Quiet Friday -- Veterans Day -- November 10, 2017

NDIC office closed today; no daily activity report. Veterans Day.

Active rigs:

$56.85→	11/10/2017	11/10/2016	11/10/2015	11/10/2014	11/10/2013
Active Rigs	52	38	66	192	182

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Miscellaneous

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

Technical breakout? From Investopedia --

Exxon Mobile Corp. shares could be headed higher by nearly 9 percent, while Chevron Corp could be heading almost 13 percent higher.

The rise can be tied to a technical breakout in the price of Western Texas Intermediate Oil prices. At $57 per barrel, WTI oil has officially entered breakout territory, and that means oil prices could rise by another 9 percent, towards $62 a barrel. If that should happen, the stock prices of Exxon, Chevron and the sector will increase as well.

The breakout that is occurring in oil can be seen in the chart at the link, when the price of oil closed above $54 per barrel. With that happening, $54 will now act as support should there be a pullback in the price. Given the length of time oil has stayed below $54, that price is likely to serve as a significant and robust support level.

Trump - China making America great again:  Chinese, Alaskan officials sign LNG project development agreement. From The Oil & Gas Journal:

Chinese and Alaskan officials signed a five-party, $43-billion joint development agreement for the Alaska LNG project on November 8 in Beijing. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were present for the signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, where other deals between the two countries were announced.

The historic signing is the most significant step toward finally monetizing Alaska’s vast natural gas resources. China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), CIC Capital Corp., and Bank of China agreed to work with Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) and the state government on LNG marketing, financing, investment modeling, and establishing China content in Alaska LNG, and get a periodic result by 2018.

Socialism not making Venezuela great: Venezuelan oil output heads to 29-year low as cash crunch grows . From Bloomberg:

Venezuela is set to pump the least oil in almost three decades, just when it needs petrodollars the most.

Output is expected to slump to 1.84 million barrels a day next year, the lowest compared with official government data since 1989.

Rig counts hit a 14-year low in October, as drilling companies including Schlumberger Ltd. reduce their exposure in the nation due to unpaid bills.

Owner of crude reserves larger than Saudi Arabia’s, Venezuela is teetering on the brink of default. Production of oil, the key commodity that brings in badly needed dollars to service Venezuela’s debt, will shrink for the seventh year.

It’s not only that output is declining, says Thomas Olney, an analyst at consultant Facts Global Energy. Quality is going down as well, chipping away at revenues for state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. 

The following words, names or phrases were not mentioned in that article on Venezuela:

• socialism
• Bernie Sanders
• Hillary Clinton
• Donald Turmp
• Harvey Weinstein
• Kevin Spacey
• Vladimir Putin 
• the Bakken

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Weather

Updates 

November 12, 2017:

Original Post

What we're going to be talking about over the weekend. I posted this yesterday -- the Arctic blast -- and now this screenshot from the Drudge Report this evening:

... and from Ice Age Now ...