George Soros' Ten Dividend Stocks To Buy -- January 26, 2022

Earlier I posted Ken Fisher's top ten dividend stocks. Now we have the top ten dividend stocks owned by George Soros. A lot of ads, so I will cut to the chase: in reverse order --

• Analog Devices (AD): semiconductors; pays 1.72%
• Ally Financial: bank holding; pays 2.55%
• JP Morgan: banking, pays 2.73%
• NiSource Inc: utility company; pays 3.2% 
• Sempra: investment management; pays over 3.24%
• VICI Properties: a REIT, pays 5.3%
• MGM Growth Properties: REIT, largely casinos; pays 5.7%;
• ET: natural gas pipeline; pays 6.65%
• EPD: natural gas and crude oil pipeline; pays 7.74%
• Magellan Midstream Partners: refined petroleum products and crude oil; pays 8.64%
  

So, there you go. 

Good luck to all.

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.

Apple Music Will Be Streaming A Lot Of Neil Young Tonight -- January 26, 2022

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! LOL. This is hilarious.

Are there four music streaming options? Amazon Music? Apple Music? Spotify? Pandora? 

Which is best?

From c|net, December 5, 2021: "... the competition between (sic) Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music is keener than ever."

Hopefully everyone is aware of the Joe Rogan - Spotify - Neil Young controversy. If not, google it. 

Earlier today:

• Neil Young gave Spotify an ultimatum
• Spotify called his bluff and removed Neil Young's music from their streaming music service

Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess what would happen next.

Music lovers, as a rule, would not appreciate Joe Rogan. And that's being kind.

I just knew what was going to happen next. I just knew it! LOL.

And there it is, trending over at twitter right now: 

And it's not good for Spotify. A typical tweet (and there will be thousands of these before the night is over; there are already 135,000 tweets):

****************************

Greatest Hits, Neil Young 

For the record, I'm not a huge Neil Young fan. And I've never listened to Joe Rogan to the best of my knowledge. Certainly not on purpose.

From SeekingAlpha: CLR With "Incredible Free Cash Flow" But "Substantially Undervalued" -- January 26, 2022

Link here. 

• Continental Resources is one of the most well-known names in the shale energy space.
• The company recently expanded into the Permian Basin, which provides it with significant growth potential going forward.
• The company has been focusing its attention on rewarding its shareholders through the generation of free cash flow, which has proven to be successful.
• The company's balance sheet is reasonably conservative, which should limit the risk that it will run into financial trouble due to an unforeseen event.
• The company has a very attractive valuation at the current price, which makes it worth considering for a portfolio.

Note: this is being posted not for investment reasons but because the linked article has some great graphics and some important data points regarding CLR. 

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.

The Initial Production For Seven MRO Completed DUCs -- January 26, 2022

Coming on the heels of yesterday's announcements, MRO reports seven more monster wells, all completed DUCs). The wells reported today:

• 37607, 4,313, MRO, Saint Pierre USA 12-35TFH, Antelope-Sanish, first production, 9/21; t--; cum 128K 11/21; 61K over 24 days extrapolates to 77K 11/21;
  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	11-2021	28	42208	42145	21811	87728	86139	34
SANISH	10-2021	19	24684	24775	15550	38204	36844	512
SANISH	9-2021	24	61426	61018	36477	95841	93737	0

• 37608, 3,218, MRO, Robin USA 12-35H, Antelope-Sanish, first production, 9/21; t--; cum 93K 11/21;
  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	11-2021	28	27610	27623	12848	68309	67248	22
SANISH	10-2021	17	20461	20496	9894	39511	38545	245
SANISH	9-2021	29	44653	44356	27175	68738	66519	710

• 37610, 6,625, MRO, Black USA 11-35H, Antelope-Sanish, first production, 6/21; t--; cum 233K 11/21;
  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	11-2021	6	2947	3154	1518	7763	7610	41
SANISH	10-2021	18	18263	18298	9919	42811	41558	600
SANISH	9-2021	30	40420	41095	22161	67155	65388	370
SANISH	8-2021	13	19034	18946	11043	41771	38510	1983
SANISH	7-2021	31	60889	60623	33556	106191	102416	0
SANISH	6-2021	30	91581	90991	68238	132168	34208	92544

• 37611, 1,934, MRO, Archer USA 13-35TFH, Antelope-Sanish, first production, 9/21; t--; cum 74K 11/21;
  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	11-2021	28	31930	31867	25769	61965	60741	71
SANISH	10-2021	18	17519	17458	15349	28024	27062	358
SANISH	9-2021	28	24673	24514	27997	43400	42223	330
SANISH	8-2021	1	98	93	361	363	356	0

• 37778, 5,199, MRO,  Norman USA 13-26TFH, Antelope-Sanish, first production, 6/21; t--; cum 189K 11/21;

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	11-2021	30	42893	43353	19647	63733	60359	0
BAKKEN	10-2021	30	58599	58079	26943	72613	68037	0
BAKKEN	9-2021	30	55876	55720	39318	67540	62949	0
BAKKEN	8-2021	3	13086	12994	7637	14334	13572	0
BAKKEN	7-2021	1	0	0	43	0	0	0

• 37734, 5,727, MRO, Larry USA 13-26TFH, Antelope-Sanish, first production, 6/21; t--; cum 189K 11/21;
  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
SANISH	11-2021	27	19031	19010	14483	46744	45613	526
SANISH	10-2021	18	10882	11038	9372	34257	33602	296
SANISH	9-2021	30	26240	26193	20051	69736	68932	0
SANISH	8-2021	31	41048	41039	27389	84406	80961	1004
SANISH	7-2021	29	48984	48919	32664	79521	76652	0
SANISH	6-2021	18	42967	43441	34847	65462	62985	0

• 37739, 1,919, MRO, Wolf USA 23-14TFH, Moccasin Creek, first production, 9/21; t--; cum 32K 11/21;
  

Pool	Date	Days	BBLS Oil	Runs	BBLS Water	MCF Prod	MCF Sold	Vent/Flare
BAKKEN	11-2021	30	19653	19547	66843	13559	12320	86
BAKKEN	10-2021	5	2644	2974	9026	1662	1511	0
BAKKEN	9-2021	6	9668	9320	19488	8188	6990	454

MRO Reports Seven Monster DUCs; Oasis With Four New Permits; Replaces Three Expired Permits (?); Two Permits Renewed -- January 26, 2022

Active rigs: NDIC say 34 active rigs, but two rigs are listed twice, and one rig is drilling a SWD.

$87.35	1/26/2022	01/26/2021	01/26/2020	01/26/2019	01/26/2018
Active Rigs	31	12	56	65	57

Four new permits, #38755 - #38758, inclusive:

• Operator: Oasis
• Field: Baker (McKenzie)
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for four Dahl Federal wells in NWNE 15-153-101; 
• to be sited between 727 FNL and 814 FNL and between 1960 FEL and 2008 FEL;
• Note: three earlier Oasis permits, Dahl Federal permits, to the east, have EXPIRED. They expired in July, 2020, and no indication they were renewed, although the map and scout tickets may not have been updated; the three expired Oasis permits: #36924, #36925, and #36926

Two permits renewed:

• Petroshale: one Bowie Federal permit and one Carson Federal permit, both in McKenzie County;

Eight producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed today:

• 37607, 4,313, MRO, Saint Pierre USA... see this note.
  
• 37608, 3,218, MRO, Robin USA... see this note.
• 37610, 6,625, MRO, Black USA... see this note.
• 37611, 1,934, MRO, Archer USA... see this note.
• 37778, 5,199, MRO,  Norman USA... see this note.
• 37734, 5,727, MRO, Larry USA... see this note.
• 37739, 1,919, MRO, Wolf USA... see this note.
• 35769, 2,583, Whiting, Tarpon Federal 44-19-4TFH, Sand Creek, first production, 10/21; t--; cum 16K 11/21; the Whiting Tarpon Federal wells are tracked here.
  

Name changes of interest:

• Hess "PA'd" six BW-Rolfson wells (#37136 - #37140, inclusive)

Gasoline Demand -- January 26, 2022

Updates

Later, 6:52 p.m. CT: see first comment. From a reader -- this is simply amazing -- the records being set --

Except for the other pandemic weeks when demand tanked (as shown in the graph below), that four-week average is at a 10 year low ... meanwhile, the gasoline inventory increase of 25,259,000 barrels over the past 4 weeks was the largest for any four week period on record since 1990, handily exceeding the the four-week inventory increase of 23,952,000 barrels that we saw at the outset of the pandemic lockdowns from mid-March to mid April of 2020...so it's not a surprise to see gasoline imports at an 83-week low...

Original Post 

Link here.

It's likely that next week, there might be a slight uptick, but it won't be much.

Whoo-Hoo! CVX Raises Quarterly Dividend By Eight Cents -- January 26, 2022

Graph speaks for itself. Link here.

Williston: Site Of World's Largest Data Center? Very Likely -- January 26, 2022

Updates

February 15, 2022: COP providing natural gas for ND bit-miner. Link here.

January 28, 2022: is crypto mining driving up power costs for US consumers? Link to Tsvetana Paraskova. We may need to re-visit this story in 2025.

Original Post 

Link here.

• Atlas Power Data Center to partner with FX Solutions Inc
• $1.9 billion -- billion -- cryptocurrency factory
• construction has already begun west of Williston
• will be one of the world's largest data centers
• ND has two things these folks need:
• redundant power supply; and,
• speed to market
• first phase
• eight buildings
• each building: 15 megawatts
• 120 megawatts total
• second phase:
• 20-megawatt buildings
• 6 buildings
• total with first and second phases: 240 megawatts
• milestones
  
• goal: 240 MW by 4Q22
• then: 500 MW by 2Q23
• finally: 700 MW 4Q23
• after 700 MW, company may come back to Mountrail Williams and Basin Electric to ask for more energy, depending on demand for their services
• second such facility for Atlas Power
  
• first was in Butte, MT
• goal: to create the world's largest cryptocurrency company with a carbon-neutral footprint
• for perspective: the new airport -- $300 million
• the $2.8 billion Cerilon plant in Trenton, just a few miles southwest of Williston
• the gas-to-liquid plant, see this post;

Background:

• cryptocurrency data centers are usually in the range of one to five MW facilities; link here;
• RWB: consulting engineers designing cryptocurrency facilities  from 1MW to 700 MW in size; link here;
• two of the biggest bitcoin mining companies in Rockdale, TX; link here.
• Bitdeer
  
• Riot Blockchain: Whinstone mine --
• biggest in North America
• goal: 750 MW
• to put that in perspective, downtown Dallas uses just 200 MW
• Riot Whinstone: electricity demand similar to downtown Dallas + Manhattan

This Is So Reassuring On So Many Levels -- Especially The Fact That North Dakota And Wyoming Are Ahead Of The Game -- January 26, 2022

Okay, so ten years ago, the world as we know it was going to end in ten years. [And I think twenty years before that we had only ten years. Whatever.]

Apparently, Greta re-set the clock -- or maybe it was AOC -- and now we have another ten years until the world as we know it ends. 

One would think "we" would want to move at all due haste to "capture carbon" and put it back into the ground. 

But that takes a permit, and that process is controlled by the federal government. 

How long does it take to get a federal permit to do this? 

Six months.

Oh, that's a typo.

Six years.

Yes, in general, it takes six years to get a federal permit to drill a carbon-injection well. 

I can't make this stuff up. Here's the link. 

Top U.S. oil-producing states are trying to wrest oversight of carbon capture wells from federal regulators, hoping to speed the oil industry's preferred approach to combating climate warming amid calls for limits on fossil fuel production.

Companies are proposing carbon capture and storage (CCS) hubs to sequester greenhouse gas emissions from refineries, chemical and natural gas plants, a move that could help slow global warming.

The rules governing the carbon-injection wells for most states require federal approval with the first permits taking around six years to win a green light.

Oil states, including Texas and Louisiana, want to take over permit reviews and enforcement authority, also known as primacy, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas storages sites.

The third-largest oil producing state, North Dakota, won oversight in 2018 and issued its first permit last year after an eight-month review. New Mexico, the second largest oil producer after Texas, has begun initial discussions with the EPA for applying to regulate carbon sequestration wells 

How can it possibly take six years to review a permit application? .

This tells me all I need to know about the urgency of global warming.

China and Japan have figured this out: they've withdrawn from all global warming protocols, based on their recent actions to ignore international agreements on this subject.

Back to the linked story:

North Dakota this month issued its second carbon-sequestration permit around seven months after utility Minnkota Power Cooperative applied. Its first permit took eight months to win approval. 

The only EPA permits for wells currently in operation — both tied to ethanol maker Archer Daniels Midland — took nearly six years, according to ClearPath.

And another viewpoint.

****************************************
Flashback

Link here.

Weekly EIA Petroleum Report -- January 26, 2022

Link here. 

Weekly EIA data:

• US crude oil inventories increased by 2.4 million bbls from the previous week.
  
• US crude oil in storage now stands at 416.2 million bbls, 8% below the five-year average.
  
• US crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million bbls per day, decreased by 0.5 million bbls per day from the previous week; crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million bbls per day
  
• US refiners are operating at 87.7% of their operable capacity last week; no sense of urgency;
  
• Distillate inventories decreased by 2.8 million bbls; 17% below their five-year average;
  
• Jet fuel supplied was up 24.5% compared with same four-week period last year;

Distillate fuel inventories:

Notes From All Over -- January 26, 2022

WTI: and there we are -- $87.24. Up almost 2%; up $1.64 and now solidly over $87, Again. 

Global oil shortage: wow, maybe the world won't run out of oil Guyana's oil production to increase three-fold next month. Link to Irina Slav. Hess has 30% ownership in this play; partnered with XOM. "ExxonMobil and Hess have recently made their 20th discovery in the Stabroek block."

New home sales: huge surge. Super - super numbers. Powerful.

• estimate: up 1.7% month-over-month;
• in fact: up almost 12% month-over-month;
• numbers based on signed contracts
  
• home prices: very little increase year-over-year;
• buyers expecting interest rates to go up.

Hess: really starting to report some nice wells; this has been going on now for several years. Hold that thought. The Manitou oil field is a non-descript field northeast of Williston. It was never considered a great field but now Hess is reporting huge wells coming out of the field. 

Exhibit A: Hess is reporting a number of EN-Rice wells today; the EN-Rice wells have been updated;

Now, back to that thought you were holding: these very, very nice wells being reported by Hess out of a very non-descript oil field in the Bakken supports the decision made by Hess to focus on the Bakken going forward; previously reported.

Two examples from today's report:

• 38310, conf, Hess, EN-Zunich-156-94-3328H-9, Manitou,
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	44738	1551

• 37845, conf, Hess, EN-Zunich-156-94-3328H-8, Manitou,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	38765	19396

Generally, first month's production is not a full month.

Twenty years from now, they're going to say, "we under-estimated the Bakken."

*******************************************
Insanity

Burning oil in New England: it just amazes me that "no one talks" about this, how much Russian oil Boston burns to keep the lights on. Link to ISO NE. New England is on track to forty days and forty nights of burning huge amounts of oil because they fear natural gas from Pennsylvania, but love that oil from Russia. Even coal in New England is doing quite well. 

The Concord-Monitor is finally addressing this. They've done this occasionally, but their recent "News>Science" page looks like a screenshot from the blog. 

***********************************
Blowing Off Global Warming

I don't know if folks caught this yet, but President Xi, China, has jumped ship. No longer concerned about global warming on his watch; he will let the next premier worry about it. He is premier for life and decades younger than our current US president. All over twitter. Will take a few days for mainstream media to pick up on this.

Greta's head is exploding, but I assume she has moved on. 

Xi was not the first. Japan went first earlier this week, going back to subsidies for fossil fuel industry, reneging on hard-fought agreement in most recent UN climate conference, COP26 from just a couple of weeks ago. 

California, apparently following suit, puts the screws on homeowners who bought in (literally and figuratively) roof-top solar panels.

Hess EN-Rice Wells In Manitou Oil Field

Locator: 10010RICE.

Updates

November 1, 2023: from this date's daily activity report:

• Hess has permits for four more EN-Rice wells, lot 3, section 3-155-94, to be sited between 454 FNL and 495 FNL and between 2035 FWL and 2124 FWL; the Hess EN-Rice wells are tracked here.

The map:

Original Post

The wells:

• 36460, 2,568, Hess, EN-Ruland-156-94-3328H-6, Manitou, t5/20; cum 186K 9/21;
• 36461, 2,824, Hess, EN-Ruland-156-94-3328H-3, Manitou, t5/20; cum 271K 9/21;
• 36462, 3,078, Hess, EN-Ruland-156-94-3328H-5, Manitou, t5/20; cum 219K 9/21;
• 36795, 2,906, Hess, EN-Ruland-156-94-3328H-6, Manitou, t5/20; cum 193K 9/21;
• 36796, 2,938, Hess, EN-Ruland-LE-156-94-3328H-1, Manitou, t5/20; cum 311K 9/21;

• 16771, IA/268, Hess, EN-Ruland-156-94-3328H-1, Manitou, t1/09; cum 139K 9/21;
  

• 37844, conf, Hess, EN-Hegland-156-94-3229H-2, Manitou,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	9751	4450

• 38310, conf, Hess, EN-Zunich-156-94-3328H-9, Manitou,
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	44738	1551

• 37845, conf, Hess, EN-Zunich-156-94-3328H-8, Manitou,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	38765	19396

• 37781, conf, Hess, EN-Rice-A-155-94-0310H-6, Manitou,
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	27390	41964
10-2021	22795	30263
9-2021	33822	27271
8-2021	21790	2318

• 37332, conf, Hess, EN-Rice-A-155-94-0310H-4, Manitou, 383 FNL 1884 FWL, 33 feet from #37331;
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	14300	15615
10-2021	23719	30929
9-2021	28089	49677
8-2021	37900	41124

• 37331, conf, Hess, EN-Rice-A-155-94-0310H-5, Manitou, 369 FNL 1854 FWL, 33 feet from #37332;

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	14754	18450
10-2021	6416	8975
9-2021	24414	35412
8-2021	31169	62746

• 37333, conf, Hess, EN-Rice-A-155-94-0310H-3, Manitou,
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	13511	11176
10-2021	2	0
9-2021	378	240
8-2021	11914	461
7-2021	7131	6825

• 37334, conf, Hess, EN-Rice-A-155-94-0310H-2, Manitou,
  

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
11-2021	17030	23358
10-2021	15499	17643
9-2021	17130	19965
8-2021	18522	16571

The graphics:

 

Five Wells Coming Off Confidential List; Boeing Reports Massive Loss; And, Just Like That, WTI At $86.30 -- January 26, 2022

Biden's response to "minor incursion" into Ukraine: US might sent 3,500 troops to Latvia. Well, that should make Putin think twice about this.

Ford: did anyone else miss this. Ford halted new Maverick Hybrid pickup orders through summer until it can meet current demand. This is a $20,000 pickup truck; can't be much of a margin on this vehicle for Ford. Link here. 

Cyber threat: expect massive Russian "hack attack" on global internet if US pushes back on a "minor incursion" into Ukraine.

Clearing the desk:

• US solar boom stumbles: link to Irina Slav.
• UK plans more power capacity to avoid outages next winter. Link to Tsvetana Parskova. Wind. Definition of insanity?
• How the IEA lost 200 million oil bbls: link to Tsvetana Paraskova. IEA doesn't track China's inventories, demand, supply. Let's see, Pat. I think this riddle is solved.
• Toyota: targets a record eleven-million vehicles for fiscal year 2022. Link to ZeroHedge. 
• Natural gas: Saudi Arabia's gas production hits record-high. Link to Tsvetana Paraskova. 
  

Boeing earnings: huge, huge miss; shares off very, very little; now turn positive five minutes after news released

• loses $7.69 / share; street forecast: a loss of 42 cents / share;
• revenues at $14.8 billion  vs market street forecast $16.59 billion
• Phil LeBeau was able to find nothing but good news in these numbers
• I find it impossible CNBC analysts and talking heads blow off--
• a $7.69 / share loss, and,
• the analysts missed this
• are you kidding me? 
  
• "abnormal charges": doubled; 787 Dreamliner / FAA process
• Phil LeBeau continues optimistic chatter; nothing to see here
• Boeing still producing more 737's than operators buying
  
• my hunch: AAPL reports record quarter and shares drop

Today's commentary: "oil is the wrecking ball we all deserve." Op-ed. Adventures In Capitalism.  

MSFT: for investors, that swing was something for the ages. From $288 to $270 in a crash flash, and now back to $301.

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

Active rigs:

$86.30	1/26/2022	01/26/2021	01/26/2020	01/26/2019	01/26/2018
Active Rigs	31	12	56	65	57

Wednesday, January 26, 2022: 44 for the month, 44 for the quarter, 44 for the year

• 38390, conf, Petro-Hunt, Meadow 162-100-12D-1-3H, West Ambrose, no production data,
  
• 37859, conf, CLR, Clear Creek Federal 5-35H,Westberg, no production data,
  
• 37333, conf, Hess, EN-Rice-A-155-94-0310H-3, Manitou, first production, 7/21; t--; cum 30K 11/21;
  
• 37190, conf, Whiting, Feehan 11-9TFHU, Sanish, first production, 7/21; t--; cum 30K 11/21;
  
• 37147, conf, CLR, Kate 11-19H1, Big Gulch, first production, 8/21; t--; cum 30K 11/21;
  

RBN Energy: Alberta's roadmap for expanding the rold of hydrogen. 

Alberta, Canada’s energy powerhouse, accounts for the vast majority of the nation’s crude oil, natural gas, and NGL production. There is a lot of hydrogen locked up in all of those hydrocarbons and Alberta’s provincial government recently laid out a seven-part plan to expand the production and use of “blue” hydrogen — produced from natural gas via steam methane reforming with carbon capture and sequestration — as part of a broader effort to bolster its existing natural gas sector and energy transition cred. In today’s RBN blog, we explore Alberta’s proposed hydrogen strategy.