Tuesday, February 3, 2026

ICE Cold -- Minnesota -- February 3, 2026

Locator: 49889GLOBALWARMING.  

Tag: Minnesota global warming cold record Tower 


 

PSA: Why Your Computer's RAM Usage Is Spiking -- February 3, 2026

Locator: 49888WINDOWS.  

Link here

Clearing The Decks -- February 3, 2026

Locator: 49887ARCHIVES.  

SCCO: seriously, truthfully, crossing my heart and hope to die, this was the first ticker I checked this morning -- I thought it was all about fiber now -- at least that's what Cramer said. 

Dow: all-time high. Who wudda thought? 

  • Trump closer to deal with Iran?
  • the India tariff news?
  • earnings?

WOW! This has been a theme on the blog for the past few weeks. Now, this, top story on CNBC online this morning (other then the Disney story). I guess that cash hoard that Apple has is pretty nice. Wow, in a post some weeks ago I addressed this directly. 

Gaza: opening the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was a requirement of President Trump's peace plan for "the territory." Today it's being announced that after two years, the Rafah border crossing is now open. Link here. It's such a big story that even The New York Times was forced to begrudgingly cover it. Rest of liberal media: crickets, but if mentioned, doesn't give any credit to Trump. It get tedious. 

Disney: new CEO. CNBC's coverage is excessive. 

Palantir: an "n" of one. Greatest quote ever.

PayPal: an incredible debacle. Link here. For as long as I can remember CNBC beat the drums for this one; now? Crickets. Not mentioned once this week by Cramer, et al.

Melania: driving the Hollywood elite nuts. Link hereHollywood Reporter, link here. Also not mentioned on CNBC. From the Hollywood Reporter:

GOOG: a decade ago, Google wrote a $900 million check for a 7.5% stake in SpaceX. Today, the SpaceX merger with xAI = a $1.25 trillion market valuation. Absolutely insane

Trump's tariffs: for as long as I can remember CNBC couldn't say enough bad things about Trump's tariffs; now? Crickets. Not mentioned once this week by Cramer, et al, except in passing.

Pelosi: remember that story about Pelosi selling her Apple stock just before earnings came out? Okay. Some folks follow Pelosi, others follow Trump. It appears Pelosi missed INTC.

Softbank - Intel: link here.

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Locator: 49886B.  

SpaceX + xAI = biggest deal ever in history. That seems to be important. Launching data centers in low earth orbit.

  • valuations:
    • SpaceX: $859 billion to $1.26 trillion
    • xAI: $219 billion to $294 billion 
    • $1.554 trillion 
  • is this all about energy to power data centers and cooling these space centers?

India: deal with Trump is biggest story today; so many story lines. 

Oracle: ??? 

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

WTI: $62.65.

New wells reporting:

  • Wednesday, February 4, 2026: 11 for the month, 64 for the quarter, 64 for the year,
    • 42153, conf, Neptune Operating, Gullickson 36-25 4H, 
    • 41237, conf, Hunt Oil, Clearwater 157-90-14-12H-1,
    • 41236, conf, Hunt Oil, Clearwater 157-9-14-11H-3, 
    • 41234, conf, Hunt Oil, Clearwater 157-90-14-11H-1,
    • 41461, conf, CLR, Garfield FIU 2-5HSL, 
  • Tuesday, February 3, 2026: 6 for the month, 59 for the quarter, 59 for the year,
    • 41959, conf, Petro-Hunt, State 162-100-16B-21-2H, 
    • 41352, conf, Hess, GO-Beck Living TR-156-98-2017H-3, 
    • 39807, conf, BR, Mazama 1C,  

RBN Energy: for Devon and Coterra, a Permian match made in hydrocarbon heaven. Link here. Archived.

The February 2 announcement that Devon Energy and Coterra Energy have agreed to merge didn’t come as a huge surprise — it had been rumored for weeks. The two large oil and gas producers have highly complementary assets in two major basins (the Permian’s Delaware and the Anadarko) and, as they see it, their combination will likely provide $1 billion in synergy-related savings by the end of next year. Finally — and this is important — a Devon/Coterra combination had been urged on by activist investor Kimmeridge Energy Management, with Coterra in particular, for falling short of its potential. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss the deal and its implications.

Devon Energy and Coterra Energy’s Acreage in the Delaware Basin

Figure 1. Devon Energy and Coterra Energy’s Acreage in the Delaware Basin. Source: Devon

For Devon and Coterra (like ConocoPhillips/Marathon), the Permian — or, more specifically, the Delaware Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico — is key. As shown in Figure 1 above, Devon has about 400,000 net acres (orange-shaded areas) and 496 Mboe/d of production in the play (as of Q3 2025), 45% of it crude oil, while Coterra has 346,000 net acres (teal-shaded areas) and 367 Mboe/d of production (44% oil).

Devon and Coterra are also active in the Anadarko (left-most map in Figure 2 below), where significant portions of their combined 520,000 net acres in Oklahoma are complementary and their pro forma production is expected to average 173 Mboe/d.