The Fiscal Year (FY) 2018-19 Annual Budget is balanced and reflects the City Council’s targets and goals. The FY 2018-19 Annual Budget is $709 million from all funding sources and supports 1,705 full- time positions. This includes $221 million for General Fund operations, $136 million for water, sewer, and stormwater utility operations and capital projects, and $352 million for all other activities.From SacBee:
After months of planning, Stockton is sending debit cards loaded with $500 to a select group of 130 residents starting Friday as part of a closely watched experiment in universal basic income, the first led by a U.S. city. Stockton, once dubbed “America’s foreclosure capital,” was the largest city to seek bankruptcy protection before Detroit’s 2013 filing. During the recession, unemployment soared toward 20 percent, and violent crime rose. Today, one in four residents lives below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.The debit cards will go out monthly for 18 months.
The Safaniyah oil field in Saudi Arabia—the world’s largest—is producing at a reduced capacity after a ship’s anchor cut a main power cable. An earlier report from MarketWatch quoted information from Energy Intelligence suggesting production at the filed had completely stopped, sparking worry about global heavy oil supply.
The worry was justified: with Venezuela sliding more deeply into chaos and with new U.S. sanctions reducing the flow of Venezuelan heavy crude to refineries, another heavy crude-producing field outage is exactly what the market does not need.
Safaniyah has a production capacity of over 1 million barrels of heavy crude: reason enough for the market to get excited or worried, or both. However, now that there is more information about the possible cause of the outage and its extent, this excitement or worry might calm down.High crimes and misdemeanors: killing an oil pipeline that could be argued is a national security issue.
| $55.75 | 2/15/2019 | 02/15/2018 | 02/15/2017 | 02/15/2016 | 02/15/2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 64 | 57 | 38 | 41 | 137 |
North Dakota oil production hit a new record in December at 1.4 million barrels per day, the Department of Mineral Resources said Friday.
Natural gas production also hit a record at 2.65 billion cubic feet per day, according to the preliminary figures.
After months of discussion, the Williston City Commission gave the final OK to major changes to the city's liquor ordinances Tuesday, Feb. 11. The commission unanimously approved the changed liquor ordinance, which moves from limiting the number of licenses based on population to a fee-based system. After Tuesday's meeting, City Administrator David Tuan said he hoped the new ordinance would improve access for new businesses.Also from the Williston Wire:
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2025
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2024
AI: posted July 4, 2024. NVDA is the proxy for the AI revolution.
US equity markets: posted July 4, 2024.
US energy dominance: posted July 4, 2024.
AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, AMZN: posted July 4, 2024.
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2020
Corona virus: much bigger than mainstream media can imagine - May 12, 2020
The Next Big Thing
The global energy crisis, posted October 13, 2021.
Energy And The Western Hemisphere
Plastic plant, North Dakota.
Gas-to-liquids plants, Trenton, North Dakota.
The continued irrelevancy of the EU.
Making America great again.
Warren Buffett’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway acquired 10.8 million shares in Canada’s Suncor during the last quarter of 2018.
Suncor reported a net loss for the last quarter of 2018, but the operating result of the company was positive, at US$436 million.
The company, however, boasted record-breaking production of 740,800 barrels of heavy crude daily and also record refining rates of 467,900 barrels daily over the period.
Suncor is the largest oil company in the Canadian oil sands patch and it was a vocal opponent of the Alberta government’s decision to impose mandatory production cuts on local oil companies to stabilize prices.Say what you want about Warren Buffett but this should again tell folks how smart this guy is. If he was interested in oil he could have invested in any number of oil companies. But someone must have educated him on the heavy oil vs light oil conundrum.
Amazon.com Inc. led a $700 million equity investment in Rivian Automotive LLC, the electric pickup and SUV maker that debuted its first vehicle concepts late last year.
The backing from Amazon will bolster Michigan-based Rivian’s plans to bring an electric truck to market late next year.
Rivian remains in talks with General Motors Co. about the largest U.S. automaker making an investment or collaborating another way, people familiar with the matter said.
The support of the world’s leading online retailer signals potential for a partnership on delivery vehicles down the road. Chief Executive Officer R.J. Scaringe said in his first interview since reports of Rivian’s talks with Amazon and GM surfaced earlier this week that he was seeking companies that could help the electric-vehicle maker grow.
In its announcement, the company said it would continue to invest in its 17 other North American corporate and tech hubs, as well as its forthcoming expansions in Northern Virginia and Nashville. Setting politics and any immediate fallout aside, the decision could significantly benefit America’s tech economy in the long run, say experts in regional economic development.
The answer to overcrowding in Seattle and Silicon Valley wasn’t to build yet another tech headquarters in an already crowded city like New York, but to spread out. The best situation of all, they argue, would be if Amazon were to distribute its intended 25,000 New York jobs across these other sites, where it already employs more than 20,000 people.
The oil crash came and went but the debt pile it left across the Gulf is still growing, leaving the region’s energy-dependent economies more vulnerable next time a crisis strikes.
All but debt-free before crude prices nosedived in 2014, many Gulf governments tried to borrow their way through while making only cautious and halting efforts to cut spending and diversify their economies.
Meanwhile, a Saudi-led blockade of Qatar has split the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council and complex regional dynamics mean it’s no longer a foregone conclusion that the strong will bail out the weak with no strings attached.
If oil prices crash again, the pain could be greater than five years ago, raising the risk of a regional recession because governments would have to slash spending while markets would be more reluctant to lend, according to Bloomberg economist Ziad Daoud.
“Gulf economies are more vulnerable to a collapse in oil prices today than during the last rout in 2014,” Daoud said. “Debt is higher, foreign exchange reserves are lower and the chance of pooling resources is smaller. A sharp drop in oil prices could prove more damaging this time around.”
The worst oil crash in a generation was a moment of truth for energy juggernauts around the Gulf, which include the world’s biggest exporters of crude and liquefied natural gas.
After splashing petro-wealth on generous state handouts during more than a decade of surging oil prices, Gulf governments, suddenly cash-strapped, spent the past few years carefully trimming benefits to citizens and cutting subsidies while trying to avoid a popular backlash.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have imposed excise and value-added taxes for the first time. But the prospect of slimming bloated wage bills is fraught with political peril, and they remain the biggest-ticket item on Gulf budgets. [And UAE slashed their big-ticket items, like the Airbus 380.]
While Oman and Bahrain stand out, the experience of the bloc’s two smallest economies might be less an exception than a warning for what could lie ahead if governments don’t diversify -- and fast.
January 1, 2022: situation much, much improved for Saudi Arabia. But still needs $85 for balanced budget. But Saudi is seriously increasing its foreign exchange reserves.
March 6, 2019: Saudi Arabia foreign exchange reserves.
February 20, 2019: God smiles on the US Gulf Coast refiners.
February 15, 2019: it's all going wrong for OPEC, Bloomberg via Rigzone:
Even as oil producing states in OPEC and beyond begin implementing the output cuts they agreed in December, the world’s need for their crude is shrinking further, suggesting that they will need to extend the deal through the second half of the year.
The latest forecasts from supply-and-demand studies of the oil industry’s most-watched organizations – the International Energy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries itself – show the need for OPEC crude diminishing as demand forecasts are trimmed and U.S. supply outlooks are increased.
The industry’s three main agencies are unanimous in reducing their assessments of the volume of oil the world will need from OPEC countries this year compared with what they were forecasting last month. The average level of the reduction from the January forecast is 300,000 barrels a day, that’s about the combined production of OPEC’s two smallest members Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Of greater concern for producers, two of the three agencies see the world needing less OPEC crude in the second half of the year than the first. Only the IEA currently sees the demand increasing as the year progresses. The differences aren’t big, the EIA and OPEC see the need for OPEC oil falling by another 50,000-60,000 barrels a day in the second half compared with the first. The IEA sees a similar sized shift in the opposite direction. None of the agencies sees the need for the group’s crude rising enough to allow them to end their current supply management deal.
What has driven the fall in the need for OPEC crude? A mixture of lower demand growth projections and higher non-OPEC supply, in particular from the U.S.February 15, 2019: A380 Superdumbo: collapse. The story that is not being reported. Remember: this is the reason Airbus pulled the plug on the Superdumbo -- United Arab Emirates slashed their orders. That speaks volumes. The Mideast is in deep doo-doo. And lookee here -- Bloomberg via Rigzone:
The oil crash came and went but the debt pile it left across the Gulf is still growing, leaving the region’s energy-dependent economies more vulnerable next time a crisis strikes.
All but debt-free before crude prices nosedived in 2014, many Gulf governments tried to borrow their way through while making only cautious and halting efforts to cut spending and diversify their economies.
Meanwhile, a Saudi-led blockade of Qatar has split the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council and complex regional dynamics mean it’s no longer a foregone conclusion that the strong will bail out the weak with no strings attached.
If oil prices crash again, the pain could be greater than five years ago, raising the risk of a regional recession because governments would have to slash spending while markets would be more reluctant to lend, according to Bloomberg economist Ziad Daoud.
“Gulf economies are more vulnerable to a collapse in oil prices today than during the last rout in 2014,” Daoud said. “Debt is higher, foreign exchange reserves are lower and the chance of pooling resources is smaller. A sharp drop in oil prices could prove more damaging this time around.”
The worst oil crash in a generation was a moment of truth for energy juggernauts around the Gulf, which include the world’s biggest exporters of crude and liquefied natural gas.
After splashing petro-wealth on generous state handouts during more than a decade of surging oil prices, Gulf governments, suddenly cash-strapped, spent the past few years carefully trimming benefits to citizens and cutting subsidies while trying to avoid a popular backlash.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have imposed excise and value-added taxes for the first time. But the prospect of slimming bloated wage bills is fraught with political peril, and they remain the biggest-ticket item on Gulf budgets. [And UAE slashed their big-ticket items, like the Airbus 380.]
While Oman and Bahrain stand out, the experience of the bloc’s two smallest economies might be less an exception than a warning for what could lie ahead if governments don’t diversify -- and fast.
| $55.49 | 2/15/2019 | 02/15/2018 | 02/15/2017 | 02/15/2016 | 02/15/2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 65 | 57 | 38 | 41 | 137 |
The U.S. natural gas market last week was again reminded of the hair-trigger conditions that Permian producers and marketers are operating under — with gas production pushing against available takeaway capacity, all it takes is an otherwise minor/routine maintenance event on even one West Texas takeaway pipeline to send regional gas prices spiraling into negative territory. Waha Hub gas prices last week collapsed to their lowest level ever, with intraday trades even going negative — meaning some had to pay the market to take their gas. This wasn’t the first time that’s happened in the Permian — a similar event occurred in late November 2018 — but it was the worst to date and signals a heightened supply glut in the region, at least until the first new takeaway pipeline comes online in the fourth quarter of this year. Today, we explain the recent price weakness in West Texas and implications for Permian basis in 2019.A reminder, the Waha hub, from an earlier RBN Energy post:
The Waha Hub is situated in northern Pecos County in West Texas near Fort Stockton — about 260 miles east of El Paso. Geologically speaking, the hub sits atop the Permian’s Southern Delaware Basin, an oil-rich part of the larger play. Like any good, liquid trading hub worth its salt, Waha is well connected, with ample receipt, delivery and takeaway capacities. The Waha Hub comprises interconnects with more than a dozen takeaway pipelines, including four major interstate pipelines and nine Texas intrastate pipelines, together totaling more than 10 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity. This capacity is all the more important given that there is little demand near the hub itself — less than 250 MMcf/d, on average — which makes Waha primarily a transit hub.
