Wow, I'm Glad I Don't Have Cable ... January 12, 2016

... actually, I have cable, but it's "basic cable" so it has some of the major networks. But the fact that I don't have "cable" means I don't watch television. If I did, I would be watching President Obama's swan song. Oh, spare me.

Now, to watch another episode of Columbo and then to watch episode 2, season 1 of Fargo.

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Fargo

David Lynch lite.

And unlike Lynch, one can actually follow the plot of Fargo.

Also, similar to Twin Peaks.

"Business As Usual"? -- January 12, 2016

Maybe this is simply "business as usual": you decide, fair and balanced. Farsnews is reporting:

A number of blasts hit Baqiq industrial city in the Southern Saudi province of Jizan where the kingdom's giant Aramco oil facilities is located.

The local residents of Al-Sharqiya region where the Baqiq industrial city and the Aramco oil facilities are located confirmed huge explosions near the huge oil facilities, the Arabic-language media outlets reported on Tuesday.

Baqiq industrial city belongs to Aramco oil company which itself is Saudi Arabia's biggest economic enterprise.

The oilfields of Aramco, including Qawareh oilfield, are located in Shiite-populated Eastern Saudi Arabia.

Jizan Province marked:

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Ford To Declare Supplemental Dividend

This is pretty cool, from SeekingAlpha:

• Ford Motor declares $0.15/share quarterly dividend, in line with previous.
• Forward yield 4.67%
• Payable March 1; for shareholders of record Jan. 29; ex-div Jan. 27.
• Additionally, the board declared a supplemental dividend of $0.25/share payable along with regular dividend.

Profit outlook disappoints. No one is ever satisfied.

Update On Earlier Post Regarding Transfer Of Whiting Wells To Fundamental Energy Management -- January 12, 2016

Earlier I posted a note regarding the number of Whiting wells being transferred to Fundamental Energy Management. A writer provided documentation suggesting that ~ 1,000 wells were acquired by Fundamental versus the number published in the media. It's possible Fundamental acquired the wells from more than one company but the documentation seems to suggest all wells were acquired from Whiting.

Fundamental Energy is not "public" and should not have to publish any information except as they wish. On the other hand, one would assume Whiting would at least mention this at some point as a publicly traded company if it's a "material event."

Regardless, at some point, the wells being transferred among operators will show up on daily activity reports.

It would be interesting to some readers, I suppose, if anyone has any additional information on this transaction.

Disclaimer: this is not being posted for investment or financial reasons. I post these because it helps me understand the development of the Bakken. There is no hidden agenda.

How's That Ship Taking US Crude Oil To Switzerland Via Italy Doing? -- January 12, 2016

Over at some other apocalyptic gloom and doom site, it was said that there are absolutely no cargo ships on any of the global oceans today. Of course, that was dead wrong. The writer got his information from a site that was not meant to track ocean-going tankers. But it was fun to see someone else get something so wrong. I've done that more than once. LOL.

But it reminded me, how is that ship taking American crude oil to Italy doing? Let's check.

One of the links is a paysite, and the other site is not a whole lot better, but at this link, you can get "recent" lat/long: put these coordinates in google map search just like this (without the quotations marks, just cut and paste): "25.89443°  -76.07712°"

When you do that, you will have to zoom way, way out, to see where the ship is located. That location was from January 5, about a week ago, and the ship was just east of Florida then. To get a more recent location, based on satellite data, one needs a subscription. Which I don't have.

The distance from Miami, FL, to Naples, IT, is 4,608 nautical miles.  Doing the math, at the speed shown, the ship has about 13 more days from January 5 to get to Italy, about January 18th. They said it was due January 20th, the numbers seem to work out.

BP To Cut It's Upstream Workforce -- Assuming I Read The Article Correctly -- January 12, 2016

It's hard for me to believe the government figures on job growth in the USA when I see stories like this. The way the article is written below it's a bit confusing but it appears that this is what the writer is trying to say:

• at the end of 2015, BP had 80,000 global employees
• not all those employees were upstream; the article does not say how many employees were upstream employees
• the article says the company plans to end 2016 with less than 20,000 upstream employees by cutting 4,000 employees

That's how I read it. It seems it could be read other ways, but that makes sense to me. The writer mixed apples and oranges, it seems, and for all I know, I still don't have it right. 

This is how Reuters is reported it:

British oil and gas company BP announced plans on Tuesday to slash 5 percent of its global workforce in the face of a continued slump in oil prices.

It said it aims to reduce its global oil production, or upstream, headcount by 4,000 to 20,000 as it undergoes a $3.5 billion restructuring program. BP said its headcount totaled around 80,000 at the end of 2015.

And even that paragraph is not quite correct. The writer says the upstream headcount will be reduced to 20,000. In fact, the upstream headcount will be reduced to less than 20,000. Big difference.

Then this paragraph:

"We want to simplify (our) structure and reduce costs without compromising safety. Globally, we expect the headcount in upstream to be below 20,000 by the end of the year," a company spokesman said.

The article's "5%" is this: 5% of 80,000 is 4,000. So, in this round of job cuts, BP will cut 5% of its total workforce, but for those working upstream, it's a lot worse: upwards of 16.7% will be cut (4,000/24,000 = 16.7%).  See first comment; my original calculation, at 20%, was wrong.