They're reading the blog. LOL.
The original post over at "House of Saud in Extremis" was dated: Monday, May 9, 2016, more than four years ago.
Today, over at oilprice:
Why Prince Salman's Vision 2030 will fail, January 14, 2017.
They're reading the blog. LOL.
The original post over at "House of Saud in Extremis" was dated: Monday, May 9, 2016, more than four years ago.
Today, over at oilprice:
Why Prince Salman's Vision 2030 will fail, January 14, 2017.
Oil extends drop after Saudi cuts official sales price; previously posted.
WTI; $38.78 -- as reported by oilprice, September 6, 2020, Sunday, Labor Day weekend.
I forget when I first posted these numbers but I assume it's been at least a year:
I was tempted to break that down by two different plays (Bakken vs Permian) and adjust the dollar amounts accordingly but I've decided to leave it as is. Too many variables.
*********************************
Continental Drift
Of the many videos I've seen on continental drift, this is one of the better ones. As you move into the Permian, or thereabouts, the cartoonist has under-laid the continents, and if you look really, really closely you can see where "North Dakota" would have been 300 million years ago. Mostly under water.
This one is an updated Scotese video but doesn't include the boundaries of the underlying US states. However, the geologic calendar banner is really, really nice.
For mammal evolution, I think the most interesting period was the peri-Permian Mass Extinction event -- perhaps starting with the swamp in the last ten million years of the Carboniferous period before the PME event and progressing into the desert-like Triassic period ten million years past the PME event.
It's difficult to keep the various groups, classes, and clades straight, especially now that there is a major revision underway regarding mammalian evolution "across" the Permian. So, this may be not entirely correct.
The two major groups of animals competing for diurnal resources in the Permian were the Sauropsids and the Synapsids. The Sauropsids survived the PME event; the Synapsids did not. The therapsids did survive and this is where it gets confusing for me and where different authorities seem to diverge. Some say the Synapsids did not survive the PME event, but others say the Therapsids, which did survive that event, were an "advanced" group of synapsids.
I think this is a lot of semantics, but over time, the experts will come to some type of agreement.
The bottom line for me: the Permian is an incredible transition period from the swampy, hot Carboniferous to the hot, dry Triassic, punctuated with a major extinction event. We're lucky we're here, I guess.
Again, I may be way wrong on this but I'm learning. I need to keep up with Sophia.
Note: in any of my posts, there will be content and typographical errors. If any information in any post is important to you, go to the source.
At the moment, there are 34,167 blog posts on "The Million Dollar Way."
Of those 34,167 posts, I probably have a couple dozen notes of which I am particularly proud.
One post of which I am very, very proud is this one, posted just a few months ago on Saudi Arabia's foreign exchange reserves.
At that post these data points:
Back-of-the envelope:
So, until someone comes up with different numbers, it appears that at the end of 2019, Saudi Arabia:
So, where are we today?
CEIC is reporting, as of June, 2020:
Saudi Arabia's foreign exchange reserves equaled 38.3 months of import in December, 2019. Its money supply M2 increased 9.9 % year-over-year in June, 2020.
You know, patting myself on the back, in June, 2020, just a few months ago, I suggested Saudi Arabia's foreign exchange reserves would "cover" 43-months-worth-of imports.
I had not previously seen the CEIC report in which analysts suggested the Kingdom had reserves enough to "cover" 38.3 months of imports at the end of 2019.
CEIC also noted that mid-year (2020), the Kingdom's cash reserves had increased by 9.9% year-over-year.
38.3 * 1.099 = 42 months. I had come up with 43 months. Wow, not bad for an ex-government employee. LOL.
*********************************
Those Pesky Import Expenses
One has to assume that is "push comes to shove," Saudi Arabia can cut back on a lot of "nice-to-have" imports and move to "need-only" imports. It won't make the peasants happy but that could easily double the number of "import" months to "cover."
And, oh by the way, news today:
Bottom line: it appears Saudi Arabia needs $55-oil to pay for imports. That figure was derived prior to the mandatory $75-billion dividend to be paid annually by Saudi Aramco for the next five years.
Wow, I'm in a great mood. I just got back from my walk to the neighborhood grocery store, Tom Thumb. Prices are always a bit higher there but it's a three-minute walk schlepping my airline rolling carry-on case to the store and back. More on that shopping experience later.
But, wow, the vehicular traffic in my neighborhood is picking up. And it's a Sunday. I haven't seen Tom Thumb this busy in a long time and the Dallas Cowboys aren't even playing today (as far as I know). I just checked: their opener is one week from today; evening game; wow.
It appears the governor of Texas did not extend the lock down orders. Tom Thumb no longer limits entrances, both entrances were open, and no more signs that masks were required, though it appeared everyone was still wearing them.
One just gets the feeling that the economy is going to explode this month -- and in a good way.
There are so many opportunities out there. I just can't believe it. One needs to remember, if the economy comes back:
Tailwinds:
***************************
Tom Thumb
I was surprised. Just like Costco, Tom Thumb has sold out of "regular" Spam; most other Spam products also sold out, although a few were left on the shelf (Amazon still well supplied, it appears);
Aunt Jemima syrup -- fully stocked earlier this week; today: not one bottle of "regular" Aunt Jemima syrup. A few bottles of "butter rich" Aunt Jemima, which is priced lower than regular (Amazon still well supplied, it appears);
The aisles are overflowing with paper towels and other cleaning products.
I didn't need much except butter, bread, and milk. Land o' Lakes has removed that image of Elizabeth Warren off their packaging but I see it's still available on the internet. Not sure what that's all about.
Remember: the five foods needed to boost your immune system -- orange juice for vitamin C; beef for zinc; Belgian beer for probiotics; beef for protein; and, sunflower seeds for vitamin E.
****************************
BLM
Southern Company has a most annoying commercial: a voice-over of various folks complaining that after decades of whining, pleading, crying, explaining, compromising, yada, yada, yada, nothing has changed. And now they say "enough is enough." As soon as the commercial comes on, I go to mute so I don't know what their answer is now, but perhaps after voting for their incumbents year-after-year, maybe it's time to try something different.
I see they've re-elected Ed Markey in Massachusetts, 74 years old, who has served in the US Congress and the US Senate since the mid-1970's. I wonder if the Southern Company contributed to the Ed Markey campaign? Wouldn't surprise me.
On another note. How would you like to be the first Kennedy to lose in Massachusetts? LOL. Caroline Kennedy, to be honest, was probably the first. She had an interest in Hillary Clinton's vacated New York senate seat but bowed out for "personal reasons," mostly due to her problem with the Queen's English as a second language.
***********************************
The Sports Page
I have no idea what's going on with the MLB season or the BLM playoffs. But I'm enjoying the PGA FedEx Tour Championship. Jon Rahm really had a bad day yesterday, the second round; it will be interesting if he can claw his way back to the final pairing.
My pet peeve: video flashbacks of Tiger. His 45 minutes of fame is over; we now have a new group to include Dustin Johnson, Sungjae Im, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa -- all Americans except for Im. Jon Rahm is Spanish, sort of taking the baton from Sergio Garcia, I guess.
Before we get started, if you came to this site to catch the Bakken, the big stories were posted earlier:
Now, back to something completely different.
Word for the day: byssus. People in Connecticut and Maryland should know this word.
I can count on one hand, maybe two hands, the few things that have really excited me over the years when it comes to solving "mysteries."
The first one had to do with figuring out who the "real" William Shakespeare was.
When I solve these "mysteries," I solve them for myself. Whether I am correct or not, does not matter. It matters that I can now sleep peacefully knowing that a certain "mystery" has been solved. I am willing to change my mind on any one of those solutions but until something new comes along to change my mind, I am content (as in happy, satisfied) with what I have.
Most of my "solutions" came through my very eclectic, very demanding reading program with very little help from the internet -- initially. However, the internet provided the ability to quickly explore some of these mysteries in more depth mostly to see if I might be on the right track.
These are some of the examples. I won't provide the solutions in many cases because I don't need the push back they would likely engender. And I assume most folks have these same mysteries, or similar mysteries, and have their own answers.
But these are examples:
Those are the big ones. I will add others, but from the first five it becomes a bit more difficult, and perhaps a bit of a stretch in some cases. For example, more recently:
I wrote all that as a lead-in to a "personal mystery" solved today. Again, I was able to connect the dots through a source completely unexpected. Again, it doesn't quite qualify as a "personal mystery solved" because other had already solved the mystery. But it was an "a-ha" moment for me, and that's what county.
I've never understood the story of Jason and the Argonauts and his/their quest for the Golden Fleece. No matter how many times I started reading that story, I could never really get into it. My eyes would glaze over before the second page.
Part of the problem was the enigma of the "Golden Fleece." I never knew what it was, where it came from, why it was important.
By the way, that would be the same for The Maltese Falcon. Substitute "golden fleece" for the "Maltese falcon" and the movie would not change, except it would sound a bit cornier. A great movie and I can watch it often -- I watched it last night on DVD and then watched it again early this morning with the "commentary" feature turned on, although I quit about halfway through. The "commentary" is rather poor to say the least, at least compared to the commentary provided on the "Casablanca" DVD. [By the way, here's an opportunity to read a wonderful review of The Maltese Falcon; and, here.] [Later: I finished the commentary of The Maltese Falcon; I was wrong; superb commentary. I will watch it again (although I've probably watched it already several times, but don't recall).]
Wow, what a digression. Back to the "golden fleece." What is it? Obviously for such a myth to have come about in the first place, and then such staying power, there has to be some background to the "golden fleece." What was it? Where did the Greeks get the idea of golden fleece? I'm not sure the Greek myth actually says what the golden fleece was, and/or where it came from. It was simply there, it was simply a "thing."
My hunch is that the golden fleece had to be an "urban myth" among the ancient Greeks. Everyone knew of it; everyone talked about it; but, no one really knew the back story. An analogy: Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail and/or the Ark.
So, what was the "source" of the golden fleece? Hold that thought.
I was unaware that early paleontologists relied on sea shells to define
many (most) of the various geologic strata. I have an old, old book -- Kingdom of the Seashell, R. Tucker Abbott -- I always wondered why this seemed to be
such an important book. I've had to donate most of my library to schools
after we moved to a smaller apartment, but for some reason I kept this
book. I've had it for years, maybe decades --- its copyright is 1972 -- I
probably picked it up in San Antonio in 2004 or thereabouts. It no longer has its dust jacket so it looks pretty crummy. But it is what it is and it's an incredible book.
Today, in my "evolution" phase, I began reading it again, but this time a lot more closely than usual.
Think about finding specks of gold in the streams of California, the history and folklore and the stories (think Mark Twain) that this "gold rush" generated.
Now, imagine threads of gold silk found in those same streams. Can you imagine? Well, that's exactly what happened in ancient Greece. From page 184 of Abbott's book:
The pen shells of the bivalve genus Pinna were well known to the ancients of the Mediterranean world not only as a source of a very rare golden silk, but also as a prime example of commensalism among marine creatures. Aristotle's studies included an investigation of the small, pea-sized crab that lives inside the mantle cavity of the pen shell ...
The bysuss of the Noble Pen was used by the ancients and by Sicilians as late as the nineteenth century in the manufacture of specialty clothing items, such as gloves, stockings, caps and collars. The threads, spun by the foot of the Pinna, are fine, strong and of a deep, bronze gold color.
Fishermen gathered the pen shells by using long-handled tongs, sometimes twenty feet in length. The byssal tufts were washed in soap and water, dried in the shade, combed and finally carded. A pound of byssus would produce only three ounces of high-grade threads. In 1754, a pair of sea-silk stockings was presented to Pope Benedict XV.
Queen Victoria is said to have worn a pair made in Taranto, Italy.
Some historians have suggested that the Golden Fleece, sought by the legendary Greek Jason, was a piece of cloth made from Pinna silk. Its elusive qualities may stem from the fact that the material is readily destroyed by clothes moths. Early illuminated manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries show kings wearing collars of Golden Fleece resembling Pinna silk.
Maybe if John Huston had directed "Jason and the Argonauts" starring Humphrey Bogart as Jason, and Mary Astor as Aphrodite, I might have enjoyed the myth.
See also:
Who would have guessed? Good, bad, or indifferent. Whether domestic airlines "make it" or not and whether there will be massive lay-offs in the airline industry pretty much lies with Nancy Pelosi. It appears White House and US Senate eager to "make a deal" but Schumer / Pelosi demands are so egregious, not likely to happen before end of September, if ever.
I think internal polling will drive Pelosi's decision.
American airlines: cuts October flying capacity by 55%. Links everywhere -- Bloomberg with paywall, but same story over at Fox Business.
United Airlines: will eliminate "change" fees ... permanently. Speaking of which, did the airlines ever eliminate those fuel surcharge fees? LOL. As late as 2019, some airlines still imposed such fees.
***********************************
Garage Band: Social Distancing
Disclaimer: in a long note like this, written before I've had my coffee and breakfast, there will be content and tpographical errors, as well as really bad grammar. But I'm too eager for coffee to proofread.
That was a headline elsewhere -- about the middle class white male being ignored this summer. I think one could extend that "middle class" quite a bit.
******************************
The US Economy
I would imagine that the demographics and economic data would show that the US economy is, in a large part, driven by the middle class white male. I could be wrong. In Portland, OR, for example, the economy seems to be run by Antifa and #BLM.
You know, it's interesting, some years ago, again I could be wrong, but some years ago, I really do remember that the Portland Trailblazers were a "thing." They were a big draw for residents of Portland. Having visited Portland recently and spoken frequently with my extended family who have lived in Portland for decades, it is noteworthy that news regarding the Trailblazers, the Rose Garden, downtown shopping, etc., never, never, never come up in conversation. The only thing that comes up in conversation in Portland is/are the nightly riots -- I guess the city is "celebrating" it's 100th consecutive night of mayhem. And I still ask about Powell's book store.
Wow, what a digression.
I'm not sure you can blame the MLB ratings crash on "wokeness," but it's as good a start as anything. I'm a very, very fair weather fan of MLB.
In fact, I've become a fair weather fan of almost any professional sport these days -- although with regard to the BLM, I haven't enjoyed professional basketball since Phil Jackson coached the Chicago Bulls. Sometime after the end of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, the switch to Los Angeles Lakes, the Shak-Kobe feud, Kobe going Hollywood, the demise of defense, and finally, the re-branding, everything changed ... for the worse.
Wow, if the MLB ratings have crashed due to "wokeness," imagine how BLM ratings have done.
But I digress. From Zero Hedge:
Primetime ratings for Major League Baseball are in freefall, as the season began with players kneeling for the National Anthem and standing for Black Lives Matter.
The league joins the 'highly political NBA,' which has turned off a large portion of its audience and seen ratings suffer as a result.Sunday, baseball’s flagship primetime night, has been particularly bad.
As Sports Media Watch reports, last Weekend’s edition of Sunday Night Baseball was down 30 percent over last year.
Think about that: Sunday Night Baseball was down 30 percent over last year. Folks have nowhere to go on Sunday nights any more. On top of that, there is nowhere to go for sports ... and here, we are. One would have thought televised sports ratings would be going through the roof.
Again, I think the demographics might show that the middle class American white male might be driving some of this, but then I could be wrong. In Portland, it seems the middle class isn't driving anything. But back to MLB.
The site reported that the “Braves-Phillies earned a 0.8 and 1.20 million on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball (including ESPN2 Statcast coverage) — down 30% in ratings and 33% in viewership from week five of last season (5/5/19: Cardinals-Cubs: 1.1, 1.81M), but up a tick and 2% respectively from last year’s comparable date (9/1/19 Mets-Phillies: 0.7, 1.19M).
Saturday wasn't much better - with Sports Media Watch reporting that "FOX averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.36 million viewers for regional Major League Baseball last Saturday afternoon (Braves-Phillies or Indians-Cardinals), marking its smallest MLB audience in two years."
And, again, these television viewers have nowhere to go on Saturday and Sunday with the continued lock downs. They must all be watching re-runs of "Sex In The City."
*******************************
College Football's Biggest Fumble
Part of the reason the Big 10 and PAC-12 decided to dispense with college football (and all college sports) this year was due to "reports" like this: Covid-19 is linked to heart disease in college athletes -- especially those in Pennsylvania.
Now, it's being reported -- as expected -- that that is not true. Like everything else, any death this past year was attributed to that novel Chinese virus. And it makes sense: anyone arriving at a hospital emergency room, regardless of reason, was tested for the virus. If positive, that was the admitting diagnosis. Gunshot wound to abdomen was a secondary. The gunshot wound to the abdomen was easy to manage; the virus, not so much. The entire emergency room, surgical suite and post-op unit had to be declared a zone 2 biohazard.
But back to Wuhan flu and heart disease in college athletes. Not true, apparently.
With the media poised to pounce on negative Covid headlines at any chance they are given, it is more important now than ever to make sure that those headlines are accurate.
Inaccurate headlines can cause an uproar, as we found out last week when it was falsely reported that an astonishing 30% to 35% of Big Ten college athletes that were positive for Covid also had myocarditis - inflammation of the heart muscle. It was an astonishing figure that may left the world thinking: if 30% to 35% of college athletes were getting it, surely everyone else was, too.
"When we looked at our COVID-positive athletes, whether they were symptomatic or not, 30 to roughly 35 percent of their heart muscles are inflamed ... and we really just don't know what to do with it right now. It's still very early in the infection. Some of that has led to the Pac-12 and the Big Ten's decision to sort of put a hiatus on what's happening," Penn State Doctor Wayne Sebastianelli said on Monday.
Reports like the one in USA Today read: "...cardiac scans of Big Ten athletes who contracted COVID-19 showed '30 to roughly 35 percent of their heart muscles' indicated symptoms of myocarditis."
The figured sounded enormous to us; in fact, we almost did a write up on the headline earlier this week but decided to hold off to see if more information would become available.
And, lo and behold, more information did become available. Turns out the earlier headlines simply weren't true.
See the link for the rest of the story. My time is up.
US gasoline demand going into the Labor Day weekend:
Saudi Aramco lowers official sales price for oil shipped to Asia, link here:
The wells:
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 16334 | 13651 |
6-2020 | 433 | 251 |
5-2020 | 330 | 343 |
4-2020 | 2524 | 196 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 15212 | 28998 |
6-2020 | 113 | 0 |
5-2020 | 9825 | 19657 |
4-2020 | 11645 | 19461 |
3-2020 | 15573 | 36262 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 7011 | 16170 |
6-2020 | 1106 | 1114 |
5-2020 | 15827 | 16501 |
4-2020 | 27412 | 29164 |
3-2020 | 16014 | 21942 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 3 | 0 |
6-2020 | 331 | 583 |
5-2020 | 2293 | 3450 |
4-2020 | 43 | 0 |
3-2020 | 5178 | 5061 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 9056 | 14510 |
6-2020 | 15606 | 22700 |
5-2020 | 22762 | 11527 |
4-2020 | 20539 | 18425 |
3-2020 | 12400 | 9225 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 7964 | 17357 |
6-2020 | 151 | 0 |
5-2020 | 11198 | 13039 |
4-2020 | 26799 | 27473 |
3-2020 | 15544 | 17074 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 20037 | 19777 |
6-2020 | 20350 | 16256 |
5-2020 | 18774 | 14238 |
4-2020 | 15467 | 7893 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 15022 | 30992 |
6-2020 | 19393 | 34122 |
5-2020 | 24219 | 46481 |
4-2020 | 35467 | 49880 |
3-2020 | 34409 | 54192 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 10225 | 27824 |
6-2020 | 10490 | 25598 |
5-2020 | 13913 | 27516 |
4-2020 | 20084 | 42960 |
3-2020 | 26506 | 37679 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 22565 | 14191 |
6-2020 | 15344 | 11029 |
5-2020 | 14258 | 8658 |
4-2020 | 18646 | 15605 |
3-2020 | 9634 | 7451 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 20638 | 12980 |
6-2020 | 2662 | 1914 |
5-2020 | 3199 | 1943 |
4-2020 | 16253 | 13602 |
3-2020 | 12285 | 9501 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 4317 | 2715 |
5-2020 | 861 | 523 |
4-2020 | 35 | 29 |
3-2020 | 4040 | 3124 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 12466 | 0 |
6-2020 | 2653 | 18 |
5-2020 | 13351 | 794 |
4-2020 | 174 | 69 |
3-2020 | 5429 | 4116 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 15618 | 14938 |
6-2020 | 13834 | 11032 |
5-2020 | 17524 | 14209 |
4-2020 | 17907 | 8312 |
3-2020 | 10432 | 0 |
Date | Oil Runs | MCF Sold |
---|---|---|
7-2020 | 8407 | 26897 |
6-2020 | 11863 | 30773 |
5-2020 | 11578 | 22171 |
4-2020 | 16822 | 30610 |
3-2020 | 21921 | 14916 |
Monday, September 14, 2020:
37446, conf, CLR, Irgens Rexall 11-19HSL1,
37351, conf, WPX, Fast Dog 7-6HG,
37236, conf, Slawson, Orca Federal 6-23-26TFH,
Sunday, September 13, 2020:
36775, conf, Whiting, Iverson 11-14HU,
36115, conf, Hess, GO-Dahl-156-97-2215H-4,
Saturday, September 12, 2020:
36842, conf, Hess, TI-State-158-95-3635H-7,
36001, conf, Hess, AN-MogenTrsut-153-94-2932H-6,
36000, conf, Hess, AN-Mogen Trust-153-94-2932H-7,
Friday, September 11, 2020:
37210, conf, WPX, Spotted Wolf 7-6HUL,
36952, conf, WPX, Spotted Wolf 7-6HD,
36843, conf, Hess, TI-State-158-95-3635H-6,
36839, conf, XTO, Muller 31X-12EXH,
36838, conf, XTO, HBU Muller 31X-12A,
36759, conf, Whiting, Janet Adele 14-12XH,
36314, conf, BR, State Dodge 1C TFH,
Thursday, September 10, 2020:
36837, conf, XTO, HBU Muller 31x-12E2,
35329, conf, Whiting, Berg Trust 31-27H,
Wednesday, September 9, 2020:
36953, conf, WPX, Spotted Wolf 7-6HZ,
36836, conf, XTO, HBU Muller 31X-12B,
36114, conf, Hess, Go-Dahl-156-97-2215H-3,
35765, conf, Enerplus, Elderberry 149-93-21C-22H,
35764, conf, Enerplus, Fireweed 149-93-21C-22H,
35763, conf, Enerplus, Wisteria 149-93-21C-22H-TF,
35762, conf, Enerplus, Moss 149-93-21C-22H-LL,
Tuesday, September 8, 2020:
36835, conf, XTO, HBU Muller 31X-12F,
36777, conf, Whiting, Iverson 11-14-3H,
36113, conf, Hess, GO-Dahl-156-97-2215H-2,
33866, conf, Hess, BL-Myrtrice-LW-156-96-2535H-1,
Monday, September 7, 2020:
37328, conf, WPX, Nokota 24-13-12HQ,
36213, conf, XTO, Allie 31X-24HXE,
Sunday, September 6, 2020:
37133, conf, WPX, Nokota 24-13-12HA,
33864, conf, Hess, BL-Myrtrice-156-96-2536H-5,
Saturday, September 5, 2020:
37134, conf, WPX, Nokota 24-13-12HB,
But first, a pop quiz.
Saudi Arabia imports "everything" it needs except maybe oil and gasoline. And even that's a "maybe."
I would assume that imports are paid from their foreign exchange reserves, although I do believe the prince manages a PIF that pretty much matches the value of the country's foreign exchange reserves, though don't quote me on that. I haven't checked on the PIF in a long, long time and most recent data is probably dated anyway.
But I digress.
Pop quiz: quick! How many months of imports can Saudi Arabia pay for from their foreign exchange reserves? I'm not sure I'm saying that correctly but you get the idea.
CLR's Pasadena wells are tracked here.
I have not updated the data at that post but it appears CLR is bringing these wells back on line after being offline for two to three months.