Here We Go Again -- Judge Orders More Environmental Analysis of DAPL

Here we go again: At Reuters, federal judge orders more environmental analysis of Dakota pipeline. This is the judge's 91-page opinion -- it will download as a pdf. A big "thank you" to a reader for sending me the link. The reader who follows this story a whole closer than I do has not anxiety; it is his/her opinion that the judge has a good handle on the situation. This is same judge that allowed the project to go forward in the first place. DAPL would be wise to do whatever the judge asks, or perhaps better said, to negotiate in good faith with the judge and all parties involved.

Active rigs:

$44.42	6/15/2017	06/15/2016	06/15/2015	06/15/2014	06/15/2013
Active Rigs	56	27	77	187	185

Note: in this month's Director's Cut (released two days ago), Lynn Helms suggested that the maximum number of active rigs we would see in 2017 was 55. Today, we went to 56.

RBN Energy: COP leads diversified E&Ps profit turnaround. 

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, relationship, or travel plans  based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

Of the 43 major U.S. exploration and production companies we have been tracking, the 13 diversified companies — the ones with a balanced mix of crude oil and natural gas reserves — engineered the most dramatic financial reversal in the first quarter of 2017, generating $4.6 billion, or $11.46 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe), in pretax operating profit after almost $65 billion in pretax losses in 2015-16. These producers, like their oil-weighted and gas-weighted counterparts, benefited from higher prices and sharply lower drilling and completion costs and lease operating costs.

The magnitude of the turnaround was driven by exceptional results from giant ConocoPhillips, which generated more than one-third of the total first quarter 2017 pretax operating profits for our 43-company universe and nearly one-quarter of the total cash flow. The remaining 12 diversified companies reported $1.3 billion in first-quarter pretax profit after $54 billion in losses over the past two years. Today we look at how the turnaround efforts of 13 diversified oil-and-gas E&Ps have been paying off.

Saudi Aramco IPO "delayed?" Link at WSJ.

A divide between Saudi Arabia’s ruling family and executives of the kingdom’s oil company over where to list its shares is slowing the march toward a planned 2018 initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

Executives at Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, are pushing Saudi Arabia’s king and his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on the merits of listing the state-owned oil company on the London Stock Exchange.

Those executives are concerned that listing in the U.S. would expose the company to greater legal risks, including from potential class-action shareholder lawsuits, according to these people.

The other problem, of course, is to go public when oil is selling at $40/bbl. 

*************************************