Two New Permits; Five Permits Renewed -- March 2, 2026

Locator: 50109B.

Apple: would like to see Google run Siri on Google's servers. Link here.

Also, link here: 

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Back to the Bakken 

WTI: $70.91.

Active rigs: 24. 

Two new permits, #42741 - 42742, inclusive:

• Operators: BR, WGO Resources
• Field: Jim Creek, Dunn County; Sentinel Butte, Golden Valley;
• Comments:
• WGO has a permit for a Rojic well, NESE 23-140-104, 
• to be sited 2362 FSL and 1028 FEL;
• BR, has a permit for a Kelly well, NENW 11-145-96, 
• to be sited 390 FL and 1558 FWL.

Five permits renewed:

• Hess (5); five BL-Kvam permits, NENE 30-156-95.

Apple 3-Day Event Begins! March 2, 2026

Locator: 50108TEXAS.

New Apple products being announced today. Start with a new iPhone 17e.  No streaming but can probably catch every segment on YouTube. Link here.

Link here. 

It's Texas Independence Day. I will be at events all day. I will try to do some blogging later, but for now, I'm off the net.  

Texas' 190th birthday today.  

From today:

From a couple of days ago: 

Epic Fury -- The Bomber Issue -- B-2s Struck First -- 27-Hour Round Trip; B-1s Have Officially Joined -- Two Hours Ago -- B-52s Yet To Arrive -- March 2, 2026

Locator: 50107EPICFURY.

Operation Epic Fury tracked at tab at the top. Link here. 

Operation Epic Fury and bomber issue tracked here.  

Link here.  

 Spain: just in --- won't allow US to use any Spanish bases. Trump will remember this, also. 

The Three US Fighters Shot Down Overnight Were Shot Down (By Mistake) By Kuwait's Air Defense -- March 2, 2026

Locator: 50106EPICFURY.

Early reports suggest the six crewmen ejected and survived. Condition not stated.  

Why in the world was Kuwait shooting at fighters? To the best of my knowledge, Iran is not able to launch any fighters. But it does prove the effectiveness of Kuwait's air defenses. 

Operation Epic Fury -- Will This Analysis Hold Up? March 2, 2026

Locator: 50105EPICFURY.

WTI: up 7.61%; up $5.10; trading just above $72, around 5:00 a.m. CT. At 7:00 a.m. CT, WTI was up 8.55%; up $5.73; and, trading at $72.75. 

This was posted by Peter Zeihan on February 23, 2026. War broke out February 28, 2026. 

U.S. strikes against Iran appear imminent, with two aircraft carriers being positioned in the Persian Gulf. Trump has presented Iran with negotiation terms that would effectively end Iran's status as a regional power, so it's no surprise that negotiations have stalled.

The terms laid out by Trump would end Iranian nuclear enrichment, force them to give up long-range missile capabilities, and stop supporting regional paramilitary groups. Spoiler alert: that's Iran's entire strategy and security model. Any conflict would likely start in the air, then move to targeting strategic assets like Kharg Island. Once that happens, Iran would be crippled.

Outside intervention would be unlikely, and removing Iranian oil from global markets wouldn't be the end of the world. The main concern would be destabilizing the region and risking the formation of new terror groups, although things like that take time.

Why did Trump neutralize the entire Iranian navy:

• commercial tankers
• US a/c carriers and their support ships

BRK's Pilot Acquisition -- A Failed Acquisition -- A Goodwill Impairment -- March 2, 2026

Locator: 50104BRK.

Goodwill impairment: 

So much for transparency. 

Obvious, why this was done at this particular time. The new CEO wants a fresh start.

My hunch: one of the other three was Kraft Heinz. 

The other two may have been in this group:

Why is it called "goodwill impairment"?

BRK's goodwill impairment charges over the last ten years. What have been the top ten impairment charges that BRK has taken over the past ten years? 

If truth be known, it was possible, though unlikely, that BNSF might have been in the 2026 annual letter as one of the four.

Will It Outsell The Tesla? March 2, 2026

Locator: 50103BELAIR.

Reminder: Apple is going to start announcing new hardware products this week, apparently culminating on March 4, 2026.

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See The USA -- In A Chevrolet

Supposed to have debuted in late 2025 -- we're waiting --  

The rumored 2026 Chevrolet Bel-Air:

Britain Begrudgingly Allows US, On A Limited Basis, To Wage War From Diego Garcia And RAF Fairford -- March 2, 2026

Locator: 50102ARCHIVES.

Link here. 

I assume the Prime Minister will demand that a "British observer" be placed on each B-52 that deploys in or out of Great Britain air bases; and, will require that an after-action report be filed with the "home office." 

If I had room on my walls, I would turn the above photograph into a 4-foot by 3-foot glossy. I've actually had one flight in a B-52 -- low-level-8-hour flight through the Rocky Mountains, out of Grand Forks AFB, 1983? 

I wonder how soon the allies run out of military targets.  

I have no plans to watch any television news today. My television line up: Monk, Psych, YouTube music, a few old movie classics.

Lots of reading. 

But also a lot of activity today:

• take Sophia to school -- highlight of my day;
• huge Schwab barbecue, 11:30 to 2:30 in celebration of Texas Liberation Day
• have early dinner with cyber security expert at Torchy's; flying in from out of state
• take Sophia to Jiu-Jitsu 

Europe: How Fast Can It Crank Up Its Wind And Solar Energy? Ticker: LNG -- March 2, 2026

Locator: 50101DAY3.

Renewable energy: it will be interesting to see how fast Europe can crank up its wind and solar energy.  

Palantir: 

• when I first started a position in Palantir -- link here; 
• Shay: Palantir surging -- link here.

Tickers:

 

Monday, March 2, 2026

Locator: 50100DAY3.

Yes, it's only day 3. 

• H-Hour, D-Day: 0600 hrs Tehran time, February 28, 2026 

Operation Epic Fury: 

• blogs will be posted frequently, I suspect, but we have now have a page that will summarize daily events; 

WTI: up 7.61%; up $5.10; trading just above $72, around 5:00 a.m. CT. At 7:00 a.m. CT, WTI was up 8.55%; up $5.73; and, trading at $72.75.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: up 7.61%; up $5.10; trading just above $72.

New wells reporting this week: 

• Tuesday, March 3, 2026: 5 for the month, 111 for the quarter, 111 for the year,
• None.
• Monday, March 2, 2026: 5 for the month, 111 for the quarter, 111 for the year,
• 40847, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13E,
• Sunday, March 1, 2026: 4 for the month, 129 for the quarter, 129 for the year,
• 41929, conf, Phoenix Operating, Willer 28-33 2H, 
• 41928, conf, Phoenix Operating, Willer 28-33 1H-LL,
• 41857, conf, Phoenix Operating, Willer 28-33 3H, 
• 41582, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13A, 
• Saturday, February 28, 2026: 72 for the month, 125 for the quarter, 125 for the year,
• 41933, conf, Phoenix Operating, Willer 28-33-6H-LL, 
• 41932, conf, Phoenix Operating, Willer 28-33 5H, 
• 41930, conf, Phoenix Operating, Willer 28-33 4H, 
• 41847, conf, BR, Rolla 6F, 
• 41785, conf, Enerplus, MHA Heeler 4994 12-23 3BU, 
• 41784, conf, Enerplus, MHA Mastiff 4994 12-23 2TU, 
• 41783, conf, Enerplus, MHA Collie 4994 12-23 1BU, 
• 41621, conf, BR, Sivertson 6C, 
• 41581, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13B, 
• 41580, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13F, 
• 41579, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon 24X-13C, 
• 41578, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon 24X-13H,
• 41577, conf, XTO, HBU Marmon 24X-13D, 
• 41372, conf, Hess, EN-Hanson A-LW-155-94-0618H-1, 
• 41369, conf, Hess, EN-Hanson A-155-94-0607H-6,

RBN Energy:  for Gulf Coast refined products, it's down to Mexico by truck, rail, ship, and pipe. Link here. Archived.

U.S. exports of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to Mexico have been mostly rising the past 15 years as Mexican demand for refined products stabilized, the utilization of south-of-the-border refineries sagged, Covid hit and, most recently, Pemex — the state-owned oil and gas company — started bringing its new Dos Bocas refinery online. Over that same decade and a half, the Mexican government’s policy on the import-related roles of Pemex and private companies has zigged and zagged, complicating and ultimately slowing efforts to develop new midstream infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll review Mexico’s refined product demand, production and imports from the U.S. — and discuss what likely lies ahead.

Mexico is obviously a key trading partner in general, and has been the #1 source of total U.S. imports since 2023 (when it overtook China for that top spot) and in 2025 it also became the #1 recipient of total U.S. exports, ending (at least for now) Canada’s third-of-a-century run at the top of that heap. It will come as no surprise to our readers that energy — or more specifically, crude oil, natural gas, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — is a major factor in all that U.S.-Mexico trade. Mexico still is shipping significant volumes of heavy crude to Gulf Coast refineries and the U.S. every day is moving billions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of thousands of barrels of refined products south of the border — Mexico is by far the #1 destination for those products.

We recently examined U.S.-to-Mexico natural gas exports (and the role of non-state pipeline companies) in our three-part blog series, Private Dancers. Today, we shift our attention to refined products. We’ll begin with a big-picture look at Mexico’s demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel; the highly variable output of Pemex’s refineries over the years; and the pace of Mexico’s refined product imports from the U.S. After that, we’ll discuss how gasoline, diesel and jet fuel make their way from Gulf Coast refineries to the Mexican market.

Combined demand for gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel in Mexico rose by almost half in the first decade of the 21st century — from about 900 Mb/d in 2000 to 1.3 MMb/d in 2010 — due to a combination of population and economic gains. Demand growth has moderated since then, averaging 1.3 MMb/d in 2015 and just under 1.4 MMb/d in 2024 and 2025. (There was a sizable dip in 2020 — to just 1.1 MMb/d — due to Covid.) Over the same 2015-25 period, Mexican demand for gasoline (blue layer in Figure 1 below) increased from 807 Mb/d to 835 Mb/d, while diesel demand (green layer) grew from 421 Mb/d to 427 Mb/d and jet fuel demand (yellow layer) rose by one-third, from 74 Mb/d to 101 Mb/d.