The Energy And Market Page, T+173, Part II -- July 13, 2017

Enquiring minds want to know: will CNBC, Rachel Maddow, Morning Joe, or anyone else cover Mark Zuckerberg's visit to Williston, ND? I do believe that Williston, ND, is the only place in the world where Christiane Amanpour has not visited and CNN does not have a film crew. LOL.

Lithium: the new "peak oil."

List of 12: Motley Fool lists the top twelve (12) crude oil producing countries in the universe. Six of those countries are not part of OPEC and, according to Motley Fool are "keeping OPEC's dominance at bay":

• Mexico, #12 - crude oil production has fallen 32% since 2004, due to the natural decline in its large Cantareil field
• Brazil, #10 - its oil production has risen more than 40% in the past decade after opening its fields to foreign investment
• Canada, #7 - US crude oil imports -- 38% from Canada; 34% from OPEC
• China, #6 - used to be a net exporter; now due to huge domestic demand, the world's largest importer of crude oil
• United States, #3 - EOG singled out by Motley Fool
• Russia, #1 - actually topped Saudi Arabia in average daily production, after delivering, last year, its best annual average of the past three decades. Russia sanctions? What Russian sanctions?  See first comment: it is incredibly interesting to me that the US and Angela Merkel are so far apart on this issue -- my hunch is that the G-20 conference had more to do with Russian sanctions than with climate concerns. From the first comment: the outcome of the new Russian sanctions would force Trump in a position of choosing between an escalation of domestic attacks over his "allegiance" to Russia, or burning even more bridges with European allies such as Germany, Austria, France and other nations invested in Nord Stream 2, who have warned the US not to proceed with the sanctions.
  

  On Saturday, it appeared that Trump appears to have chosen the latter option, because the "White House is expected to push House Republicans to change the Senate’s Russia sanctions bill to make it more friendly to Russia."

Edwards: liked by Zacks. Whoo-hoo.

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New wells coming off confidential list: this is longest dry spell since I started the blog. We haven't seen any wells come off the confidential list since Monday and we won't see any until tomorrow, when we see two.

Dreamers Act: President Trump, during his early days, suggested that his administration might defend (support) President Obama's "Dreamers Act" which some suggested was a huge illegal amnesty program. President Trump said he had "a big heart" and might support the Dreamers Act. The tea leaves now suggest that Trump may not support Obama's amnesty program. I'm sure it has nothing to do with all the crap that the Trump administration and his family has had to put up with, but at some point, even someone as magnanimous as Trump (remember, he said he had no interest in having his DOJ pursue Hillary) can take only so much. The irony is that it's very possible his DOJ is so busy and Trump's agenda is so filled with "Russian stuff," the administration simply does not have the resources (human, time, money) to defend an Obama policy. I remember my days as part of the "Deep State" and knew that even there we had to prioritize our agenda.

Continued: read this article, and ask yourself -- seriously: if the Democrats in the US Senate and the House had actually been even a little supportive of the Trump administration could things be a bit different with regard to immigration policy for this group of folks? I mean, this affects kids that have been here for sixteen years; many of whom have no idea of their legal status. "A million" sounds like a huge number but against a population of 360 million it is a drop in the bucket.

Personal dream: getting back to Flathead Lake, Montana, full-time.

Physics: does water expand or contract in volume when it freezes? Something to think about when trying to tie sea levels with the chunk of ice that broke away from Antarctica this past week. If that is too difficult, then ask this: if one has a flake of ice in a gallon of water, how much will the water level rise/fall in that gallon bucket when that flake of ice melts? LOL. If the link is broken, google -- After Antarctica sheds a trillion-ton block of ice, the world asks: Now what?