January 3, 2021 -- January 9, 2021

Most under-reported story this week:

• Freezing weather in China; record snow in Madrid; headed to the US;
• Increasing tensions in the Mideast;
• Amazon Air;

Most interesting energy story this week:

• US shale producers outperformed NOCs and Supermajors in 2020;

Top story of the week:

• The storming of the Capitol.

Records:

• Natural gas consumed to generate electric power in the US last year reached an all-time record;
• All major US indices hit all time highs; why the market is surging; S&P 500 hits record;
• Wall Street most bullish on commodities in a decade;
• UK fails in goal to be "Saudi Arabia" of wind power;
• US LNG exports set another record in December, 2020;
• Elon Musk becomes richest man in the world; Jeff Bezos drops to second;
• US gas mileage down, emissions up, first time in five years;

Top international non-energy story:

• Vaccine rollout coming up short;
• Fiat Chrysler and PSA to merge;
• Saudi Arabia's foreign exchange reserves surge 2.3%;
  

Top international energy story:

• Saudi Arabia agrees to cut production; Saudi rigs;
• France: electricity shortage;

Top national non-energy story:

• Ford dethroned in large pickup truck category -- first time since 2015;
• Women take brunt of job losses due to pandemic;

Top national energy story:

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

• North Dakota leads nation in getting vaccine into arms;

Top North Dakota energy story:

• Active rigs trending toward new low;

Geoff Simon's to ND energy stories:

• Lynn Helms sees the writing on the wall: with a Biden presidency, "it's not a pretty picture"
• MHA Nation wants oil tax agreement signed last year, re-visited
• lawmakers consider road trains
• state is being asked to change a 40-year-old law that allows the state to collect up to 18% interest and 12% in penalties on unpaid royalties
• still no cause officially reported in Washington state train derailment
• Keystone gets water certification from Montana for water crossing permit
• oil and gas industry produces helium, a much-needed element in MRI equipment
• US imports no Saudi crude oil for first tine since 1985; lack of demand cited;

Most egregious ND energy story:

• Oil companies looking for relief from delaying royalty payments;
  

Operators:

• Petro-Hunt, all of a sudden, very active;

Operations:

Fracking:

Wells of note:

• An "AB" well is returned to production;
• The Murex Sophia Drake "R" well;
• A QEP Van Hook well;
• The MRO Walcel USA well;
• MRO's Lang USA well: 113,000 bbls/month;
• An old XTO well in Lost Bridge;
• An old XTO well in Heart Butte;
• A Slawson Stallion well;
• A group of nice wells reported by MRO;
• The MRO Stillwell well in Lost Bridge;
• A WPX Omaha Woman is spectacular;
• An old WPX well goes over 700K bbls crude oil cumulative;
• Hess reporting some nice wells in oldest field in North Dakota;
• A very old Petro-Hunt well with huge jump in production;
• The amazing Bakken: Antelope-Sanish wells that reported;

Renewable energy:

• Charging stations:

Commentary:

• Oil and gas CAPEX in 2021;