Tuesday, August 4, 2015, Part III

A reader provides a most interesting reason why Halcon might be reporting some unexpectedly great wells in the Marmon oil field. It makes a lot of sense. The number of stages and the amount of proppant being used by Halcon is more than what was used at the beginning of the boom in the Bakken, but the number of stages/amount of proppant is not particularly noteworthy. It looks almost as if Halcon is getting the IPs that Statoil was always famous for, but unlike Statoil, is able to continue that level of production for many more months.

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Tweeting now: UK diesel cheaper than gasoline at pump for first time since 2001, according to DECC data compiled for week to Aug 3, 2015.

Tweeting now: Saudi Arabia and Iraq are producing more crudeoil than necessary,' according to Ecuador's oil minister Merizalde. [Comment: among the OPEC members, Ecuador has been hurt about the worst.]

Tweeting now: China National Petroleum Corp drops out of Ecuador greenfield refinery project, says Ecuador #oil minister Pedro Merizalde. [Double whammy.]

EIA "energy nugget":

Algeria is the third-largest oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria and Angola, and the largest natural gas producer in Africa. However, production of both oil and natural gas has declined over the past decade.

This declining production has led the Algerian government to amend its law regarding foreign investment in hydrocarbons in an attempt to attract the investment and technology improvements needed to help stop production declines.

In 2014, the national oil and gas company Sonatrach offered 33 blocks located in four sedimentary basins with high shale gas and oil potential. This auction resulted in Sonatrach signing five contracts with Repsol, Shell, Statoil, and Dragon Oil-Enel. By law, Sonatrach takes a mandatory majority share (at least 51%) of any resulting projects. --- EIA

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From The Wall Street Journal

Paper Tigers: RINOs can't even get Planned Parenthood Bill through the Senate. Despite the Mengele glee in sorting through baby parts.

Port of Portland, Oregon, in deep, deep trouble. Comments at the article say it all. City lacked vision. Unions ran the show. Geography didn't help, but it provided a niche had Portland grabbed it.
Back in February, 2015, the huge Chinese shipping company Hanjin "left" Portland for good after another dockworkers' slowdown. Earlier this year, the Port of Portland said no to crude-by-rail terminals.

ObamaCare winners: Aetna (which plans to buy Humana) lifts guidance as profit tops expectations. Aetna benefits from growth in its government business. [Comment: this is not rocket science.]

Freddie Mac to sent $3.9 billion to US Treasury Department after posting a sharp increase in profit during its second quarter.

Shire offers to buy Baxalta for $30 billion. Bid is latest example of a foreign company using its tax-friendly status to buy a US firm.  I really didn't want to add another tag but it appears it is time: the "tax inversion wave" tag. For more on the "tax inversion wave," see this July 7, 2015, WSJ article. 

US and Turkey agree to keep "rein in" Kurds. This is a big story. There are some interesting ways the Wall Street Journal has framed the story. First of all, the writers frame it as a "border" story and we all know how important borders are -- everywhere but along the US-Mexico border, and for the first time ever, I see the WSJ refers to "them" as Syrian Kurds. Syrian. Yes, Syrian. The Syrian Kurds. Very interesting how even the WSJ can frame a story.

Epson kills the printer ink cartridge, but instead of $60 printers it will cost you $500 for the printer. Perhaps small businesses with big budgets can afford these $500 printers but those who buy personal printers at Wal-Mart or Target are not going to pay $500 for a printer sitting alongside a $60 printer. Worse, Epson will swap out the first $500 printer if anything goes wrong, no questions asked, but then after that, "you are on your own." Printers aren't exactly the most dependable electronic gadget in the house.

US consumer spending up 0.2% in June.

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Obama's Thoughts About Senate Republicans: I Think You're Crazy. You Think You Are In Control? LOL

Crazy, Gnarls Barkley