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. All evening / night long, DOW futures have continued to move up, and move up quite strongly. At the market close, DOW futures were up about 40 points; a bit later, up 50 and then 60 points; now DOW futures are up 71 points. I assume this is all directly related to the Scottish vote. Of course, futures mean squat but it is what it is. WTI futures are flat, around $93.
North Dakota Oil Production To "Dip"
Some of North Dakota's oil companies likely will experience a production dip starting next month as they try to meet aggressive new flaring standards, Governor Jack Dalrymple said on Thursday.
Flaring, the wasteful burning of natural gas that is extracted alongside crude, has become a widespread problem in the state, the nation's second-largest oil producer. In an effort to curb the problem, which harms quality of life and reduces tax revenue, state regulators will require companies to flare no more than 26 percent of produced gas starting Oct. 1, with standards tightening in the future.
If producers fail to meet the standards, they will have to curb production. "A lot of people were surprised we took that step because there are going to be some operators impacted by this," Dalrymple, a Republican, said in a speech to the North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties.
Regular readers know my position on this issue. There are several story lines. Six months from now, I doubt crude oil production will be much affected, and flaring will be much reduced. I hope someone provides a "before" and "after" satellite photo of the Bakken.
Chevron has become the first energy company to meet a new set of voluntary shale gas drilling standards that aim to go beyond existing state laws in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, the Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale announced Thursday.
The center is a partnership between major energy companies, environmental groups and charitable foundations. Its certification process consisted of an independent review of Chevron documents and 22 of its production sites in the three states.
The program is meant to work much like Underwriters Laboratories, which puts its familiar UL seal on electrical appliances. The review was conducted by Bureau Veritas, an international testing company that also handles the LEED review process for the U.S. Green Building Council. Nigel Hearne, president of Chevron's Appalachia operations, said that the 15 Sustainable Shale standards "will produce meaningful results" in reducing pollution and freshwater use, and that he hopes other energy companies join in the process. Chevron Corp. is based in San Ramon, California.
The Sierra Club and other some environmental groups have harshly criticized the Sustainable Shale program, saying voluntary efforts are no substitute for tougher state and federal regulations. But one environmental group that worked on the project welcomed Chevron's announcement.
No good deed goes unpunished.
The Wall Street Journal
Scotland stays
Household wealth hits record, previously reported
ObamaCare: 7.3 million paid their premiums -- suggesting almost a million dropped out; another million may be in hot water
Home Depot breach bigger than Target
It appears Boeing will cede manned fighters to Lockheed; that sounds like a "negative" lede; in fact, one has to ask, is there a future for manned fighter jets in the US Air Force?
LightSquared, blowing through $80 billion in August, has now lost $1.6 billion since it filed for bankruptcy protection in May, 2012
Most interesting, previously posted: big oil companies and traders are stashing milllions of barrels of crude on massive tankers bobbing in the ocean, in a bid to profit from a quirk in oil markets (by the way, just for the fun of it, do a google search of "china storing oil in supertankers")
