Locator: 48622MUSK.
Link here. Not sure why this popped up on my news feed today, but it did.
Has SpaceX become more important than NASA? Ask ChatGPT for a surprising answer.
Bottom line: Space X has become extremely influential in the aerospace industry and has surpassed NASA in some areas but not in others. ChatGPT then goes on to give examples.
From the link above:
Locator: 48621B.
Bakken permits renewed over the past few days:
Locator: 48620MARKET.
Saudi: another $600 billion investment in the US -- this time from Saudi Arabia.
Pay attention to President Trump's remarks in Saudi Arabia.
Tariffs, link here:
The fog is beginning to clear.
Casually interested in:
Bakken permits renewed over the past few days:
Locator: 48619HYDROGEN.
Updates
RBN Energy: as hydrogen market evolves, best uses will focus on cost, sustainability. Archived. Posted May 14, 2025 -- wow -- original post (below) was posted May 13, 2025 -- one day earlier!
Hydrogen has a well-established, if limited, role in the modern economy. It has been used in refining and ammonia production for decades, but its potential has long been touted in various areas, including decarbonizing hard-to-abate industrial processes such as steelmaking, as well as in larger roles in heavy-duty transportation and energy storage.
The last few years have seen a significant push to expand hydrogen’s role — an attempt to capitalize on its versatility and lack of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions — but a number of formidable obstacles to wider adoption remain, including price, availability and infrastructure, in addition to its tenuous political support.
In today’s RBN blog, we look at the challenges that make forecasting the industry’s growth difficult and the emerging consensus around the most practical end uses for hydrogen.
Original Post
Note: some of these links are as much as two years old. ChatGPT would be current, so I assume the "general theme" is accurate but specifics may have changed.
Links:
So, let's go down this rabbit hole.
Google: cost of hydrogen for car mileage
I find this incredibly interesting. I track the fuel-mileage cost for every vehicle I drive, whether I own it, or rent it for a cross-country trip. I pay anywhere from, on average, eleven to thirteen cents per mile. I have, on occasion, gotten down to 9 cents per mile. For hydrogen:
Hydrogen: the day the music died -- December 23, 2024. Link here.
Hydrogen is tracked on the blog here.
ChatGPT:
As of 2025, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) are available in the U.S., primarily in California due to its established hydrogen refueling infrastructure. The main manufacturers offering these vehicles are Toyota, Hyundai, and Nikola.
Type: Mid-size luxury sedan
Price: Starts at $50,190 for the XLE trim; Limited trim priced at $67,115
Range: Up to 402 miles (EPA estimated)
Incentives: Toyota offers a $25,000 rebate, reducing the price to $27,890 for qualified buyers in California, along with 0% APR for 72 months. Additionally, buyers receive $15,000 worth of complimentary hydrogen fuel over six years or three years for leases.
Type: Compact crossover SUV
Price: Starts at $60,135 for the Blue trim; Limited trim priced at $63,585
Range: Up to 380 miles (Blue trim)
Incentives: Includes $15,000 in complimentary hydrogen fuel over six years (three years for leases), eligibility for California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate, and other perks like HOV lane access.
Type: Plug-in hydrogen SUV
Price: Estimated at $51,350
Features: Combines plug-in electric capability for short trips with hydrogen fuel cell technology for extended range, offering flexibility for various driving needs.
Type: Class 8 hydrogen-electric semi-truck
Target Market: Commercial freight and logistics companies
Sales: Nikola sold 72 hydrogen-fuel-cell trucks in Q2 2024, surpassing its 60-unit guidance.
Currently, hydrogen vehicles are predominantly available in California due to its network of hydrogen refueling stations. Other states, including Kansas, lack sufficient infrastructure, making ownership of hydrogen vehicles impractical at this time.
BMW iX5 Hydrogen: BMW plans to introduce its first hydrogen-powered model in 2028, aiming to expand the hydrogen vehicle market.
Hyperion XP-1: A hydrogen-powered hypercar boasting a range of over 1,000 miles and a top speed of 221 mph, currently in development.
For residents outside California, including Kansas, it’s advisable to monitor developments in hydrogen infrastructure and consider alternative zero-emission vehicles, such as battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which currently have broader support nationwide.
AI / ChatGPT: often comical. Why in the world ...
Locator: 48618B.
SIRTRUMP: check out the inflation report this a.m. Following the report, the DOW turns more negative, down 165 points, and the NASDAQ turns green, up 60 points.
China oil imports: Saudi crude flows to China remain at one-year high. Doesn't feel like a recession to me.
Focus today: hydrogen. Later.
United Health: oh-oh.
McDonald's: to hire 375,000 new employees. Doesn't sound like a recession to me. Will add 900 locations; currently has 13,500 locations in the US. 6.7% increase.
ChatGPT: this morning. The query: "Bakken blogs." Six-paragraph response, and this was at the top:
Million Dollar Way: has nothing to do with investing or "money to be made in the Bakken." It refers to the main highway leading out of Williston when I was growing up in North Dakota, my "way" of getting out of Williston when traveling. LOL. Seriously.
DFW:
Back on the road: generally on this trip, much more time for blogging.
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Back to the Bakken
The big story in the Bakken right now? For the past several days, the number of permits being renewed is as high as I've ever seen. Below, I’ve posted the numbers.
WTI: $62.73.
New wells:
Wednesday, May 14, 2025: 35 for the month, 135 for the quarter, 327 for the year,
Bakken permits renewed over the past few days:
RBN Energy: Vaquero Midstream breaks into the big time with Delaware Basin expansion. Archived.
The Permian’s Midland and Delaware basins have seen their share of midstream success stories the past few years — many of them privately backed efforts to gain a foothold and then expand into the big time. Navitas Midstream Partners (later sold to Enterprise Products Partners) comes to mind; so do Oryx Midstream and Brazos Midstream. Now comes Vaquero Midstream — vaquero, of course, being Spanish for cowboy — the scrappy developer of a gas gathering and processing network in the Delaware. As we discuss in today’s RBN blog, Vaquero recently announced plans to build a new high-pressure pipeline that will double the capacity of its gathering system and a new processing plant that will give it a total of 600 MMcf/d of processing capacity with a slew of interconnections to key gas and NGL takeaway pipelines.
First, an explanation of our song title and why it fits today’s topic. “Rhinestone Cowboy” may conjure up images of country music’s Glen Campbell duded up in fancy, gem-encrusted attire, ”riding out on a horse in a Star-Spangled rodeo.” But the song’s lyrics reveal it’s really the story of a determined, hard-working singer with a dream who won’t give up ’til he’s “where the lights are shining on me ... like a Rhinestone Cowboy.”
That’s also the story of Vaquero Midstream, which over the past nine years has been operating and expanding a network for gathering rich, NGL-packed associated gas in the West Texas part of the Delaware and shuttling it to a processing complex where it is separated into residue gas and mixed NGLs. That network, which we first discussed in 2017, currently includes more than 200 miles of low- and high-pressure lines (dark-green lines in Figure 1 below), plus two 200-MMcf/d gas processing plants at Vaquero’s Caymus complex (magenta star) just over the line in Pecos County, near the all-important Waha gas hub (magenta circle; more on that in a moment.) Caymus I came online in 2016, and Caymus II started up in 2018.
Figure 1. Vaquero Midstream’s Gas Gathering and Processing Network. Source: RBN
