.... And The Earnings Season Has Begun ...

Alcoa beats by $0.05, beats on revs; reaffirms 2013 forecast for 7% aluminum demand growth: Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.11 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.06; revenues fell 1.2% year/year to $5.76 bln vs the $5.66 bln consensus. Results were led by continued strength in Engineered Products and Solutions and Global Rolled Products, despite traditional third quarter weakness. Global Primary Products overcame falling metal prices and lower premiums to deliver significant performance improvement through productivity gains.

Earnings are tracked here. 

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A Little Bit Of Everything -- A Montana Report

But let's start here:

“The sage grouse is an incredibly sensitive species. They don’t like areas of development, and if they are disturbed, they won’t dance. If they don’t dance, they won’t find a mate or procreate.”

TMI, as my wife would text. LOL.

Sage Grouse Mating Dance On A Lek, Near Hudson, Wyoming

But, again, I digress. The Fairfield Sun Times is reporting on the Treasure State Resource Industry Association's annual meeting.

This was very, very nice to see: now that Warren Buffett has bought the BNSF it's hard to come by some of this information:

Since 2008, there has been a nearly 7,000 percent increase in the volume of oil BNSF moves and last year it hauled 88.9 million barrels. A spokesman for BNSF’s hazardous materials program said crude oil is now the most abundant chemical moved by the railroad. Additionally, BNSF trains are hauling an ample amount of equipment to the oil patch, including pipe, frac sand, and “oil field jewelry,” as a speaker for BNSF called the heavy equipment hauled into drilling sites.

It was nice to see exactly how much the president's war on coal will improve our quality of life, and and at what cost:

The EPA’s new emissions regulations [will] dramatically affect the coal industry. “Coal supplies 40% of America’s electricity, yet accounts for just 3% of global CO2 emissions.” Ourada added, “If every coal plant in the U.S. were to shut down, global CO2 emissions would drop by only 1%.

And it appears the president would like to see global CO2 drop by 1%. Of course, it all evens out in the end: the US will move toward closing all its coal plants while China adds about 700; Japans switches to coal and natural gas; and Germany replaces nuclear energy with coal. We may not use as much coal in this country going forward, but the Chinese, Japanese, and the Germans will more than make up for it. Like Mark Twain, reports of King Coal's death have been exaggerated.

Oh, and that quote about dancing sage grouse? Go to the linked article for the rest of the story.

A huge "thank you" to Don who sent me the article.

Update On New Drilling In Illinois

The Chicago Tribune provides an update on drilling/fracking in Illinois.

This month companies wishing to engage in horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Illinois must begin registering with the state, a new requirement. The companies must register 30 days before filing an application to drill, and their intentions will be posted online, offering counties and towns eager for the tax revenue from drilling a hint of what might come.

Regulators are still months away from finalizing the application process under a law passed earlier this year to regulate the drilling method. As a result, companies that have spent millions leasing thousands of acres of land say they are frustrated by the slow pace in Illinois.

Denver-based Strata-X Energy, which trades on the Canadian and Australian exchanges, has spent about $2 million in Illinois leasing nearly 50,000 acres. Its chief executive said the company has been "hamstrung" in its attempts to start drilling.
"We have only a certain amount of time to develop those leases. They have a 'use by' date. If we don't use it, we lose it," said Tim Hoops, president, chief executive and managing director of Strata-X.

And, of course, every wacky active environmentalist will do whatever she/he can do to stop drilling. 

EOG, CLR, PXD -- Motley Fool

Link here.

The article complements, nicely, the CarpeDiem story linked earlier.

Why is EOG Resources the next ExxonMobil? Because the company is sitting on the holy trinity of American shale plays: the Williston, Eagle Ford, and Permian basins. In addition, new technology like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have unlocked vast quantities of hydrocarbons which have grown EOG Resources' production at a 37% annual clip over the past seven years. 

Of course to catch up to the Big Oil titans, EOG Resources will have to sustain that growth rate and continue to make big discoveries. But there's reason to believe EOG Resources is sitting on a lot more oil than currently booked. 

The North Dakota Bakken has been one of the biggest industry developments over the past decade. But recent reports suggest that there might be an even bigger play deeper underground. According to the latest survey by the United States Geologic Survey, the Lower Three Forks could contain 3.7 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil. That's slightly larger than the Bakken. 

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