For almost three months the U.S. has been able to legally export
crude oil, but Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio is
still campaigning on lifting the ban.
Rubio told supporters
he would lift the ban as president at a private fundraiser in Texas
Friday, and his campaign website has an entire page devoted to the need
to lift the ban. “I would also allow American oil producers to be able
to export,” Rubio said, when asked what he would do about poor oil prices as president. “Right now we’re not allowed to export.”
Congress lifted the ban in December as part of the $1.1 trillion omnibus
spending bill it passed. “Oil companies rush to exploit end of U.S.
crude export ban,” reported Reuters in the wake of the vote that ended a 40-year ban on crude oil exports.
A subsection of Rubio’s energy policy on his website echoes his
remarks. “So how can we usher in a 21st Century energy agenda? We can
start by eliminating government-imposed barriers to energy production
and economic growth,” the page reads, which is titled: “It’s Time To Lift The Crude Oil Export Ban.”
Folks may recall that Senator Rubio has good reason to be unaware of this. He has not been back in the Senate for record number of weeks.
And they call Trump a buffoon.
Marco Rubio has been added to the list of nominees for the 2016 Geico Rock Award.
**********************************
Massachusetts Democrats Fleeing Party
Independents Can Vote In Either Democrat or GOP Primary
Two Things unrelated to each other, the second not worthy of a separate thread because there isn't much info yet.
One:
"Nearly 20,000 Bay State Democrats have fled the party this winter, with
thousands doing so to join the Republican ranks, according to the
state’s top elections official.
Secretary of State
William Galvin said more than 16,300 Democrats have shed their party
affiliation and become independent voters since January 1, 2016, while nearly
3,500 more shifted to the MassGOP ahead of tomorrow’s “Super Tuesday”
presidential primary....
Galvin said the state could see as many as
700,000 voting in tomorrow’s Republican primary, a significant number
given just 468,000 people are actually registered Republicans. In
Massachusetts, unenrolled — otherwise known as independent — voters can
cast a ballot in the primary of any party."
Two:
"Donald Trump has added a press conference at his Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Super Tuesday,
fueling speculations of another high-profile endorsement. The
billionaire will host separate campaign rallies in Ohio and Kentucky
during the day Tuesday, before arriving in Florida. Some speculate that
Florida Gov. Rick Scott could announce his support of Trump at the press conference, which is scheduled two weeks before Florida's Republican primary."
For newbies: during the boom, there were usually two to three days of hearing, and the agenda for each
day was as many as 20 pages long. The March, 2016, hearings: two
days; 6 pages of agenda for the first day, and 7 pages of agenda for the second day. Most of them are continued cases or pooling cases.
It is very, very quiet with regard to the dockets right now.
24899, MRO, McGregory Buttes-Bakken, a) allow up to 21 wells on a 2560-acre unit (sections 14/15/22/23 - 147-94; b) establish a 2560-acre overlapping unit with one well; Dunn County
24907, BR, Dimmick Lake-Bakken, 14 wells on a stand-up 2560-acre unit, as well as two more wells in an overlapping 2560-acre unit; McKenzie County
This well is still shown as a DUC at the NDIC site, but FracFocus says it was fracked 9/11-24/2015:
28432, SI/NC, Zavanna, Tomahawk 10-3 3H, East Fork, 11.7 million gallons of water; 5.7% by weight of sand; no test date, cum 36K 12/15:
Pool
Date
Days
BBLS Oil
Runs
BBLS Water
MCF Prod
MCF Sold
Vent/Flare
BAKKEN
12-2015
27
14846
14320
20077
14999
14282
315
BAKKEN
11-2015
26
21518
19820
32286
22851
17257
5207
BAKKEN
10-2015
2
0
0
3396
310
0
280
************************
Notes to the Granddaughters
I keep a list of words that I come across in my reading to share with Arianna, in preparation for the tests she will be taking a few years from now. Two things happen, and I think the first happens to everyone. When one discovers a new word, the word seems to start popping up everywhere.
Years ago, I first came across the word flaneur at a time in my adult life when I was doing lots of walking. I mean lots of walking. I was in northern England, single or at least alone, and I had nothing to do for long stretches at time, except to read and walk. I remember starting my walk some days at 7:30 a.m. and not returning home until 8:00 p.m. Some evenings, I honestly felt I could not walk another step and I had a real fear I would not make it home, falling from exhaustion. I honestly did not think one could become exhausted by simply walking, but one most assuredly can. I associate a flaneur with an urban walker, especially one who walks, not as a tourist, but as lifelong resident of a large city, like Paris, for example. Today while reading Sue Roe's The Private Lives of The Impressionists I was reminded (if I ever knew before, I can't recall) that Edouard Manet was a wealthy painter who loved to walk the streets of Paris. He was a flaneur.
The second thing that happens is I come across words that I use in everyday speech or grew up using but words that I never really stopped to think about.
Butte, for example.
I don't think I ever thought about the etiology of the word butte.
In the process of updating the DUCs from 2Q15, the following wells were noted. No DUCs have been drilled since the last update. The Zavanna well went from drl status to producing. Note the number of stages used in the Zavanna well.
29370, 822, CLR, Gronfur 2-28H, Brooklyn, 4 sections, 30 stages, 3.4 million lbs, t5/15; cum 126K 12/15;
Spud date: February 1, 2015 Kick-off point: February 6, 2015 TD: February 13, 2015 Within the ideal marker window of lateral for 88% of time; within the middle Bakken 100% of the time
Pool
Date
Days
BBLS Oil
Runs
BBLS Water
MCF Prod
MCF Sold
Vent/Flare
BAKKEN
12-2015
31
13000
13120
5857
23217
20647
2570
BAKKEN
11-2015
30
12915
12921
5178
21783
17838
3945
BAKKEN
10-2015
31
14665
14769
6369
24690
23517
1173
BAKKEN
9-2015
30
14242
13902
6251
24111
22513
1598
BAKKEN
8-2015
31
14941
14935
6484
25259
24094
1165
BAKKEN
7-2015
31
16259
16759
7874
27252
23504
3748
BAKKEN
6-2015
30
14842
14400
6717
23050
22880
170
BAKKEN
5-2015
31
21258
21170
10325
33277
33003
274
BAKKEN
4-2015
1
235
0
485
78
0
78
BAKKEN
3-2015
6
3160
3041
0
6669
0
6669
29371, 864, CLR, Gronfur 3-28H1, Brooklyn, Three Forks, 4 sections, 30 states, 5.9 million lbs, t5/15; cum 111K 12/15:
Spud date: January 24, 2015 Kick-off point: January 29, 2015 TD: February 22, 2015 (14 days drilling time) Exposure to target: 12' zone for 90% of the time; within the Three Forks 100% of the time
Pool
Date
Days
BBLS Oil
Runs
BBLS Water
MCF Prod
MCF Sold
Vent/Flare
BAKKEN
12-2015
31
11177
11419
8797
29728
25640
4088
BAKKEN
11-2015
30
13564
13516
9076
22993
14938
8055
BAKKEN
10-2015
26
12107
11728
7412
19281
17436
1845
BAKKEN
9-2015
26
11000
11432
7146
19746
18515
1231
BAKKEN
8-2015
31
12386
12071
7891
20950
19893
1057
BAKKEN
7-2015
31
14800
14949
9700
24303
21920
2383
BAKKEN
6-2015
30
13716
13991
8902
21641
21093
548
BAKKEN
5-2015
31
19203
18769
14255
29927
29834
93
BAKKEN
4-2015
1
249
0
765
61
0
61
BAKKEN
3-2015
4
2565
2487
0
4405
0
4405
****************************************
28436,274, Zavanna, Arrowhead 10-3 3H, East Fork, 50 stages, 6 million lbs, t11/15; cum 36K 12/15;
The Oscars were all given out last night at the 88th
Academy Awards but despite one of the most anticipated opening
monologues in years due to the diversity controversy, it turns out
there is no gold, nor silver or bronze for ABC.
With 34.3 million total viewers watching the Chris Rock
hosted shindig from the Hollywood and Highland on Sunday, the Oscars
took a tumble this year to hit an 8-year low and the third lowest
viewership ever
Original Post
Numbers of viewers for the Oscars, 2015, was the lowest in six years. The trend continues. This year, down 6 percent. The Los Angeles Times is reporting:
Anticipation of Chris Rock's
no-holds-barred commentary at the 88th Academy Awards ceremony did not
boost to the overnight ratings for Sunday's telecast on ABC.
Based
on Nielsen’s overnight data from 56 large U.S. TV markets, the telecast
averaged a 23.4 rating and a 36% share of the homes using television
from 8:30 p.m. to 11:51 p.m. EST, when the last commercial break aired.
That's down 6% when compared with the 24.9 rating from the overnight data for 2015.
Among
the local markets measured, the show's highest rating was in New York,
33.2. That was higher than the rating in Los Angeles, where the telecast
averaged a 29.5, down from 33.5 in 2015.
The total national audience is expected to be
available later Monday. Last year, the ceremony hosted by Neil Patrick
Harris averaged 37.3 million viewers, the smallest audience in six
years.
I didn't watch it. I could hear a bit of it from the television in the other room, but that was it. I rushed into see three highlights:
Leo DiCaprio accepting his Oscar: who was astonished how far he had to go to see snow (he could have visited Boston)
Michael Keaton on stage when best movie announced (wow, he has a string of successes: Batman, Birdman, and Spotlight)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, director (well, well deserved; I won't see Revenant but I loved Birdman
Something tells me that "Hollywood" feels they dealt with the "race" issue and things will return to "normal" today.
What
is unique in this cycle is the difficult relationship between business
and government, the worst I have ever seen. Technology, productivity
and globalization have been the driving forces during my business
career. In business, if you don’t lead these changes, you get fired; in
politics, if you don’t fight them, you can’t get elected. As a result,
most government policy is anti-growth.
In the U.S., we want exports
but seem to hate trade and exporters; globally, governments love small
businesses but then regulate them to death.
And so, we perpetuate a
cycle: slow growth, poor job creation, populism, low productivity,
higher regulation, poor policy and more slow growth.
We now live in a
world where the most promising growth policy is “negative interest
rates.”
In the U.S., 2015 was the 10th consecutive year when GDP growth
failed to reach 3%, a rate that used to be considered our entitlement.
He could have added, we want increased manufacturing opportunities but NIMBY.
For many baby boomers, what's
especially confusing is determining whether you're grandfathered into
the old benefits system. Those who will not be affected by the rule changes generally fall into one of three groups:
Anyone
who has already claimed benefits before April 30. If you submit your
request by that date, and your spouse or children become entitled to
benefits either before or after that date, they will not be cut off by
the new rules and will continue to receive payments.
Anyone
who will reach full retirement age (66 right now) on or before April 29
will continue to be able to use the file-and-suspend strategy
Anyone
who was age 62 or older as January 1, 2016 will be able to continue to
file a restricted application at FRA for just their spousal benefit,
while deferring their own retirement benefit. They will not be subject
to the agency’s new deeming rules.
For leading U.S. shale oil producers, $40 is the new $70.
Less than a year ago major shale firms were saying they
needed oil above $60 a barrel to produce more; now some say they will
settle for far less in deciding whether to crank up output after the
worst oil price crash in a generation.
Their latest
comments highlight the industry's remarkable resilience, but also serve
as a warning to rivals and traders: a retreat in U.S. oil production
that would help ease global oversupply and let prices recover may prove
shorter than some may have expected.
Continental Resources Inc, led by billionaire wildcatter
Harold Hamm, is prepared to increase capital spending if U.S. crude
reaches the low- to mid-$40s range, allowing it to boost 2017 production
by more than 10 percent, chief financial official John Hart said last
week.
Rival Whiting
Petroleum Corp, the biggest producer in North Dakota's Bakken
formation, will stop fracking new wells by the end of March, but would
"consider completing some of these wells" if oil reached $40 to $45 a
barrel, Chairman and CEO Jim Volker told analysts. Less than a year ago,
when the company was still in spending mode, Volker said it might
deploy more rigs if U.S. crude hit $70.
While the comments were couched with caution, they serve
as a reminder of how a dramatic decline in costs and rapid efficiency
gains have turned U.S. shale, initially seen by rivals as a marginal,
high cost sector, into a major player - and a thorn in the side of big
OPEC producers.
Brent crude futures edged higher on Monday, adding to strong gains last
week, on rising hopes that the market has bottomed out and as OPEC
kingpin Saudi Arabia said it would work with other producers to limit
oil market volatility.
President Vladimir Putin has called for a meeting with top managers of
Russia's leading oil producers on Tuesday, which is is expected to be
dominated by low oil prices and taxation.
From the EIA today:
Iraq was the second-leading contributor to the growth in global oil supply in 2015, behind only the United States.
Crude oil production in Iraq, including fields in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, averaged 4.0 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2015, almost 700,000 b/d above the 2014 level.
Iraq is the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and accounted for about 75% of total OPEC production growth in 2015. Iraq's oil consumption decreased slightly in 2015, and as a result, all of the crude oil production increase was exported to international markets. --- EIA [I doubt Iraq will comply with any freeze, even if they agree to a freeze as suggested by Saudi Arabia.]
The union representing 10,000 Stop & Shop workers in Massachusetts
voted unanimously to authorize a strike if Local 1445 of the United Food
and Commercial Workers can’t reach a contract agreement with the
company.
Leaders of Local 1445 have not set a timetable for calling a strike.
Stop & Shop, owned by the Dutch company Koninklijke Ahold N.V, wants
to cut pensions, increase health care costs, and give new employees
fewer benefits, according to the union. The wages being offered are
also inadequate, the union said.
*************************************
Suckered
Updates
February 29, 2016: on the Monday show today, Limbaugh says this was taken out of context; not accurate; that he has never given in one bit on amnesty. He does admit that Rubio has "this gang of 8 / amnesty problem" but until now I don't recall Limbaugh being this forthright on Rubio. Gradually walking it back?
A few weeks after Senator Marco Rubio
joined a bipartisan push for an immigration overhaul in 2013, he
arrived alongside Senator Chuck Schumer at the executive dining room of
News Corporation’s Manhattan headquarters for dinner.
Their mission was to persuade Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the media empire, and Roger Ailes,
the chairman and chief executive of its Fox News division, to keep the
network’s on-air personalities from savaging the legislation and give it
a fighting chance at survival.
Mr.
Murdoch, an advocate of immigration reform, and Mr. Ailes, his top
lieutenant and the most powerful man in conservative television, agreed
at the January 17, 2013, meeting to give the senators some breathing room.
But
the media executives, highly attuned to the intensifying anger in the
Republican grass roots, warned that the senators also needed to make
their case to Rush Limbaugh, the king of conservative talk radio, who
held enormous sway with the party’s largely anti-immigrant base.
So the senators supporting the legislation turned to Mr. Rubio, the Florida Republican, to reach out to Mr. Limbaugh.
How did it turn out?
On
January 29, 2013, the same day Mr. Obama highlighted immigration in Las
Vegas, Mr. Limbaugh had Mr. Rubio on as a guest to talk about
immigration and called him “admirable and noteworthy” during a warm
conversation about the bipartisan immigration plan.
“I
know for you border security is the first and last — if that doesn’t
happen, none of the rest does, right?” Mr. Limbaugh lobbed.
“Well, not just that,” swung Mr. Rubio. “That alone is not enough.”
The conversation concluded with Mr. Rubio saying: “Thank you for the opportunity, Rush. I appreciate it.”
Bakken CBR tankcars being used for storage --The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. market is so oversupplied with oil that traders are experimenting with a new place for storing excess crude.
Thousands of railcars ordered up to transport oil are now sitting idle because current ultralow crude prices have made shipping by train unprofitable. Meanwhile, traditional storage tanks are running out of room as U.S. oil inventories swell to their highest level since the 1930s.
Some industry participants are calling the new practice “rolling
storage”—a landlocked spin on the “floating storage” producers use to
hold crude on giant oil tankers when inventories run high.
The combination of cheap oil and surplus railcars has created a budding new side business for traders. J.P. Fjeld-Hansen,
a managing director for trading company Musket Corp., tested using
railcars for storage last year and found he could profit by putting the
oil aside while locking in a higher price to deliver it in a later
month.
The company built a rail terminal in Windsor, Colo., in 2012 to load oil shipments during a boom in U.S. oil production. Now, Mr. Fjeld-Hansen says, “The focus has shifted from a loading terminal to an oil-storage and railcar-storage business.”
In Part 1 of
this series we noted that CBR volumes are falling across the U.S. and
Canada. The decline is mostly in response to narrower spreads between
U.S. domestic crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and
international equivalent Brent. The lower spreads reduce the incentive
to move crude from inland basins to coastal refineries by rail because
the latter is a more expensive transport option compared to pipelines
(which mostly transport crude to the Midcontinent and Gulf Coast). When
WTI was discounted to Brent by upwards of $25/Bbl in 2011 and 2012
because of congestion caused by a lack of pipeline capacity, it made
sense to use rail to get stranded crude to market. We described the
resulting increase in U.S.
CBR shipments from 33 Mb/d in January 2010 to
a peak of 928 Mb/d in October 2014 (according to EIA). As new pipelines
have been built out to provide less expensive options to get stranded
crude to market so the WTI discount has narrowed dramatically and CBR
traffic has declined. Primarily in response to the narrowing spread -
CBR volumes fell during 2015 but not as fast as you might expect –
dropping only 20% between January and November 2015 (latest EIA data)
even though the spot market economics often made no sense.
As we
discussed in Part 2
– looking at the epicenter of the CBR boom in North Dakota – the slower
than expected decline in rail shipments is mostly because committed
shippers and refiners continue to use rail infrastructure that they
invested in and because some routes still do not have pipeline access.
In Part 3
we looked at CBR traffic out of the Niobrara shale region in the
Rockies. Rail load terminal infrastructure there was built in Colorado
and Wyoming in response to increased crude production from the Niobrara
shale over the past 4 years. Now although crude production in the region
is down from 2014 peaks and expected to only grow slowly in the next
5-years if oil prices stay low – midstream companies continue the build
out and expansion of rail terminals as well as new pipelines. This time
we look at the fate of CBR load terminals built out in Western Canada in
today’s low crude price environment.
Over the past two weeks we detailed the sorry plight of producers in
Canada’s oil sands region in the face of record low prices for local
benchmark heavy crude Western Canadian Select (WCS) at Hardisty in
Alberta. For some producers the transport costs to get these heavy
crudes to market are so high that at today’s crude prices they make
minimal or even negative netbacks (crude selling price minus transport
costs) at the wellhead.
The high transport costs include a penalty for blending in expensive
light hydrocarbon diluent at the wellhead to dilute bitumen crude so
that it can flow in pipelines. Producers not only have to pay more for
diluent than the value of the blended WCS, but they also have to ship
the diluent to markets as far away as the Gulf Coast (over 2000 miles).
Nevertheless – as we noted in “Desperadoes”
– Oil Sands producers continue to run their steam assisted gravity
drainage (SAGD) bitumen plants despite losing money because they
otherwise risk damaging these 40-year long-term production assets. And
previous investment means that new projects continue to come online so
that incredibly, – Canadian crude production is expected to continue
growing.
The Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) forecasts that total
crude production will increase by about 5% during 2016 from 3.9 MMb/d in
January to 4.1 MMb/d in December with oil sands SAGD production
expected to increase by 9% in 2016. With Canadian market needs already
met, almost all new production heads to the U.S. where closer-by
Mid-Continent refinery demand for heavy crude is saturated – meaning
producers have to ship all the way to the Gulf Coast to find new
markets. For Canadian producers the long distances to market in the U.S.
have been compounded by delays in the build out of more economic
pipeline routes out of Canada – culminating in the November 2015
Presidential cross-border permit rejection of the proposed 800 Mb/d
Keystone XL pipeline. The history of CBR in Western Canada is closely
entwined with pipeline congestion on routes to the U.S. such that
producers turn to more expensive railroad options when they can’t get
access to pipeline capacity.
Unemployment benefits paid by the US states and the District of Columbia, in order of percent of population that received benefits in 2015.
Basic data provided by AP. Calculations by me likely contain errors. I think the columns are self-explanatory when used in association with the story at the link. The "color of the state" is based on wiki data this date and "interpreted" by myself. Folks may disagree on the "color" of some of these states. For example, "emotionally" one might easily consider North Dakota a "red" state, but with a Democrat US senator and a GOP US senator, one might argue that North Dakota should be a "purple" state.
It is interesting that among the top ten states in the table below, there were only two red states: Alaska and North Dakota, both hit extremely hard by the downturn in the oil industry in 2015. The next two red states are West Virginia (coal) and Montana (coal, natural gas, and some oil). Texas, another huge oil state, is far down in the list suggesting the Texas economy is quite diversified.
State
Max Wks Benefit
State Population
Receiving Benefits 2015
Percent of State Population
Benefits Paid 2015
Average Per Recipient 2015
Percent of Un-employed Receiving Benefits
Color of State
AK
26
736,732
41,821
5.68
123,460,581
2,952
36.6
R
CT
26
3,597,000
184,853
5.14
712,468,042
3,854
39.1
B
NJ
26
8,938,000
446,526
5.00
2,089,483,818
4,679
41.8
B
DC
26
658,893
32,290
4.90
117,139,477
3,628
15.0
B
PA
26
12,790,000
601,762
4.70
2,262,784,886
3,760
43.2
B
ND
26
739,482
34,332
4.64
170,402,575
4,963
37.5
R
RI
26
1,055,000
48,869
4.63
160,437,411
3,283
32.9
B
MA
30
6,745,000
301,394
4.47
1,524,058,653
5,057
42.5
B
IA
26
3,107,000
134,661
4.33
422,378,832
3,137
36.3
B
WI
26
5,758,000
244,956
4.25
584,994,842
2,388
36.1
B
VT
26
626,562
25,362
4.05
73,059,734
2,881
38.7
B
WV
26
1,850,000
71,666
3.87
228,311,949
3,186
29.6
R
MT
28
1,024,000
39,564
3.86
108,636,802
2,746
38.9
R
CA
26
38,800,000
1,481,339
3.82
5,456,325,870
3,683
32.5
B
IL
26
12,880,000
491,362
3.81
1,861,952,303
3,789
31.0
B
OR
26
3,970,000
148,441
3.74
524,116,736
3,531
30.4
B
MN
26
5,457,000
200,247
3.67
779,169,999
3,891
40.6
B
NY
26
19,610,000
715,553
3.65
2,426,793,648
3,391
34.2
B
MI
20
9,910,000
361,114
3.64
826,572,215
2,289
26.2
B
WY
26
584,153
21,133
3.62
94,019,099
4,449
32.2
R
WA
26
7,062,000
252,331
3.57
1,009,052,759
3,999
27.6
B
NV
26
2,839,000
99,930
3.52
359,603,389
3,599
27.4
P
ME
26
1,330,000
45,308
3.41
117,992,637
2,604
29.0
B
AR
20
2,966,000
89,121
3.00
240,518,410
2,699
30.5
R
KS
16
2,904,000
85,404
2.94
339,150,250
3,971
24.9
R
ID
26
1,634,000
47,910
2.93
104,107,846
2,173
27.6
R
MO
13
6,064,000
173,056
2.85
337,601,309
1,951
21.6
R
DE
26
935,614
26,437
2.83
78,543,180
2,971
31.5
B
MD
26
5,976,000
167,668
2.81
574,118,089
3,424
26.2
B
OH
26
11,590,000
299,452
2.58
977,451,509
3,264
23.5
P
HI
26
1,420,000
34,456
2.43
157,488,120
4,571
30.5
B
CO
26
5,356,000
129,734
2.42
535,969,686
4,131
26.5
P
GA
14
10,100,000
242,935
2.41
420,882,157
1,732
13.9
R
TX
26
26,960,000
646,062
2.40
2,847,508,360
4,407
28.2
R
NM
26
2,086,000
49,057
2.35
189,277,313
3,858
21.8
B
KY
26
4,413,000
96,534
2.19
204,389,699
2,117
23.2
R
AL
26
4,849,000
101,557
2.09
204,977,602
2,018
18.2
R
IN
26
6,597,000
137,070
2.08
350,574,333
2,558
17.6
R
TN
26
6,549,000
133,539
2.04
279,141,953
2,090
14.8
R
NH
26
1,327,000
26,808
2.02
67,636,762
2,523
19.5
B
OK
26
3,878,000
78,332
2.02
344,855,622
4,402
26.8
R
NE
26
1,882,000
36,571
1.94
86,814,131
2,374
25.7
R
MS
26
2,994,000
55,390
1.85
102,871,141
1,857
17.3
R
UT
26
3,000,000
54,961
1.83
174,427,517
3,174
21.2
R
SC
20
4,832,000
86,055
1.78
156,610,923
1,820
12.7
R
AZ
26
6,731,000
115,804
1.72
290,381,061
2,508
16.9
R
LA
26
4,650,000
79,661
1.71
117,992,637
1,481
16.7
R
VA
26
8,326,000
130,514
1.57
405,356,456
3,106
15.2
R
NC
13
9,944,000
155,305
1.56
282,968,604
1,822
12.8
R
FL
12
19,890,000
269,764
1.36
518,071,340
1,920
12.0
P
SD
26
853,175
10,069
1.18
25,574,891
2,540
13.0
R
***********************************************
A Note for the Granddaughters
It was an incredible evening of water polo for inter-league play. Among several games played today, the most important games were the two with St Marks School of Dallas. St Marks is an all-boy school and is generally considered the best team in the league in which our 12-year-old granddaughter plays. The St Marks school fields two teams, the "A" team and the "B" team. We can generally beat the "B" team but we "never" beat the "A" team. Until tonight.
The first game was at 5:30 p.m. this evening, our granddaughter's team vs St Marks "B" team. It was pretty evening matched from the standpoint of skill level, I suppose, but our team easily won 6 - 1.
The second game, at 6:15 p.m. was the "BIG" game. Our team was playing back-to-back, with no rest between games. The St Marks "A" team was playing after a 45-minute break and should have been well-rested. As expected, the St Marks team started off strong, and quickly led 2 - 0. It appeared that it was going to be a blow-out. Before the first half was over, when the score was 6 - 3, I mentioned to my daughter that our team was actually doing quite well, hanging in there at 6 - 3.
In the third period we moved to 6 - 5 and I was really, really surprised. In the fourth period, we tied at 6 - 6. Incredible. And then the go ahead score, making it 7 - 6. There was about 24 seconds left when we got the ball (the shot clock is 30 seconds, so essentially we only had to play "keep away" for 24 seconds).
All of a sudden, with either no seconds on the clock or very few seconds on the clock, a timeout was called by St Marks. After the timeout was over, for which I could not explain, our team got a penalty shot with four seconds on the board, and we scored, winning 8 - 6.
It was incredible that we won. Absolutely incredible. I asked our granddaughter what the deal was regarding the penalty shot with four seconds left in the game. It turns out the opposing coach with few or no seconds on the board asked for a timeout. The referee said "no" -- "no timeout." The St Marks coach was demanding and adamant, wanting a timeout, so the referee gave the St Marks team a timeout. It turns out that the St Marks team had no more timeouts left, and was penalized for asking for a timeout when they had none left. It was then that the referee put 4 seconds back on the clock (something I had not seen done before) and our team was given a penalty shot. The penalty shot was not needed, of course, we had already won 7 - 6, but this pretty much sealed the game with an exclamation mark.
The video below is of the first game, in which we easily won, to provide a "flavor" of the game. (Note: the St Marks pool is a small pool with a shallow end and a deep end. Normally, water polo is played in pools deep enough that one cannot stand on the bottom of the pool and continue to play with one's head above water. Obviously at the shallow end of a small pool, the goalie can stand fully upright. To make it fair, the teams switch goals each of the four periods.
