The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog): 06/12/26

Friday, June 12, 2026

? -- This Was Up For Less Than One Minute -- 5:45 A.M. CT -- June 12, 2026

Locator: 50965SPCX.

Has seen been removed -- that part about trading halted.

Irregular Warfare / Initiative -- Hyperwar -- June 12, 2026

Locator: 50964HELIUM.

Link here. Archived.

The Iran War: A War with or against the AI Sector? Jean-Michel Valantin Jun 12, 2026.

The 2026 Iran War marks the dawn of hyperwar, accelerating military AI integration while disrupting critical upstream supply chains like Qatari liquid helium. This dual physical and financial pressure creates a shared strategic crisis for both the U.S. and Chinese AI sectors.
On the very first day of the Iran War, February 28, 2026, more than 1,000 Iranian targets were struck by US airstrikes. This is almost double the number of strikes carried out on the first day of the Iraq War, launched in 2003. The intensity and precision of these strikes are inextricably linked to the massive use of artificial intelligence (AI)by the American and Israeli militaries.

However, Iran is also involved in the militarization of AI, conducting drone and missile strikes in the air, while also investing heavily in cognitive warfare through the production of deepfakes on social media to destabilize public opinion among its adversaries.

But the interplay between the Iranian war and AI deepens further with Iranian strikes and Qatar's inability to export liquid helium. Liquid helium is a chemical component essential for cooling the machines and photolithography plants that print the semiconductors needed for the computers and data centers of artificial intelligence companies. And Qatar accounts for more than 38% of global helium production.

Finally, the kinetic strikes on data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also reveal the physical vulnerability of artificial intelligence infrastructure. (This potentially includes submarine fiber optic cables, which ensure the flow of data and information between data centers in the Persian Gulf and Africa, the Middle East, and Asia).

In other words, the Iran War is evolving into a global hyperwar system, accelerating the militarization of AI while simultaneously plunging both the American and Chinese AI sectors into overlapping systems of pressure. These systems directly exploit the financial and physical vulnerabilities of AI, which has become the new engine of power.

We argue here that the Iran War is transforming into a vast system of co-integration between the artificial intelligence sector, warfare, and disruptions to the oil and gas sectors, particularly Qatari oil and gas.

U.S. Hyperwar vs. Iranian Hyperwar AI on the Battlefield

During the first four days of the Iran War (February 28–March 3, 2026), combined US and Israeli military strikes reportedly hit over 4,000 targets in Iran. This pace appears to have continued since then. The intensity and speed of the targeting, execution, and precision of the strikes exemplify how the integration of artificial intelligence capabilities is redefining warfare.

Indeed, AI systems, such as Palantir and Claude, are coupled with machine learning systems within integrated architectures, including Project Maven. Similarly, the theater of operations is being transformed into a data matrix due to the integration of various forms of space-based observation, electronic eavesdropping, and the deployment of airborne and ground-based sensors. Nevertheless, the use of these technologies does not eliminate the risk of errors, such as what appears to have been a tragic strike on a school, which reportedly killed nearly 175 schoolgirls.

Thus, Iran is literally embedded in a “digital battlefield,” and the country is the generator of the data that feeds the AIs that generate it. This “augmentation” of military capabilities through AI is part of the history of the phases of technological modernization since World War II, including radio communications, radar, sonar, missiles, and nuclear weapons. Then, during the Cold War, computer science and space imaging became dominant, culminating in the Revolution in Military Affairs of the 1990s and the integration of digital and space capabilities to integrate the various branches of the U.S. military.

Much, much more at the link.

Friday -- Huge Anticipation -- June 12, 2026

Locator: 50963SPCX.

Trifecta:

FIFA world cupt 2026 to be hosted / staged in North America (i.e. USA)
SpaceX IPO
Iran war: end of hostilities announced.

Soccer: FIFA world cup 2026 has commenced -- get out the popcorn, order the pizza, buy the beer. Schedule for games down the road from us -- Arlington, TX -- ATT Stadium --> Dallas Stadium --

The deal: hunch -- this will not go as well as following bullets suggest.

The deal: all of a sudden President Trump is making it a "big deal" where the signing will take place. All indications:

US will unfreeze Iran's assets: $24 billion
Iran will use assets only to rebuild non-nuclear economy
90% of unfrozen assets will go to US companies; beneficiaries --

CAT, oil companies, Bechtel, AI (tech / communications)

you wanna see the market on steroids -- watch this development.
my hunch: Trump's opponents will be all against this -- peace breaking out is not what they wanted to see.

The deal: now we will see UK, Germany, France rush in to help re-build Iran, open the strait, stake their claim.

Worst photo-op ever: if "the deal" is signed in Paris, London, or Berlin. Needs to be signed in Alfred's home town, Stockholm, Sweden, or Oslo, Norway.

Iran: China steps back. Huge story. This may have been the catalyst needed to get "the deal" done.

NASDAQ 100, added: CoreWeave, Nebius, Astera, Rocket Lab.

"What's in your ... portfolio?"I picked one months ago. Perfect for the family portfolio.

"Sell in May, go away": not necessarily so -- but the jury is still out --

Oracle: clawing its way back --

Chatbots: I asked our 11-year-old granddaughter if she used chatbots. She enthusiastically answered "yes." Without further prompting she game me an example: she wanted to know the difference between prokaryocytes and eukaryocytes and went directly to chatbot. She then proceeded to tell me the difference.

SPCX: today. The company prices IPO shares at $135 / share.

Delphin FLNG: based on its media coverage, this looks like a really, really, really big deal.

Russia: gasoline crunch? Refinery hit overnight. Zelensky seems to be opening a new front.

Nvidia: Vera chips for China not dead. Nvidia looking at $20-billion business in China.

"You can howl at the wind, but AI is here to stay. Everywhere."

Prometheus: Jeff Bezos AI adventure -- stay tuned.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $83.85. This is fantastic for the American consumer. It will be interesting to see if this holds.

New wells reporting:

Sunday, June 14, 2026: 21 for the month, 177 for the quarter, 334 for the year,

42423, conf, Kraken, Bregman LE 6-7-18 1H,
41410, conf, Enerplus, Foal 148-94-033A-10H,

Saturday, June 13, 2026: 19 for the month, 175 for the quarter, 332 for the year,

42470, conf, Petro-Hunt, Estby 159-94-26A-35-1HS,
42422, conf, Kraken, Bregman 6-7-18 2H,
42357, conf, Formentera Operations, FTH-23-34-BND S511HF,
36276, conf, Enerplus, Lemur 14894-03B-10H-LL,
36053, conf, Silver Hill Energy, Orris 159-93-15-3-4MBHX,
36052, conf, Silver Hill Energy, Dolores 159-93-22-34-4MBHX,

Friday, June 12, 2026: 13 for the month, 169 for the quarter, 326 for the year,

41411, conf, Enerplus, Zebra 148-94-03A-10H-LL,

RBN Energy: from producing basins to export facilities, our new NGL infrastructure maps lays it all out. Link here. Archived.

The NGL business is one of the most logistically complex segments of the energy industry. Mixed NGLs are gathered in producing basins, transported hundreds or even thousands of miles through dedicated Y-grade pipelines, separated at fractionators, shipped through purity-product pipeline networks, consumed by petrochemical plants, delivered to retail markets, and increasingly loaded onto ships bound for destinations around the world.
The challenge is that no single piece of infrastructure tells the whole story. To really make sense of the industry you need to step back and look at the big picture. That’s exactly what our new U.S. Natural Gas Liquids Infrastructure Map provides — a comprehensive view of the U.S. NGL business. It’s a large-format reference that pulls together the major pipelines, fractionators, storage hubs and export facilities that make up the entire NGL value chain. Fair warning, today’s RBN blog is a blatant promotional piece for our new U.S. map.
A Different Kind of Hydrocarbon Business
The U.S. NGL business relies on a highly specialized logistics network that connects production, processing, transportation, storage and end-use markets. The journey begins at gas processing plants, where mixed NGLs are extracted from raw natural gas streams. Those mixed barrels — known as Y-grade — are then transported on dedicated pipeline systems to fractionation centers, where they are separated into individual products such as ethane, propane, normal butane, isobutane and natural gasoline.
From there, each product follows its own path to petrochemical plants, refineries, retail markets, storage facilities or export terminals. Each segment of the system has its own infrastructure, economics and flow patterns. The challenge for analysts and market participants is understanding how all those pieces connect.
What's on the Map?
Our new map (see Figure 1 below) is designed to provide a comprehensive view of major NGL infrastructure across North America.
Included are:
92 operational fractionators
48 operational Y-grade pipeline systems
22 major purity-product pipeline systems
14 operational LPG export terminals and several under development
7 fractionation projects under development
4 major Y-grade expansions and new-build projects
Taken together, these assets represent the backbone of the North American NGL industry. And there’s more! This particular map is unique in that it also includes an optional spreadsheet that details each numbered object displayed on the map. This optional add-on offers customers all the supporting detailed data associated with all of the fractionators, pipelines and export terminals, where available.