Whiting Will Report Two Wells Today, Including One In The Prolific Sanish -- October 28, 2021

China: ramping up coal imports from Russia, not Australia. CNBC. 

US GDP, 3Q21:

• well below expectations of 2.6%; drops to 2.0%
• market takes off --
• pundits: on back of strong earnings from Ford, Mastercard
• nope: with GDP well below expectations, the Fed will slow tapering talk
• in addition, pending home sales fell unexpectedly; will also get the Fed's attention
• and, oh, by they way, in the final stretch to decide whether Jay Powell is let go by BIden
• Congress closer to passing a $1.75 trillion infrastructure bill; get rid of the renewable energy crap and it passes quickly;
  

Unemployment: weekly first-time claims set a "marginal" new pandemic-era low; labor market slowly recovers; 281,000 filings.

• Starbucks: $15 minimum next summer; $17 will be new average; range, $15 - $23;
• McDonald's: $11 to $17 for entry level
• Chipotle, average in California, $16 or 33% above the national average
  

WTI: $82.37. 

US equity markets: it appears more records will be set today; selected tickers:

• AAPL: up an astounding $3.18/ up over 2%; trading at $152.02 (warning: AAPL reports earnings after market close tonght; historically AAPL retreats significantly after earnings releases0 -- this I absolutely did not expcct
  
• forecast:
• Barron's says trades worried about earnings release tonight; I guess that's why APPL is surging in early morning trading;
• revenue: $84.9 billion; let's call it $85
• EPS: 73 cents / share; let's cal it 75 cents
• UNP: up another $1.16; new 52-week highs;
• EPD: down 0.6%
• EOG: up 0.2%
• DVN: up o.5%
• OKE: up 0.3%
• SWX: up 0.6%; see RBN Energy  below;
  

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$82.37	10/28/2021	10/28/2020	10/28/2019	10/28/2018	10/28/2017
Active Rigs	29	15	59	67	53

Two wells coming off the confidential list:

Thursday, October 28, 2021: 27 for the month, 27 for the quarter, 250 for the year:

• 36817, conf, Whiting, S-Bar 12-2-2H, Sanish, first production, 5/21; t--; cum 38K 8/21;
• 37478, conf, Whiting, Sorenson 21-6-2HR, Bully, first production, 4/21; t--; cum 76K 8/21;

RBN Energy: perceived value at heart of dispute over Questar pipeline sale.

The recently announced acquisition of Questar Pipeline LLC by Southwest Gas has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Southwest sees it as a milestone moment that will allow it an increased role in the energy transition, but activist investor Carl Icahn sees it as a serious blunder that would make all previous management missteps pale in comparison. As Dave Mason sang in “We Just Disagree,” a dispute over value is at the heart of the matter, one which has led to a proxy fight, a tender offer for Southwest Gas, and a lot of harsh words. In today’s RBN blog, we take a closer look at Questar’s natural gas pipelines and other assets, the roles they play in relation to the Rockies’ other pipelines, and how it all factors into Questar’s perceived value.

As we noted recently in We Just Disagree, Part 1, the planned acquisition of Questar Pipeline LLC by Southwest Gas has brought with it a lot of conflict. The story began with Dominion Energy’s decision to sell a broad set of its gas transmission and storage assets to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy for $9.7 billion in July 2020, but it turned more complicated when Dominion and Berkshire decided to terminate the Questar part of the sale in July 2021 over lingering concerns it would be held up by the Federal Trade Commission.

That put Questar back on the market, and Southwest Gas quickly moved in, announcing a deal for Questar on October 5. The price tag — $1.975 billion, which included the assumption of $430 million in debt — brought with it a lot of attention, and questions. For starters, it’s significantly more than the $1.3 billion that Berkshire had committed to pay for the same assets a year earlier. But the price tag did more than just raise a few skeptics’ eyebrows — it got Icahn involved as well. On October 4, as reports of the planned Southwest Gas-Dominion deal for Questar came to light, Icahn revealed that he held a 4.9% stake in Southwest and would fight to block the transaction. The price tag was one of the primary objections he raised in a letter to investors.