Got Pipe? January 18, 2021

My hunch: the sun will still "come up" in the east.

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Propane

My son-in-law in Portland, OR, uses a propane heater to warm his workshop. When we left the shop earlier this afternoon, I asked him if he was going to turn the heater off; he said it would burn itself out, but he does watch it closely and will turn it off -- "propane is expensive," he said. I wouldn't know. 

Link here. 

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Natural Gas: Old News

This was such old news I thought it was an old article but there it is, published just a couple of hours ago, at 5:00 p.m. CST, January 18, 2021. It's a nice article for the archives, but that's about it.

From Tsvetana Paraskova: natural gas prices set to go higher. Data points:

• winter temperatures below seasonal norms from Europe to Asia;
• spot LNG prices in north Asia jumped to record highs last week;
• the key price marker in Europe, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hit the highest in more than two years;
• even when natural gas seasonal demand drops back to normal, buyers will look to restock;
• the surge in spot price for LNG "obliterated" even Bitcoin prices;
• Asia's LNG benchmark: Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) -- highest on record, last week;
• record prices in Asia / Europe will gradually be felt in the US;
• for exporters, the wide spread between Asia's LNG prices and Henry Hub suggests there will be very little chance of seeing US LNG cargo cancellations -- as in the summer of 2020

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Amazon Fresh

I have never used "Amazon Fresh" so I have never been able to talk about the experience. But tonight, here in Portland, OR, my son-in-law needed to order a few items and he simply ordered on his iPhone app and less than two hours later, the groceries were delivered, including some over-the-counter medication for one of the twins. It wasn't an emergency and it really wasn't the end-of-the world if he had not ordered it, but it saved them a trip to the grocery store. And it had nothing to do with Covid. Simply the ease of ordering on a holiday evening and not having to leave the house. He put the order in at 6:00 p.m. and it arrived at 7:30. The prices for most items were less expensive than what I pay at my own grocery store back in Texas. And no sales tax in Oregon. I find that absolutely amazing. Who would have thought, twenty years ago, that we would have such personalized service?