Saudi Arabia Suspends Red Sea Oil Shipments -- July 25, 2018; Katie Ledecky On NBC, NBCSN

Saudi Arabia suspends Red Sea oil shipments following attack on two of its VLCCs. Link here. OPEC basket crude oil rises ... 16 cents/bbl. Update, July 26, 2018, here.

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The Katie Ledecky Page

Meanwhile, out in Irvine, CA, Katie Ledecky adds another national title.

From Swimming World:

Stanford’s Katie Ledecky added another national title in the women’s 800 free to kick off her first finals swim of Nationals, hitting the wall in 8:11.98.

Ledecky pushed the pace early (as she often does), leading the race from start to finish and sitting under world record and U.S. Open record pace at different points throughout the race.

While she was flipped under world record pace at the 200 mark (1:58.24) she had fallen off to just under U.S. Open record pace at the 400 (4:02.29) at the halfway point before fading in the second half of the race. While she was able to keep her splits under 31 seconds through about the 300, she crept up gradually to 31-mids in the second half of the race.

Her season best stands at 8:07.27 from the TYR Pro Series meet from Indianapolis.

On NBCSC generally "late" at night, tonight through Sunday. On the weekend, it will be on during the afternoon, 3 p.m. ET, both days on NBC.

Who Got To Governor Jerry Brown? -- July 25, 2018; Saipem With Almost $1 Billion In Pipeline Contracts On Four Continents

From SeekingAlpha:

• PG&E, Edison International, and Sempra Energy  are higher after California Gov. Gov. Brown proposed legislation that could dramatically ease the potential wildfire-related financial burdens on large utilities by potentially shoveling more costs onto ratepayers’ shoulders
• in a letter to state legislators, Brown said the current legal framework which confronts utilities with liabilities they claim threatens them with bankruptcy is unsustainable
• Brown’s plan would not free PG&E of its financial responsibilities related to last fall’s northern California wildfires but would deliver a victory for PG&E and other utilities by shifting the future cost burden of strict liabilities that power companies now face under inverse condemnation, which holds utilities liable if their equipment was a factor in causing a wildfire or other disaster, even if the utility properly conducted maintenance and facilities upgrades

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Who Is Saipem?

Saipem: an Italian oil and gas industry contractor. It was a subsidiary of Italian energy company Eni, which owned approximately 30% of Saipem's shares until 2016.[2] Saipem has been contracted for designing and constructing several pipelines, including Blue Stream, Greenstream, Nord Stream and South Stream. 

Saipem wins huge contracts -- pipelines on four continents that will total almost a billion dollars. Link here.  

Saipem has won onshore engineering and construction (E&C) contracts in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa totaling approximately $800 million.

Saudi Aramco has awarded Saipem a procurement and construction contract for its South Gas Compression Plant Pipelines project tied to the development of the Haradh gas plant (HdGP) in eastern Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco stated that the program as an initiative for “improving and sustaining gas production from Haradh and Hawiyah fields by reducing choke pressure at the wellhead to 300 pounds per square inch gauge.” The company added that the program will extend plateau life of both fields by two decades while maintaining production rates.

Also on Wednesday, Saipem stated that it received a contract from ExxonMobil Iraq Limited for the DS6 project in the West Qurna field in southeastern Iraq. The 23-month project calls on Saipem to optimize a plant to boost its overall capacity and will be executed primarily from Saipem’s Rumahila fabrication yard.

Outside of Asia, Saipem – through its Saimexicana unit – secured a contract from Pemex for work on its Miguel Hidalgo refinery, which is located in Tula de Hallende north of Mexico City.

Saipem also announced that it obtained contracts for the following projects in Africa and Europe:

• Front end engineering design – in conjunction with joint venture partners Chiyoda and Daewoo – from Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) that also entails preparing the engineering, procurement and construction proposal for adding a seventh liquefaction train at the NLNG facility in Finima on Bonny Island, Nigeria.
• Engineering services and permit acquisition for construction work related to laying pipes for transporting gas to Serbia.

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Last Night's Dinner

Trying something new while my wife is out of town for a couple of weeks. Salmon filet on the right. Huge artichoke (boiled first, and then grilled). Same with potatoes.

Note: the Wall Street Journals are stacking up, being saved for my wife. I no longer read the hard copy. I only read the digital copy and not much of that either.

Fourteen New Permits -- July 25, 2018; FB Crashes -- Down 24% After Earnings Miss And Really, Really Disturbing Guidance

A couple of random comments before we get started:

• for the archives, this was an incredible day for the market following President Trump and EU Jean-Claude Juncker joint presser regarding tariffs
• WTI took a small but significant jump after that presser
• I may be getting ahead of my headlights, but the problem in the Permian may be reflected in the Bakken -- look at the number of XTO permits today -- see below -- one could argue permit action in the Bakken could be directly related to bottlenecks in the Permian

WTI: late day surge after the president's press briefing on tariffs.  Futures are now soaring after-market.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

FB: down 24% after earnings miss. Comment: think TSLA. I think the FB correction will pale in comparison to what we could see with TSLA. The real question being asked of FB: how were analysts mislead, or were analysts guilty of "group think"? Same questions for TSLA.

Gasoline demand, link here:

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$69.28	7/25/2018	07/25/2017	07/25/2016	07/25/2015	07/25/2014
Active Rigs	64	60	32	73	192

Fourteen new permits:

• Operators: XTO (10): Whiting (4)
• Fields: North Fork (Dunn), Haystack Butte (Dunn), Tyrone (Williams)
• Comments: XTO has permits for a 10-well Teddy Federal pad in North Fork/Haystack Butte in SWNW 5-148-97; Whiting has permits for a 4-well Moline pad in NENW 14-156-101;

Two permits renewed:

• Whiting: two P Bibler permits in Williams County

Operator transfer:

• another 27 Divide County wells transferred from SM Energy to Petro-Hunt

Notes On Trade War Between US And EU -- July 25, 2018

Updates

Later, 7:08 p.m. CDT:

Original Post 

Notes from July 25, 2018, to draft status.

Updates

July 25, 2018: now the press conference with President Trump on trade with Europe -- comments or paraphrased comments from the president and EU Mr Jean-Claude Juncker -- and my comments

• CNBC actually televising the press conference; after the press conference -- very, very short conference -- CNBC already trying to minimize it
• back to FBN;
• Trump has achieved his goal to bring the EU to the negotiating table
• both sides will work toward zero tariffs -- which would be called "free trade" -- unlike the 275% Canadian tariffs on US dairy products which most pundits currently consider "free trade"
• obviously the EU had to save face; Trump had no such concerns; something tells me it's even more tense (for the EU) behind the scenes
• direct swipe again Russia/Putin on energy -- a big, big deal but anti-Trumper pundits respond that "the devil is in the details" -- well, duh, of course 
• but this is a huge deal -- maybe; we'll see tomorrow; one talking head predicts a big sell-off tomorrow when the excitement wears off

July 25, 2018: starting at 3:01 p.m. CDT; comments from FBN -- these are not my comments -- these are comments or paraphrased comments from Fox Business News --

• one talking head suggests there could be sell-off tomorrow if this story turns out to be smaller than it really is
• what an exciting day to be watching the market; waiting for the press briefing in the Rose Garden
• FBN says it was seemingly summoned to the Rose Garden "out of nowhere": open press event
• [momentary switch to CNBC -- still minimizing the story; same talking heads trying to talk this market down]
• many tech stocks at an all-time high
• wow, wow, wow -- one of my largest portfolio holdings was in the "red" all day; at the close it was still showing "red," but now, minutes after the close the account has turned "green" -- and it's a significant "green"
• can't wait to catch Jim Cramer tonight

July 25, 2018: my hunch is that the Rose Garden press briefing was "delayed" until the close of the market.

July 25, 2018: comments from FBN -- these are not my comments -- these are comments or paraphrased comments from Fox Business News --last note, 3:01 p.m CDT

• a huge victory for Trump
• could be a summer to remember
• FBN analysts are "going nuts"
• if you feel this is momentum, it may be time to "play" the China market
• everything who sold off and went into cash, or treasuries --
• this market is going to go a lot higher
• snap back rally
• one of the most significant trades we've seen in generations
• more breaking news: auto tariffs -- fine tuning language specifically on auto tariffs
• GM coming back
• European auto makers moving higher
• Ford is reducing its sessions losses; F is literally straddling the "flat" line

July 25, 2018: the Dow was down slightly all day; it will close almost 200 points up on breaking news from the White House -- on auto tariffs

July 25, 2018: even more incredible -- CNBC is avoiding the story. Has gone to commercial. Fox Business News has the news -- S&P 500 now out of "correction" territory. Spikes in all indices. This is absolutely incredible. Anybody who listened to Trump's speech yesterday, again, Trump pegged it exactly right. He intimated that we would see something today.

July 25, 2018: holy mackerel. If you are not watching the market today -- in the last 30 minutes, you are missing a historic event.

If I Ever Thought Of Buying A Tesla, Never Again -- For Some Reason NDIC Did Not Scan In Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today As of Noon -- July 25, 2018

Wells coming off confidential list today (July 25, 2018) are still listed at the "confidential well site."

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The Apple Page

Link here. Huge story.

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The Katie Ledecky Page

Featured on front cover of this month's issue of The National Geographic.

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The Hypocrisy Page
Or
Is It Paranoia?

Five links, he stepped over the red line -- I will never, never, ever have a kind word to say about Tesla or Elon Musk again:

• first: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4189933-tesla-montana-skeptic-response. This article also includes the "second" link below
• second: https://seekingalpha.com/instablog/37229846-montana-skeptic/5190656-farewell-now.
• third: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-allegedly-silences-one-of-his-short-selling-critics-by-calling-his-boss-2018-07-25?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo. 
• fourth: https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-performance-review-wsj-dan-neil-twitter/. 
• fifth: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4190447-open-letter-teslas-board.