May 22, 2018 -- T+14

As a reminder:

May 9, 2018, T+1: first full day since President Trump walked away from the Iran deal hammered out by President Obama with $400 million in cash. 

So, this is T+14 -- fourteen full days since President Trump walked away from the Iran deal.

Observations:

• the Mideast has not gone to war (at least not any more so than two weeks ago)
• the "best" aggregator of news headlines, the Drudge Report, has not one -- again, not one -- linked headline to the Mideast this morning (there has to be at least one; I assume I missed 'em)
• the price of oil is "high" according to pundits, but in the  past two weeks oil has hardly soared, unless one's definition of soaring is going from $70 to $72
• the number one story is either the *8,000 new homeless shelters" Starbucks has provided, or the "spy in the Trump campaign," euphemistically called the "informant" to protect us from the Russians

Pet peeve #4: all those stories about lack of investment in the oil sector. Today, from the Rigzone staff -- "CAPEX among Asia's O&G companies set to reach #102 billion this year (2018)." For newbies:

• that's a 37% increase year-over-year
• for that amount of money, China could simply buy Venezuela (which China will probably do; it was probably part of the Trump negotiations to end the "trade war")
• the big names in the Bakken are spending around $10 billion in CAPEX in 2018; most of that going for E&P
• CAPEX among Asia's oil and gas companies is set to register double-digit growth in 2018 (15 companies considered)
• the biggest CAPEX growth will be observed in China, with its three state-owned enterprises accounting for 63% of the anticipated increase in Asia's capital spending this year
• adding Venezuela to its state-owned enterprises, China would have four such companies -- the fourt being named SinoMaduro

Trans Mountain Pipeline news today: none. My hunch: the Canadian federal government has supplied so much pressure to KMI Canada to complete this program, there will have to be some fake news by the deadline (May 31, 2018) that discussions are on-going, that the deadline has been extended, that progress is being made, that yada, yada, yada, but the tea leaves suggest the Trans Mountain Pipeline has less chance than the Keystone XL and both of those have less chance than the Enbridge Line 3, and the latter is not a sure thing either.

Immigration: speaking of Canada, the country has said "enough is enough." I guess all that talk about inviting refugees to their country who found the US unwelcoming was a bit much for even Justin Trudeau. Most likely his constituents have discovered that the "other people's money" paying for these immigrants is coming from their wallets. And, by the way, the immigrants don't speak French. From Reuters:

Canada is rejecting more refugee claims from people who crossed the border illegally as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government seeks to dissuade, block and turn back thousands more.

WTI, "lower for longer" is dead. Now it's the Financial Times. Wow, "lower for longer" didn't last long. The writer says it's the end of an era. Wow, "eras" are now lasting less than five years.
No wonder millennials are panicked about global temperatures rising 2 degrees over the next 100 years -- that's like tomorrow.

Climate change: BP paid $65 billion in lawsuits for the Deepwater Horizon mishap. That will be peanuts compared to what oil companies will pay when juries start awarding "global warming" damages against the oil companies. I'm glad my investing days will be over by then. It woudl behoove oil companies to get out in front of this sooner than later.

Hell freezing over. Wow, wow, wow. I never, never, expected to see this from the EIA. Wow. The EIA says EVs see "less use" than conventional vehicles -- wow, what an understatement -- 99% vs 1%?