Exxon Mobil Corp. is delaying a $1.9 billion)oil-sands project in Canada by at least a year as the nation’s energy
industry grapples with a shortage of pipeline space and
government-mandated production cuts.
Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil Ltd., had originally
planned to bring the 75,000-barrel-a-day Aspen project online in 2022,
but is now slowing the pace of development at the site in northern
Alberta. Any decision to resume normal activity will depend on future
government actions and general market conditions, Imperial said Friday.
The delay is another blow to Canada’s oil-sands industry, which
suffered from record low prices last year after a wave of new production
overwhelmed the region’s pipeline capacity. That spurred the government
of Alberta, where most oil-sands projects are located, to mandate
production cuts to drain a glut of crude in storage and revive prices.
The move also reflects Exxon’s increased focus on projects off
Guyana’s coast and in the Permian Basin in Texas. The company last week
increased its target for Permian production to 1 million barrels a day
by 2024 and expanded its estimate for the size of its Guyana discovery
to 5.5 billion barrels.
The usual disclaimer applies: this page is done very quickly.
There will be factual and typographical errors. If this information is
important to you, go to the source.
... and the number is ... 1,402,402 bopd -- just shy of the all-time
record set last month. And this was in the middle of winter, although February will turn out to be worse as far as weather is concerned.
Crude oil production (if the revision is an increase of only 340 bbls of oil, it will be another all-time high -- my hunch: the final number will be revised upward by at least 1,500 bbls):
January, 2019: 1,402,420 bopd
December, 2018: hits a new all-time high, revised-- 1,402,741 bopd (final)
delta, bbls: (339)
delta, percent: a decrease of 0.02% month-over-month
Producing wells:
January, 2019: 15,397 (new all-time high)
December, 2018: 15,369
Production, boe:
crude oil: 1,402,402 bopd
natural gas: 2,720,006 MCF/D = 453,259 boepd, new all-time high
total boe: 1,855,660 boepd
last month, December, 2018, boepd data: 1,842,979 boepd
if that's accurate, and I need to re-check it, then the most recent production on a "boepd" basis, a new all-time high record was set in North Dakota in January, 2019;
Legacy Fund deposits could be disappointing in March, 2019.
December, 2018: hits a new all-time high, revised-- 1,402,741 bopd (final)
delta, bbls: (339)
delta, percent: a decrease of 0.02% month-over-month
from the NDIC: January oil production came in at 1,402,402 barrels a day, down only 300
barrels from December’s final production of 1,402,741 creating what
Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms called a “photo
finish” between the months.
Producing wells:
January, 2019: 15,397 (new all-time high)
December, 2018: 15,369
Natural gas production:
January, 2019: 2,720,006 MCF/day-- new all-time high
December, 2018: 2,651,375 MCF/day
delta, cubic feet: 68,631 Mcf/d
delta, percent: 2.5%
from the NDIC: natural gas production continued a
record-breaking trend with January production up 2.6 percent at 2.72
billion cubic feet a day, up from December’s record of 2.65 Bcf/day.
Weather: we've been watching the "bomb cyclone" on the weather channel the last four days; Denver has been shut down, hit hard by winter storm, blizzard; our son-in-law and three granddaughters arrived in the Denver area just as the storm hit; they went there to go skiing. It turns out they got in three good days -- as planned -- of skiing. Our son-in-law and our four -(almost five-) year-old granddaughter may have enjoyed it the most. The older granddaughters probably take it too seriously -- really, really trying to improve.
Okay, the market has opened.
Note: I apologize to delayed replies to correspondence. I've received a lot of
e-mails and comments over the past two days but am so busy I won't get to
them until later today or over the weekend. But please continue
writing. I learn a lot; get a lot of great ideas. Good luck to all.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any
investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions or plans
based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
WTI: dropped below $58. "OPEC threatens to kill US shale." Okay.
Threat: OPEC spokesman says the cartel will destroy the US shale
industry if US votes to place sanctions on OPEC cartel. Saudi tried that
in 2014: it was a trillion-dollar mistake. It would be more painful
this time for everyone if OPEC opened the spigots. So much for Saudi's
recent statement it would do anything to support the price of oil.
The market, at opening:
Dow futures: up 39 points
Tesla, wow, wow, wow -- down $13; down almost 5%; more on this later;
XLNX, up almost 2%; up about $2.00;
UNP, up 55 cents;
AAPL, up 74 cents;
RDS-B, up 32 cents;
CVX, up 34 cents;
COP, up 37 cents;
BRK, up $1.52
*********************************
Notes to the Granddaughters
For The Archives
And Mostly For Connor
Okay, some comments with regard to the market:
for whatever reason, the market crashed back in December, 2018, wiped out a lot of gains, but since then, the market seems to have come back nicely
for about two months, maybe longer, I never looked at the market, once it started crashing; generally, I remain fully invested regardless; I know most folks like to keep "some powder dry"; I've found I can always find plenty of "losers" in my portfolio that I can sell if I want to buy something else
over the years, I have "left a lot of money on the table," as they say -- I might have done better had I been more serious about investing
having said that, I feel so fortunate that I was an investor and not simply a saver (one has to be both)
my dad taught me very, very little about investing -- except he invested, and I watched; I bet I was in elementary school when I first heard him talking about investing
he would invest even when he had very, very little money
right now, I feel really, really good about the market
generally speaking, I like to invest in companies that pay dividends
early on, everything I bought, dividends were automatically reinvested
now, after 40 years of investing I don't do any more automatic reinvesting of dividends; I build up a cash position and then re-invest later;
I am still fortunate enough that I can re-invest all dividends, even in retirement;
generally speaking, it appears had I never sold anything after the initial investment, I would be much better off today (examples of companies I sold way too early, and I consciously made the decision to sell; these were mistakes: WDF; STE; KOG; WEN);
95% of my portfolio is managed professionally; mutual funds, for example
my professionally managed portfolio has done better than what I have done on my own, but the latter is more fun
by the way, that automatic re-investing during the December, 2018, crash really, really paid off very, very nicely
AAPL is in a position to really increase its dividend; maybe even a special dividend; but I wouldn't be on it
in the energy sector, the "majors" look really exiting right now
I've always loved railroads; BNSF/BNI was my all-time favorite and then Warren Buffett bought it. I got into BRK that way and have been quite delighted
having "lost" all my BNSF/BNI, I then re-built a position in UNP, and am happy how that has worked out
probably nothing has given me a better "adult" education than investing;
investing keeps one young -- or at least feeling young; when Dad was 94 years old he was still doing calculations on the back of the cloth napkins at the nursing home
I really apologize but I find this quite interesting -- something has really spooked TSLA investors. This should not have happened:
Musk Melon unveiled S3XY
Model Y is billed as an SUV for the masses
But something has spooked TSLA investors -- down another 4% today, down over $12; by the way Yahoo!Finance
has not changed the "amount of cash on hand" over at Tesla even though
Tesla had that $1 billion debt to pay earlier this month; "cash on hand" is still shown as $3.69 billion.
on March 6, Tesla removed all reference to the Tesla Network from its website.
the
Tesla Network is meant to be an autonomous car service that would
eventually compete with Uber and Lyft in the ride-sharing space.
Tesla
has made big promises about its autonomous driving program, but it
appears to be falling ever farther behind the leaders in the technology.
Tesla's
valuation is based in part on future mobility-as-a-service revenues.
These are unlikely to materialize anytime soon, if ever.
as
analysts come to realize that the Tesla Network is not arriving soon (or
perhaps ever), they will have to revise their price targets. Expect
negative pressure on the stock.
Tesla appoints new CFO and CAO in finance team shakeup; no link; story easy to find
Morgan Stanley trims Tesla target to $260; benzinga;
But nothing new in those news item to explain another deep sell-off today -- except the underwhelming S3XY unveiling. It just dawned on me: Tesla unveilings are becoming more like Hollywood movie sequels. The original movie is a blockbuster but the sequels are poor imitators.
But this is why I'm apologizing. Something has really spooked TSLA investors, and I'm going to post this song again for the umpteenth time:
Another footnote for the Obama presidency chapter in the next edition of
US History: under President Obama, the US ceded the Arctic to Russia,
the Canadians, the Norwegians, the Danes. See this post. The original post was dated May 11, 2013. Truly amazing. Now this story: Russia's next oil boom is happening in the Arctic. Memo from Equinor to Barack: thank you, Mr Obama.
****************************************
The Max 8
If this turns out to be accurate and is in the final report, it just tells how incredibly good these investigators are. This is really, really amazing. Link here. The jackscrew wasn't found by accident (no pun intended), not found serendipitously -- the investigator(s) were looking for it ... and apparently found it -- again, if this is accurate.
A screw-like device found in the wreckage of the Boeing 737 Max that
crashed last Sunday in Ethiopia indicates the plane was configured to
dive, a piece of evidence that helped convince U.S. regulators to ground
the model, a person familiar with the investigation said late Thursday
night.
Federal Aviation Administration chief Daniel Elwell on
Wednesday cited unspecified evidence found at the crash scene as part of
the justification for the agency to reverse course and temporarily halt
flights of Boeing's largest selling aircraft. Up until then, American
regulators had held off as nation after nation had grounded the plane,
Boeing's best-selling jet model.
The piece of evidence was a
so-called jackscrew, used to set the trim that raises and lowers the
plane's nose, according to the person, who requested anonymity to
discuss the inquiry.
A preliminary review of the device and how it
was configured at the time of the crash indicated that it was set to
push down the nose, according to the person, who wasn't authorized to
speak publicly about the investigation.
The jackscrew, combined
with a newly obtained satellite flight track of the plane, convinced the
FAA that there were similarities to the Oct. 29 crash of the same Max
model off the coast of Indonesia. In the earlier accident, a safety
feature on the Boeing aircraft was repeatedly trying to put the plane
into a dive as a result of a malfunction.
Note: I apologize to delayed replies to correspondence. I've received a lot of
e-mails and comments over the past two days but am so busy won't get to
them until later today or over the weekend. But please continue
writing. I learn a lot; get a lot of great ideas. Good luck to all.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions or plans based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
WTI: trading above, but barely above, $58.
Threat: OPEC spokesman says the cartel will destroy the US shale industry if US votes to place sanctions on OPEC cartel. Saudi tried that in 2014: it was a trillion-dollar mistake. It would be more painful this time for everyone if OPEC opened the spigots. So much for Saudi's recent statement it would do anything to support the price of oil.
The market:
Dow futures: up 105 points
Tesla, pre-market: down 2%; down $6.70
XLNX, pre-market: up another 1.32%; up about $.162
Note: I apologize to delayed replies to correspondence. I've received a lot of
e-mails and comments over the past two days but am so busy won't get to
them until later today or over the weekend. But please continue
writing. I learn a lot; get a lot of great ideas. Good luck to all.
Scary: he says he's a capitalist, but he was interviewed recently -- he says he's a capitalist, but he fully supports the Green Nude Eel. -- Beto, March 15, 2019.
Reminder: if you did not see the excellent analysis of Bakken flaring, it will be at this site for a very limited time. It will then go behind RBN Energy's paywall. Great update.
Wells coming off confidential list today -- Friday, March, 15, 2019: 62 wells for the month; 282 wells for the quarter
34974, SI/NC, WPX, Young Bird 34-27HQL, Antelope-Sanish, no production data,
Appalachia — the U.S.’s leading gas production region — is also one of
the last bastions of coal country in the broader Northeast. That dual
reality makes it one of the remaining pockets in the region where there
is significant potential for upside in natural gas demand for power
generation. Gas burn for power in the Appalachian states — Pennsylvania,
Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky — surpassed power burn in the northern
Mid-Atlantic market (New York/New Jersey) in 2017 and led the growth in
overall Northeast power burn in 2018. The availability of consistently
low-priced gas in recent years has hastened the retirement of coal-fired
and nuclear generation plants in the shale producing region and fueled
the addition of combined-cycle gas-fired generators, with more scheduled
to come online soon. Today’s blog looks at recent and upcoming changes
in the Appalachian generation fleet, and their implications for gas
demand growth.
2018 was a big year for turnover in the U.S. power generation fleet,
with more retirements of older coal plants and more additions of new
gas-fired units. A lot of that shift was concentrated in the Northeast
region, and within the Northeast, it was led by generation capacity
changes in Appalachia, primarily in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and
eastern Ohio, right in the backyard of Marcellus/Utica producers. Before
we get to what’s happening with power generation in Appalachia, though,
it’s worth putting it in the context of the larger trend in the
Northeast.
I apologize to delayed replies to correspondence. I've received a lot of e-mails and comments over the past two days but am so busy won't get to them until later today or over the weekend. But please continue writing. I learn a lot; get a lot of great ideas. Good luck to all.
