Will Kharg Island Be Trump Island By The End Of The Month? March 17, 2026

Locator: 50246KHARGISLAND.

Today:

Trump's way: if European allies won't help secure the Strait of Hormuz, he will do it his way -- with US Marines, and the US Army standing by. 

Amazon Plans Drastic Cut In Packages Sent Via USPS -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50245AMZN.

Tag: Amazon USPS 

Link here. 

Amazon is planning to sharply cut the number of packages it ships through the U.S. Postal Service, a move that could cost the agency millions of dollars in much-needed revenue.

The e-commerce giant, long the Postal Service’s biggest customer, has already begun ratcheting down its postal volume and wants to reduce it by at least two-thirds by this fall, when its current contract with the agency expires, according to people familiar with the matter.

USPS delivered more than a billion packages for Amazon last year, close to 15% of all the packages that the Postal Service delivered in the country. Amazon’s guaranteed volumes have been a source of stability for the agency, which has operated at a loss for most of the past two decades. In fiscal 2025, it reported a net loss of $9 billion.

The Postal Service has expanded its parcel-delivery capacity in recent years, building bigger facilities and buying new machines to process boxes, which replaced aging equipment that focused on letter mail. If the decline in volumes from Amazon isn’t adequately managed, the new equipment and facilities could end up being underutilized. The Postal Service may also have to find more ways to cut costs.

According to people familiar with the matter, Amazon disclosed the plan to the Postal Service in a confidential bidding process for its so-called last-mile delivery service, in which USPS handles the last leg of delivery for businesses. Under new Postmaster General David Steiner, the Postal Service solicited bids from Amazon and other businesses for the service for the first time. Steiner has said the bidding will help the quasigovernmental agency determine the true market value of the last-mile service.

Amazon’s existing contract with the Postal Service expires in October. Results of the last-mile bidding competition will be released in the second quarter, and contracts will be finalized by the end of the third quarter. That left Amazon concerned that it would have little time to make changes to its network if its bid weren’t accepted, the people said.

Eight New Permits, Eleven Permits Renewed -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50244B.

Cuba: finally being widely supported -- total blackout over the island of Cuba after flow of oil (for producing electricity) has been completely halted. Links everywhere; one here.

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

WTI: $95.94.

Active rigs: 26. 

Eight new permits, #42766 - #42773, inclusive:

• Operator: KODA Resources
• Field: Sioux Trail, Divide County;
• Comments:
• KODA Resources has permits for eight Altbier wells, SESW 18-160-101, 
• to be sited 450 / 650 FSL and 1722 / 1813 FWL.

Eleven permits renewed:

• Hess (4): four SC-Scanland permits, Truax oil field, Williams County;
• XTO (4): three Frisinger permits, Hofflund oil field, Williams County; and a Wolff Federal permit, Haystack Butte oil field, McKenzie County;
• Kraken (3): three Haugen permits, Boxcar Butte, McKenzie County;

This Is How Much The Iranian War Is Hitting The New Englanders' Pocketbook -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50243ISONE.

Tag: NE-ISO NEISO ISONE state region electricity costs

New England ISO: regional electric rates are running a negative $80 / MW. Negative!

The five-minute real-time graph:

Resource mix: 

So, what's going on?

And Now They're Sold Out -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50242APPLE.
Locator: 50196APPLE.

Updates

March 19, 2026: link here -- "the MacBook Neo is for me" --  

March 18, 2026: link here -- value buy --  

March 17, 2026: link here -- and now, sold out .... this is truly incredible .... 

Original Post 
Previously Posted

Link here. 

The data shows, that for the toughest multi-core tasks, Apple has more than tripled computational performance in just five years. 

It is also relevant to note Apple’s statement that the M5 Pro/Mac systems deliver over six times the peak AI compute we got from the original M1 systems. 

That’s faster progress than Moore’s Law, which says computational performance should double every 18-24 months, and that trajectory shows how quickly Apple’s Macs have become highly competitive at the highest reaches of the PC industry. 

Gone are the thermal throttling limitations that plagued Intel Macs during high-end tasks, in comes the capacity to use Apple’s computers when sustained performance is required.

This is really, really cool. I spotted this -- and predicted this -- back in June, 2024. 

AI prompt: apple tim cook presentation youtube silicon neural 

AI reply:

Not recognized now, and probably not recognized since, this may be the crowing achievement of Tim Cook, perhaps even measuring up to Steve Jobs' famous / amazing introduction of the iPhone.

The iPhone made Apple the $4 trillion company it has become, but Tim Cook's team has moved the entire "compute" so much farther, so much faster than anyone could imagine / has imagined.

Apple didn't just break Moore's Law, the company shattered it. And they did it smartly.

I'll quit here but much more could be said.  

I can't believe how good this post was -- interestingly, it is one of the most frequentd sites on the blog -- back in June, 2024. Linked above.  

Geek Data:

MacBook Neo: for routine tasks, which only require single-core -- beats the incredible M3 Mac single core -- 3,467 to 3,135. By 10%. Single core is what we used to call a "CPU." 

So, What's Really Going On With Micron? March 17, 2026

Locator: 50241MICRO.

Updates

Later, after the close, March 17, 2026: rose $20 today (4.5%) and held its gains after hours, gaining another $2.13.

Original Post 

Barron's: link here. 

Ticker: Micron

• six months: up 180%
• one year: up 360% 

Ticker: BRK-B (has morphed into a mediocre -- at best -- mutual fund)

• six months: absolutely flat
• one year: down 6%

Data point: Jensen Huang says he anticipates chip revenue to reach $1 trillion. To put this in perspective, the pharmaceutical industry considers a blockbuster drug to be on that has a billion dollars in sales. Nvidia? $1 trillion.

Now, Micron, link here. Be sure to read the complete thread. 

From yesterday: 

Chips are tracked here. There have been major updates in the past week with regard to Nvidia, AMD, Micron, and Apple.

Oil -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50240OIL.

US oil production: from last October, 2025, well before the Iran war --

• this essay is already out of date
• but provides some great historical data  
• link here; from a Brit's perspective;
• "ashamed" to have rented an SUV when visiting the states
• LOL: he loved the SUV
• everyone knows you can choose the exact size rental vehicle you want
• and driving a small subcompact all his life in England, loves a real car in the US. 

Global oil demand: forecasts every year from 2022 (post-Covid); link here.

• social media: some comments -- they don't understand what the graph shows
• what the graph shows:
• IEA forecast: 
• in 2022: the IEA predicted global demand would rise from 90 mbopd to 100.4 mbopd
• in 2023: demand would rise from 101.50 to 102.3
• in 2024: demand would rise from 103.1 to 103.4
• in 2025: demand would decline from 104.3 to 104.0
• in 2026: demand would rise from 104.3 to 104.8
• the greatest jump was from 2022 to 2023 (post-Covid effect)
• because of timing of prediction updates, the second largest jump in revision was last year, 2025; 
• one can assume global demand for oil might actually drop in 2026 -- not because there's less demand but because there's less oil available going to India and China
• what jumps out at me:
• 2022: 99 million barrels of oil per day
• 2026: 105 million bbls of oil per day

CVX ticker: 52-week high, and not by just a little bit; up a strking 1.55% in early trading; up over $3 / bbl in early morning trading; still pays 3.6%; last month I thought I was overweight in energy; this month? I wish I had more. LOL. 

TACO Tuesday? March 17, 2026

Locator: 50239B.

Iran: top leadership wiped out (again). Again, many, many stories but I would trust IDF press --

• says Iran's National Security chief Larijani is dead
• most recently primarily responsible for killing tens of thousands (pick your own number) protestors
• taken out by Israeli precision strike overnight
• this is the guy who threatened Trump just five days ago
• and these guys are never alone when killed -- a lot of the inner circle were also killed 
• still nothing is being heard from pegleg Khamenei
• last report: he had been flown to Moscow for post-traumatic management of lost leg

Iran: taken out --

Iran: it took awhile, but it was finally reported by The Wall Street Journal. Link here. "Israel's decapitation strategy takes out two more Iranians leaders" (and such leaders never travel alone -- their entourages were also taken out). 

Bismark Tribune: always amazing what the BT chooses to post on x. 

• BT's headline story today: Joe Kent resigns after less than one year in "office."
• nominated by Trump in February, 2025; confirmed by US Senate, July 31, 2025 
• Joe Kent comes across as our own Greta Thunberg in US counterintelligence 

Market:

• CVX: hits a 52-week high;
• QCOM: increases dividend and buyback
• NVDA: says revenue from chips to hit $1 trillion
• MU: Vera Rubin milestone

Cuba: getting little-to-no press from mainstream legacy press like WSJ, NYT. 

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

WTI: $94.69 (the current price vs change in price make absolutely no sense any more, as reported by oilprice).

New wells reporting: 

• Wednesday, March 18, 2026: 24 for the month, 130 for the quarter, 130 for the year,
• 41029, conf, Devon Energy, Eide 6-7 6H, 
• 40056, conf, CLR, Brakken FIU 2-6H, 
• Tuesday, March 17, 2026: 22 for the month, 128 for the quarter, 128 for the year, 
• 41604, conf, BR, Sivertson 6G, 
• 40057, conf, CLR, Brakken FIu 3-6H, 
• 39743, conf, Devon, Darlene 13-24F 6TFH, 

RBN Energy: exchange of barrels from US SPR would drop storage to lowest levels since the 1980s. Link here. Archived.

First question: US oil in storage -- how many days "worth"?

The world has been closely watching the situation in the Middle East and its impact on energy markets since late February. U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran have been followed by retaliatory strikes by Iran on several of its neighbors, including crude oil tankers in the critical Strait of Hormuz, causing oil prices to spike. As part of a global response, the U.S. said it would release 172 MMbbl of crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). In today’s RBN blog, we detail the U.S.’s plans, examine how it compares with actions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and show why the reserve could drop to levels not seen since the Reagan administration. 

WTI crude oil at Cushing, OK, mostly traded in a $55-$65/bbl range in January and February and settled at $67.02/bbl on February 27, the last trading day before the attacks against Iran began. Prices have moved up steadily since then, reaching as high as $98.71/bbl on March 13 (see Figure 1 below), up 47% from the start of the month, as the prospects for an extended campaign (and disruption to global oil markets) have appeared more likely, especially compared with the brief U.S. military action against Venezuela early this year. By comparison, WTI reached $123.70/bbl in March 2022, not long after the invasion of Ukraine.