China: World's Largest Auto Market; Sales Surging; Crude Oil Demand To Hit Record In 2017 -- January 12, 2017

From Reuters via Rigzone, China says crude oil demand will grow 3.4% this year:

• to a record 12 million bopd
• China: world's 2nd biggest user of oil
• reports surging vehicle sales; expected to continue
• world's largest auto market

Is this the definition of a Pyrric victory? Am I missing something? From Twitter:

If there was a victor, I'm pretty sure it was not Saudi Arabia. If anything, the US shale industry was the victor, and to call it a Pyrric victory is a stretch. The US shale oil sector struggled, lots of pain, but in the big scheme of things, the industry survived stronger than ever.

The real question is whether Saudi Arabia will ever try this again in my investing lifetime? I doubt it.

From The Williston Herald, the definition of insanity, or more likely, paid participation, the fighting Sioux:

Tipis and tents still stand against a frigid North Dakota winter in the Oceti Sakowin camp along the banks of the Cannonball River. The occupants in what is the largest Dakota Access protest camp have withstood blizzards and extreme temperatures, but a force of nature is coming that the camp won’t be able to withstand. 

Substantial spring floods in the Cannonball River area appear likely, with the Bismarck-Mandan area already receiving 55.3 inches of snow. That is the most accumulation on record for that area through January 10, 2017, according to National Weather Service data. The above-average precipitation is likely to continue. A La Nina weather pattern still has the Great Plains in its grasp, which tends to result in winters that are colder and wetter than average. Weather forecasters have predicted the trend will continue for at least the next month — if not longer.

The amount of precipitation, however, is just one of the many factors that will play into how big localized flooding gets in the vicinity of the protest camps. Garland Erbele is an engineer with the North Dakota State Water Commission, and is among state officials with eyes on the situation.

And more:

Another flood like the one in 2013 would not only put the camp’s estimated 500 to 800 occupants in harm’s way, Archambault said during the meeting, but debris from the camps — which include abandoned vehicles and buried human wastes —  could result in contamination of the very river protesters have said they came to protect.