Updates
August 9, 2018: Buffett missed a huge opportunity. OXY found a buyer.
- two asset sales to EnCap Flatrock Midstream portfolio companies for about $2.6 billion.
- liquids terminaling and logistics provider Moda Midstream LLC entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Oxy Ingleside Energy Center and certain crude oil and LPG infrastructure.
- Lotus Midstream LLC agreed to acquire Oxy’s Centurion pipeline system and a Southeast New Mexico crude oil gathering system. Both transactions are expected to close in third-quarter 2018.
Original Post
Reuters via Yahoo!Finance has this story: OXY -- Occidental Petroleum may be looking to sell its pipeline assets -- ostensibly to raise cash for E & P but reading between the lines, operators are simply getting tired of the whole business. I've been blogging about the Keystone XL since at least 2012 when it became clear that President Obama intended to kill the project. Since then, update after update after update. Today, we get news that the Nebraska Supreme Court says it will "expedite" oral arguments. Charles Dickens wrote about the British legal quagmire where court cases dragged on for generations. As Pogo said, we've met the enemy and the enemy is us. Whether Pogo was the first to note that is debatable; probably not.
But I digress.
From the linked article:
Occidental's decision to shed the assets is the latest example of an oil company balking at the capital expenditure required to maintain U.S. pipelines, which have been plagued by bottlenecks and require construction of new networks.
Hess Corp and Oasis Petroleum Inc are among the companies that have sold or spun off pipelines in the past year, looking to take advantage of high valuations for these assets, which have been buoyed by the capacity constrains.
Occidental's midstream assets include a major U.S. crude pipeline, a stake in a gas pipeline in the Middle East, a crude export terminal in Texas, and the Centurion Pipeline, a 2,900 mile line carrying crude from the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico to Cushing, Oklahoma.
A year ago, Occidental tried to find a buyer for its 50 percent stake in its Ingleside Energy Center, a crude oil storage and export terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas. That sale process was not completed, and Occidental is including the facility in its package of midstream assets.
Much more at the link.
Warren Buffett likes:
- energy
- sectors that require huge CAPEX -- huge tax advantages
- industries with huge moats
- to wait for the right moment to buy
Berkshire Hathaway:
- market cap: almost $500 billion
- income from continuing operations: $45 billion
- total cash: $102 billion
- total debt: $99 billion
- how much does OXY want for its premier pipeline assets? $5 billion
- shoot -- the Centurion Pipeline -- 30-second elevator speech -- at a million dollars a mile, that pipeline alone is worth $2.9 billion; LOL
- perspective: Trudeau bought the current Trans Mountain Pipeline assets for $4.7 billion; it will cost an estimated $7.4 billion more to complete the expansion project
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
Disclaimer: in a long note like this, there are bound to be factual and typographical errors. If this is important to you, go to the source. Also, I make a lot of simple arithmetic errors.
I've often wondered why the Brits (for the most part the English and the Scots) had such an incredible effect/impact on the world.
Something I've never seen discussed in this context is the English system of inheritance: primogeniture.
I'm currently reading A. N. Wilson's landmark opus The Victorians, c. 2003. I said the other day I have no more shelf space and won't be buying any more books. I have made my first exception. This is an incredibly good book, but wow, I have to read it slowly. After four days of reading it, I've finally gotten into the book's rhythm.
It was while reading this book -- and I've read a lot of books about Great Britain, England, and Scotland, and have spent many years in England and along the Scottish border -- that it finally dawned on me what is likely the main reason for England's impact on the world.
The unique Lamarckian trait among the Turks: traders and multilingualism. The English and Scots: explorers.
[Hungarians, by the way, are probably descendants of an extra-terrestrial alien society far more advanced than any on earth. But I digress.]
To me, it's simply incredible, the concept of primogeniture. For most of history, XY primogeniture -- women were not even "considered." With primogeniture, the title, the estate, the family name, everything goes to the first born (and even that isn't quite correct, but it will due for now).
Taken to its extreme, and apparently it was until recent times, the first born English male inherited everything. His brothers and sisters got nothing, or were at a minimum dependent on the largess of their oldest brother.
Essentially, under primogeniture, everyone is disinherited except for the first-born male. The females would survive only by marrying "well." The disinherited brothers had two options. The first option: marry "well" but since they had nothing with which to begin, they were not, as a rule, highly sought-after bachelors. The second option: leave home, and seek their own fortunes.
It's simply incredible to read the family histories in British history like that presented by A. N. Wilson where a multi-million-dollar estate and title (in many cases) was inherited by the oldest brother, and the rest of the siblings received nothing.
It certainly explains a lot.
The China Concerts. Jean Michel Jarre
*********************************
The Book Page
I've often wondered why the Brits (for the most part the English and the Scots) had such an incredible effect/impact on the world.
Something I've never seen discussed in this context is the English system of inheritance: primogeniture.
I'm currently reading A. N. Wilson's landmark opus The Victorians, c. 2003. I said the other day I have no more shelf space and won't be buying any more books. I have made my first exception. This is an incredibly good book, but wow, I have to read it slowly. After four days of reading it, I've finally gotten into the book's rhythm.
It was while reading this book -- and I've read a lot of books about Great Britain, England, and Scotland, and have spent many years in England and along the Scottish border -- that it finally dawned on me what is likely the main reason for England's impact on the world.
The unique Lamarckian trait among the Turks: traders and multilingualism. The English and Scots: explorers.
[Hungarians, by the way, are probably descendants of an extra-terrestrial alien society far more advanced than any on earth. But I digress.]
To me, it's simply incredible, the concept of primogeniture. For most of history, XY primogeniture -- women were not even "considered." With primogeniture, the title, the estate, the family name, everything goes to the first born (and even that isn't quite correct, but it will due for now).
Taken to its extreme, and apparently it was until recent times, the first born English male inherited everything. His brothers and sisters got nothing, or were at a minimum dependent on the largess of their oldest brother.
Essentially, under primogeniture, everyone is disinherited except for the first-born male. The females would survive only by marrying "well." The disinherited brothers had two options. The first option: marry "well" but since they had nothing with which to begin, they were not, as a rule, highly sought-after bachelors. The second option: leave home, and seek their own fortunes.
It's simply incredible to read the family histories in British history like that presented by A. N. Wilson where a multi-million-dollar estate and title (in many cases) was inherited by the oldest brother, and the rest of the siblings received nothing.
It certainly explains a lot.
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