Five New Permits; Five Permits Renewed; New Acronyms -- Investing -- June 15, 2026

Locator: 50983B.  

Mag 7: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla.

Mangos: gaining traction on X stands for Meta, Anthropic, Nvidia, Alphabet (GOOG), OpenAI, and SpaceX. (The "A" can also stand for Apple)

Magna Atoms: a concept referring to the original Magnificent Seven plus SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Mag 10 Index: Launched by Cboe Global Markets, this index tracks ten prominent tech titans. However, it consists of the original Mag 7 plus AMD, Broadcom, and Palantir.

Hey! Micron? Up 808% in one year; market cap: $1.23 trillion. 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $80.75.

Active rigs: 28.

Five new permits, #43029 - #43035, inclusive - 

• Operators: XTO (4); KODA Resources;
• Fields: Lost Bridge (Dunn County); Divide County;
• Comments:
• KODA Resources has a permit for an Altbier well, SESW 18-160-101, 
• to be sited 450 FSL and 1484 FWL.
• XTO has permits for four Mason Federal wells, SWNe 26-148-97, 
• to be sited 1821 / 1825 FNL and 1909 / 259 FEL.

Five permits renewed:

• Formentera Operating (5): four LIG2 wells and one LAR1 well; Burke County.

Re-Building Iran -- No Money Will Exchange Hands -- June 15, 2026

Locator: 50982IRAN.

Trump's plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip? 

Wherever that may be, the fact is that Iran could receive $12 billion to $25 billion for "rebuilding."  This will be "rebuilding Gaza on steroids." 

"Performance-based."

This is pretty interesting. 

"Money won't exchange hands." Nope, not directly. 

Ships will be tracked and a dollar amount per "free" passage for each ship paid for by Iran's frozen funds will be determined. Re-building Gaza. Be that as it may, re-building Iran with be re-building on steroids.  

Hezbollah has no role in controlling the strait but it wants to get paid for continuing to put pressure on Iran.  

And even more interesting, we discussed this not too many days ago. 

But, yes, Iran will get lots of money per ship that "freely" transits the strait. 

This is not rocket-science. 

Bakken Deals -- 2025

Locator: 50981B.

Nothing new here. Simply some updating / book-keeping. Bakken deals on an annual basis are consolidated at the sidebar at the right, about two-thirds of the way down.  

Chord acquires XTO. Link here.

CVX acquires HES. Link here. 

KMI Outrigger $640 Bakken deal. Link here. 

Kraken Acquires Zavanna -- The Book Page Today -- June 15, 2206

Locator: 50980CHINATOWN.

Oil, Bakken: 

Kraken Resources, a private oil and gas producer in the Williston Basin, officially acquired Zavanna Energy Operating, LLC on March 31, 2026. The $400 million transaction—backed by $400 million in senior notes and a $200 million equity contribution—significantly expands Kraken's footprint in the Bakken shale play.

It's a little confusing, but it's considered a $400-million cost to Kraken.

• $400 million / 35,000 net acres = $12,000 / acre -- really, really inexpensive;
• $400 million / 14,000 bbls currently flowing oil = $30,000 per flowing barrel of oil; at lower end 

• Acquired Assets: approximately 35,000 net leasehold acres, 175 operated wells, and over 100 drilling locations.
• Location: core areas of Williams and McKenzie counties, North Dakota.
• Production: added roughly 14,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day at closing.
• Total Scale: with the addition of Zavanna, Kraken solidifies its position as a top independent producer in the Williston Basin, boasting over 404,000 net acres across North Dakota and Montana

Oil going forward:

• less use overall wherever possible; 
• back to coal
• continued interest in wind, solar 
• less reliance on the Mideast -- long-term investments; long-term contracts; 
• more pipelines;
• more storage; build storage; 

Chinatown: any place one finds himself (herself) on unfamiliar grounds. 

Chinatown: anywhere you don't want to go, but if you find yourself there, don't do anything there.  

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Book Page Today

Notes here: link here. 

The Big Goodbye, Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, Sam Wasson, c. 2020.

Query: 

The Big Goodbye by Sam Wasson. Best book ever. LOL. I bought it sight unseen; didn't know a thing about the book but was fascinated by the movie. I was initially disappointed with the book -- really, really bad writing, but now that I understand this whole subject better, I would now say this is the best book ever on "Chinatown" as far as I'm concerned. This needs to be on the reading list of anyone getting a degree in FILM from the University of Southern California School of Film. I'm not asking you (Gemini) any questions; just a rambling thought. I always enjoy chatting with you.

Reply:

I completely agree! Sam Wasson’s deep dive into the making of Chinatown is an absolute masterclass in film history. It captures that volatile, lightning-in-a-bottle era of 1970s Hollywood perfectly. 

You hit the nail on the head regarding the USC School of Cinematic Arts—it is the exact kind of gritty, granular production history that belongs on a film student's syllabus, right alongside Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. 

It's amazing how a book that takes a minute to adjust to stylistically can ultimately become the definitive text on such a legendary masterpiece. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and the great insight! It’s awesome chatting with you too.

There May Be A Connection Here -- June 15, 2026

Locator: 50979INFRASTRUCTURE.

 
Somehow there seems to be a connection between the above and the below:

 

Anticipation -- June 15, 2026

Locator: 50978MARKET.

Tag: Paramount, Ellison, 

BRKB will open down:

Gravitas:

UFC: gravitas-er

• locally, and on mainstream media, all they talked about -- Washington, DC, weather;
• what folks in DC saw:

All behind a Paramount paywall. Well done.

Did the Trump administration favor the Paramount - WBD deal?

Were the Ellisons behind the Paramount deal with WBD?

The most important word in that reply? Oracle. 

I'm sure there will be more throughout today. 

Manic Monday -- June 15, 2026

Locator: 50977B.

Anticipation:

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Back to the Bakken

WTi: $80.58.

New wells reporting:

• Tuesday, June 16, 2026: 22 for the month, 178 for the quarter, 335 for the year,
• 42416, conf, Kraken, Emerson LE 33-28-21 11H, 
• Monday, June 15, 2026: 21 for the month, 177 for the quarter, 334 for the year,
• None.
• 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 148-94-03B-10H-LL, 
• 36053, conf, Silver Hill Energy, Orris 159-93-15-3-4MBHX, 
• 36052, conf, Silver Hill Energy, Dolores 159-93-22-34-4MBHX, 

RBN Energy: several northeast gas pipeline projects focus on Pennsylvania, regional enhancements. Link here. Archived.

Demand for natural gas is rising both within the U.S. Northeast and in regions to its south and west. That incremental demand is spurring the development of a host of gas pipeline projects — small, medium and large — that collectively will enable Marcellus/Utica E&Ps to ratchet up their production year by year well into the 2030s. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our analysis of the new pipelines and pipeline expansions being planned to move more gas within — and out of — the U.S.’s largest gas production region.

This is the fourth blog in a series about gas market dynamics in the Northeast. In Part 1, we said that while the dramatic changes happening in Texas and Louisiana have garnered the most attention in the past year or two, the Appalachia market has been quietly evolving in ways that will not only shift flow patterns within the region but also affect flows to the Southeast, Midwest and Gulf Coast. Part 2 focused on gas demand within the Northeast, which is getting a big boost from the power-generation sector as coal retirements continue and data center development proliferates. In Part 3, we started a review of the pipeline projects being planned to enable more gas to flow through and out of the Marcellus/Utica to existing and new demand centers, focusing on projects in New England and New York.

Today, we continue that review. There’s no simple way to categorize most of the remaining projects. The best we can do is separate them into these five buckets: (1) projects within Pennsylvania; (2) regionwide enhancements; (3) projects tied to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Transco; (4) expanded capacity to Ohio and beyond; and (5) projects that are more distant but still related to the Marcellus/Utica.

Projects within Pennsylvania

We’ll start with National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG), which is building two gas pipeline projects in the Keystone State and planning another. NFG is not familiar to everyone, so we should note that it is an integrated energy company that produces natural gas in north-central and northwestern Pennsylvania, owns and operates a gas pipeline network — National Fuel Gas Pipeline (NFGP; lime-green lines in Figure 1 below) — and the Empire Pipeline (magenta lines) and distributes gas to retail customers in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York.

Figure 1. National Fuel Gas Pipeline Projects. Source: Novi Labs