For Investors Only: Price Of WTI Holding

Futures mean squat, of course, but it's interesting to note that WTI oil is trading slightly in the green, over $104.

The Dow futures are down a bit.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

1Q14 Earnings

Earnings Calendar

All 1Q14 earnings will be reported at this page; the link will be on the sidebar at the right, under "Earnings Central." When we start to see earnings reports for any quarter, the "Earnings Central" link is moved to the top of the sidebar until the earning season is over.

I don't have time to check/update earnings on all companies listed below. If you see one that I have missed, feel free to send it in (anonymous comment or by e-mail) and I will post it.

Comment:

Miscellaneous articles:

•  

General update (dates subject to change)

• AAPL:  
• Alcoa:  
• Wells Fargo: 

Earnings Calendar

EPS estimates in parentheses following the ticker symbol (according to Yahoo!Finance)

American Railcar Industries:

APA: hikes share repurchase program;

AXAS: adjusted 7 cents; consensus 6 cents; transcript;

AMZG: 

Baytex: 38 cents vs 8 cents one year earlier; beats by one cent;

BAX ( ): Baxter, forecast, $1.09; before market opens. Actual: "Baxter reports strong first quarter financial results exceeding expectations and confirms 2014 full-year guidance."

BCEI: 

BHI (): forecast, 78 cents; before market opens. Actual: beats; surges;

BK ( ):  

CHK ( ): 

CLNE:

CLR (  ): press release; $1.47 vs $1.23 4Q13;

CNI (Canadian National Railway):

CNP: CenterPoint Energy: 31 cents before market open; actual -- beats  by 11 cents;
 
COP: $1.56 before market open; actual "easily beat"; $1.71; beats by 26 cents;

Crescent Point:

CRR ($.87): Carbo Ceramics (CRR): 80 cents; misses by 7 cents; impacted by weather.

CVX ($2.51): huge miss -- $2.36

DNR:
 
DVN: 

ECA:  

EEP: in line;

ENB: 

EOG ( ): 

EOX (Emerald): 

EPD: forecast 75 cents; beats by 2 cents;

ERF: 

GEOI (bought by Halcon [HK], below)

GMXR:

HAL (): 73 cents; vs 67 cents 1Q13;

HES: $1.20 (beats estimate of $1.02); down from $3.72 a year ago;

HP ($1.48): blows through forecast; reports $1.59, vs $1.48 forecast

HK (Halcon; previously GEOI): May 7, after market close

Kinder Morgan - KMI ( ):  expectations, 33 cents; profit falls 1.7%; records double-digit sales growth; up about 1.25%; raises quarterly dividend 11% 

Kinder Morgan - KMP ( ): 

KOG: KOG: forecast -- 18 cents after market close; big miss? actual 11 cents/share; plunges 7% after hours

Legacy/Bowood: 

LINE:

MDU: in line.

MHR (Magnum Hunter): 

MMR (McMoRan) ( ): 

MPC (Marathon Petroleum: $1.05 before market open; actual: misses by 39 cents; refinery maintenance  

MRO (Marathon Oil):

MUR: beats by 2 cents; 96 cents;

NE:

NBL:  55 cents well below forecast of 75 cents, but excluding certain items, adjusted earnings at 82 cents/share

NBR: 

NFX:  

NOG:

NOV (): beats by 1 cent; stock plunges 7%

OAS ( ): May 5, after the close

OKE:

OKS: 

OTTR ():

OXY ():

PAA ():

PSX: expectations, $1.34; actual: $1.47/share but without excluding a one-time gain, the actual earnings were $2.23/share.

QEP:

Range Resources:

RIG ( ):

SD: May 7, after market closes

SLB ( ): forecast, $1.20; before market opens. Actual: beats by 1 cent; profit from continuing ops jumps 33 percent; profit jumps on Middle East, Asia growth;

SM ( ): 

SRE (95 cents): beats by 9 cents; $1.03

SRGY:

SSN:

STO (BEXP):  

STR:  

Starbucks: right on the nose at 56 cents; but revenue up 9% from same period last year;

T (  ):

Targa Resources Partners (NGLS): forecast 49 cents; actual beats by 18 cents;

TPLM: April 17; misses by 2 cents;

TransCanada (TRP.TO): beats by one cent.

Ultra Petroleum (UPL): beats by 16 cents; 

UNP ( ):  forecast, $2.37, before market opens. Actual: beats by 1 cent; profit surges 14%.

USEG: 

VLO: 

VOG: 

WDFC: 

WFT: Weatherford: beats by 2 cents; 13 cents;

WHX:  

WHZ:

WLL: expectations, 96 cents; actual -- beats by 9 cents; profit jumps 27%;

WMB: expectations, 26 cents; actual -- beats by 2 cents; profit drops 13%

WPX ( ): 

XOM: $1.88 before market open; actual: "handily beat" -- $2.10; beats by 22 cents; annual shareholder's meeting (2014);

XLNX ():

This Is Really Quite Incredible -- Global Warming/Extreme Weather/Polar Vortex -- Call It What You Want --It's Been A Humdinger Of A Winter

Updates

April 14, 2014: Winnipeg water pipes could stay frozen through July. 
 

Original Post

For folks who don't live up north: to prevent water lines from freezing, there are two common methods: bury the water pipelines as deeply as economically possible -- hopefully below where the ground freezes; and, if it's really, really cold, keep the taps flowing at least slightly -- flowing water tends not to freeze.

Of course, if one keeps the tap open, one pays for that water, whether it was used or not used. And the water company will charge you for that water -- or perhaps come up with a credit if it seems appropriate.

That's the background to this story coming out of Park Rapids, Minnesota. Look at how much extra water it took to keep the taps open to help prevent freezing: almost double --

Water pumping for March 2014 was 18,597,620 gallons compared to 10,787,264 gallons in 2013.

Even with that, water pipes froze across the northern tier.

Now, these pipes:

Water Music, George Frideric Handel

President Obama's Energy Policy Lacks Consistency; "What He Says Is Not What We See" -- North Dakota US Senator (Democrat)

Ms Heitkamp comes out swinging against Mr Obama's lack of any energy policy. The Washington Times is reporting:

President Barack Obama’s energy policies lack “consistency.” His rhetoric may be all-of-the-above but that is “not what we see.”

These are critiques not from a Republican lawmaker or an outside pundit but from Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. The freshman from North Dakota fashioned herself as an independent-minded candidate as she won an upset victory in 2012. And she has carried that ethos into her second year in office, emerging as perhaps the White House’s most consistent Democratic critic on energy policy.

“I would tell you his energy policy - for lack of a better word - it lacks consistency,” Heitkamp said in an interview with The Associated Press. “What he says is not what we see in policy.”

I think that IS Mr Obama's energy policy: say one thing to the nation; say another thing to his base; do nothing.  In his most recent comment on the Keystone, back on February 26, 2014, he said he would make a decision in "a couple of months."

Talk is cheap. I will wait to see how she votes on energy issues when they come to the floor and her influence on Senate colleagues. She needs to take a cue from Robert Byrd's ability to add amendments to bills that were must-pass legislation. But this is encouraging, also from the linked article:

Heitkamp came directly to the Senate from the energy industry, where she worked for 12 years, including as a director of Dakota Gasification Company, a coal and natural gas company. Before that, as a state attorney general, she fought increased regulation of the state’s coal industry. She’s been “molded by my experience,” she said.

People who worked with her in North Dakota’s energy industry say that they are not surprised she has emerged as a critic of Obama.

“She definitely has her own mind,” said Mike Eggl, a vice president at Basin Electric Power Coopeative, which owns Dakota Gasfication. “She has a strong handle on the issues. When we had tours with a number of people there, she would usually jump in and help with the tour.”

Mac McLennan, the president and CEO Minnkota Power Cooperative in Grand Forks, worked with Heitkamp during her time at Dakota Gasification. He said few people understand the challenges of coal energy as well as Heitkamp.

William Tell Overture, Gioachino Rossini

New York Times Stirring Up Concern About CBR; So What's New? The Tsunami Of Crude Oil Being Shipped By Rail; From 10,000 Carloads In 2008 To 400,000 Carloads In 2013; One Derailment (No Casualties) In The US Since The Canadian Engineer Forgot To Set His Brakes?

The New York Times is reporting:

In December, a new terminal in the Port of Beaumont [Texas] welcomed its first customer: a train carrying 43,000 barrels of crude oil from Colorado. Workers at the terminal, the Jefferson Transload Railport, transferred the crude to a barge, which traveled down the Neches River to a nearby refinery.

As shale fields scattered across the Midwest and West Texas produce millions of barrels of crude oil, energy companies are finding the national pipeline network insufficient to transport their output. Railroads are increasingly picking up the slack, and Jefferson Energy Companies, based in The Woodlands, is one of several companies investing millions of dollars to help transport crude by rail, a business that was nearly nonexistent just five years ago. [The NYT could add that the Bakken laboratory was pretty much solely responsible; Obama's dithering on the Keystone XL probably had almost as much to do with the new business, in retrospect.]

“We never thought we competed with pipeline until four years ago when we moved our first unit train of crude by rail,” Dean Wise, a vice president for BNSF Railway, based in Fort Worth, said at a rail conference in January. “Now BNSF is moving eight trains a day.” (BNSF is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.)

Look at the numbers:

While most crude oil is still transported by pipelines, rail transport is gaining ground. According to the Association of American Railroads, the United States rail system transported 407,642 carloads of crude oil in 2013, up from 9,500 carloads in 2008.

The Port of Beaumont and Jefferson Energy developed the Jefferson Transload Railport as a public-private partnership, a Jefferson Energy spokesman, Mark Viator, said. Money for the project included $47 million borrowed through a federal bond program for areas affected by Hurricane Ike in 2008. While the terminal is currently receiving crude oil trains that have 60 to 80 cars, it is equipped to handle trains of up to 120 cars and to drain every car simultaneously, Mr. Viator said.  [Like milking cows, I suppose.]

“Everything that has been received so far in the Beaumont terminal has been from Colorado,” a spokesman for the Port of Beaumont, John Roby, said. “It’s mainly because rail is serving those areas that are not now served by pipelines.”

To the best of my knowledge there has been one Bakken-oil-CBR mishap in the United States since the engineer forgot to set his brakes in Canada back in July, 2013. It's very possible that there were more casualties in Ted's plunge over the bridge than CBR casualties in the US. Don't quote me on that; I could be wrong, and probably am. But considering that CBR accounted for less than 10,000 carloads in 2008 and that number has now grown to over 400,000 carloads, it's been about as mishap-free as one could hope. CBR has certainly been better executed in the United States than ObamaCare.

Considering the The New York Times doesn't want pipeline or rail, it's actually quite remarkable what the oil and gas industry has been able to achieve. Warren certainly bought BNSF at the right time.

I remember when I first started blogging about CBR, I was told by at least one reader that CBR was a passing fad, and that once enough pipeline was put in place, CBR would wither on the tracks. 

Two things the reader missed: a) the flexibility of rail; and, b) the message sent by the President when he dithered on the Keystone XL -- the president's message: "in addition to my war on coal, I will do what I can to slow the oil and gas industry."