Sharapova: The Best Thing About The Story -- I Learn How To Spell Her Name

This past week could have been a horrendous week of driving. It was a very, very challenging week of driving and some days I referred to the driving as horrendous, but all-in-all, it was not that bad. I've been driving our two older granddaughters to "computer coding camp" every day -- a 30-mile drive each day through rush-hour traffic on the north side of Dallas.

It was my experience that, in general, the Texas drivers are most courteous There may be some issues on the interstates, and the parkways, and the tollways, where there may not be a lot of signalling at 70+ mph, but when one gets to the transition choke points, from one high-speed highway to another high-speed highway where everything comes to a stop, everyone is most courteous. It's an interesting phenomenon. For now, I will leave it at that.

When I get home, I go swimming with Sophia.

At her house. 

One week ago she was terrified to get on the alligator -- 

now she lets me get out of the water to set up the camera for a selfie.

***********************************

This has nothing to do with the Bakken or with anything else I really follow, but the Sharapova story really, really bothers me for some reason. Anyone who falls for her story that she was unaware the drug was banned, and anyone who falls for her story that she had medical conditions requiring her to take the medicine, are automatic nominees for the 2016 Geico Rock Award.

A world-class athlete in a competitive sport like tennis with medical conditions requiring medication? Give me a break.

A multi-millionaire with an entire medical staff at her disposal and no one knew that the drug was banned? Give me a break.

Sharapova admitted in March that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open. She'd been found to have been taking meldonium, a drug added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances in January 2016.

She's banned for two years, but she has appealed. If she wins the appeal, the ITF loses all credibility. But nothing will surprise me any more when it comes to professional sports, especially like biking, tennis, and soccer.

The drug -- whatever it's called -- this is what it does: is used to treat inadequate blood flow to the organs, especially the heart. Now, how is that different that doping? Give me a break. This is why she said she took the drug:

Sharapova said she'd been taking the drug since 2006 because of several health concerns, including magnesium deficiency, irregular results on a heart function test called an EKG, and diabetes, which she said runs in her family.

Irregular EKG? She probably had an occasional "escape beat" because of an extraordinarily slow heart rate (bradycardia) seen in most world-class athletes. Her doctors knew exactly what she was doing; she knew exactly what she was doing. A magnesium deficiency? Know where you see magnesium deficiencies? In bulemics.

***************************

Bakken Man-Camps

I think the only other thing that bugs me as much as the Maria Sharapova story at the moment (and this moment will only last ... a moment) is the man-camp story in Williston. I am more than a bit upset about the "man-camp" folks -- everyone knew man-camps were a temporary solution to a temporary problem.

For now, Williston is "winning." A Williams County judge has denied a workforce housing company's requests to force Williston officials to extend its permits and delay enforcement on an ordinance requiring crew camps to shut down next month.

There are so many story lines here, but it's not worth the time to talk about them. 

Halliburton says it will cost them $3 million to shut down their facility. Big whoop. A single well costs $6 million. Halliburton's balance sheet shows HAL has $9.66 billion CASH sitting in the bank.

June 9, 2016 -- No Sign Of Rising Layoffs Even As Companies Cut Back On Hiring

It's Thursday, so it's the jobs data we'll start with, as usual. I'm off to a later start than usual due to driving granddaughters to computer coding camp at UT-Dallas. Traffic was horrendous coming out of Grapevine but after that it was clear sailing, but the trip was about 25 minutes longer than usual.

Of course, after the past few reports, things got so bad, I assume the spinmeisters worked overtime to a) get a better number; and, b) find a way to spin it to make whatever the number is look better than it really is. So, here we go. From MarketWatch: jobless claims drop 4,000 to 264,000. At 264,000, this is the lowest level in six weeks, "showing that layoffs remain low despite a nationwide slowdown in hiring."

You know, that pretty much makes sense when you think about it. Analysts had forecast new claims to hit 270,000. The 4-week average dropped 7,500 to a seasonally adjusted 269,500.

***********************

Energy Data

Thursday is also the day we start seeing energy data for the week. I'm most interested in gasoline demand, of course, and we will see that later.

French strikes are still affecting refineries in that country, and now Belgium's labor unions call for a nationwide strike on June 24th. Doesn't this happen every summer somewhere in the EU?

Japan buys Alaskan crude oil for first time since 2000. Platts has the interesting story:

JX Nippon Oil & Energy received an Alaskan North Slope cargo earlier this month, Japan's first ANS crude imports since May 2000 and surprising markets at a time when arbitrage economics are heavily loaded in favor of Asian and Middle Eastern crudes.

JX took the cargo on a Suezmax tanker at its Kiire oil storage terminal in Kagoshima prefecture in Japan's southwest on Saturday. The size of the cargo was not known. The US-flagged Alaskan Legend, a 193,050 DWT Suezmax tanker, loaded ANS from Valdez, Alaska, on May 16, to be delivered on a CFR basis to the buyer.

Alaskan crude was exempted from the US' 1975 crude export ban in 1995.

Two EIA graphs spotted by John Kemp (and others) are also very, very interesting:

And this one:

June 9, 2016

Active rigs:

	6/9/2016	06/09/2015	06/09/2014	06/09/2013	06/09/2012
Active Rigs	27	82	192	189	213

RBN Energy: evaluating the economics of a new gas pipeline.

Short Crude Oil Pipeline Approved By North Dakota Regulators -- June 8, 2016

Updates

June 9, 2016: note -- in the article below FuelFix did something odd -- talked about moving oil in a pipeline using "gallons per day."

The Bismarck Tribune, from which FuelFix got the article, says:

The project has an estimated cost of $9 million and would be able to move up to 25,000 barrels per day of crude oil at full capacity. A company official said construction was expected to be completed this summer.  

For me, media outlets like FuelFix lose a bit of their "integrity" when they do things like that. "A million" get one attention but seems to ...

Original Post

From FuelFix today: Plains All American Pipeline project gets OK in North Dakota. Anyone surprised?

North Dakota regulators have approved a short crude oil pipeline project in Mountrail County.

the 10-mile pipeline will be able to move up to 1 million gallons per day at full capacity. Cost is estimated at $9 million.

Officials with Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline LP say the project should be completed this summer. It will begin at the company’s Robinson Lake facility and end at the Van Hook rail facility southeast of New Town.

Reason #14 Why I Love To Blog -- June 8, 2016: New Non-Operated E&P Player In The Bakken

Does anyone ever remember my post on Crestview Partners? LOL. I certainly did not.

But if you read carefully you will see that Crestview Partners was mentioned on the blog back on November 18, 2012.

Now, why would I bring that up? It's the only time I ever mentioned Crestview Partners on the blog as far as I know.

Here's why (I bring it up now). A reader just sent me this story, a press release:

Crestview Partners, a New York based private equity firm, announced an investment in a newly-formed company, W Energy Partners.

Crestview Partners III, L.P. and its affiliated funds, will invest up to $150 million in W Energy to capitalize the business and fund the acquisition and development of high quality exploration and production ("E&P") assets in the Bakken shale play.

Based in Dallas, Texas, W Energy is an E&P company that acquires non-operated working interests in acreage and producing wells.

The Company will seek to partner with best-in-class operators in the core of the Williston Basin in North Dakota.

W Energy is led by an experienced management team that has been investing in non-operated interests in North Dakota for over 10 years. John Wunderlick, CEO, formed the predecessor to W Energy in 2011 and invested $225 million pursuing this strategy in the Bakken. Prior to this, he worked in the Land and Business Development group at Petro-Hunt LLC and managed operations in several major U.S. basins including the Williston. 

Mr. Wunderlick is joined by Shane Hannabury, President of W Energy. Mr. Hannabury previously served as a partner at the predecessor to W Energy.  Before this, he worked as an investor at EnCap Investments, an energy-focused private equity firm, and spent significant time working with management teams in the Williston Basin. Before EnCap, Mr. Hannabury worked as an energy investment banker at Raymond James. 

And now that you know, you can go back and read the WSJ article that was linked earlier today, about the vultures circling the Bakken.