Potpourri -- October 3, 2015

From Rigzone/Bloomberg: Jim Rogers says oil ignoring bad news usually means rebound near or put another way, "hope springs eternal."

Oil is holding near $45 while the bad news keeps coming. For investor Jim Rogers, that’s usually a sign a rebound is near.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is still pumping near-record amounts of oil, China’s imports have slowed and U.S. crude stockpiles remain about 100 million barrels above the five-year seasonal average. Yet, U.S. benchmark prices have held steady for more than four weeks since plunging to a six- year low at the end of August.

“When there’s bad news and something doesn’t decline, it usually means it’s at a bottom and will be turning,” Rogers, who correctly predicted a commodities rally in 1999, said in an interview in Singapore on Thursday. “Whether we’re at a turning point or not, I don’t know yet, and I’m watching this very closely.”

I"ll sleep better knowing he's watching this, not only "closely," but "very closely." I think this is why Twitter has a 140-character limit; cuts down the fluff. (By they way, Twitter says it is considering increasing the character limit.)

*********************************

Reuters Say It's a Record; Looks Flat To Me

From Rigzone/Reuters: the sky is falling, the sky is falling -- Russia oil output at post-Soviet high on foreign projects, Rosneft. Data points:

• September: 10.74 million bopd
• August: 10.68 million bopd
• Delta: 10.74 - 10.68 = 0.06 million bopd or 60,000 bopd (almost a rounding error)
• in percentages, 0.06 / 10.68 = 0.6% increase

********************************

Saudi To Maintain Spending

See Jim Rodgers Story Above 

But this story is probably the most important: Saudi Arabia will maintain spending. From Rigzone/Reuters:

Saudi Arabia is continuing with its investments in the oil and gas industry as well as solar energy despite the current drop in oil prices, the kingdom's oil minister was quoted as saying on Friday.

That part about solar energy? I think you can ignore. With regard to oil production, we'll let the numbers speak for themselves.