Monday, July 20, 2020

Reason #1 Why I Love To Blog -- Reader's Comments On Two Recent Posts -- July 20, 2020

Earlier I posted this:
  • 35912, F/NC, CLR, Jamestown Federal 14-17HSL1, Banks, t--; cum 109K 3 months, 7 days; a 40K month; Three Forks, the potential pay zone was determined by the desire not to be overly high in the first bench, with a broad clean zone with better drilling and oil show, but no markers to warn of Pronghorn approach. The uppermost zone was set in this territory purely for steering marker and turn-around room. A buffer over the lowest dolostone bed (which overlies the internal 1 in turn) was also maintained on the low side, in order to prevent approach to that lower dolostone, which is less than ideal for both oil production (although with gas levels noted, this may not be true of this particular area) and drilling rate. Late morning on July 22nd the upper Bakken shale was intercepted ....  a sidetrack was initiated at 10:30 a.m.; drilling ahead on the sidetrack commenced at 20:12 that evening; a single assembly through to TD; the well was completed on the morning of July 23rd. The lateral was drilled in less than 24 hours? Fracked 12/18/2019 - 12/28/2019; small to moderate frack with 7.3 million gallons of water; 88.7% water by mass.
A reader replied:
Regarding the operators drilling a lateral in one day, several Appalachian Basin operators (whom I have been monitoring for years now) routinely average 7 to 8 thousand feet in 24 hours with - I believe - the record setter being about 10,000'. 
The increased focus for Bakken operators may revolve around the precision involving the 'build/curve' and the landing point as those hydrocarbon bearing strata in the Bakken/TF are so thin ... relatively speaking. 
It is a great testament to the skills of the crews to be doing what they do.
Earlier I posted this: Completely unexpected: new LNG port proposed for Houston -- Rigzone. Data points:
  • Pilot LNG LLC
  • Galveston LNG Bunker Port project
  • Pelican Island, between Galveston and Texas City 
  • FID: 2Q21
  • project:
    • a floating liquefaction plant
    • would provide LNG marine fuel to vessels to the Texas ports of Houston, Texas City, and Galveston
    • would provide LNG to one of the US's largest port complexes
    • nameplate liquefaction capacity of 05 million tons per annum
    • 18,000 cubic feet of storage capacity
The same reader noted:
Regarding that floating LNG barge/ship set to produce .5 mtpa (million tonnes per annum ... ~65 Million cubic feet per day), this is a great example of what to expect in the coming years. 
If you look at the picture accompanying the Rigzone article, you may notice that the hardware is comprised of several modules. 
These modules are becoming almost interchangeable components separately manufactured in China, Italy, South Korea, Thailand, amongst other countries.
This GREATLY facilitates time-to-assembly (on site), reduces costs dramatically, and expands the markets for LNG that heretofore required massive infusions of capital, supply, and - ultimately - sizeable consuming markets.

This is ALL in the process of dramatic change (upheaval, actually) as everything becomes way faster and cheaper to produce ... this, while the accompanying innovative hardware to store/transport the product (LNG) is improving at lightening speed.
The fact that a 2 mtpa LNG plant is now being built way up in the woods of North East Pennsylvania (NEPA) is one example. Proposing that this could be done a decade ago would justifiably be deemed preposterous.

From fueling the new Tasmanian ferry to supplying  Fairbanks, AK, with cheap, year-round fuel, this LNG 'world' will continue to rapidly expand and evolve.
And, we both might add: the US will be a huge supplier of this fuel.

Speaking of Pennsylvania, a native thereof:

Medley, Bobby Vinton

Notes From All Over -- Late Night Edition -- July 20, 2002

I've never had a bumper fall off my car -- not even in that Saab - BMW crash in Germany. I was driving the Saab on the priority road at 100 kmh when a BMW pulled out in front of me -- no injuries and the bumpers stayed on ... on both cars .. but apparently bumpers falling off Teslas has become a "thing." LOL. From ZeroHedge:


... and not only a "thing" but more than expected. Say what? LOL.

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Apple Headlines Ahead of Earnings

Apple's iPhone SE a huge hit with consumers; people really like them.

Fast, faster, and faster: 5G, sub-6GHz, mmWave, and all that jazz.

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

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IBM Beats On Strength Of Cloud

Link here.
Revenue from the cloud business, previously headed by IBM's new boss Arvind Krishna, rose 30% to $6.3 billion in the second quarter.
Krishna took over as chief executive officer from Ginni Rometty in April, while appointing former Bank of America Corp's top technology executive Howard Boville as the new head of IBM's cloud business.
IBM's total revenue fell 5.4% to $18.12 billion in the quarter, but came in above analysts' estimates of $17.72 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Excluding the impact from currency and business divestitures, revenue declined 1.9%.
The company's net income fell to $1.36 billion, or $1.52 per share, in the quarter ended June 30 from $2.5 billion, or $2.81 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $2.18 per share, above estimates of $2.07 per share.
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Amazon: Holy Book Sales, Batman!

Up $235/share today; up almost 8% and on top of that -- the surge held after hours with AMZN gaining another $11 / up another 0.35%.

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Peacock Streaming

Not that I plan to watch it much, but, wow, talk about easy to set up. And it's free. 

Galveston, Glen Campbell

I was going to quit with that one, but then this one popped up in rotation:

Medley, Glen Campbell

Both of them take me back to my days in the US Air Force. Wow, don't get me started.

A reader sent me a great note regarding an earlier post. I'll post that next. Stay tuned.

ZeroHedge Pranked -- Palestine No Longer Exists On Google Maps -- July 20, 2020

Updates

July 21, 2020: this was one big "prank" and apparently ZeroHedge fell for it. This story that "Palestine" was removed from Apple and Google maps was a fake story. Screenshots purporting to be early maps showing "Palestine"were in fact photoshopped. In fact, this hoax has been going back to at least 2018. Here are additional links: 
Original Post
 
See ZeroHedge. 

Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. But no Palestine.



A "generic" search of the same area on Bing maps also does not bring up Palestine.

If one specifically searches for "Palestine" on Bing maps, the typical icon pops up over Palestine which is identified as "Palestine." But a more general search, and Palestine does not show up.

Enerplus With Eight New Permits: Middle East Producers To Accumulate Half-Trillion-Dollar Debt Within Three Years -- July 20, 2020

Mideast on the brink: Middle East producers to amass one-half-trillion dollars in debt in less than three years. Source. Look at the average oil price per bbl this year. Wow!!
Arab states of the energy-rich Gulf are expected to accumulate $490 billion in deficits by 2023 due to the double hit of low oil prices and the coronavirus slowdown, according to Standard and Poors.
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council is estimated to post a combined budget deficit of $180 billion this year alone.
It based its estimates on an average oil price of $30 a barrel this year, forecast to rise to $55 in 2022.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:


$40.817/20/202007/20/201907/20/201807/20/201707/20/2016
Active Rigs1155685931

Eight new permits, #37721 - #37728, inclusive:
  • Operator: Enerplus
    Field: Antelope (McKenzie)
  • Comments:
    • Enerplus has eight permits for a "Winter Fur" pad in SWSE 33-151-94, Antelope oilfield, all 509' to 510' FSL and from 1918' to 1673' FEL
    • the winter fur permits: Ermine, Sable, Lynx, Beaver, Marten, Otter, Weasel, and Seal
Enerplus new pad:
  • These eight wells will run north.
  • The current, producing well section 33, a single-section well, running to the north:
    • 23177, 648, Enerplus, Coyote 151-94-33DH TF, Antelope, 1/13; cum 2197K 5/20; 
  • Three wells sited in section 28; sections 28/21-151-94:
    • 31943, from the north to the south; 690, Enerplus, Furlong 151-94-21A-28H, Antelope, t2/17; cum 402K 5/20;
    • 20783, from the south to the north; 1,399, Enerplus, Miles 151-94-28D-21H, Antelope, t9/11; cum 406K 3/20; remains off line 5/20;
    • 18303, from the south to the north; PA, Enerplus, Sherwood 28-44H, t9/11; cum 5K;

Random Note On Coffee Futures -- July 20, 2020

So, if cocoa futures are tanking because folks are not going out to eat as much, how is coffee doing? Pretty much mixed: in the past four months, some very bullish signs, and then other days, some very bearish signs.

From May 23, 2020: coffee futures crash.

And then, July 11, 2020, from a contributor at SeekingAlpha: fundamentals support a coffee turnaround.

I suppose there are many, many ways to explain the "difference" between chocolate and coffee during a pandemic. But I will leave that for another day. Or another reader.


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US Crude Oil Supply

Link here.

At 37.6 days vs a recent high of 42 days.

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Legacy Fund

Pending. We should see deposits data sometime this week, perhaps today.