Thursday Night Notes -- December 14, 2017

Williston Minerals:

Williston residents will know more about this than I do but Oasis is drilling inside city limits. Today, I got a note from a reader who said he received his first royalty check from the Osprey 5401 44-23H well (#33499). His division orders said he owned slightly less than 0.00013 mineral acres. His first check for two months' production (September and October) was slightly less than $225.

I remember taking my dad out to see that Oasis pad some years ago; the pad is on the south side of the railroad tracks, a bit west of downtown Williston, south of Midway Junction (if that still exists); the pad is not easily seen from the road. At that time, the horizontals were running to the south.

The Osprey 5401 44-23H runs straight north from the pad; it appears the horizontal runs about two miles north from the pad equidistant from Sakura Japanese Steakhouse to the west, and Buffalo Wild Wings to the east (I could be way wrong on that; trying to overlay several maps to find where the horizontal runs). This would be a 1280-acre unit so it would include a lot of Willistonites.

• 33499, 593, Oasis, Osprey 5401 44-23H, Todd, 50 stages 10 million lbs with ceramic, t10/17; cum 40K first full month;

Mony, Mony, Tommy James & The Shondells **************************************

SRE: very, very close to closing the Oncor deal. From SeekingAlpha:

• Sempra Energy has reached a settlement with several stakeholders to its acquisition of Energy Future Holding (and thus its takeover of Oncor Electric Delivery)
• the acquisition of EFH includes EFH's indirect ownership of Oncor (about 80%)
• parties to the agreement are Staff of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), the Office of Public Utility Counsel, Steering Committee of Cities Served by Oncor, and Texas Industrial Energy Consumers
• those parties agree the acquisition is in the public interest, meets statutory standards and will bring "substantial benefits." They'll ask the PUCT to OK the deal
• talks with other stakeholders are ongoing, Sempra said

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Debbie Downer

Market: the "market" (Dow 30, et al) seems to be in a holding pattern, waiting for the tax bill to be voted on; "everybody" remains positive that the US Senate will vote/pass it next week, but it's not a slam dunk. President Trump lost a lot of political capital supporting candidate Moore in the Alabama election; he may have lost the edge he needed to put the tax bill through. 

Top story in the WSJ tonight: several Republican senators (many of them appear to be "never Trumpers") press for changes in tax bill. If I were President Trump, I would call their bluff. I have said on numerous occasions there are at least ten Democratic US senators that want this bill passed but won't support the GOP and/or President Trump. If Mitch McConnell does not have the votes, the tax bill will have to be shelved until the new year, and the GOP will be forced to work with the Democrats. I don't think the Democrats would be willing to work with the GOP on a new tax bill in 2018; they would prefer to wait until after the 2018 election. 

On another note, I think the GOP is getting nervous about the tax bill; they're watching the polls: 28% of Americans are in favor of the bill; that means 72% are against it -- according to some polls. I assume some GOP senators are starting to ask if "we" would be better off if the tax bill is passed, and except for those directly invested in the stock market, some aren't so sure. At the end of the day, Democratic supporters like Tim Cook at Apple are going to be the real losers if the tax bill is not passed.

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Miscellaneous

Economy: from The WSJ tonight -- Americans are spending more than expected as holiday season heats up. 

Hess Corp (think Tioga, ND) shares popped 5% after hours today; outsider pushing for ouster of John B. Hess as chief executive or push him to consider selling all or part of the energy company. No link. Story everywhere.