WTI Over $55 In Pre-Market Trading -- November 1, 2017

Active rigs:

$55.01↑	11/1/2017	11/01/2016	11/01/2015	11/01/2014	11/01/2013
Active Rigs	53	34	70	193	180

RBN Energy: the rejuvenation of natural gas processing economics.

Not long after crude oil prices crashed in 2014, natural gas processing economics hit the skids. From late 2014 through the first half of 2017, times were tough for natural gas processors and the producers processing natural gas to extract NGLs in their plants.

That’s because the per-MMBtu price difference between natural gas prices and NGL prices was low. Very low. In fact, during 2015-16, it was the lowest it’s been over the past decade except for a brief period during the 2009 financial meltdown.

But things are looking up. Thanks to a big boost in from propane and butane prices — and, to a lesser extent, rising ethane and natural gasoline prices — natural gas processing economics look healthier today than they have in years. It is going to get even better as more new ethane-only steam crackers come online.

Given these developments, it is clearly time for another deep dive into what makes gas processing economics work, and how the numbers are about to change. Today, we begin our latest expedition into the wilds of gas processing. 

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The Katie Ledecky Page

Katie named "Sportswoman of the Year, 2017."

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Meandering -- Nothing About The Bakken

Like the Bakken, I suppose, "social media" never ceases to amaze me. "Walk Away Renee" is "featured" in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The song struck a chord among many, including the individual who wrote this:

For all the boomers babbling about how "u kids don know dis feel," f*** you. I remember being just a tiny boy in the 90s, riding in the back of my dad's '78 Mercury, listening to the oldies station. I miss that car. I miss my dad the way he was. I miss myself. This song is so much more than some breakup melody. Those violin stings touch me somewhere deep, it's as if this song was about the sorrowful passage of time, and how everything must leave us eventually like some scorned lover. You're not to blame.

Walk Away Renee, The Left Banke
Released in 1996, I would have been about fifteen years old. I never realized then Renee was such an "important" song; it was simply one of my favorite songs at the time (and remains so today). It's very likely I first heard this song in "The Hut" on Main Street just across the street from Central School in Williston. Hard to say.

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Happy Halloween

My dad is about 95 years old, give or take a few years. He is in great physical shape and his mind is as sharp as ever for the things that are important in life. One of the things I most appreciate about him is his use of the "walker." He's used it for many, many years and my hunch is that when he first started using it, he really didn't need it but he knew the seriousness of a broken hip and felt that using a walker early on might prevent a fatal fall.

His goal: to live long enough to watch AAPL split 7 - 1 (again). Knowing Dad and knowing Apple, he may reach that goal.