Brent Oil Hits $50 -- May 26, 2016; XOM, CVX Shareholders Vote "NO" On Liquidating Their Companies

Brent is above $50/bbl. Headline over at Yahoo!Finance early this morning. Let's see what the number is at the opening bell: the "WTI crawler" is $49.96, up 0.81%.

XOM, CVX shareholders vote "no" on liquidating their companies. I can't make this stuff up. Bloomberg/Rigzone is reporting:

Big Oil investors voted to continue doing the thing that has defined the industry since the 19th century: drilling for crude.

Shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. overwhelmingly rejected resolutions backed by environmental activists on Wednesday that would have curtailed exploration for new oil fields and funneled the money to investors in the form of higher dividends and share buybacks.

At Chevron’s gathering in San Ramon, California, holders rejected the anti-drilling measure for a second straight year. Chairman and CEO John Watson decried the proposal, saying it “suggests we liquidate the company by paying dividends. Of course, we don’t think that is the proper action to take.”

Job watch:

• dropped 10,000, to 268,000
• four-week average: increased to 278,500

The four-week average increasing is interesting; the weekly numbers have shown significant decreases the past two weeks.

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Back To The Bakken

Active rigs:

	5/26/2016	05/26/2015	05/26/2014	05/26/2013	05/26/2012
Active Rigs	29	84	191	186	214

RBN Energy: Tallgrass' winning strategy for the Rockies Express (REX).

When the Rockies Express (REX) Pipeline was being planned and built a few years ago, no one could have predicted that the natural gas-hungry Northeast REX was developed to serve would soon become a gas-production behemoth able to meet its own needs and have plenty of gas left over. But that’s just what happened, and in response, REX’s owners developed a revised strategy that deals with the reality of Marcellus/Utica production growth by making more and more of REX bi-directional. Now, Tallgrass Energy Partners (TEP), a master limited partnership (MLP), has acquired a 25% interest in REX from Sempra, joining existing co-owners Tallgrass Development (an affiliate with a 50% stake in REX) and Phillips 66 (with a 25% stake), and has laid out a long-term vision for maintaining—and even increasing—REX’s relevance in a still-changing energy world. Today, we consider TEP’s $1.08 billion investment in REX, and the steps that the pipeline’s co-owners are taking to bolster REX’s future.

First an important disclaimer.  We are not an investment advisor.  The purpose of this blog is not investment advice or endorsement.  RBN looks at individual company information to see what the data means for the market as a whole, not for the implications for any particular company’s stock.   You should not rely on anything you read here as the basis for any decision or conclusion regarding TEP or any other security.

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State-By-State GDP

US 1Q16 GDP grew at a dismal 0.5% pace -- their words, not mine.

However, like politics, one might say that "all" economies are local.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released coincident indexes for the 50 states, which captures the three-month change in economic activity through April 2016.  This is the seasonally adjusted indicator series for each state’s payroll employment, unemployment rate, average hours worked in manufacturing, and wage and salary disbursements.

According to the release, the indexes increased in 39 states, decreased in seven, and remained stable in four.

The states with decreases include North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Louisiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania. All share exposure to the oil and gas industry, which has struggled due to low prices.

Texas, while exposed heavily to the energy industry, saw activity increase. Comments recently made by Home Depot’s Chairman and CEO Craig Menear may explain.

If Hillary is elected president, and she is successful in her goal to ban fracking, the GDP story is going to look a lot worse, especially in the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania where a lot of fracking is done.

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North Unit 

Video of the "North Unit" taken by our younger daughter during her/her husband's recent trip to North Dakota.

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Can Never Get Enough Of This Song

Directions, Billy Currington