Number Of Active Rigs In North Dakota Dropping Again -- September 14, 2016

Katie Ledecky on the Ellen Degeneres show today -- if I have the dates correct.

From the USC - Los Angeles Times daily tracking poll:

The EN-Leo / EN-Freda wells have been updated. Link here. 

Active rigs:

	9/14/2016	09/14/2015	09/14/2014	09/14/2013	09/14/2012
Active Rigs	34	68	199	178	193

RBN Energy: sizing up the shale revolution footprint.

Let’s face it — for producers, the last couple of years have stung, with low-slung energy prices allowing little-to-no returns on drilling investments in most parts of the major shale basins. A side effect of the low price environment in the past two years has been the shrinking geographic footprint of the Shale Revolution. About 50% of all onshore rigs in the Lower 48 currently are clustered in the top 20 counties for drilling activity. In effect, this also means a lot of the new production growth will come primarily from these same 20 counties, with the potential for all sorts of implications for infrastructure and regional price relationships. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at rig counts by county to see how much the geographic focus of the Shale Revolution has narrowed.

Some of the data points:

• almost 70% of drilling rigs are clustered in 38 counties: oil and natural gas
• only two counties in North Dakota of significance now: McKenzie, Dunn
• the Permian is almost single handedly keeping the Shale Revolution alive in the oil patch
• five years ago: the Permian was thought to be dead
• outside of those 38 counties, there is a pretty good chance production is declining; if not accurate, it may be due to DUCs being completed
• a new term: dead DUCs: non-economic DUCs

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The Market

Mid-day trading: turned negative; down about 30 points. Hemorrhaging has been slowed to some residual slight oozing. NYSE

• new highs: 11 (including Las Vegas Sands -- related to the Fed "rate watch"?)
• new lows: 20 (including Noble again)

Opening: up a bit after several tough days.

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But If You Stay

Selloff takes some shine off energy shares: it's not that they're enamored with the current value proposition of energy. The elephant in the room is that people are hungry for yield.

Energy companies fell more than the broader stock market in a selloff that dragged down all 10 major sectors of the S&P 500, as well as crude-oil prices and government bonds. It was the third straight turbulent session, raising concerns that months of calm have given way to a period of volatility. Stocks and bonds fell sharply Friday as investors worried that central banks could dial back their easy-money policies. Markets stabilized Monday but declines picked up again Tuesday.

Energy stocks have risen roughly 12% in the S&P 500 so far this year as many investors bet that oil prices had bottomed and energy firms’ earnings were poised for a rebound. For three sessions through Monday, energy’s year-to-date gains were the biggest of any sector. 

But if you stay --

If You Go Away, Dusty Springfield

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Other Headlines 

Largest-ever US military aid package to go to Israel.

• $38 billion over 10 years; an increase from the $30 billion decade-long deal that expires in 2018

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Apple vs Samsung

Updates

September 19, 2016:

Few things motivate Samsung employees like the opportunity to take advantage of weakness at Apple Inc.

Earlier this year, managers at the South Korean company began hearing the next iPhone (iPhone 7) wouldn’t have any eye-popping innovations. The device would look just like the previous two models too. It sounded like a potential opening for Samsung to leap ahead.

So the top brass at Samsung Electronics Co., including phone chief D.J. Koh, decided to accelerate the launch of a new phone they were confident would dazzle consumers and capitalize on the opportunity, according to people familiar with the matter.

They pushed suppliers to meet tighter deadlines, despite loads of new features, another person with direct knowledge said. The Note 7 would have a high-resolution screen that wraps around the edges, iris-recognition security and a more powerful, faster-charging battery.

Apple’s taunts that Samsung was a copycat would be silenced for good.

Then it all backfired. Just days after Samsung introduced the Note 7 in August, reports surfaced online that the phone’s batteries were bursting into flame. By the end of the month, there were dozens of fires and Samsung was rushing to understand what went wrong. On September 2, 2016, Koh held a grim press conference in Seoul where he announced Samsung would replace all 2.5 million phones shipped so far. What was supposed to be triumph had turned into a fiasco. 

Original Post

 

Samsung rushes to contain fallout from Galaxy Note 7 recall. Just as the new Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are released.

The company is also grappling with the issue of whether it will have enough supply of the new phones and components to replace millions of handsets that have reached consumers in such a short time frame.

Since Samsung announced the recall on September 2, 2016, more than $10 billion has been wiped off the company’s market value. Samsung also has delayed launches in other crucial markets such as India, and suffered dwindling consumer confidence as airlines and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have warned against people using or charging the phone on planes.

Samsung’s decision to recall the phones from consumers in different countries through different exchange programs has proved to be a bigger-than-expected challenge, and harder than a simultaneous global recall, people familiar with the matter said.

Tesla:

• operating cash flow (Yahoo!Finance): - $332 million 
• total cash (Yahoo!Finance): $3.25 billion
• total debt (Yahoo!Finance): $3.66 billion
• burning through $1 billion every quarter -- Chanos, Fortune