Locator: 51202B.
S&P: could reach 8,250 from the current 7,500 by year end (2026) -- Ed Yardeni CEO. Generally an optimist. Wiki seems to highlight: that he is most known for: monetary, fiscal policy affecting inflation and bonds. Expected one rate increase in July (didn't happen). No Fed meeting in August. Now, says possible rate hike in September but didn't sound particularly sure about that -- CNBC this morning. Seemed to suggest the new Fed chair is talking the talk but it may be difficult for Warsh to actually make any headway on the inflation front by raising rates.
LCDs: as other states institute moratoriums on LCDs, Texas presses on:
WTI: now above $84. Later: early morning, Monday, July 20, 2026 -- $82.37. The strait becomes less relevant every day.
Cyclosporiasis -- Taylor Farms -- Taco Bell -- update: stories from various sources -- how AI interpreted the stories:
One wonders about Covid-19 and false positives?
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $84.27. Up $1.78; up over 2%.
New wells reporting:
- Tuesday, July 28, 2026: 41 for the month, 41 for the quarter, 394 for the year,
- 43182, conf, Oasis, Cyclone 5502 11-17 3B,
- 43181, conf, Oasis, Cyclone 5502 11-17 2B,
- Monday, July 27, 2026: 39 for the month, 39 for the quarter, 392 for the year,
- 42077, conf, Silver Hill Energy Operating, K&L Hegstad North W 158-92-3-27-MBHX,
- 41538, conf, Devon Energy, Stallion 33-28 6H,
- Sunday, July 26, 2026: 37 for the month, 37 for the quarter, 390 for the year,
- Saturday, July 25, 2026: 37 for the month, 37 for the quarter, 390 for the year,
RBN Energy: new pipeline capacity unlocks supply potential for Permian natural gas. Link here. Archived.
Natural gas prices in the Permian spent the first half of the year
in the red. Between the beginning of the year and mid-June, cash prices
in the basin were above zero only 11 days, most of them during an
extreme cold snap in January that caused production freeze-offs. Then,
in mid-June, someone — well, Kinder Morgan, to be specific — flipped a
switch and now Waha prices are once again in positive territory. The
“switch” was a compression expansion on Gulf Coast Express (GCX), which
added a desperately needed 570 MMcf/d of takeaway capacity. As we
discuss in today’s RBN blog, the pace of Permian production growth and
the timing of two greenfield pipelines that will come online later this
year will help determine where Waha prices go from here.
When we wrote about the new infrastructure coming to the Permian in February (see Key to the Highway),
we said this year would be “a tale of two halves.” The dashed oval to
the left in Figure 1 below highlights the winter freeze‑off spike in
Waha cash prices, which was followed by the subsequent slide into
negative territory. To the right, the dashed vertical line marks the
mid‑June startup of the GCX compression expansion, after which the cash
price (yellow line) climbed back above zero and has, so far, mostly
settled around $1.50/MMBtu. In other words, the dividing line between
the two halves of the year isn’t magic, it’s new pipeline capacity
opening up takeaway from the often-constrained Permian. (For more on the
Permian Basin, see RBN’s monthly Arrow Model report, which tracks and forecasts shifting gas pipeline flows in Texas and Louisiana, and our weekly NATGAS Permian report, which focuses on key market drivers in the basin.)
