Warren Buffett Continues To Buy Phillips 66 -- January 18, 2016

Forbes reported on January 12, 2016:

Warren Buffett continues to build his stake in Phillips 66 PSX, reporting Monday his third purchase filing this month.

Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway said it bought 1,645,887 shares of the company on January 7, 2016, at prices ranging from $76.45 to $78.01 per share. This represents a 2.64% increase from the number of shares Buffett owned the day before.

The purchase also shows Buffett’s growing interest in the company. It follows a 107% increase to his holding in the third quarter, a total 0.08% increase January 4 and January 5, 2016, and 1.23% increase January 6, 2016.

His Phillips 66 holding now totals 63,940,380 shares.

There are about 535 million PSX shares outstanding. 64/535 = almost 12%.

I was sure that I had posted this on the blog, but when looking for it, I couldn't find it. This is for the archives. This is not an investment, financial, or travel site; do not make any investment, financial, or travel decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. If this important to you, go to the source.

Not only might Warren be getting his oil for free, producers might be paying him as much as 50 cents/bbl to take their product away -- they simply have too much. Bloomberg is reporting:

Flint Hills Resources LLC, the refining arm of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch’s industrial empire, said it would pay -$0.50 a barrel Friday for North Dakota Sour, a high-sulfur grade of crude, according to a list price posted on its website.

That’s down from $13.50 a barrel a year ago and $47.60 in January 2014. While the negative price is due to the lack of pipeline capacity for a particular variety of ultra low quality crude, it underscores how dire things are in the U.S. oil patch.

U.S. benchmark oil prices have collapsed more than 70 percent in the past 18 months and fell below $30 a barrel for the first time in 12 years last week. West Texas Intermediate traded at $29.03 as of 11:13 a.m. in New York.

Enbridge Inc. stopped allowing high-sulfur crudes on its pipeline out of North Dakota in 2011, forcing North Dakota Sour producers to rely on more expensive transport such as trucks and trains, according to Auers.

High-sulfur crude in North Dakota is a small portion of the state’s production, with less than 15,000 barrels a day coming out of the ground.

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Add Vodka To The Long List Of Wonderful North Dakota Products

From The Dickinson Press:

Three brothers and a cousin are distilling potato vodka in a still at their Park River family potato farm.

But the vodka being produced and sold at their Moon River Distillery is no moonshine.

Thompson Brothers Vodka is a licensed vodka produced from homegrown products and a vatful of family connections.

Lots of potatoes:

In this case, a potato mash is created by combining potatoes and water, heating the mixture into a mash to convert the starches into sugars. Then, liquid is extracted from the mash, which starts the fermentation process.

The Thompsons use wood- and coal-fired heat in their distillation process, which begins when the "dead yeast" is filtered out through a series of carbon and paper filters.

Then, the liquid moves to a proofing tank, where it is mixed with water to obtain the required 40 percent alcohol content, or 80 proof vodka, for bottling.

It takes 12 pounds of potatoes to make one 750-milliliter bottle of vodka. So, a 100-bottle batch takes 1,200 pounds, or 12 100-pound bags.

Mead next?

They're closer to making honey wine, more commonly called mead. Scott Thompson said he already is experimenting with recipes.

"North Dakota is the No. 1 producer of honey. We're going to try to do something unique, like a holiday release," he said. "Mead takes a while to make, to ferment. It has unique characteristics that lend (it) to being nice for limited releases, such as for holidays."

And this interesting little nugget: 

Scott has 30 years of experience, mostly working in the compressed gas industry.

He and his wife have lived in several parts of the country, including the Gulf Coast, Pacific Northwest and Silicon Valley, where he learned the home brewery trade.

Much, much more at the link.