WTI The Day Kabul Fell -- August 15, 2021

WTI: Sunday morning before Kabul fell -- $68.44. Posted at 1:22 p.m. CT. 

A reader sent me this screenshot from Carpe Diem:

My reply:

I saw that; I can't remember if I posted that.

That's part of the "tea leaves" that suggest to me that the price of oil is yet to head higher.

Right now, there seems to be a real mismatch between price of oil (relatively low, considering) and price of gasoline (relatively high, considering).

Later:

One almost gets the feeling the US shale operators are lurking.

Lurking:

• M&A opportunities
• new plays

Did someone say, "lurking," "M&A opportunities? Link here to Tsvetana Paraskova. Shale pioneer Chesapeake preparing for a comeback!

One of the U.S. shale pioneers, Chesapeake Energy, is back in business six months after emerging from bankruptcy with a major acquisition— marking its return to the shale gas basin in Louisiana.

Chesapeake Energy was one of the most prominent names in the U.S. shale patch to file for bankruptcy in the middle of last year, although the move had been widely expected. 

Now the reinvented shale gas pioneer is buying Vine Energy, which develops natural gas properties in the over-pressured stacked Haynesville and Mid-Bossier shale plays in Northwest Louisiana. The acquisition is a zero premium transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion, Chesapeake Energy said this week.  

The acquisition will make the shale giant the top gas producer in Haynesville, with around 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of production and hundreds of locations to drill.

With the acquisition of Vine Energy, the new Chesapeake Energy is doubling down on shale gas and on Haynesville, half a decade after selling many of its assets in the basin in 2015 and 2016 as it was weighed down by enormous debts, which ultimately forced it to declare bankruptcy last year.