Focus On Fracking -- "The Over-Under" -- December 17, 2023

Locator: 46331WTI.

Link here.

But I'm curious. What's EIA's fudge factor this week? For those betting / wagering, the "over-under" is one million bopd. Here we go:

To account for that big difference between the apparent supply of oil and the apparent disposition of it, the EIA just inserted a [ -1,046,000] barrel per day figure onto what is now line 16 of the weekly U.S. Petroleum Balance Sheet in order to make the reported data for the supply of oil and for the consumption of it balance out, a fudge factor that they label in their footnotes as “unaccounted for crude oil," thus suggesting there was an error in the week’s oil supply & demand figures that we have just transcribed.... However, since most oil traders react to these weekly EIA reports as if they were accurate [and sacrosanct], and since these weekly figures therefore often drive oil pricing, and hence decisions to drill or complete oil wells, we’ll continue to report this data just as it's published, and just as it's watched & believed to be reasonably reliable by most everyone in the industry...

So, those who wagered the "fudge factor" would come in over one million bbls win. You win again.

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Jerry Lee Lewis.