All Systems Green -- T+238 -- The Ides Of December -- December 15, 2017

Minimal blogging for the next two weeks.

First things first: the Lego NASA Apollo Saturn V is again "temporarily out of stock" at the Lego site. 

NDIC Director's Cut scheduled to be released later today: pending.

Global crude oil data: memo to self -- post data points from this article later. IEA suggests global crude oil inventories will continue to decline.

On the other hand, US shale "recovery" will leave OPEC with a difficult 2018, says the IEA over at CNBC.

• the IEA said that there were signs that the rise in U.S. crude oil supply was likely to continue into 2018 and upset rivals who are cutting back.
• U.S. oil producers are staging a dramatic comeback amid a recovering oil price that has allowed many of them to restart operations.

Global data: Russian upstream projects require $102.6 billion by 2020 to maintain stable production. Link to follow.

Global economy: Japanese corporate sentiment at 11-year high. 

Market: the futures suggest I am way off base. I think there's a greater than 90% chance the GOP tax bill will not pass. Dow 30 is up almost 90 points shortly before the opening. If the buzz on Wall Street that the tax bill was dead, I don't think the market would continue to move higher.

Tax bill: Business Insider has another list. This time a list of places where the new tax bill would hit homeowners hardest. The article is already DOA. My understanding is that conferees have already eliminated the property tax deduction issue by leaving the deduction in for all but the most expensive homes. Before it's over, the property tax deduction issue could be eliminated completely.

GE: has a fossil fuels problem according to CNN. As the tax bill now stands, GE is going to have a huge problem with its renewable energy divisions. It's interesting that "fake news" had this story; again, completely off-base.

Throwaway article but good for the archives. Surprised to find this bit of fluff in The Wall Street Journal: Dow 24,000 and the Trump boom by Maria Bartiromo. The 101 comments may be more fun to read than the article.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$57.20↑	12/15/2017	12/15/2016	12/15/2015	12/15/2014	12/15/2013
Active Rigs	52	40	64	182	191

RBN Energy: now or never -- LNG an alternative for shipowners as low-sulfur rule looms.