Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Five New Permits; Eight Permits Renewed -- July 30, 2025

Locator: 48722B.

Newsom: will raise $18 billion to pay for wildfire slush fund; links everywhere, here's one:

  • 50% of the $18 billion to come directly from the the state's electric utilities;
  • 50% of the $18 billion to come indirectly from the state's electric utilities (via the ratepayers)
  • $9 billion / 40 million = $225 / person
  • family of four = 4 x $225 = $900 in additional taxes, or about $75 / month from ratepayers
  • if utilities pass through their share, that would work out to about $150 / month on top of whatever they are already paying
  • all this needs to be fact-checked; there may be other ways to do the math.

Note: this is not an investment site. See disclaimer at bottom of the page.

The book page: Walter Murch, cinematic history: Suddenly Something Clicked, c. 2025.

  • Chapter 7 — Saccadic Cinema

    • incredibly interesting discussion of what, why, and how our eyes perceive motion;

    • some time spent, also, on sound and hearing
  • Chapter 8 — Tetris I — Timing and Dosing in Editing The Conversation
    • the chapter for which I’ve been waiting

Trump’s tariffs:


  • today: copper
    • 
absolutely fascinating

  • a lot of unknowns but one known, possibly two knowns:

    • one known: railroads are going to be the big winner under Trump

    • one possibly known: coal, natural gas, and oil may do very, very well
      • 
natural gas should; 
      • oil not so sure; 
      • coal hard to say

Ford:
 multiple sources; done on the fly; everything needs to be fact-checked --

  • earnings out today:
  • trading at $10, exactly what it was trading for in 1985, forty years ago
    • but a great trading stock; has been as low as $1.87 (2009)
  • 
only major auto manufacturer that still breaks out its major divisions, e.g., ICE vs EV

  • headlines and the company blaming problems on tariffs

  • Ford took $800 million tariff hit but still beat Wall Street expectations
  • numbers:
    • EPS: 37 cents, down 10 cents from last year;

    • Adjusted earnings: $2.1 billion; included the $800 million noted above

    • Revenue: $50.2 billion; up 5% from last year (inflation?)

    • Net loss: $36 million
      • 
partly due to cancellation of a electric vehicle program

    • Wall Street had estimated EPS of 33 cents; and sales of $45.8 billion
  • 
guidance:
    • full year guidance provided once again after being pulled in May, 2025

    • guidance, operating profit:
2024:  $10.2 billion (actual)

      • at start of 2025, estimate: $7 - $8.5 billion ($8 billion)

      • now, mid-2025, estimate: $6.5 to $7.5 billion ($7 billion)

  • tariff headwinds raised from $1.5 billion to $2 billion

  • Ford Model e:
 A loss of $1.3 billion; a $179 million increase in loss compared other same period last year

    • loss per EV: $22,000 per car; last year, $44,000 per car.

  • reasons for loss:
    • 
tariffs

    • EV investments

    • addition of a new batter plant
  • second quarter sales reported earlier

    • best quarterly sales numbers in six years (if this was front-loaded by consumers in anticipation of of tariffs, this is not necessarily good news)
    • 
sales rose 14.2%: uptick in truck, hybrid and SUV sales
    • 
however, its EV lineup disappointed, losing 31.4% — not stated whether this is q/q or y/y

  • recalls continue to be an issue for the company who used to run on “Quality if Job #1”
  • 
Barron’s: Ford earnings beat estimates, but the quarter was still a mess.

NVDA: rises; Morgan Stanley makes the case for $200.

MSFT: surges on impressive earnings; on track to join Nvidia in the $4 trillion club; in fact, in after hours trading, MSFT’s market cap did hit $4 trillion. Just last week the experts on CNBC said MSFT was "frothy," "too expensive." Thanks, guys.


AAPL
: reports tomorrow. After the close.

Fed and rate cuts, tea leaves: zero chance that Pow will announce any cut in the Fed rate this year.


IRS: ends DirectFile, free-filing program. 

  • killed in the one big beautiful bill; 
  • most GOP politicos feel the program is government overreach. 
  • H&R Block, and others must have a powerful lobby. 

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

WTI: $70.23 — whoo-hoo! Breaks through $70. CVX drops 2% during normal hours and another 0.7% after hours — altogether, down over 4% today; down $4.48 for the day.

Active rigs
: 31.

Five new permits, #42166 - #42170, inclusive:


  • Operators: Formentera Operations (3); Slawson (2):

  • Fields: Foothills (Burke); Big Bend (Mountrail)
|
  • Comments:

Eight permits renewed: 
XTO (7):
Formentera Operations: 

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

Briefly:

  • I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
  • 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 something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  • 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. 
  • Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
  • I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
  • And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
  • I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
  • Longer version here.   

Copper Tariffs -- Trump Executive Order Effective August 1, 2025; QCOM; Tech Surges; META's Earnings Report "STUNNING" -- July 30, 2025

Locator: 48721COPPER.

Updates

July 31, 2025: link here.


Original Post

Does not apply to ore as far as I can tell.


One thing this executive order tells me: President Trump is telling us that copper is incredibly important to the US economy. And it also tells me that President Trump wants copper ore to be brought to the US for finishing. An incredibly interesting way to tax the US AI sector. Once copper ore gets to US border, or for copper ores mined inside US borders, only way to transport it: by rail.

*********************************
Tech After Hours

Did not catch the news, but somehow it caught CNBC's attention:

  • MSFT: up 7%
  • META: up 9%
  • AMZN: up 2%%
  • NVDA: up 1%%

Why did MSFT and META surge after hours?

META's earning report was stunning. Huge numbers. Mark Zuckerberg delivers.

****************************
QCOM


Star Wars And Droids -- The Book Page: Suddenly Something Clicked, Walter Murch, c. 2025

Locator: 48720STARWARS.

Star Wars plays an important part in this story told by Walter Murch in Suddenly Something Clicked.

One of the key film editors on Star Wars was George Lucas' wife at the time, Marcia Lucas. Some time after the movie had been released, George Lucas, Marcia Lucas, and Walter Murch had dinner in Manhattan and talked about the huge unexpected success of the movie. 

From Walter Murch's book, p. 19:

That evening, George, his wife Marcia, and I had dinner at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. My one vivid memory from that meal was Marcia, in happy/sad/confused/anguished tears at the sudden relief from the crushing amount of work and the months -- years, really -- of uncertainty that had now led to this incredible success. 'What does it all mean? What does it mean?' she kept repeating. 'We were just making a film for kids!

That brought me to this. I was curious. Where did the term "droids" originate?

Where did the term "droids" originate? To what extent did the use of "droids" in "Star Wars" lead to "droids" becoming a most-used word in the English language?

This is worth the read: "droids" is trademarked and George Lucas owns the trademark, just as Disney still owns trademarks associated with Mickey Mouse.

From ChatGPT: not formatted, simply "cut and paste":

The term “droid” is a fascinating case of sci-fi linguistics crossing into mainstream English — and Star Wars was absolutely the catalyst.


๐Ÿ“– Origin of the Word “Droid”

  • The word “droid” is a shortened form of “android”, which itself comes from:

    • Greek แผ€ฮฝฮฎฯ (andr-) = “man”

    • Suffix -oid = “resembling”

    • So “android” means “human-like” — originally used for human-looking robots or machines.

  • The first recorded use of the word “droid” was in 1952 by science fiction writer Mari Wolf, in her short story Robots of the World! Arise!, published in If: Worlds of Science Fiction:

    “What kind of droid are you, anyway?”
  • However, it remained obscure until…


๐ŸŒŒ Popularization by 

Star Wars

 (1977)

  • George Lucas made “droid” famous in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), using it as a universal shorthand for robot characters like R2-D2 and C-3PO.

  • The word was used so heavily in Star Wars that it became immediately associated with that universe.

  • Lucasfilm actually trademarked the term “droid” in 1977, and still owns the trademark (U.S. Reg. No. 1127229).

    • This is why, for example, the Android™ smartphone platform by Google had to license the term “Droid” for Motorola phones from Lucasfilm.


๐Ÿ“ˆ Cultural Impact & Usage Growth

  • Post-Star Wars, “droid” exploded into pop culture, entering video games, comics, novels, toys, and tech marketing.

  • Despite being trademarked, the word began to appear generically in headlines, sci-fi works, tech blogs, and everyday conversation.

  • Examples:

    • “Killer droids” in AI ethics discussions

    • “Rescue droid,” “spy droid,” or “combat droid” in military robotics

    • “Droid” as branding: Motorola Droid, Droid Turbo, etc.

  • The word has become almost as recognizable as “robot”, especially in younger generations raised on Star Wars.


๐Ÿ“Š Has “Droid” Become One of the Most-Used English Words?


Not exactly — while “droid” is highly recognizable, it’s not among the top 10,000 most frequently used English words in formal corpora like:

  • Oxford English Corpus

  • COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English)

  • Google Ngram Viewer


However, it’s extremely common in science fiction, pop culture, and tech branding — making it a high-frequency niche word. You could say it’s one of the most influential sci-fi words ever coined, even if not statistically “most used.”


✅ Summary

Origin: coined in 1952 by Mari Wolf as a shortened form of "android."
Popularized: Star Wars (1977), where George Lucas used it extensively.
Trademark: Lucasfilm trademarked "droid" in 1977
Cultural reach: became a sci-fi and tech staple; licensed by Motorola / Google
English usage: not a top 10,000 word, but very common in pop culture and tech speech.

GDP Surges -- Hump Day -- Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Locator: 48719B.

Starting to sink in: as much coverage as Stephen Colbert got, as big as his audience was, wouldn't you think he was making money for CBS: I assumed he was a huge asset for CBS.

  • in fact, he was costing the company $40 million / year
    • his own salary: $15 million
    • not a good face for CBS; did not grow his own audience, much less attract viewers to CBS.
    • employed 200 staff -- yes, 200 -- to write jokes about politics
  • Johnny Carson:
    • generated an estimated $50 million in annual revenue for NBC
    • in today's dollars: $233 million
      • again, vs a $40 million loss being generated by Colbert
    • represented a significant portion of NBC's overall earnings
    • some analysts estimated it to be around 17% of the network's profits.

Strong GDP report: a stronger than expected reading, link here.

  • despite 5% decrease in government spending
  • 3% growth in 2Q25; expected: 2.3%
  • why any need to cut rates?
  • yet to be felt: the one big beautiful bill
  • core inflation: 2.1%

Pemex: exported almost 40% less crude oil y/y; lowest level in decades, link here.

  • processing at local refineries and fuel production increased significantly
  • Pemex even reported a slight profit

Yesterday, look at that glow!


Anthropic
: in talks to raise upwards of $5 billion in new funding; Beth;

  • would value the company at $170 billion,
  • up nearly $110 billion from its prior $60 billion valuation

Movie clip from 1895: yes, 1895. Link here. Uploaded September 19, 2024, by Walter Murch.

Energy = strength. Years ago, on the blog, energy generation (use) = indication of strength. If so, UK in a heap of trouble; link here.

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

WTI: $69.53.

New wells:

  • Thursday, July 31, 2025: 48 for the month, 48 for the quarter, 478 for the year, 
    • 40541, conf, Hunt Oil, Clearwater 157-90-24-25H 2,
    • 40182, conf, Hunt Oil, Clearwater 157-90-23-26H 5,
    • 40180, conf, Hunt Oil, Clearwater 157-90-23-36H 3,
  • Wednesday, July 30, 2025: 45 for the month, 45 for the quarter, 475 for the year,
    • 41348, conf, CLR, Carlton 2-7H,
    • 41115, conf, Murfin Drilling, Steffan 1-24H,
    • 41114, conf, Murfin Drilling, Steffan 1-25H,
    • 41105, conf, Murfin Drilling, Steffan 1-30H,

RBN Energy: extensive refining, exports make Houston a prime spot for Permian crude.

Crude oil producers in the prolific Permian Basin have plenty of options to move their barrels, especially since pipeline capacity currently exceeds production, but not every route out of the basin is equal. One of the hottest destinations for Permian crude is Houston, which boasts an attractive mix of refining and export demand. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the pipelines that transport Permian crude to Houston, discuss why it’s such a vital spot, and preview our latest Drill Down Report

The Permian produces about 6.6 MMb/d of crude oil today, most of it destined for the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Houston and Corpus Christi areas are in a tight race for those barrels, competing head-to-head to attract the largest flows. Corpus Christi surpassed Houston as the top dog in Q1 2025, with Permian-to-Corpus flows averaging 2.5 MMb/d compared to Houston’s 2.4 MMb/d, according to RBN’s Crude Oil Permian Weekly report. (In 2024, Houston outpaced Corpus for half of the months.) Combined, they account for about three-quarters of Permian output.

Permian barrels also reach the Cushing, OK, storage hub as well as the Louisiana and Nederland, TX, markets. Further, a smaller portion is refined locally in West Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Key refineries at the heart of the region include Marathon Petroleum’s El Paso, TX, refinery (133 Mb/d); HF Sinclair’s Navajo refinery (100 Mb/d) in Artesia, NM; and Delek US’s Big Spring, TX, refinery (73 Mb/d). Phillips 66’s Borger, TX, refinery (149 Mb/d) and Valero Energy’s Ardmore, OK, refinery (90 Mb/d) also consume Permian barrels.

Houston is considered an excellent option for Permian crude, with its network of pipelines connecting the basin to refineries, storage facilities and export terminals — thereby providing a high degree of market optionality. Unlike Corpus Christi, which has a few refineries but is predominantly an export market, Houston has a more balanced split between refineries and exports (more on this below). Houston is a large refining center, with about 2.35 MMb/d of crude processing capacity, and year-to-date exports from Houston-area terminals, according to our Crude Voyager Report, have averaged 1.1 MMb/d.

Permian-to-Houston Crude Oil Pipelines

Figure 1. Permian-to-Houston Crude Oil Pipelines. Source: RBN 

Oil Spikes. The Geopolitical Risk Premium Is Back -- Barron's -- July 29, 2025

Locator: 48718OIL.

Link here.

Oil prices hit their highest level in more than a month on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he intends to place sanctions on buyers of Russian oil if Moscow doesn’t agree to a cease fire in Ukraine within 10 days.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled at $72.51 per barrel, rising 3.5% on the day and nearly 6% in the past two days. The Energy Select Sector exchange-traded fund, which holds major U.S. energy stocks, was up 1% on Tuesday.

US Senate Confirms A Lawyer For The US Court Of Appeals For The 3rd Circuit -- July 30, 2025

Locator: 48717LAW.

Democrats in the Bakken and around the world are livid and/or gobsmacked that the US Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's nomination, Emil Bove, for -- get this -- a lifetime seat -- on the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Not only is it -- get this -- a lifetime seat -- but it's just one step away from being nominated to being the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Which is also a lifetime award

I don't know any sentient being who could actually believe the Democrats' concern (and the concerns of two Republicans -- RINOs Murkowski and Collins) for really anything judicial after nominating and confirming Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson to -- get this -- a lifetime seat -- on the US Supreme Court. 

By tomorrow, all will have been forgotten (but not forgiven) and we will move on to the next most awful thing. 

Speaking of which, the next most awful thing, James Boasberg, as a United States District Court judge holds -- get this -- a lifetime appointment -- unless removed through impeachment, or chooses to resign, retire, or assume senior status. Whatever that meas, "assume senior status." I suppose, in a sense, President Joe Biden had assumed senior status before being defeated in a presidential election. 

By the way, how many US presidents have lost a second consecutive bid for president? Ten. Link here. How many have come back four years later to win a second term. One?

The News As Hunter S Thompson Would Write It -- July 30, 2025

Locator: 48716B.

EU-US trade deal: this is the most weird story yet regarding trade deals. With regard to the EU-US trade deal on oil and natural gas:

  • after the deal was "signed, sealed, and delivered," the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, said or was said to have said she had no authority to make such a deal;
    • the European Commission cannot direct European nations to buy any certain amount of oil and/or natural gas from America, or any other country, even if that country is run by President Trump
  • then it's being reported that there's no way "Europe" could even begin to pay for as much oil and/or natural gas that UVDL apparently negotiated;
  • then it's being reported that the US couldn't produce that much oil and/or natural gas even if Europe said they would buy that much natural gas ... 
  • "Europe wants more US gas than exists" -- headline over at oilprice, link here
    • which also turns out not to be true; the US has that much natural gas, but not yet the export facilities to export that much natural gas; but, and we should put this in bold red:
    • despite record LNG exports and several projects under construction, the US lacks the short-term infrastructure to meet the massive increase in demand
    • note the hyphenated word "short-term"
  • to which President Trump said, "well, you never know, but the US can build a lot more export facilities." Paraphrased.
  • everyone agreed that a "bad" deal was better than no deal at all
  • then they all went for tea; except President Trump who went to play a round of golf, while a lone gunman with a long gun (an assault rifle) -- apparently with a permit for open carry --  or not -- walked down a Manhattan avenue (or maybe a street), calmly walked into a highly secure NYC skyscraper and shot four people dead before killing himself. 
    • saving New Yorkers a lot of money with no need for a murder trial
  • NYC officials, and NYC journalists appeared to agree, that security could not have been any tighter. 

From oil price

Tsunami alert: still watching and waiting. 

Headline over at oilprice, link here:

  • but not because of any reindustrialization or anything like that, but because Germany experienced a colder winter than usual; and,
    • renewable energy couldn't meet the need;
    • so Germans had to use increased amounts of natural gas and coal to meet heating needs
  • the whole article deserves a stand-alone post
    • in fact, any article by Charles Kennedy deserves a stand-alone post. Maybe later.
  • this summer, by the way, Germans are using more portable air conditioners (bought from China because Germany apparently can't make their own) than ever before due to excessive heat -- probably because it's summer, and most Germans have visited the United States (mostly Florida) and now know that something called "air conditioning" has been invented.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $69.31

Active rigs: 31.

Two new permits, #42164 - #42165:

  • Operator: Devon Energy
  • Field: Alger, Moutrail
  • Comments:
    • Devon Energy has permits for two Clifford Bakke wells, ENW 26-155-92, 
      • to be sited 356 / 446 FNL and 1849 FWL.

Marathon resurveyed locations for five locations in Dunn County.

Hunt Oil resurveyed locations for two locations in Mountrail County.