A CLR Kukla Well Goes Over 500K Bbls Crude Oil Cumulative -- April 9, 2021

 The well:

• 20544, 1,301, CLR, Kukla 3-16H, Chimney Butte, 4 sections, 30 stages, 3 million lbs, t4/12; cum 491K 9/20; cum 500K 2/21;

The pads:

• the Candee wells are tracked here; 
• the Kukla wells are tracked here;

Active Rigs Drop To 15; CLR WIth Four New Permits; Three DUCs Reported As Completed -- April 9, 2021

Active rigs:

$59.32	4/9/2021	04/09/2020	04/09/2019	04/09/2018	04/09/2017
Active Rigs	15	36	63	58	49

Four new permits, #38249 - #38252, inclusive:

• Operator: CLR
• Field: Chimney Butte (Dunn County)
• Comments:
• CLR has permits for two Candee wells and two Kukkla wells in SWSW 9-146-95;
• the wells will be sited 475' FSL and between 392" and 527' FWL;
• the Candee wells are tracked here; 
• the Kukla wells are tracked here;
  

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 36250,
• 37103,
• 37104,

What A Bunch Of Malarkey -- April 9, 2021

Updates

April 12, 2021:

Original Post

Once the convoys are in motion, does it matter how long the transit time? Only for the guys in the back room wearing green visors.

A Trifecta! Equity Markets Hit New Records; DAPL To Stay Open; Amazon 1; Unions, 0 -- April 9, 2021

Links, stories, and comments pending.

I'm off on my bicycle to go to "Total Wine" to buy some champagne. 

But, but, but: the judge can easily overrule the US Army Corps of Engineers; and this judge has closed the DAPL before.  

Prince Phillip: the big story no one has mentioned yet?

• link here, The Cut, November 19, 2015
• "The Science of Longtime Couples Who Die Together."
• most famous example: Johnny Cash / June Carter Cash -- within four months of each other;
• yet to be seen: Jeffrey Epstein / Ghislaine Maxwell

Markets:

• two weeks in a row -- market surges on a Friday afternoon. FOMO.
• analyst: one has to "outrun inflation" -- the only way -- the US equity markets;
• at some point, some analyst is going to make the post-WWII analogy;

AAPL:

• it certainly looks like a breakout;
• up a couple of dollars yesterday; now, today, up another 2%;
• a few weeks ago, trading for $119; in trading range below $120 for quite some time;
• now, in past two days, moves up, trading at $133;

Saudi Aramco: sells 49% stake in pipelines to foreign consortium;

• if anyone can their head around this one, you are a better investor than I am;
• seems that Saudi Aramco is simply renting back their own pipelines; I get it, but the "spread" must be minimal; and, if push comes to shove Saudi Arabia can always nationalize the entire system (again);

How big will the post-Covid-19 opening be?

• attendance at national parks is expected to swell;
• demand is predicted to be so hot that Phillips 66 is set to reverse the flow of one of its pipelines so it can carry gasoline from Texas into Denver;
• switch will occur May 1, 2021;
• President Biden was heard to say: "Neanderthals"
• when you visit the Grand Canyon this summer, see if you can hear the "Neanderthal" echo

Bloomberg: driving roars back in US, setting up gasoline for a 7-year high; link here;

• pump prices could reach $3/gallon for first time since 2014
• send a note to your Congresswoman reminding her that Biden killed the Keystone

Michigan:

• the poster child for government overreach and "the mask mandate";

Michigan:

• the New York Times' list of top-10 cities where the outbreak is worse, nine of those cities are in Michigan
• the poster child for surging Covid-19 and no history of:
• Sturgis; and,
• no back-to-school excuse;
• amid Michigan coronavirus case spike, epidemiology expert Gretchen Whitmer urges suspension of in-person high school classes;
• she also called all "Michiganders" to avoid dining and gathering indoors;
• "we all have to step up our game" -- Governor Gretchen Whitmer
• Michigan is now the national leader in the number of cases of Covid-19 by population despite increasing vaccinations;
• for those paying attention, it makes absolute sense what is going on; it's not rocket science;
• or as Milana Vayntrub would say, "it's not complicated"
  

I Fought AgainsThe Bottle But I Had To Do It Drunk -- The Saudi Paradox -- April 9, 2021

I see WTI is down again today; Saudi Arabia can't make it on 6-handle oil.

Talk about "cognitive dissonance" for a kingdom that continues to live in the Middle Ages.  Reuters contributor writes:

In order to wean Saudi Arabia off its dependency on crude the kingdom needs higher oil prices.

Sort of like Leonard Cohen saying

I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk. 

LOL.  

From Reuters: 

A multi-trillion dollar spending push designed to diversify the economy's sources of income will require state companies to cut the dividends they pay the government to boost capital spending, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said.

It is not clear how much companies like oil group Saudi Aramco - whose $75 billion dividends last year were vital to support state revenues - would cut their dividends, but any reduction would likely need to be compensated by higher oil prices, analysts say.

"If dividends are lowered, a higher oil price would boost Aramco transfers to the sovereign through taxes and royalties instead," Jean-Michel Saliba, MENA economist at Bank of America, said in a research note.

This leaves crude revenues at the centre of the kingdom's strategy targeting 27 trillion riyals ($7.2 trillion) in domestic spending by 2030.

A reader sent me the link to the story. My not-ready-for-prime-time reply:

Every story I read along this line, these are the recurring themes I see:

• Saudi Arabia is in deep trouble;
• Saudi Arabia is confused; not sure what to do in a free market; doesn't dare cede global market to others: US, Iran, Russia.
• that $75 billion dividend is a huge problem for both Aramco and the state; Armaco can't get rid of it fast enough; the state won't let it go. It would be interesting to see how that $75 billion is spent; who benefits from it; rich princes or others?
• articles in the US spreading disinformation on fracking, pipelines are certainly funded by Saudi Arabia
• renewable energy provides low margin returns; nothing like the margins in oil;
• Saudi Arabia can build all the refineries they want but those refineries are a long way from the countries that use refined products; countries that use refined products have more than enough refineries: the EU; China, India, the US;
  
• it may be good "PR" to talk about building refineries in Saudi Arabia, the fact is they are also low margin, and are thousands of miles away from consumers;
• refineries become targets for terrorists.