Active Rig Count Jumps To 16; No Wells Coming Off Confidential List -- April 8, 2021

Wow, wow, wow -- time got ahead of me. It's 8:32 a.m. CT -- what is the market doing? Jobless report came out, FWIW (we've discussed this before) -- what is important is how the market reacts to the report and the spin.

So here goes, the markets:

• Dow: in line with futures, down 30 points;
• S&P 500: not following the 10:1 rule; up 12 points; suggests Dow should be much higher
• NASDAQ: a bit better than futures; up almost 130 points;
• WTI: down about 1%; trading at $59.23

Jobless headline: more Americans filed for weekly jobless claims than expected;

• 744K vs 680K
• unremarkable; but "scary" headline;
• headline will be forgotten by 10:30 a.m CT
• YOLO, FOMO, YASNY
  

Quick look:

• AAPL: up 1.33%; up $1.76; trading near $130;
• BRK-B: down one-half percent
• OKE: down 2%
• ENB: down one-half percent
• MNRL: down 3%
• XLNX: up 1%
• AMD: up 1%
• UNP: down half a percent

*****************************************
Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$59.23	4/8/2021	04/08/2020	04/08/2019	04/08/2018	04/08/2017
Active Rigs	16	36	64	58	49

No wells coming off confidential list. 

RBN Energy: a look at Monolith's "Turquoise" hydrogen and carbon black plant in Nebraska.

When it comes to blogs on the developing hydrogen sector, many subjects can seem quite foreign to the traditional hydrocarbons expert. We have found ourselves spending a considerable amount of time over the last few months slowly peeling back the layers on this sector in an effort to be prepared should hydrogen enter a new phase of importance in the energy industry. Today’s blog is likely a much more straightforward one for the typical hydrocarbon-focused reader. That’s because, in our view, Monolith Materials’ unique process for transforming natural gas into “turquoise” hydrogen while sequestering the carbon, is easier to wrap your head around. This is not just because of the company’s clear goals and process, but also because what it does is proving to be economically viable. That’s not always the case when we discuss hydrogen, so covering Monolith’s operations is a welcome break. Today, we detail a truly one-of-a-kind method of low-carbon hydrogen production.

Hydrogen can be produced in many ways and we have covered the basics so far in our hydrogen blog series. Previously, we outlined how almost all the production of H2 in the U.S. is based on natural gas, through a process called steam methane reforming (SMR). Chief among the other methods is electrolysis, which we also covered in the same blog. Electrolysis has many advocates, given it requires only water and electricity to operate and doesn’t directly produce carbon emissions. 

Electrolysis projects are starting to proliferate around the world and, to a lesser extent, here in North America. The process we discuss today has some similarities to both SMR and electrolysis, so, without further ado, let’s take a look at Monolith Materials’ operations and technology.