WILLISTON, N.D., March 3 (Reuters) -
The clock is still ticking on a potential $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota's oil industry after a state-calculated average of February's crude price fell below $52.59 per barrel last month.
The state waives its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax if the monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, transport hub falls below an inflation-adjusted limit, set at $52.59 per barrel for 2015, for five consecutive months.
For February, the average calculated price was $50.86 per barrel, according to North Dakota Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger. The average was an increase from the January average of $47.98 per barrel.The tax break kicks in if the average monthly price is below that $52.59 level for each of the next three months. If it is off even one month, the clock resets. [The delta between $52.95 and $50.86 = $2.09.]
The tax returns if the average price exceeds that level for a subsequent five consecutive months. The countdown, which has officially entered its second month out of a possible five, holds the promise of crucial financial incentive for oil producers and their contractors in the No. 2 oil-producing U.S. state as they grapple with a roughly 50 percent drop in crude prices since last summer.
Indeed, many North Dakota energy companies have sharply scaled back drilling and hydraulic fracking. A tax break could encourage activity to pick back up in June, even if oil prices do not rebound. North Dakota legislators designed the tax waiver in 1987 specifically with that very goal in mind.
Rauschenberger estimates North Dakota will take in $2.9 billion in oil taxes in the next two years without the oil extraction tax. With the tax, the projection is $8.2 billion.
Target to lay off thousands. More at CNBC. A $2-billion cost-cutting program. It looks like Target sees digital sales where the growth will be. I follow the demise of big box stores here. The company also said it had the capacity to buy
back up to $2 billion worth of its own shares this fiscal year, and look
to repurchase $3 billion annually from the following year and beyond. Target has to do something: everyone loves going to Target but the stores are always empty as are the parking lots; everyone hates going to Walmart where the stores are always way too crowded and you can't find a parking place.
A state visit without a visit to the White House? What's not to like? It appears Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Congress was a resounding success. It will be followed by the Pope speaking to Congress in September. Maybe this should be the focus of the new Congress. It can't get anything done anyway. It might as well host visiting dignitaries on a monthly (or more often) basis. Mr Boehner could invite who he wants (without consulting the White House). The invitee would be a guest of Congress, but could pursue an audience with this majesty over on Pennsylvania Avenue in a big White House if he/she so chose. The big White House is still closed to the American public so there's plenty of room on the schedule for a guided tour.
Active rigs:
3/3/2015
03/03/2014
03/03/2013
03/03/2012
03/03/2011
Active Rigs
116
189
184
207
170
Wells coming off the confidential list today have been posted; see sidebar at the right.
Eight (8) new permits --
Operators: WPX (5), Emerald Oil (3)
Fields: Reunion Bay (McKenzie), Mondak (McKenzie)
Comments:
Ten (10) producing wells completed:
26783, 174, OXY USA, Shuck 2-33-28H-144-97, Little Knife, t12/14; cum 2K 1/15;
27398,671, OXY USA, State Knopik 2-21-16H-144-97, Little Knife, t12/14; cum 29K 1/15;
27608, 1,440, BR, Bullrush 44-10MBH, Elidah, t2/15; cum 3K 1/15;
28289,1,643, BR, Shenandoah 34-35MBH, Keene, t2/15; cum 5K 1/15;
28613, 812, CLR, Debrecen 3-3H1, Bell, t2/15; cum --
Headline story in today's WSJ: the train that derailed in West Virginia two weeks contained high amount of combustible gas. Look at the numbers (OMG):
The crude oil aboard the train that derailed and
exploded two weeks ago in West Virginia contained so much combustible
gas that it would have been barred from rail transport under safety
regulations set to go into effect next month.
Tests performed on the oil before the train left North Dakota showed it contained a high level of volatile gases,
according to a lab report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The
oil’s vapor pressure, a measure of volatility, was 13.9 pounds per
square inch.
That exceeds the limit of 13.7 psi that North Dakota
is set to impose in April on oil moving by truck or rail from the Bakken
Shale. Oil producers that don’t treat their crude to remove excess gas
face fines and possible civil or criminal penalties, said Alison Ritter,
a spokeswoman for the North Dakota Industrial Commission.
The article neglects to mention that the national standard is 14.7 psi. The first paragraph seems to imply that the cargo would have exceeded national standards. Not. Disingenuous.
The spin never quits.
**********************
What Does It Matter?
Just for the record: the fact that the State Department now admits that Hillary broke the law by using private e-mail for official work means there was a conspiracy to cover up this fact. Obviously "everyone" in the State Department at the time knew she was using a private e-mail account. If not "everyone," certainly the IT folks.
But, then, what does it matter?
[Update, March 3, 2015, later: it turns out -- according to ABC News -- everybody does it or did it, including Colin Powell; this is a non-story; getting it out of the way before she announces her candidacy for Democratic nomination for US presidency.]
The Arctic seems to be warming up, states George Nicolas Ifft in 1922. He was at that time American consul at Bergen, Norway, and submitted from time to times reports to the the State Department, Washington, D.C.
The following text represents an extract from his report, which was published in the journal Monthly Weather Review October 10, 1922.
"The Arctic seems to be warming up. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explores who sail the seas about Spitsbergen and the eastern Arctic, all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard-of high temperatures in that part of the earth's surface."
In August, 1922, the Norwegian Department of Commerce sent an expedition to Spitsbergen and Bear Island under the leadership of Dr. Adolf Hoel, lecturer on geology at the University of Christiania.
Its purpose was to survey and chart the lands adjacent to the Norwegian mines on those islands, take soundings of the adjacent waters, and make other oceanographic investigations.
Dr. Hoel, who has just returned, reports the location of hitherto unknown coal deposits on the eastern shores of Advent Bay - deposits of vast extent and superior quality......The oceanographic observations have, however, been even more interesting. Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before been noted. The expedition all but established a record, sailing as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes in ice-free water. This is the farthest north ever reached with modern oceanographic apparatus.....
********************************
Clueless
Oil companies will move more oil by pipeline than by rail if the price of oil goes up -- yup, that's what Bloomberg says. The writer is obviously clueless.
Texas, the only state that
produces more oil than North Dakota, had a century to build its oil
infrastructure before the shale boom hit. The Bakken, by
contrast, basically went from nothing to a gusher. That left a whole lot
of oil without pipes to move it. Since no one was quite sure how long
it would last, no one wanted to take the risk of building a big pipeline
system to service the area.
Cheap
oil weakens the incentives to build pipelines into North Dakota. At
current prices, a lot of wells in North Dakota are no longer profitable.
Drilling activity has already declined. Production is likely to follow
in the next 12 months. That's hardly a recipe for building a big,
expensive capital project. New rules governing the safety of oil trains,
proposed by federal transportation regulators, will probably make
crude-by-rail more expensive, once they take effect in the next couple
of years. Until then, however, the best way to keep trains from
exploding is to put that oil into pipelines. That isn't likely
to happen without higher oil prices.
Really? The writer's entire article suggests just the opposite.
The writer fails to mention the number of pipelines any number of companies are trying to build but are being stymied by environmental-nazis - but that's another story.
******************************
Rock Beats Scissors
Apple Beats Samsung
For years, anti-Apple folks have said, "okay, Apple may sell more smart phones in the US, but worldwide, Apple is a distant second to Samsung." Not any more. Macrumors is reporting:
Apple surpassed Samsung in worldwide smartphone sales
during the fourth quarter of 2014 to become the world's largest
smartphone maker. Samsung lost the top spot to Apple for the first time
since 2011.
Apple narrowly edged Samsung as the two rivals had quarterly sales of
74.8 million and 73 million smartphones respectively. Apple's 20.4%
market share was also marginally higher than Samsung's 19.9% share
during the three-month period ending December.
Steve Ballmer on the iPhone
Last night, while watching our older granddaughter get ready to start water polo practice, I noted a couple of swimmers -- middle school swimmers -- checking their Apple iPhones. One had the "standard size" iPhone; the other had the larger iPhone -- I know I've seen the larger iPhones at the Apple store but I was surprised (again) how big they are; they are about the size of a small iPad And every time I see someone with an Apple product, I know they will never, ever switch. Not true of non-Apple users. The video above was posted on YouTube in 2007; at that time Mr Ballmer said Apple was selling no (zero, nada, zilch) phones at that time -- whereas Microsoft was already selling "millions and millions" of smart phones. It's amazing that in just seven years, Apple has gone to #1 and I'm not even sure what Microsoft calls their smart phone? It doesn't show up at the Gartner site.
The Dickinson City Commission approved funding Monday evening for the
construction of a bypass that will connect Interstate 94 to Highway 22
west of the city.
Data points:
$5 million
large part of the project funded by the state
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ExxonMobil With More Acreage In Russia Than In The US
Exxon Mobil Corp shook off the
chill of sanctions and continued to snap up drilling rights in Russia
last year, giving it more exploration holdings in Vladimir Putin’s
backyard than in the U.S.
Taking the
long view, Exxon boosted its Russian holdings to 63.7 million acres in
2014 from 11.4 million at the end of 2014 (sic), according to data from U.S.
regulatory filings. That dwarfs the 14.6 million acres of rights Exxon
holds in the U.S., which until last year was its largest exploration
prospect.
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Ford's February Report Not So Great; But One Bright Spot
From the press release: Mustang sales increased 32 percent with 8,454 vehicles sold –
representing its best February sales since 2007 and making it the
best-selling sports car in America since the launch of the all-new model
last fall.
*************************
WSJ Headlines
Is GE's Immelt on his way out? Victim of low oil prices; lack of interest in wind turbines?
Boehner caves to Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.
WASHINGTON — David H. Petraeus,
the best-known military commander of his generation, has reached a plea
deal with the Justice Department that will allow him to avoid an
embarrassing trial over whether he provided classified information to a
mistress when he was the director of the C.I.A.
Mr.
Petraeus will plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and
retention of classified material, which carries a maximum penalty of one
year in prison. Mr. Petraeus has signed the agreement, said Marc
Raimondi, a Justice Department spokesman.
The
plea deal completes a spectacular fall for Mr. Petraeus, a retired
four-star general who was once discussed as a possible candidate for
vice president or even president. He led the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and was the architect of a counterinsurgency strategy that
at one time seemed a model for future warfare.
The
mistress, Paula Broadwell, is a former Army Reserve officer who had an
affair with Mr. Petraeus in 2011, when she was interviewing him for a
biography, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.
President Obama given two pinocchios by Washington Post for his statements on Keystone XL. Fox News is reporting:
President Obama earned a double-barreled rebuke Monday from The Washington Post's fact-checker,
for repeating a faulty claim that the Keystone XL pipeline "bypasses"
the U.S. -- and for saying it would only carry "Canadian oil."
The president made the claims in an interview last week with WDAY of
Fargo, ND. Obama continued to downplay the impact of the
Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, just days after vetoing a
bipartisan-backed bill that would approve the construction project.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, has teed up a vote to
override that veto later this week.
In the local interview, Obama said:
"I've already said I'm happy to look at how we can increase pipeline
production for U.S. oil, but Keystone is for Canadian oil to send that
down to the Gulf. It bypasses the United States and is estimated to
create a little over 250, maybe 300 permanent jobs. We should be
focusing more broadly on American infrastructure for American jobs and
American producers, and that's something that we very much support."
The president has been called out before for claiming the oil would bypass the U.S.
Last week (February 19, 2015) Enterprise Product Partners announced
the start of line fill on their 780 Mb/d ECHO to Beaumont/Port Arthur
pipeline. The new route will open access for Canadian heavy crude
shippers on the recently completed Seaway Twin pipeline from Cushing to
Houston to 1.5 MMb/d of refining capacity in Beaumont/Port Arthur
including 0.3 MMb/d of heavy crude coker processing. These refineries
were a key target of the Keystone-XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf
Coast that still awaits approval. Today we look at demand and
competition for Canadian heavy crude on the Texas Gulf Coast.
In Episode 1
of this two part series we looked at the rather painful progress
developing pipeline infrastructure to deliver heavy Canadian oil sands
crude to Gulf Coast refineries. Midstream developers have been beset by
difficulties including headline grabbing delays to the Keystone XL
pipeline and less dramatic but no less damaging setbacks to expansion of
the Enbridge system. Since December about 240 Mb/d of heavy Canadian
crude has flowed into the Houston Enbridge ECHO terminal on the Seaway
Twin pipeline where it must now duke it out with incumbent suppliers to
the Gulf Coast’s 1.5 MMb/d of heavy crude “coking” capacity. The largest
of the incumbents is Mexican national oil company PEMEX that has
already begun discounting it’s flagship Maya crude to do battle with
Canadian producers. In this episode we look at heavy crude refining
capacity on the Texas Gulf Coast that Canadian barrels will be competing
to supply. We also ponder how the volumes of crude flowing on Seaway
Twin today will impact the incumbent suppliers.
West Coast port terminals were inundated with inquiries from businesses
across the U.S. that rely on the swift movement of their products, as
port delays reached near gridlock. Mr. Molinaro said many of his
customers, frustrated with their supply chain’s snail’s pace, insisted
on coming to see and ask for themselves, “What is going on?”
All the pressure has management at the Southern California ports, which
combined handle 40% of all containerized freight for the U.S., thinking
about ways they can speed things up. Port terminals are developing new
ways to organize cargo at the docks and systems for getting that cargo
moving off the docks as quickly as possible. Software developed by a
local technology startup called Cargomatic, a sort of Uber for moving
cargo around the Los Angeles region, serves as one creative solution.
As contract talks between the Pacific Maritime Association and the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union crept along, the line of
massive ships in San Pedro Bay became longer and container stacks in the
terminal yards rose higher. Even now, since a tentative contract was
reached Feb. 20, experts estimate it could be as long as six months
before shipping returns to normal, and the delays could cost retailers
billions of dollars this year.
Some novel ideas:
So some terminals have been trying a novel idea: When a truck driver
shows up, put the first container off the top of the stack on the truck
and send it on its way. No more moving other containers around to dig
out specific cargo—just get it all off the dock as fast as possible.
The concept isn’t entirely new. Many megaretailers use what is known as
free-flow or peel-off operations at the ports. If there are enough
containers destined for the same cargo owner, all arriving on the same
ship, longshore crane operators can stack them together and load them on
to the retailer’s trucks as they arrive.
Running operations on an app from Silicon Valley:
Other port terminals and trucking companies also are augmenting their
free-flow programs. Last week, the Port of Los Angeles launched a
similar system—minus the smartphone app—at four marine terminals. Under
that program, as many as 600 containers a day could be moved off the
docks as soon as they are unloaded from ships, Mr. Seroka said.
“Most shippers don’t have the volume to do this,” Cargomatic co-founder
Brett Parker said. The software “allows multiple shippers and multiple
carriers to participate in free flow,” he added.
Mr. Parker and co-founder Jonathan Kessler run Cargomatic out of an
office in Venice, Calif., part of Southern California’s so-called
Silicon Beach region. The app is also running in beta mode in New York
City. In January, Cargomatic closed $8 million in venture-capital
investment.
Though small in scale, the Cargomatic test proved to be a rare instance
where the port’s productivity actually increased amid the labor strife.
The average so-called turn time for Cargomatic truck drivers was 35
minutes, roughly half the time it usually takes under the standard
dig-out process.