A Musical Interlude -- If You're Coming To San Francisco -- January 14, 2025

Locator: 44683MUSIC.

I read a lot of books but not as many as I should. But I read a lot of books. The classics, I often read more than once, or at least portions, more than once.

I'm de-cluttering the apartment and the Bat Cave tonight.

Right now, this is what I am working on:

In the background, one of my favorite videos, link here, wow, the number of times I drove this highway:

I need to re-read Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels. 

Speaking of that book, here it is, directly behind me:

But then YouTube played this, link here. I saw this movie growing up in Williston. I remember Jerry Lewis but not Stella Stevens. LOL. I also remember Mr Ceglowski and balancing chemistry equations, some of the best days of my life.

Is that enough, or should I post a few more? Let's see where YouTube takes me.

Of course, it takes me to Del Shannon. Link here. 

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The Book Page

In 1999, when Hunter S Thompson's Hell's Angels was re-published in hardback as the 1999 Modern Library Edition, the following made up the Modern Library Editorial Board:

• Maya Angelou
• Daniel J Boorstin
• A. S. Byatt
• Caleb Carr
• Christopher Cerf
• Ron Chernow
• Shelby Foote
• Stephen Jay Gould
• Vartan Gregorian
• Charles Johnson
• Jon Krakauer
• Edmund Morris
• Elaine Pagels
• John Richardson
• Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
• Carolyn See
• William Styron
• Gore Vidal
  

Parting Shots; Six New Permits -- January 14, 2025

Locator: 44682B.

Hamburgers: I have not had a hamburger at Whataburger since well before Covid. I had my first Whataburger in perhaps five years last night here in north Texas. Incredibly disappointed. Not at all how I remember Whataburgers. Service was awesome but the hamburger was awful.  

Interactive: Platts Periodic Table of Oil. Link here.

Politics: amazing how fast -- good, bad, indifferent -- that President is getting things done in his last 21 business days. Why can't presidents always work this fast. It will be interesting if Trump works this fast in his first 21 business days.

Intel (INTC): will separate its "VC arm, INTEL Capital, as a separate entity with a new name; stand-alone operations to begin in 2H25.

Apple - TSMC: Apple is getting close to verifying the processors made at TSM's Arizona fab. Many said it couldn't be done this fast (or ever, in some cases).  

Nonsense: SEC suing Elon Musk over his purchase of Twitter. 

Not nonsense: Elon Musk launched another 21 Starlink satellites this week. What did the SEC do last week? Link here.

Not nonsense: if you want to destroy the US military, support Trump's nominee. What a sad joke. But,  having said that, he's no worse than than Biden's clown show and "we" survived.

A reminder: the CEO of Nvidia and the CEO of AMD are cousins. 

Electricity: EIA says electricity demand will grow fastest in the industrial sector as new semiconductor and battery manufacturing operations come on line. Electricity demand in the commercial sector will grow by 2% in both 2025 and 2026 -- LDCs.

Also new:  Plano-based JCPenney and SPARC Group merged to launch Catalyst Brands, according to a news release. Plano, Texas. 

Jargon: what's it called when websites require age verification? Answer: age-gating. 

The Atlantic will be The Atlantic Monthly again. 

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Back to the Bakken

Energy deal in the Bakken announced: link here. Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) / Hiland Partners Holdings LLC to acquire Outrigger Energy II LLC in North Dakota; $640 million. Outrigger has been mentioned numerous times on the blog. Includes a natural gas processing plant near Williston.  [Update, February 20, 2025 -- deal has closed. Link here.]

WTI: $77.91.

Active rigs: 33.

Six new permits, #41511 - #41516, inclusive:

• Operators: Enerplus (4); EOG (2)
• Fields: Eagle Nest (Dunn); Parshall (Mountrail)
• Comments:
• EOG has permits for two Wayzetta wells, NWSW 9-153-90, 
• to be sited 1993 / 2030 FSL and 764 / 779 FWL;
• Enerplus has permits for four Eagle Nest wells: MHA Bibiscus, MHA Lilac, MHA Nettle, and, MHA Holly; 
• to be sited 302 / 306 FSL and 2005 / 2110 FEL.

Two permits renewed:

• BR: Mary Swanson and Rader Dodge, the former in Bear Den, McKenzie County; and, the latter in Camel Butte, also in McKenzie County.

One permit canceled:

• 36852, XTO, Abby Federal 24X-7AXD, Dunn County.

Taco Tuesday -- January 14, 2025

Locator: 44681B.

Washington Post: if this is accurate -- from almost 23 million to less than 3 million daily users (readers?) at the beginning of the Biden presidency until the election last fall. The paper lost $100 million last year -- a single year loss of $100 million. 

Blue Origin: yesterday's launch scrubbed. Link here.

California fires:

• Mandeville Canyon area: mandatory evacuation
  
• Sunset up to Encino Reservoir
• from Mandeville Canyon to "the 405"
• some areas, the firemen have had to evacuate
  

Major DEI hire resigns after four years. Story covered elsewhere.

China oil demand, link here: 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $77.53. Dropping.

New wells:

• Wednesday, January 15, 2025: 23 for the month, 23 for the quarter, 23 for the year, 
• 40205, conf, Koda Resources, Stout 1402-2BH,
• 40099, conf, Silver Hill Energy Operating, LLC, Morgen Federal 158-93-17-20-1MBH,
• Tunesday, January 14, 2025: 21 for the month, 21 for the quarter, 21 for the year,
• None.

RBN Energy: developing crude oil production forecasts in a world that's constantly changing.

In just a few days, President-elect Trump will return to office, determined to fulfill his many campaign promises, including his high-profile commitment to ease the regulatory burden on oil and gas producers so they can “drill, baby, drill.” Significantly ramping up production would likely bring down consumer prices for gasoline, diesel and other fuels — a noble goal — but it would also be at odds with the conservative, financially disciplined strategies that now guide many oil majors and oil-focused E&Ps. With the prospects for “drill, baby, drill” uncertain at best, and the correlations between oil prices, rig counts and production volumes less reliable than they used to be, how can we develop a production forecast? In today’s RBN blog, we explain what we do — oh, and we share our forecast with you, for free!

SpaceX Update -- January 13, 2025

Locator: 44680MUSK.

Breaking: there are now rumors that Elon Musk could "buy" TikTok. Think about that for a minute. By the way, all that talk about X's problems? X is stronger than ever.  Meta? Watch out Mark.

Breaking: this is also a most amazing video ever -- released by the source himself.

Rumor: China's EV boom may break down in 2025. If so .... truly the year the music died.

SpaceX.

At some point, this story simply gets too big to ignore. 

Elon Musk launched 21 Starlink satellites this morning.

I watched this launch and booster recovery live this morning -- it was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. And for SpaceX it's becoming routine.

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The Book Page 

I mentioned this book the other day. It arrived today. Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Negro New York, 1890 - 1930, second edition, Gilbert Osofsky, first copyright, 1963; most recent copyright, 1996. 

 Gilbert Osofsky: died at age 39, August 31, 1974, NY Times obituary here.

I've just started reading the book. Incredible. Lots of statistics in the first chapter. Hoping to see a lot of commentary / analysis from Mr Osofsky.

Enerplus Wiith Six New Permits -- January 13, 2025

Locator: 44678B.

Southern California fires: I now have a pretty good idea of what happened in Pacific Palisades. It now makes complete sense. A few i's to dot and a few t's to cross but the dots are now all connected. Now that I have it figured out, my blogging on this disaster will pretty much come to an end. I may update periodically, but I'm pretty much done with this story.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $78.67. $78 is closer to $100 than to $40.

Active rigs: 33.

Six new permits, #41505 - #41510 inclusive:

• Operator: Enerplus
• Field: Heart Butte (Dunn County)
• Comments:
• Enerplus has permits for six wells on the Bowling pad, SWSE 20-149-92; the wells are: Sleeper, Pin, Chef, Split, Duckpin, and Trophy, 
• to be sited 653 FSL and 1333 / 1508 FEL. Five of the six wells will be 1280-acre spacing (17/20-149-92) and the sixth will be 4-section spacing: 16/17/20/21-149-92.

One permit was canceled:

• 39766: WPX, Sarah Yellow Wolf 22-27HZ (see this page for WPX permits recently canceled).

One producing well (a DUC) reported as completed:

• 37939, 117, BR, Boxer 4A MBH, McKenzie.