So, How Did The Speech Go? April 1, 2026

Locator: 50394WTI.

Certainly you jest.

Random Look At A Very, Very Busy Area In The Bakken -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50393B.

Narrative to follow, perhaps. 

Disclaimer: with this much activity, I only had room to cite one file number for each multi-well pad. In addition, there may be typographical and content errors. If this is important to you, go to the source, the NDIC. 

Tuesday, April 1, 2026

Locator: 50392B.

TSA / DHS: finally a compromise -- won't be liked by everyone but in the big scheme of things, the right thing to do. 

Iran: we'll know more next week. [But after "the" speech, WTI surged to $104 after being well below $100 earlier.]

Artemis II: less than two hours now -- as I type this, it's 4:08 p.m. CT -- local time. Lift-off is scheduled for about 5:25 p.m. CT so less than an hour and a half. [Successful launch, pretty much on schedule. Folks were confused by the scheduled / planned hold at t-10.00 minutes. Walter Cronkite would have done a better job explaining that.]

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $98.91. 

Active rigs: 23.

Seven new permits, #42802 - #42808, inclusive:  

• the wells below are all sited in NESE 18-148-97, to be sited 1745 FSL and 315 / 495 FEL:
• 42802, conf, XTO, Monroe Federal 43X-18E, Haystack Butte, 1280-acre spacing; BH: section 30-148-97;
• 42803, conf, XTO, Monroe Federal 43X-18B, Haystack Butte, 1280-acre spacing; BH: section 30-148-97;
• 42804, conf, XTO, Monroe Federal 43X-18F, Haystack Butte, 1280-acre spacing; BH: section 30-148-97;
• 42805, conf, XTO, Monroe Federal 43X-18A, Haystack Butte, 1920-acre spacing; BH: section 32-148-97;
• 42806, conf, XTO, Monroe Federal 43X-18F, Haystack Butte, 1920-acre spacing; BH: section 32-148-97;
• 42807, conf, XTO, Elstrom Federal 43X-18B, Haystack Butte, 1920-acre spacing; BH: section 32-148-97; 
• 42808, conf, XTO, Elstrom Federal 43X-18D, Haystack Butte, 1920-acre spacing; BH: section 32-148-97;

The map:

Nine permits renewed:

• Devon Energy Williston: permits renewed for nine Clark North wells, NWSE 28-147-92, Wolf Bay, Dunn County;

Three permits canceled:

• Whiting, three Roosevelt Federal permits; McKenzie County;

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 40874, 266, EOG, Austin 481-1523H, Mountrail County;
• 41623, 554, EOG, Austin 474-1004H, Mountrail County;
• 41624, 554, EOG, Austin 475-1004H, Mountrail County;

Note the chronologic / sequence numbers of those EOG DUCs. We talked about EOG's naming of wells decades ago!

The Most Dangerous Money Loop -- Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Locator: 50391MONEYLOOP.

Now that the market may be getting back to some sanity: the most dangerous money loop in the world. Link here. 

SRE Hits An All-Time High -- Ruskin: The Book Page -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50390SRE.

Truth social: Trump says "Iran" has asked for a ceasefire. Trump's response was "on target." Let's see what happens Monday.

Ticker: SRE --  

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The Book Page

The book: Modern Painters, John Ruskin, Edited And Abridged, David Barrie, c. 1987

Notes will be kept here.

Interestingly, this brought me to my own notes on "the whale," from November 13, 2012. Link here. 

Note, there are two editions of The Whale by Philip Hoare. I have a copy of each. 

This gives me a chance to put another plug in for chatbots. Simply incredible. Chatbots make the original search engines look amateurish and incredibly un-useful. I cannot imagine where chatbots will be twenty years from now. If you're using google now, you're using a chatbot. So folks who tell me they don't use / trust chatbots have no idea what they're talking about.

Back to Moby Dick for a moment:

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Young America -- Going Down That Rabbit Hole

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Father of the Welfare State

AI prompt: 

In the massive book, Modern Painters, John Ruskin, abridged and edited, in the introduction it is stated (unless I have the wrong reference and read it elsewhere), John Ruskin was the father of "The Welfare State" or something to that effect. I recall reading that but I may have the wrong book and/or even the wrong man? Am I recalling this correctly?

Reply:

ISO-NE -- Early Morning -- Twice That Of NYISO -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50389ISONE. 

Link here. 

Resource mix: note imports -- 

In ISO New England (ISO-NE) resource mix reporting, "

imports" refers to electricity generated outside the six-state New England region and transmitted across interconnections (tie-lines) to meet local consumer demand. These net imports—primarily from Quebec, New York, and New Brunswick—supplement local generation, often accounting for a significant portion of the total energy supply. 

Quebec power is significantly less expensive than natural gas. Why doesn't ISONE import more Quebec hydroelectric power?

ISO New England (ISO-NE) does not import more electricity from Quebec to fully offset high-priced natural gas primarily due to

physical transmission limitations, competing domestic demand in Quebec, and climate-driven reduction in water availability. While hydroelectricity from Quebec is generally cheaper than natural gas, these factors create significant constraints on expanding imports. 

US LNG Exports -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50388LNG. 

This graph / the most recent data is entirely irrelevant at this point. 

Ticker: LNG -- could drop 3% at the open; drop of $8 / share in pre-market trading. VG could drop 5%.  

Link here. Data updated overnight; released March 31, 2026.

Indiana Has Revoked All CDL's Held By Illegal Immigrants -- Finally Some Adulting -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50387CDLS. 

This generated a lot of discussion.

Link here. 

Again, some adulting in the room.

 One assumes / hopes that all states will follow suit.

LDCs In The US -- Update -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50386LDCS. 

Link here. Most recent update: April 1, 2026. 4,088 data centers in the US.

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US Data Center Map

March 10, 2026: 4,069 data centers in the US, as of this date. 

Compare with April 16, 2025, a year ago:

UAE Investment Firm Buys US Midstream Gas Assets -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50385UAE.

Reminder: last year (2025) -- UAE pledged a ten-year $1.4 trillion investment framework in the US. 

Not an April Fool's story. LOL.

Link here. 

• 2PointZero: Abu Dhabi-based investment company
• will buy US firm Traverse Midstream Partners
• Traverse
• a portfolio company of The Energy & Minerals Group
• holds a portfolio of high quality non-operated midstream assets
• portfolio includes strategic minority stakes in 
• the Rover Pipeline LLC; and,
• the Ohio River System LLC
• Rover Pipeline
• large scale, interstate natural gas pipeline
• Utica and Marcellus to key demand markets in upper Midwest, US Gulf Coast and easter Canada
• Ohio River System:
• relatively new
• natural gas from core Utica and the emerging Ohio Marcellus production
• by the way, the dots now connect -- "the emerging Ohio Marcellus play"
• this explains the growth of LDCs in Ohio, making it one of the nation's top five states for LDCs (Texas, Virginia, California, Illinois, and Ohio) 

Everything's Bigger In Texas: CVX And MSFT Team Up -- Giant Texas Gas Power Plant -- April 1, 2026

Locator: 50384TEXAS.

Link here. 

Data points:

• west Texas, near Pecos, close to the Texas-New Mexico state line
• partners: CVX, MSFT, and Engine No. 1
• $7 billion
• 2.5 GW
• $2.8 billion / GW -- in line with LDCs -- $2 billion - $3 billion / GW

Engine No. 1: an amazing story in itself

• an American investment firm
• founded in 2020
• gained attention when it sought to replace four members of XOM's board
• despite owning 0.2% of XOM's outstanding shares
• link here;
• has $430 million under management;
•  compare BRK: 
• net worth, $1 trillion
• cash on hand: $380 billion
• again, Engine No. 1 -- the little engine that could -- $430 million under management

Gas turbines: GE Vernova

• 2025: new company formed when CVX and Engine No. 1 formed a partnership with GE Vernova to build a new company 
• new company will develop scalable, reliable power solutions for US-based data centers running on US natural gas 

Comment: Berkshire Hathaway unable or unwilling to put its $400 billion and "goodwill" to work.

April 1, 2026

Locator: 50383B.

Iran: as Trump signals "the end," Iran expands. Iran hits a huge Qatar tanker with 21 crew members on board. None injured but Qatar has had enough. As has UAE (had enough). We'll know more tonight -- Trump's "One Big Beautiful Speech" airs at 9:00 p.m. EST and for once, all three major legacy networks will air the speech.

API data: as big a miss as ever! A $11.4 million-bbl miss. How can analysts be so wrong.

Speaking of misses, did Berkshire Hathaway miss another huge opportunity?

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Back to the Bakken 

WTI: $99.96. WTI still at ~ $100 and folks are cheering! Wow.

New wells reporting: 

Thursday, April 2, 2026: 4 for the month, 4 for the quarter, 161 for the year,  
42218, conf, CLR, Louisville Federal 6-7H, 

Wednesday, April 1, 2026: 3 for the month, 3 for the quarter, 160 for the year,
41446, conf, Whiting, Violet Olson 5596 13-5 4B, 
41445, conf, Whiting, Violet Olson 5596 13-5 3B,
41444, conf, Whiting, Violet Olson 5596 13-5 2B, 

RBN Energy: this is simply amazing. More natural gas storage capacity planned to serve Gulf Coast LNG and power facilities. Link here. Archived.

The war-related loss of LNG export capacity in Qatar — the #2 supplier after the U.S. — suggests that LNG export terminals along the U.S. Gulf Coast will be running flat-out over the next few years, and that still more U.S. projects may move to a final investment decision (FID). That bodes well for the many natural gas storage facilities already in place near the massive concentration of LNG export capacity along the Texas/Louisiana border (and further east in the Bayou State) and for the storage proposals on the drawing board. In today’s RBN blog, we finish our review of existing and planned storage capacity in this epicenter of energy infrastructure development with a look at three big projects being planned.

This is the fourth episode in our series on gas storage assets in the broad, north-to-south corridor straddling the state line between Texas and Louisiana. In Part 1, we said the three existing LNG export terminals in the Sabine-Neches/Calcasieu area demand up to 7 Bcf/d of natural gas and that four new terminals under construction there will add another 10 Bcf/d of demand over the next five years. The gas needs of these facilities and other large energy consumers in the region (such as power plants and petrochemical complexes) can vary widely, and sometimes suddenly — a perfect setup for the development of gas storage facilities that can quickly inject or withdraw large quantities of gas.

In our first blog, we looked at Caliche Storage’s Golden Triangle Storage and Spindletop Expansion Project; Trinity Gas Storage’s Bethel, TX, facility; and Energy Transfer’s Bethel Gas Storage and Bammel facilities. Then, in Part 2, we discussed NeuVentus’s Texas Reliability Underground Hub in Liberty County, TX; the Black Bayou Energy Hub in Cameron Parish, LA; Gulf Coast Midstream Partners’ Freeport Energy Storage Hub (FRESH); and three Energy Transfer facilities: Moss Bluff in Liberty County; Egan in Acadia Parish, LA; and Tres Palacios in Matagorda County, TX. Part 3 reviewed Williams Cos.’  Pine Prairie facility in Evangeline Parish, LA, and its Arcadia facility in Bienville Parish, LA; Kinder Morgan’s collection of storage sites on both sides of the state line; ONEOK’s Jefferson Island and Napoleonville facilities in southern Louisiana; and Enstor’s Katy Storage & Transportation facility near the important gas hub in Katy, TX.

Today, we’ll start with Sempra Infrastructure’s LA Storage Hackberry project (magenta tank icon in Figure 1 below), a salt-cavern facility in Cameron Parish, LA, whose first two phases will have a total of six caverns with a combined working gas capacity of about 35 Bcf. The company, which holds a majority ownership interest in the Cameron LNG export facility and is constructing the Port Arthur LNG export facility (orange and purple diamonds, respectively), reached FID on the gas storage project’s three-cavern, 16.5-Bcf first phase in September 2023. That phase is currently under construction and slated to come online in Q2 2027; it will have a maximum injection capacity of 1.5 Bcf/d and a maximum withdrawal capacity of 1.5 Bcf/d.