Two Wells Coming Off Confidential List; Bakken Economy To Soar -- May 12, 2021

Today's theme on social media:

• the world is on fire
• Joe Biden is still president

CPI: "inflation" spikes -- the Dow absolutely plummets immediately after numbers released, but recovers; inflation figures three to four times worse than forecast. Three $300-suppplement unemployment checks will barely cover the price increases of fresh vegetables, fruits and used cars. Back to 1977:

• the Bee Gees "Stayin' Alive"
• President Jimmy Carter

Bakken economy: monthly midwest economy survey index soars to all-time high. Link here. Data points:

• survey covers nine Midwest and Plains states: ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, MN, IA, AR, MO
• 73.9 vs March's 68.9
• any score above 50 suggests growth
• greatest challenge: finding workers
• from The Bismarck Tribune:
• overall index soared to it highest reading since it began almost three decades ago;
• North Dakota index: jumped to 74.2 from 69.3
• new orders: 83.3
• production or sales: 80.3
• delivery lead time: 82.1
• employment: 63.8
• inventories: 62.3

Tech sell-off: once in a lifetime buying opportunity -- Gene Munster, CNBC, 6:50 a.m. CT, May 12, 2021
agree completely;

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

Rich get richer: Amazon wins appeal over $300 million EU tax bill; follows recent Apple, Inc., win; link here. Also at ZeroHedge.

Connectivity: Apple, Amazon, Google, rest of industry agree to accept "smart home alliance connectivity standard"; will be called "Matter." Link here. 

Fast? Really, really fast: M1 iPad Prod over 50% faster than previous generation. Link here. Social media not impressed. That's fine.

Neanderthals: Georgia -- in an unprecedented move -- waives sales tax on gasoline until May 15, 2021. Even a caveman can see what happens next. Link here. This tells me all I need to know about:

• Georgia state leadership;
• how concerned folks really are about the Colonial Pipeline shutdown

Colonial Pipeline shutdown. Not the means, but the end, how is this different than:

• shutting down the DAPL?
• killing the Keystone XL?
• shutting down Line 5?
• asking for a friend

Tesla China: not so good. Most "China Tesla sales" were in fact exports of Teslas from China to overseas buyers. Suggests tepid response for Teslas in China. Reminder: Tesla halts plans to expand factory capacity in China. Link here. 

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$66.25	5/12/2021	05/12/2020	05/12/2019	05/12/2018	05/12/2017
Active Rigs	18	17	66	60	51

Two wells coming off confidential list -- Wednesday, May 12, 2021: 23 for the month, 44 for the quarter, 125 for the year:

• 36604, 2,567, Hess, EN-Anderson-LE-156-94-1820H-7, Manitou, t11/20; cum 78K 3/21; EN-Anderson wells are tracked here;
  
• 36121, drl/NC, Slawson, Zephyr Federal 3-6H, Big Bend, no production data,
  

RBN Energy: low European stocks, high global gas prices to keep US LNG production at full capacity.

U.S. LNG export terminals are running at their operationally available and contracted levels and will continue to do so, with no economically driven cargo cancellations anywhere on the horizon. Global gas prices are well supported by low storage levels in Europe, and it will take time to refill inventories, which means these high prices are not going away anytime soon.

The upshot: U.S. LNG will have a very different kind of summer than it did last year, when global prices were at historic lows and many U.S. terminals saw more cargo cancellations than exports. Feedgas in April this year averaged 10.77 Bcf/d, nearly 3 Bcf/d higher than last year, and as we progress into summer, the year-on-year delta will become even more pronounced. Barring any major operational issues, feedgas demand will stay around 11 Bcf/d, which is the level needed for the terminals to produce at full capacity. That’s in stark contrast to last summer, when feedgas demand cratered and averaged as low as 3.34 Bcf/d in July as cargo cancellations peaked. Today, we look at what’s supporting global gas prices, how that impacts export economics for U.S. LNG, and what that means for feedgas demand in the months ahead.

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