No Runs, No Hits, No Errors -- All Four Wells Coming Off Confidential List Go To DUC Status; WTI Continues To Slide -- August 1, 2018

AAPL: futures -- up almost 4% -- could open above $198/share. Up almost $8/share.

Comment: television producers need to schedule guests at least a couple days in advance, after preparing "agenda" several days in advance. In anticipation of Apple's 2Q18 earnings, apparently CNBC thought AAPL would disappoint. One of three talking heads to talk about results was a well-known Apple "bear." The wind was taken out of his sails with the earnings report, but he continued to insist Apple's consumer base was saturated with iPhones. He noted the two-year iPhone upgrade cycle, and suggested that with the 5% decline in sales every year of the current iPhone model, the two-year re-fresh wasn't working. He needs to get out more. He is looking at only the US iPhone customer base. The US iPhone consumer base is the past -- about ten years past; the future is China. The #1 iPhone sold in urban China was the most expensive iPhone, the iPhone X. Four things to note about Chinese when it comes to Apple iPhones:

• Chinese iPhone sales grew 19% (can't recall if yoy or sequential; one would assume yoy)
• the urban Chinese want luxury; want the best
• the urban Chinese have the cash to pay "up" for luxury
• the urban Chinese represents a huge, huge population

WTI: price continues to slide;  

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Back to the Bakken

Wells coming off confidential list today --

• 34484, SI/NC, MRO, Yellowface USA 13-23H, Reunion Bay, FracFocus -- has not yet been fracked, no production data, (#19446)
• 34059, SI/NC, BR, Rinkurtis 8-1-5UTFH-ULW, North Fork, FracFocus -- has not yet been fracked, no production data,
• 33394, SI/NC, WPX, Hidatsa North 14-23C, Reunion Bay, FrackFocus -- has not yet been fracked, no production data,
• 33386, SI/NC, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Paopao 4-35--26-158N-100W, Dublin, no production data,

Active rigs:

$67.86↓↓	8/1/2018	08/01/2017	08/01/2016	08/01/2015	08/01/2014
Active Rigs	63	60	34	74	193

RBN Energy: new investors seek to fill Venezuela's Caribbean void as IMO 2020 looms. Coincidentally, most recent US-Venezuelan import data released today.

The Caribbean is strategically located at the crossroads of international trade routes between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, as well as the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It has traditionally attracted oil trading, blending, and refining activity to meet the needs of local and international markets.

Lately, the meltdown of Venezuelan national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) — previously a dominant player in the region — has left refineries and storage terminals underutilized and starved of investment.

U.S. Gulf Coast refineries have partially filled the gap by increasing product exports to the region, but an opportunity now exists for private investment to fill the refining and storage void left by PDVSA, and also to meet new demand for low-sulfur bunker fuel arising from stricter International Maritime Organization shipping regulations, which will come into effect in January 2020. Today, we review the impact of the PDVSA meltdown and new investment projects being pursued.