Week 16: April 15, 2024 -- April 21, 2024

Locator: 47049TOPSTORIES.

Top story:

• Israel attacks Iran. No one cares. Not even Iran.
  
• WTI doesn’t budge.

Top international non-energy story:

• Ukraine?
• Looks like Johnson delivers.

Top international energy story:

• 
  

Top national non-energy story: 

• Trump criminal trial to begin Monday; jury selected
• Google to cut access to California news outlets for Californians

Top national energy story:

• WTI back to $83.

Focus on fracking: link here.

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

• 
  

Top North Dakota energy story:

• McLean County kills proposed wind farm

Geoff Simon's quick connects: link here.

Electricity -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47048GRID.

Link here. 

I haven't read this article yet. Let's see if Barron's has it right. LOL. More weekend reading.

Weekend Reading -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47047OIL.

Link here. 

The lede:

The American energy industry has boomed over the past decade. The U.S. was the world’s largest energy importer in 2004 and is now the world’s largest exporter. The U.S. also leads the world in energy technology and capital markets. Meanwhile, the oil-and-gas sector in Europe has significantly underperformed.

European companies should consider moving their headquarters to the U.S. and shifting their main stock listings to a U.S. exchange. While many U.S. investors are still interested in energy, many Europeans shun the core business of oil and gas companies.

As a result, the difference between American and European companies in equity trading and multiples, a measure of how well the company stock is trading compared with its cash flow or earnings, is significant. Since early 2019, ExxonMobil has seen its share price rise almost 80%. Shares of Chevron, another American company, are up almost 50%. European companies have seen smaller rises, 22% for Shell and only 2% for BP. When it comes to trading multiples, major U.S. energy companies such as ExxonMobil and Chevron trade at an average value-to-cash-flow ratio of 7.7 while the European average is 3.7, a U.S. premium of about 108%.

Lower equity-trading multiples put European companies at a strategic disadvantage. Higher market cost of equity, which derives from poor trading multiples, makes spending on exploration, development and other areas more expensive. It also makes potential mergers and acquisitions more expensive.

European companies also feel pressure from governments and courts, leading to higher regulatory, statutory and litigation risks related to climate policy. In 2021 a Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce its corporate, supplier and customer carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. While U.S. companies also face local-government lawsuits, most market analysts see them as lower-risk than European litigation.

A further challenge in Europe is recruiting employees with industry experience and developing a new generation of energy-sector workers. The talent pool in Houston or Denver is more experienced than in London or Paris, with many young trade workers and graduates of U.S. universities eager to sign on with traditional energy companies. 

Much more at the link.

Focus On Dividends -- SLB -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47046DIV.

Three New Permits; WTI Settles Back At $83 -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47045B.

Heavy oil to California: this is quite a story if one thinks about it for thirty seconds. LOL. 

• bringing coals to Newcastle. If regulators won't allow fracking in California, then bring in heavy oil from Alberta. Link here. 
• and put it on tankers with a risk of an oil spill off the west coast
  
• refiners Valero, Chevron in California have contracted Aframax tankers;
• pipeline: Trans Mountain Pipeline
• terminal: Westridge Terminal, near Vancouver
• carrying nearly one million bopd this would have been the oil moved down the Keystone XL had it been completed
• many ironies in this story
• Trudeau and Canada got a lot of bad press over this pipeline -- but at the end of the day, Trudeau and Canada got 'er done. More than we can say for California and the never-ending Bullet Train story;
  
• I assume if California finds a way to stop this -- which is not beyond the pale -- China will gladly take this oil off Canada's hands.
  

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $83.14.

Active rigs: 38.

Three new permits, #40685 - #40687, inclusive:

• Operators: Hess
• Fields: Rainbow (Williams); Oliver (Williams)
• Comments: 
• Hess has a permit for one GO-Skjei well and permits for two GO-Jimmy W Hill permits, all three in lot 1, section 2-157-98, 
• to be sited 517 FEL and between 570 FNL and 636 FNL

Seven permits renewed:

• Foundation Energy Management (4): four Mosser Federal permits, Elkhorn Ranch, Billings County;
• Enerplus (3): permits for Gazelle, Aardwolf, and Elephant wells, McGregory Buttes, Dunn County

PSA: Migrating From Hulu To The Disney+ Bundle -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47044HULU.

Link here. 

I did not read this article close, but archiving it -- we have Hulu but not the Disney+ bundle. My wife and I are noting some subtle changes when accessing Hulu these days suggesting "they're" doing some software updates. But I wouldn't know.

This post simply for archives. Otherwise, nothing to do with anything else.

It's Official -- The Fad Is Over -- Remove The Incentives And Sales Plummet -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47043EVS.

In the big scheme of things, the incentives for EVs were nothing more than the government giving the wealthy huge tax breaks to buy luxury automobiles. One exception: Norway. The Norwegian government eliminated the 25% VAT tax on EVS up to a max of around $50,000 value for the EV.

The Detroit News, link here.

Step Back -- A New Tag -- It's Official: It's An EV Bust In Europe -- Bloomberg -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47042STEPBACK.

Tag: Scotland, BP

New tag: StepBack

Will be added to the post on BP from the other day.

Updates

Later, 2:25 p.m. CDT: link here.  

Original Post 

Now, Scotland. Steps back. Abandons target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.

Link here.

Tesla Recall -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47041TESLA.

Link here.

For Investors, Big Story Today: A Huge Rotation Into Energy -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47040INV.

Big story today? SLB.

Let me add something to this which I posted yesterday:

Market: US equity markets continue to fall / tread water. 

This is what's going on. Money managers -- for all those mutual funds -- are pulling money out of the market knowing that the Fed won't raise rates and they feel we've seen the highs for the first half of the year, if not for the entire year. These mutual funds are putting their profits into bonds to lock in high rates for six months, if not for the rest of the year. They need to do this because these mutual funds report their returns on a quarterly basis.

Add this: for the past several weeks there has been a huge rotation from tech into energy.  

Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.

See disclaimer. This is not an investment site.

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.

Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 

*****************************
The Music Page

Who knew? Link here.

TGIF -- April 19, 2024

Locator: 47039B.

Big story today: SLB.  Link here.

Gasoline demand, link here: 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI:

Sunday, April 21, 2024: 46 for the month; 46 for the quarter, 245 for the year
39883, conf, Whiting, Van Buren Federal 5103 42-36 4B,
39580, conf, Hess, CA-Anderson Smith-155-96-2635H-9,

Saturday, April 20, 2024: 44 for the month; 44 for the quarter, 243 for the year
40142, conf, CLR, Veigel 9-9H1,
39882, conf, Whiting, Van Buren Federal 5103 42-36 3B,

Friday, April 19, 2024: 42 for the month; 42 for the quarter, 241 for the year
40151, conf, Armstrong Operating, Harkness 2,
37517, conf, BR, Mazama 1D MBH, 

RBN Energy: renewable diesel boom sets off aftershocks in soybean oil, used cooking oil markets.

The boom in renewable diesel (RD) production has triggered a race to secure the dozen different bio-feedstocks suitable for refining into diesel fuel. It’s an interesting story that impacts both the oil and agriculture industries, with twists and turns that will take years to play out. In today's RBN blog, we describe the current state of the market and highlight recent happenings in supply chains for two of those increasingly important bio-feedstocks — soybean oil and used cooking oil. 

There are two types of biomass-based diesel, commonly called fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) biodiesel and hydrogenated RD. Both are derived from oxygen-containing organic compounds called triglycerides that make up bio-feedstocks like vegetable oils and animal fats. The triglyceride molecule resembles a three-legged barstool. If you detach the legs from the stool, you get three very good diesel fuel molecules, which is why these bio-feedstocks are good raw materials.