable’ (natural gas liquids) exposure. They spent too much money on acquisitions. They carried too much debt. They did not deduct enough from distributable cash flow to offset commodity price weakness or to switch to payouts that float with commodity prices.”

And here’s the kicker: “They failed to either develop a substantial distributable cash flow coverage cushion to offset commodity price weakness or to switch to payouts that float with commodity prices,” Bellamy said.

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Reminder

Did I ever mention this is not an investment site? Well, it is not an investment site. Do not make any financial or investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here. 

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More Oil Coming Off The Market

Reuters/Rigzone is reporting:

Brazil's main oil workers union is considering an open-ended strike in September if a 24-hour walkout scheduled for midnight Thursday fails to stop moves to shrink state-run oil company Petrobras, a senior union official said.

FUP, which represents platform, refinery and other workers, is fighting plans by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is known, to sell $15.1 billion of assets by the end of 2016.

Petrobras wants to pay down debt, which at about $120 billion is the largest of any oil company, as well as generate cash for investment and revive investor confidence after a giant corruption scandal.

FUB also opposes a bill before Brazil's Senate seeking to strip Petrobras of its right to all new development work in a giant offshore area known as Subsalt Polygon and end a requirement that Petrobras take a minimum 30 percent stake in exploration and production rights in the area.

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Huge

Remember, this is not an investment site, but this is a huge story. ATT -- hitting on all seven cylinders? Maybe. Blasted through earnings estimates; I think I read somewhere 69 cents vs 63 cents. And now, the DirecTV deal could add 15 - 16 cents earnings per share. The 70 cents earnings is quarterly; I assume the 15 cents is annual. 20%. WSJ is reporting. T is up 3% on another rough day on Wall Street. Pays 5.5%. Has $4 billion in cash and only $100 billion in debt. LOL.

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Huger

Meanwhile, Apple has $35 billion in cash, $54 billion in debt, and their own watch. And pays a dividend of 1.6%. By the way, I read somewhere, I think, Apple has $200 billion in cash held captive overseas.