Sorting Out SoftBank, Saudi Arabia, OneWeb, US Jobs -- December 20, 2016

Updates

May 21, 2017: update on SoftBank-Saudi partnership; nearing $100 billion. 

December 29, 2016: Trump says Sprint will bring 5,000 jobs back to US; OneWeb will create 3,000 jobs in US.

Original Post

Lead story over on MSNBC: "faithless" defectors -- Hillary takes "bigger" hit than Trump. In 1808, the previous record, when six (6) New York state electors switched their votes from Madison. This year, that record was broken, with seven (7) electors going rogue, and except for state laws, the number would have been at least ten (10) -- two Trump electors; eight Hillary electors. For Trump, 2 / 306; Hillary, 8 / 232.

MSNBC focus: following the "faithless" electors story, I felt like I was listening to a Rush Limbaugh segment with the port-mortem on the Hillary campaign. The theme: time for the Clintons to get off the stage.

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Sorting out SoftBank. Data points from today's news from The New York Times:

• SoftBank? think "ATT on steroids" in Japan -- one of Japan's largest telecom providers
• 63,590 employees (ATT: 246,740 employees)
• solar power business
• humanoid robots for home use
• ride-booking services 
• financial technology 
• 2016: SoftBank + Saudi Arabia -- set up a $25 billion private fund for technology investments; could grow to $100 billion  (think "Shark Tank on steroids")
• SoftBank: committed to creating 50,000 jobs in the US and investing $50 billion in US startups
• first huge partner: OneWeb
• OneWeb has obtained $1.2 billion from SoftBank
• OneWeb: plans to build a network of satellites to provide global broadband access; 
• the $1.2 billion: finance the construction of a factory in Exploration Park, Florida; to produce 15 satellites per week at low cost; could result in 3,000 jobs at this site; I think I read elsewhere the company's goal is to place 720 telecommunication satellites in space

Numerous, numerous implications.

Dinner. Trump had dinner with Slim last night.  Trump must simply be in "seventh heaven." Like Ronald Reagan, he will turn over foreign affairs to those around him. By the way, has he gone golfing yet, since the election? I know that the current president phoned in his condolences to Germany from the golf course. At least that's what I heard reported.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

	12/20/2016	12/20/2015	12/20/2014	12/20/2013	12/20/2012
Active Rigs	41	64	182	192	186

RBN Energy: update on MPLX and the nation's largest MLPs.

MPLX LP was formed in 2012 by Marathon Petroleum Corp . In 2015, MPLX acquired MarkWest Energy Partners for $14.7 billion, a move that in one fell swoop made the merged entity the fourth-largest MLP in the US.

In October, 2016, Marathon announced an aggressive "dropdown" strategy that will provide MPLX with additional assets that will generate about $1.4 billion in annual earnings by the end of 2019. MPLX also has a significant capital investment program that allocates $2.3 - $2.8 billion to build out gathering and processing infrastructure, logistics, and storage facilites in Appalachia and Texas.

RBN Energy continues its review of the nation's largest MLPs.