Oasis With Three New Permits; Two DUCs Reported As Completed; Apple Headset — June 7, 2023

Locator: 44865B.

Apple has not allowed photographs or videos of unstaged, non-actors wearing the headset in”real time.” Not even Tim Cook has been photographed wearing one.

Joanna Stern, The WSJ, also noted that. 

I noted that immediately after the keynote speech and posted the observation on the blog. No explanation. But she did report wearing and using a real headset, not a “mock-up,” for 30 minutes. But photos or video of her wearing the headset were not allowed. No explanation given.

Something strange going on?  Is it just me or are others wondering the same thing?

Where is the best use of these headsets with two-hour battery time?

One hour on the treadmill. Trust me on this one.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs: 37.

WTI: $72.53.

Natural gas: $2.329.

Three new permits, #39957 - #39959, inclusive

• Operator: Oasis.
• Field: Bull Butte (Williams)
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for three Berwick wells, NWNE 21-156-102; 
• to be sited betweeen 404 FNL and 470 FNL and 2396 FSL

Permitted CO2 storage facility:

• 39960, Blue Flint Sequester Company, SESE 7-145-82, 770 FSL and 305 FEL; McLean County;

Three permits renewed:

• Hess, 36271, AN-Double Bar V, Antelope oil field, McKenzie
• Petro-Hunt, 38359, Sherven Trust, Charslon, McKenzie;
• Hunt Oil, 38348, Smoky Butte, Smoky Butte oil field, Williams;

Two producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 38802, 1,256, CLR, Medicine Hole 16-27HSL1, Dunn County;
• 38819, 1,256, CLR, Bonneville 7-26HSL, Dunn County;

Tech — June 7, 2023

Locator: 44864CHIPS.

 

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NVDA

Today: down over $9 / share. Down 2.45%.

https://www.wsj.com/video/series/news-explainers/why-ai-is-the-key-to-nvidias-1-trillion-valuation/E8DCC2B0-F066-41EA-9053-96EC3A35B05E.

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Affirm

Link here.

Affirm stock soars on new deal with Amazon Pay.

Affirm: BNPL.

The deal will allow merchants who use Amazon Pay to offer Affirm's "Adaptive Checkout" which allows customers to pay their bills over time. The technology is already available on Amazon.com and the Amazon mobile app.

That's interesting. As noted: Amazon already offers "versions" of this on their website for retail customers.

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.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Again, all my posts are done quickly. There will be typographical and content errors in all my posts. If any of my posts are important to you, go to the source.  

And Folks Think Target And Bud Lite Have A "PR" Problem -- LOL -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44863TRANS. 

Weekly EIA Petroleum Report -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44862WTI. 

Weekly EIA petroleum report. Link here.

• US crude oil in commercial storage decreased by 0.5 million bbls; now stands at 459.2 million bbls in storage; 2% below five-year average.
• but look at this: US refiners are operating at 95.8% of their operable capacity; what's going on? My hunch: jet fuel and diesel. Let's check:
• jet fuel delivered: down a whopping 5% -- so that's not it;
• diesel / distillate fuel: increased by 5.1 million bbls; inventories stand at 16% below average;
• crude oil imports: four-week average, up 3.7% but otherwise, unremarkable; I assume this is mostly heavy oil to "balance" what US refiners need;
• production for both gasoline and distillate fuel increased last week

Adding Olive Oil To Coffee -- Starbucks Setting New Trend? -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44861SBUX. 

I've tried it. Very, very interesting.

From Better Homes and Gardens, March 10, 2023, before the new Starbucks coffee was available.

Now, widely available.

Starbucks introduction here.

If Oleato takes off --

Calories in coffee with no added sugar, cream, olive oil: zero (0) calories.

Calories in cup of coffee with sugar, cream: 130 calories. 

Twelve ounce Coke: 150 calories; no fat.

Oleato coffee:

The Market Open -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44860AAPL. 

Updates

Later, 9:00 a.m. CDT: link here. This seldom happens so soon after a WWDC keynote speech. Analysts are starting to see what "we" saw. The R1 chip. Apple silicon. Wow, what a difference a day makes: yesterday I suggested to a reader that 2023 was going to shape up to be a very, very tough year for AAPL investors. Maybe not. The best news: the headset is not going to be released any time soon.

Original Post

Posted earlier today, before the market opened:

The two big stories today:

• EIA boosts US oiol production forecast for 2023
•  as Saudi cuts; Russia implodes
• Apple silicon

Whoo-hooo! Nailed it.

AAPL turns the corner. This is huge. Entirely unexpected. Anything could happen, but "short sellers" need to be concerned.

CVX:

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.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 

Again, all my posts are done quickly. There will be typographical and content errors in all my posts. If any of my posts are important to you, go to the source.

Data Center Products -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44859DCP.

The Next Big Thing. Link here.

The next big thing: page four.

Technically not a "next big thing." Astute investors caught this early on.

I'm not an astute investor. Missed this.

But it was a story out of North Dakota that brought me up to speed.

Ellendale, ND: population -- 1,085 (2021) and shrinking. Let that sink in. 

WHY ELLENDALE?

From the press release:

Applied Blockchain has begun work on a new 180MW cryptomining data center in North Dakota.

The company this week announced the groundbreaking of its 180MW hosting facility in Ellendale, Dickey County, took place at the start of the month.

The Ellendale facility is expected to begin energizing early in the first half of calendar 2023.Applied Blockchain entered into a five-year Energy Service Agreement (ESA) with a utility partner in Dickey County servicing Ellendale on September 1, 2022.

“The community of Ellendale and representatives of North Dakota have been amazing to work with as we bring this next facility to life,” said Applied Blockchain Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins.

“Having the new 180MW facility located close to significant wind power capacity will allow it to be powered with renewable energy to further propel future high performance computing solutions for global enterprises and applications. The entire capacity of this facility is already under contract, demonstrating the significant demand we continue to have for our hosting services.”

And more:

Ellendale is the company’s second data center within North Dakota, following a 100MW facility in Jamestown, North Dakota that opened earlier this year (2022). The company is also developing a 200MW facility in Garden City, Texas. Link here.

Applied Blockchain and Marathon Digital Holdings have mutually executed the option for an additional 70MW of hosting at the Ellendale location. This brings contracted capacity with Marathon to 276MW and total contracted hosting for the company to nearly 500MW.

Earlier this year Applied Blockchain said it planned to change its name to Applied Digital Corporation.

Apple Silicon

Locator: 44858AAPL.
Locator: 44858CHIPS.

Chips, semiconductor: link here.
NPUs: link here.

First post: June 7, 2023. 

Later: added a Bloomberg story from December 16, 2021.

Updates

July 5, 2024: Apple's M5.

May 7, 2024: Wiki has not updated its "transistor count" page and as of this date does not include the M4 chip. Wiki now includes the M4 but it's higher up the list and easily missed.

May 7, 2024: Apple introduces NPUs with the new iPads. NPUs have been around for awhile; Apple has the lead, and is now talking about NPUs. I think this was the first day I've heard NPUs mentioned as "NPUs" and it was Tim Cook.

December 16, 2023: Broadcom. 

December 14, 2023: 1.4 nm chip.

June 30, 2023: first phase, North Carolina facility.

June 8, 2023: Yesterday: my first blog on Apple Silicon, arguably the biggest chip company in the world.

Today, more, from The Verge, dated June 7, 2023. Jon Porter "heard" the same thing I heard during Tim Cook's WWDC keynote speech.

Although it seems like a surefire thing in retrospect, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how successful Apple’s switch to Apple Silicon has been. Prior to Apple’s big announcement, Arm-based processors had only really been successful in smartphones. A couple of manufacturers had attempted to make Windows laptops work on Arm (perhaps most notably with the Surface Pro X), but none had delivered on the promises of the architecture without significant compromises.

Apple has not just successfully transitioned its entry-level MacBooks to Arm, where the architecture’s battery life benefits were the biggest appeal, but it also upended our concept of Arm performance for both laptops and desktops. Apple not only ported its own operating system and apps but also convinced major third-party developers to do the same.

The iPhone manufacturer is notorious for its love of control. It controls how people can use its smartphones and which apps they can install. It controls how the repair ecosystem around them works. And with its transition to Apple Silicon, it has an unprecedented amount of control over how it makes its Macs. It doesn’t need to wait for Intel and AMD to release new chips to upgrade its computers or rebuild a relationship with Nvidia. Now, as it starts its next journey, Apple can march to the beat of its own drum.

December 16, 2021: Bloomberg, new office in southern California. 

Original Post

Several times during his 2023 WWDC keynote speech, Tim Cook mentioned "Apple silicon."

What is "Apple silicon"?  Possibly the biggest chip company in the world. 

Conceived, owned, and operated by Apple, Inc.

Link here.

Apple silicon is a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors designed by Apple Inc., mainly using the ARM architecture. They are the basis of Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods, AirTag, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro devices.

Apple announced its plan to switch Mac computers from Intel processors to Apple silicon at WWDC 2020 on June 22, 2020.

The first Macs built with the Apple M1 chip were unveiled on November 10, 2020. As of June 2023, the entire Mac lineup uses Apple silicon chips.

Apple fully controls the integration of Apple silicon chips with the company's hardware and software products. Johny Srouji is in charge of Apple's silicon design.

Manufacturing of the chips is outsourced to semiconductor contract manufacturers such as Samsung and TSMC.

At the link, look at the long list of chips.

There are no less than nine "chips." The term "chips" is used broadly.

• A, H, M, R, S, T, U, W, M (again).

News: brand new -- the R series. The R1 is a key component of the new Vision Pro.

Coming: M3. 

Apple 3nm. Link here.

Apple made the last big fabrication process jump in 2020, when it moved to TSMC's 5nm process with the A14 Bionic and the M1 chip. Some chips, such as the S6, S7, and S8 in the Apple Watch have continued to use a 7nm fabrication process because they are based on the A13 Bionic – Apple's final 7nm chip designed for the iPhone.

Apple introduced the A16 Bionic chip with the iPhone 14 Pro and ‌iPhone 14 Pro‌ Max last year. Apple claims that it is a 4nm chip because it uses TSMC's "N4" process, but in reality it is made with an enhanced version of TSMC's 5nm N5 and N5P processes.

At minimum, 3nm should provide the biggest performance and efficiency leap to Apple's chips since 2020. The increased number of transistors that are made possible by 3nm allows the chip to perform more tasks simultaneously and at a faster rate, while using less power.

The next-generation production technique allows chips to use up to 35 percent less power while providing better performance compared to the 5nm process that Apple has used for all of its A- and M-series chips since 2020.

According to The Information, future Apple silicon chips built on the 3nm process will feature up to four dies, which would support up to 40 compute cores. The M2 chip has a 10-core CPU and the ‌M2‌ Pro and Max have 12-core CPUs, so 3nm could significantly boost multi-core performance.

It's Still All About The "Right Kind Of Oil" -- RBN Energy; Ya Gotta Love Texas; Six Wells Coming Off Confidential List -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44857B.

Anyone else getting the feeling this is going to be a great summer for investors?

The two big stories today:

• EIA boosts US oiol production forecast for 2023
•  as Saudi cuts; Russia implodes
• Apple silicon
  

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101 Days Of Summer

Day 11.

Beautiful biking weather. On a scale of 1 - 10, a twelve (12).

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs: 36.

WTI: $72.52.

Natural gas: $2.297.

Peter Zeihan newsletter.

Thursday, June 8, 2023: 20 for the month; 130 for the quarter, 385for the year
37899, conf, BR, Lillibridge 2B. TFH,
33902, conf, Slawson, Mole 4-20TFH,

Wednesday, June 7, 2023: 18 for the month; 128 for the quarter, 383 for the year
39245, conf, CLR, Skachenko FIU 7-31H,
36563, conf, Formentera Operations, LIG2 02-04-162-91E,
36562, conf, Formentera Operations, LIG2 02-04-162-91B,
36561, conf, Formentera Operations, LIG2 02-04-162-91F,
36560, conf, Formentera Operations, LIG2 02-04-162-91G,
33903, conf, Slawson, Mole 2-20H,

RBN Energy: the race to build Texas's first offshore crude oil export terminal.

As we see it, 2023 will be another strong year for U.S. crude oil exports, driven in large part by rising domestic production. Upstream companies in the Permian and other U.S. shale plays are gradually ramping up their output and, with domestic refineries largely maxed out on how much light-sweet oil they can use, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of the incremental oil produced will end up at export terminals along the Gulf Coast.

And if production continues growing (as we expect), there’s likely to be room — and a strong economic rationale — for one or more new offshore terminals to be built in the deep waters of the Gulf itself.

Each of these proposed facilities would offer shippers what they want most: easy access to large volumes of oil and the ability to fully load 2-MMbbl VLCCs without any reverse lightering, which brings cheaper and cleaner export options to the market.

In today’s RBN blog, we provide updates on two offshore projects still in the running: Sentinel Midstream’s Texas GulfLink and Phillips 66 and Trafigura’s Bluewater Texas.

Week after week, VLCCs dock at the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center and South Texas Gateway — two state-of-the-art marine terminals in Ingleside, TX, just across the bay from Corpus Christi — where they are loaded with up to 1.25 MMbbl of crude oil and then head out to the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico for reverse lightering to fill their 2 MMbbl of cargo-tank capacity to the brim.

Soon, when a project to deepen the ship channel to Ingleside is completed, EIEC and STG will each be able to load up to 1.6 MMbbl onto a VLCC, further reducing the need for topping off in deeper water. Because of their straight-shot pipeline connections to un-blended WTI from the Permian and favorable ship-loading economics, the two Ingleside terminals have been accounting for disproportionate shares of total U.S. export volumes.

But at least four midstream developers — one of them a joint venture (JV) — are neck-deep in planning new offshore terminals that would be capable of fully loading VLCCs. Their thinking is that the ability to load a few VLCCs a week without reverse lightering will give their prospective deepwater facilities an undeniable edge.