Saving America -- One SAV American Bull At A Tme -- February 14, 2019

See also: http://charleswherbster.com/. See comments.

No bull! North Dakota bull sells for $1.51 million. And that's just for an 80% interest. Story at Dickinson Press.  

• by-line: St. Anthony, ND (see the rest of the story at this post)
• seller: SAV America
• SAV: Schaff Angus Valley
• buyer: Herbster Angus Farms of Falls City, NE
• third year in a row that SAV has broken its own record for highest-selling bull
• last year was the previous record: $800,000
• prior to that: $750,000
• SAV: operated by fourth-generation Schaffs
• great-grandfather Schaff homesteaded the ranch south of Mandan, ND
• the $1.51 million bull -- 1,107 pounds at 205 days; most bulls don't approach that weight until they are yearlings (365 days for millennials)
• and, yes, a note will be sent to Occasional-Cortex if I can find her DC luxury apartment address

A recession by any other name: Germany

• previous quarter: contraction by 0.2%
• most recent quarter: 0.0%
• by "usual" definition, not a recession

Airbus: pulls plug on A380 Superjumbo; deliveries stop in 2021

• backlog not enough to sustain production
• Emirates slashed orders
• by this time, Airbus projected 1,200 380 a/c
• in actuality: 234 (or thereabouts -- but definitely less than 250)
• European consortium? Why does that not surprise me?

Venezuela: as noted several times on the blog, Venezuela has a diluent problem; another story today.

Push comes to shove: US refiners will solve heavy oil problem.

Who said shale costs more to drill than conventional oil? Chevron says it will focus on shale; less expensive? Over at Rigzone:

For Mike Wirth, the future of Big Oil lies at home, under the dusty fields of West Texas.
As he celebrates his first year as chief executive of Chevron Corp., Wirth sees the Permian Basin as a plentiful source of high-quality crude for years to come, but that’s not all. The low break-even costs to pump in the Permian are forcing Chevron to be more efficient everywhere, Wirth said, from the deepwater platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to its liquefied natural gas plants.

In a time of transition, where everyone from politicians to shareholder activists is bashing Big Oil, shale’s success is forging a new reality, Wirth said: Lower your costs, or die.

Repeating:  The low break-even costs to pump in the Permian are forcing Chevron to be more efficient everywhere. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's less expensive to drill in the Bakken than in the Permian -- and oh, by the way -- oil produced per rig in the Bakken is two to three times that of the Permian.

Re-posting: Hess will focus on Bakken, Guyana in 2019. Story everywhere. This is one link.

Most under-reported story this year: US crude oil production will hit 12-million-bopd milestone much sooner than anticipated even as late as last year. Stories everywhere. Reader says US is already producing 12 million bopd. Link previously posted.