Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Everything Suggests "Renewable Energy" Is (Almost) Dead -- If "Renewable Energy" Is On Life Suppport -- Trump Has Four Years In Which To Finish The Job -- February 11, 2025

Locator: 48538RENEWABLES.

BP: may be the poster child for this turn of events. Most recently, link here. 

BP: back to petroleum. 

In the big scheme of things, the Venn diagram(s):

I'm not sure which is a better representation, A or B.

DEI and Renewable Energy were both "political solutions" to problems that may or may not have existed. 

From the linked article at oilprice:

*********************
Cost Of Renewables

Exhibit A. 

Link here.

MAGA-Fied Vision Of Silicon Valley -- February 11, 2025

Locator: 48537YCOMB.

Tag: Anduril

Tag: silicon valley defense tech movement

Copy and paste from today's Forbes newsletter.

This should be an interesting rabbit hole to explore.  

Going down this rabbit hole will quickly take you -- it took me two clicks and one google query: link here. This blog today -- what follows -- is worth the price of the subscription to themilliondollarway. This blog is so incredibly important (rewarding?) I may quit blogging for the day. LOL.

Before we get started. Forbes newsletter's essay today -- "Elon Musk's Perception Problem." I have trouble with that meme / supposition. 

There are only four words in that meme but I question the use of the word "problem." With those four words I think one could substitute almost any "celebrity" for "Elon Musk," except perhaps Audrey Hepburn. LOL.

Now, back to the "Topline" Forbes article.

This is why this article caught my attention:

Y-Combinator:

Read Article
TOPLINE
A new generation of startups in El Segundo, California, which has become the center of Silicon Valley’s defense tech movement, are leaning into a MAGA-fied, pro-Christian, mostly male-led vision of Silicon Valley.

El Segundo’s founders, or self-identified ‘Gundo bros,’ are commanding the attention of some of the biggest venture capital outfits around. Lux Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Point72 Ventures are among those who have backed more than half a dozen founders from Discipulus Ventures’ first cohort alone. They’re pouring money into seed-stage companies Durin, which is developing autonomous drilling equipment for the mining industry; Rune Technologies, which is building software for military units to manage supply chains; and Vanguard Defense, which is building a data product for electronic warfare.

Now, Discipulus has launched its own fund to back the second cohort of entrepreneurs that it plans to host for a weeklong event in coming months, raising $6 million from investors. It’s a small fund, but one with big Y Combinator-style ambitions that align with the Trump Administration’s priorities. 

For Augustus Doricko, one of several very online Gundo bros, this second Discipulus cohort is further evidence of a shift away from an era of investment in consumer apps and B2B solutions toward a new one that favors America’s national security interests and military prowess.

WHY IT MATTERS
It’s a so-called “vibe shift” that has inspired a MAGA-fied, pro-Christian vision of Silicon Valley tightly aligned with Elon Musk and the Trump Administration’s goals. The billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, for example, has backed a venture firm called New Founding, which is building a Christian real estate enclave, and hopes to be part of an effort to “forge new models and institutions that can shape the direction of Western civilization.”
MORE
The Tech Bros Powering Silicon Valley’s Military Fever Dream With Energy Drinks, God And Nicotine

PSX -- RBN Energy -- February 11, 2025

Locator: 48536B.

Lore. Link to Forbes.  

Breaking:

302's: FBI form. Link here.

Marc Fogel, detained in Russia, since 2021, has been released. Breaking: 12:41 p.m. CT, February 11, 2025.

********************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $73.54.

New wells:

  • Wednesday, February 12, 2025: 19 for the month, 65 for the quarter, 65 for the year, 
    • 40852, conf, CLR, Taney 3-23H,
    • 39956, conf, Hess, EN-Heinle-LE-156-94-2536H-1,
    • 39952, conf, Hess, EN-Heinle-156-94-2536H-5,
    • 39843, conf, CLR, Harms West Federal 8-32H,
  • Tuesday, February 11, 2025: 15 for the month, 61 for the quarter, 61 for the year,
    • 40842, conf, CLR, Catron 2-26H,

RBN Energy: a new drill down report on consolidation in the midstream sector. Archived.

The U.S. energy industry’s midstream sector has experienced an extraordinary consolidation over the past few years. This undeniable trend has been driven by the widely held (and sensible) view that the winners in the industry’s next era will be the midstreamers with massive scale and the right assets in the best places. As evidenced by the extension of this buying spree into 2025, there’s still a lot more reshuffling to do. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss a few of the latest midstream deals in the Permian, the Eagle Ford and the Bakken, as well as highlights from our new Drill Down Report on midstream M&A. 

As we said in our last Drill Down Report on the topic (in late 2023), acquisitions in the upstream sector — by E&Ps plus major integrateds like ExxonMobil and Chevron — grab most of the headlines. But there’s also been a lot of M&A activity in the midstream space as the companies that gather, process, transport, store, and export hydrocarbons seek to gain the scale, scope, and synergies they think they will need to succeed in an increasingly competitive industry.

As in our report on midstream M&A in 2022-23, many of the midstream deals announced in 2024 and early 2025 involved the acquisition of companies with extensive holdings in the Permian, which is by far the U.S.’s top crude oil production area and also a major supplier of natural gas and NGLs. Rising Permian production over the past few years spurred a massive buildout of midstream infrastructure — including gathering systems (for crude, associated gas and produced water), gas processing plants, takeaway pipelines (for crude, natural gas and NGLs), storage facilities, fractionators, and export terminals. While a significant portion of that midstream development was undertaken by large publicly held companies or master limited partnerships (MLPs), many other vital projects were developed by privately held midstream companies backed by private equity. In the post-COVID era, with many publicly held companies looking to gain further scale and scope — and many private-equity-backed midstream companies looking to cash in on their well-timed, well-planned developments — it could be argued that conditions for large-scale midstream M&A have never been better.

For proof, consider five noteworthy deals announced so far in the new year — three by Plains All American and one each by Phillips 66 (P66) and Kinder Morgan. We’ll start with P66, which announced January 6 that it had reached an agreement to acquire EPIC NGL — or, more specifically, EPIC Y-Grade GP LLC and EPIC Y-Grade LP, two entities that own a set of significant NGL-related assets between the Permian and Texas’s Gulf Coast — for a total of $2.2 billion. The deal, which is expected to close later this year, will give P66: to be continued tomorrow.

PSX -- Update -- February 11, 2025

Locator: 48535PSX.

First, this screenshot, then RBN Energy.

The screenshots:

 

Now, RBN Energy:

Wow, this RBN Energy article today could not possibly be more timely.

RBN Energy: a new drill down report on consolidation in the midstream sector. Archived.

The U.S. energy industry’s midstream sector has experienced an extraordinary consolidation over the past few years. This undeniable trend has been driven by the widely held (and sensible) view that the winners in the industry’s next era will be the midstreamers with massive scale and the right assets in the best places. As evidenced by the extension of this buying spree into 2025, there’s still a lot more reshuffling to do. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss a few of the latest midstream deals in the Permian, the Eagle Ford and the Bakken, as well as highlights from our new Drill Down Report on midstream M&A. 

As we said in our last Drill Down Report on the topic (in late 2023), acquisitions in the upstream sector — by E&Ps plus major integrateds like ExxonMobil and Chevron — grab most of the headlines. But there’s also been a lot of M&A activity in the midstream space as the companies that gather, process, transport, store, and export hydrocarbons seek to gain the scale, scope, and synergies they think they will need to succeed in an increasingly competitive industry.

As in our report on midstream M&A in 2022-23, many of the midstream deals announced in 2024 and early 2025 involved the acquisition of companies with extensive holdings in the Permian, which is by far the U.S.’s top crude oil production area and also a major supplier of natural gas and NGLs. Rising Permian production over the past few years spurred a massive buildout of midstream infrastructure — including gathering systems (for crude, associated gas and produced water), gas processing plants, takeaway pipelines (for crude, natural gas and NGLs), storage facilities, fractionators, and export terminals. While a significant portion of that midstream development was undertaken by large publicly held companies or master limited partnerships (MLPs), many other vital projects were developed by privately held midstream companies backed by private equity. In the post-COVID era, with many publicly held companies looking to gain further scale and scope — and many private-equity-backed midstream companies looking to cash in on their well-timed, well-planned developments — it could be argued that conditions for large-scale midstream M&A have never been better.

For proof, consider five noteworthy deals announced so far in the new year — three by Plains All American and one each by Phillips 66 (P66) and Kinder Morgan. We’ll start with P66, which announced January 6 that it had reached an agreement to acquire EPIC NGL — or, more specifically, EPIC Y-Grade GP LLC and EPIC Y-Grade LP, two entities that own a set of significant NGL-related assets between the Permian and Texas’s Gulf Coast — for a total of $2.2 billion. The deal, which is expected to close later this year, will give P66:  to be continued tomorrow.

Toyota RAV4 Vs Ford -- February 11, 2025

Locator: 48534FORD.

Link here to Forbes.  

Link here to Ford Authority.


Fact-checking: this is what AI has to say about that:

But if you ask the question another way, this is the answer you get: