Week 31: July 30, 2017 -- August 5, 2017

Stock market (the Dow 30) closes at a record high for the eighth day in a row; it is so incredible that when President Trump tweets about it, his tweets are "censored" by Twitter because it is "politically sensitive." That's how good this week has been; that's how incredible the first six months of President Trump's presidency has been. That follows an incredible jobs report, including the jobless rate ticking down to 4.3%. Now, the pundits are concerned there may not be enough "Americans" to fill all the jobs being added by the economy.

ObamaCare: for all intents and purposes, every health insurer, except Blue Cross/Blue Shield has exited the ObamaCare exchanges. And the health insurers who exited early are all hitting new highs on the stock market. Those who exited late are left holding the bag. Ask Molina. Which begs the question: how much longer can BC/BS stick with ObamaCare?

WTI finally hit $50 but dropped back a bit. Pundits were sure that with Venezuela imploding, the US would be "short" heavy oil. I guess the pundits forgot about Canadian heavy oil. It appears Canadian oil imports have hit an all-time record. Meanwhile, despite "cuts" (wink, wink), OPEC imports are still at near record levels. Only 39 weeks until US "re-balances" crude oil stores.

Saudi: may have stopped the bleeding.

Milestone: China becomes the #1 importer of crude oil, a distinction held by the US .... like "forever." The US is now the #2 importer of crude oil. Already pundits are worried about US refiners. LOL. These pundits seem never to run out of things to worry about.

Record gasoline demand: it was not reported by the mainstream media, but it appears US gasoline demand hit an all-time record.

An aside: nuclear energy in the US is dead.

Joke of the week: residential electricity sales are falling; EIA is blaming the Bakken.

Energy gap between EU and US widens; four posts:

• one
• two
• three
• four

The Bakken finished a week with eleven more wells coming off the confidential list; they were all DUCs. Drilled, uncompleted.

Operations
XTO preparing to frack in the Capa oil field? 
A CLR Holstein Federal well has been updated 
CLR's Holstein Federal wells are telling us a story 
A random look at Slawson's Wolf well in Van Hook (Big Bend) 
Random update of a monster well: an EOG Austin well
Random update of a QEP Levang well in Blue Buttes
Update of Slawson's Torpedo pad in Van Hook
A re-look at CLR's Chimney Butte Candee pad
Update of CLR's Brandvik well
Random look at an EOG Mandaree well drilled back in 2011
Update of Whiting's Chameleon wells
Update of a CLR Rochester well in North Tobacco Garden

Natural Gas
Natural gas production takes front seat in the oil-driven Bakken 

Fracking
Fracking the heck out of CLR's Candee 11-9H in Chimney Butte

Bakken 2.0
Re-fracking works

Bakken Economy
Hiring in the Bakken

Bakken 101
The Pronghorn member