EIA Weekly Petroleum Report; Investing Notes -- April 6, 2022

EIA weekly petroleum report: link here.

• US crude oil in storage increased by 2.4 million bbls from the previous week; so it appears they be putting the SPR-government stored oil into commercially-stored tanks; this tells me the problem is not a lack of crude oil;
• US crude oil in storage now stands at 412.5 million bbs, 14% below the five-year average, and probably twice what we need; especially with all that SPR oil about to be released;
• instead of storing it below ground, we will be storing it above ground;
• US crude oil imports averaged 6.3 million bopd, up by 41,000 bopd (yawn); imports averaged 64 million bopd over the past four weeks, 8.9%more than the same period last year;
• so, we're importing more, and storing more above ground with the SPR release;
• US refiners operating at 92.5% operating capacity, unchanged from last week; with all the crude oil in storage, why aren't refiners stepping up their game?
• distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.8 million bbls last week; inventories now 15% below the five-year average
• jet fuel supplied was up 28.9% compared with same four-week period last year
  

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Investing Notes  

Energy transition is dead. Link here.

• Suncor is divesting from wind and solar because wind and solar don't return capital;
• makes no sense; link here. 
• one wonders when Enbridge will do the same?
  

EVs: link here. Scorecard.

• Rivian, 1Q22, link here:
• 2,553 trucks
• up from 1,015, 4Q21

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. 

ATT: 

• AT&T's big day is here. The company is spinning off Time Warner and merging it with Discovery.
• The company has already announced its reduced dividend with a ~55% payout ratio in 2022, decreasing into 2023.
• T: $23.78, pre-market trading 

Market commentary: I have no idea whether this link is worthwhile or not. I don't care for the charts, layout, font, overall appearance, but if you are able to get past all of that, it's a pretty interesting commentary. Good, bad, indifferent, I remain fully invested at all times.  My time horizon is thirty years at which time Sophia will be 37 years old.

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. 

At the link (same as above), the writer considers five high-yield, low-volatility dividend aristocrats, one each in five different sectors: industrial (3M); healthcare (Novartis); utilities (UGI Corp); consumer staples (Altria); and, energy (Enbridge). Both Novaris and Enbridge has a 15% dividend withholding tax. Be sure to read the comments at the link. The litigation risk affecting 3M is interesting. Will 3M do what JNJ did?

AAPL, SeekingAlpha. FWIW.  

This is a good example of an analyst looking at Apple in the same manner as looking at any other company and suggesting that Apple will raise its dividend. Apple thinks differently and takes a lot of advice from Warren Buffett who does not like his companies paying dividends. So, we'll see. I expect a trivial increase in AAPL's dividend.

Hotels: US prices soar to record highs on consumer driven-demand .... and summer is still a couple of months away.