Rock Pile -- May 19, 2017

Making the front page news over at Yahoo!Finance: Keane (FRAC) buys Rock Pile for $285 million.

Use the blog's search tool to learn more about Rock Pile. Start here.

Investors should know that Houston-based private equity firm White Deer Energy is the current owner of RockPile Energy. Denver-based RockPile Energy provides high-quality completion services to various upstream companies and primarily operates in the Bakken and Permian basins.

Keane is expected to pay $135 million in cash and 8.7 million shares of its common stocks for the transaction. The deal also incorporates contingent consideration of up to $20 million in case Keane’s stock price falls below $19 per unit.

America's Most Expensive Housing Markets -- Four-Bedroom Homes -- May 19, 2017

I find this list most fascinating for any number of reasons. Only once city in Washington State, but two cities in Minnesota. Connecticut, expected. Massachusetts: only two cities. But look at California. Wow.

Only six states represented: CA, CT, MA, MN, HI, WA. Is every state a blue state? If so, think about that. I wonder if any of these cities has a wind turbine, or a solar farm? Just saying.

Business Insider, November 10, 2015:

25	Winchester	MA
24	Westport	CT
23	Mercer Island	WA
22	Medina	MN
21	Sherman Oaks	CA
20	Wellesley	MA
19	Moraga	CA
18	Cambridge	MA
17	Honolulu	HI
16	Campbell	CA
15	Danville	CA
14	Greenwich	CT
13	Pasadena/South	CA
12	Santa Barbara	CA
11	San Francisco	CA
10	Redwood City	CA
9	Orono	MN
8	Sunnyvale	CA
7	San Mateo	CA
6	Arcadia	CA
5	Los Gatos	CA
4	Cupertino	CA
3	Saratoga	CA
2	Palo Alto	CA
1	Newport Beach	CA

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The Wall

First time she saw this "rock wall," she conquered it in seconds, and then did it four more times. She learned on a much tougher "rock wall" in her own park. This one was "taller" but the one she learned on was "straight up." Her oldest sister is into water polo; her middle sister is into soccer; it looks like Sophia is into rock climbing.

WTI Closed Above $50 For First Time In Quite Some Time; Eighteen Permits Renewed; Four DUCs Completed -- May 19, 2017

Active rigs:

$50.53	5/19/2017	05/19/2016	05/19/2015	05/19/2014	05/19/2013
Active Rigs	51	26	82	191	189

Four new permits:

• Operator: Statoil
• Field: East Fork (Williams)
• Comment: four more wells in SW quadrant of section 23-156-100. See graphic at this post (yesterday)

Eighteen permits renewed:

• Oasis (7): seven Kjorstad permits, in Williams County, all in NENE 22-153-100
• Kaiser-Francis (7): a Parshall permit, a Pratt permit, a Banner permit, a Liberty permit, a Sikes permit, a Knife River permit, and, a Rat Lake permit, all in Mountrail County; all in section 4-153-92
• EOG (3): three Austin permits, all in Mountrail County; all in section 11-154-90
• Hess: a BW-Spring Creek permit, in McKenzie County

Hess canceled five permits:

• three SC-Mari permits and two LK-Hay Draw permits, all in WIlliams County

Four producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 30258, 393, Sinclair, Uran 4-15TFH, Sanish, t5/17; cum --; (20994, 17898)
• 30612, 461, Sinclair, Uran 5-15H, Sanish, t5/17; cum --; (16750, 22853)
• 31763, 1,489, Hess, HA-State -152-95-1621H-8, Hawkeye, t4/17; cum --
• 31764, 829, Hess, HA-State-152-95-1621H-7, Hawkeye, t5/17; cum --

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Ah, The Dog Days Of Summer -- Yet To Come

Worth Re-Posting -- "Clock Boy" Clocked (Again) -- May 19, 2017

No million dollars for you! "Clock boy" clocked.  Judge dismisses 'clock boy' lawsuit saying the school didn't discriminate against Ahmed Mohamed when the Muslim teen's teacher called the police because she thought he made a bomb.

• a federal judge ruled both the city of Irving, Texas, and the school district do not owe damages to Ahmed Mohamed's family
• in 2015 his teacher at MacArthur High School called the police because she thought a clock Ahmed made was a ticking bomb 
• Ahmed's father, Mohamed Mohamed, filed a lawsuit claiming his son's Fifth Amendment rights were violated by the arrest 
• Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com reveal the case was dismissed because the judge said there was no proof of 'racial or religious' discrimination 

No registry for you! Appellate court says FAA doesn't have jurisdiction over model aircraft enthusiasts.

Jobs for you! Ford to invest $350 million in its Livonia Transmission Plant; will expand its lineup of transmissions and will add 800 new jobs at the plant. Making America great.

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Job Watch

State unemployment numbers for April, 2017, are out.  

Three states with lowest unemployment rates since 1976: Arkansas, Colorado, Oregon.

State with nation's lowest unemployment rate: Colorado. From the DenverPost:

• Colorado's unemployment rate dropped to a record-low 2.3% in April
• never before; "uncharted waters"
• the rate is so low, it is acting like an anchor on the state's economy, leaving thousands of jobs unfilled; hurting the ability of businesses to meed customer demands
• average hours worked rose from 33.2 to 33.6 hours
• average hourly pay rose from $27.42 to $27.72
• time for a President Trump photo-op

Number of states where unemployment dropped: 10.

Number of states where unemployment rate fairly stable: 39

Only one state with an increase in unemployment: Massachusetts.

States with significant jump in employment: Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin.

Only state with significant decrease in jobs last month: Indiana.

Number of states with unemployment lower than the national average: 19.

States with jobless rates below 3%: North Dakota, South Dakota, Hawaii, New Hampshire.  

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What Universe Is This Journalist Orbiting?

From Detroit News:

The secret device was used in March by a team of FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Metro Detroit to find Rudy Carcamo-Carranza, 23, a twice-deported restaurant worker from El Salvador whose only brushes with the law involve drunken driving allegations and a hit-and-run crash.  

Only brushes with the law? How many times have you been picked up for drunk driving? How many times have you been found guilty of hit-and-run? 23 years old and already multiple crimes. Deported twice. Three strikes and you're out. My hunch is we will hear from this loser again. 

Oasis Announces Intention To Spin Off MLP -- May 19, 2017

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

Oasis: announces an intention to spin off a MLP. 

The MLP is intended to support Oasis's strategy to grow its midstream business.

The midstream assets that are expected to be contributed to the MLP are located in the Williston Basin area of North Dakota and/or Montana and include a portion of Oasis's (i) crude oil gathering and transportation system, (ii) natural gas gathering and processing system and (iii) water handling systems.

There can be no assurance that there will be an initial public offering of the MLP or any other transaction. Oasis expects to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the second quarter of 2017.

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Looking Forward To July 4th

This should be a great summer. I will be spending another week in the Pacific Northwest to include western Montana.

I spent a wonderful week in Portland with our younger daughter just a few weeks ago, and now I will be returning to Portland in July to participate in a mini-family reunion. From Portland, we will drive to Glacier National Park in west-north central Montana.

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Bliss

$50.00 Right On The Nose -- WTI At 6:42 AM Friday May 192, 2017

Active rigs:

$50.00	5/19/2017	05/19/2016	05/19/2015	05/19/2014	05/19/2013
Active Rigs	52	26	82	191	189

RBN Energy: update on the successes and setbacks in sifting from oil to natural gas in the Caribbean.

Oil: WTI hits $50.00.

Full: tanks and tankers  -- a stubborn oil glut despite OPEC cuts -- Reuters.

Estimated inventories in industrialized nations totaled 3.025 billion barrels at the end of March - about 300 million barrels above the five-year average

Drawdown?  At the current rate, maybe back to historical levels in three years. Plus or minus.

Much of the inventory build-up came as traders started using storage to make easy money on the widening spread between rock-bottom spot oil prices and substantially higher prices for contracts to deliver the oil in future months.

That price spread - a market structure known as contango - allowed traders to profit even after they paid for expensive storage in facilities such as the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) - the only deep-water U.S. oil port and a major conduit for crude imports - or supertankers parked offshore in Singapore.

LOOP: many, many posts on LOOP. Use "search feature" on the blog to check up on LOOP. This is most visited LOOP post on the blog.

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Following The Trump Economy

The Energy And Market Page, T+119 -- May 19, 2017

Boom. Market up triple digits. 

Oil. WTI hits $50/bbl.

Boom: Deere profit jumps 62%. Sales rose for the first time in 13 quarters. Coincides pretty closely with oil patch. Just saying.

Futures: up slightly.

Of course: Saudi will extend cuts -- they have no choice with Saudi Aramco IP looming. The surprise? Russia is going along with the cuts, not expected to be extended into March, 2018.

Not news. But the headline catches one's attention, from Bloomberg -- "US shale roars back at OPEC." Some data points (again, nothing new):

• areas in the "enormous" Permian and Eagle Ford shale where breakeven price is $34/bbl
• analysts now say US shale production will grow even faster than expected
• production will increase 1.4 million bopd through December, 2017, according to one analyst
• JPMorgan doubled its forecast to an increase of 800,000 bbls a day for the same period
• US shale producers output increase is about half of the OPEC cuts
• US shale producers output increase is twice that of Russia's cuts
• situation for Saudi Arabia will not improve in 2018
• JPMorgan forecasts US shale to grow by 1.05 million bopd in 2018; BofA says 950,000 bopd
• even if price of oil "collapses" a lot of DUCs could still be completed -- profitably even at $30
• US crude oil inventories: 520.8 million bbls, still well above the 350 million bbls that was the "norm" before US shale revolution. See this post.

Reminder: Another memo to Jane Nielson, I guess. 

And analysts usually pooh-pooh stock re-purchase programs: Warren Buffett's stake in AMEX jumps from 17% to 25% simply because of AMEX buying outstanding shares. 

The Political Page, T+119 -- May 19, 2017 - "Clock Boy" Clocked (Again)

Oil. President Trump on his way to Saudi Arabia.

The wall. President Trump puts pressure on Colombia to take back deported aliens, or he will use visa process to make it difficult for Colombians to travel to US.

The definition of insanity: the "face" of the Democratic Party -- Maxine Waters.

No million dollars for you! "Clock boy" clocked.  Judge dismisses 'clock boy' lawsuit saying the school didn't discriminate against Ahmed Mohamed when the Muslim teen's teacher called the police because she thought he made a bomb

• a federal judge ruled both the city of Irving, Texas and the school district do not owe damages to Ahmed Mohamed's family
• in 2015 his teacher at MacArthur High School called the police because she thought a clock Ahmed made was a ticking bomb 
• Ahmed's father, Mohamed Mohamed, filed a lawsuit claiming his son's Fifth Amendment rights were violated by the arrest 
• Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com reveal the case was dismissed because the judge said there was no proof of 'racial or religious' discrimination