Link here regarding the case: http://themilliondollarway.blogspot.com/2014/03/this-might-take-some-time-yes-its-all.html
This case is on the agenda for tomorrow.
If you go to the NDIC website, click on "hearing dockets" on the sidebar at the left (at the NDIC website) or click here: https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/docketindex.asp
You will see how easy it is to listen to the live hearing.
I won't be able to listen, but if you are at all interested, you've been reminded.
This has been a public service announcement.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Trivia Question For Roughnecks -- A Question About "Nodding Donkeys"
I'm curious.
Is there a reason that pumpjacks (the "nodding donkeys") vary in length in their cycles? Generally, "nodding donkeys" seem to have a four-second cycle -- from highest point down to lowest point, about four (4) seconds, probably even shorter. This is in the Bakken (I don't recall what the pumpjacks were doing in and around Huntington Beach in southern California.)
But occasionally, let's say a Tyler well just for grins, would there be an explanation why a "nodding donkey" might take twice as long, like eight (8) seconds? Even to a casual observer, it would be very, very obvious that the donkey was moving at "33 and a third" when all his neighbors were moving at "45 rpm." (Of course, only older roughnecks remember the "33 and a third" / "45" vinyls).
So, just throwing that out there. Yes, I need to get a life.
For those who would like their own living room "nodding donkey," see this site: http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/archive/nodding-donkey__o_t__t_56935.html
I'm up on the upper deck overlooking a huge indoor swimming pool in north Texas where there must be over a hundred swimmers, ages 6 to 17, practicing, as part of their local swim team. It's a huge team.
At the near end of the ten-lane pool, some of the swimmers are practicing their dives. I had never seen this before, but they can turn on / turn off a huge whirlpool under the diving board -- I did not know this, but apparently, the whirlpool minimizes the pain associated with "belly flops."
It's really quite incredible how good some of the dives / some of the divers are. I got a real kick out of a young man, appears to look about 14 years old -- big grin, athletic body, appearing to have the time of his life. He is just all over the pool; all over the board; flirting with the girls; teasing his male friends. You just know he is going to be the BMOC four years from now.
I was not the BMOC when I was a freshman in college, not by a long shot. But my roommate, Rick, was. He was even elected "freshman king" for homecoming. I knew from the minute I met him he would have a wonderful life, a huge success at whatever he chose to do. And he did.
It brings a huge smile across my face watching this 14-y/o diving. He is having so much fun. This will not be the best time of his life, but it will be one of the best times of his life. Hopefully, his best times will be in his coming of age years sometime between age 16 and 26. You just want him, and all his friends, to succeed. Life should always be so good for everyone.
When I see him diving, I can't help but think of the four friends in the movie immortalized by this song:
Stand By Me, Ben E King
Is there a reason that pumpjacks (the "nodding donkeys") vary in length in their cycles? Generally, "nodding donkeys" seem to have a four-second cycle -- from highest point down to lowest point, about four (4) seconds, probably even shorter. This is in the Bakken (I don't recall what the pumpjacks were doing in and around Huntington Beach in southern California.)
But occasionally, let's say a Tyler well just for grins, would there be an explanation why a "nodding donkey" might take twice as long, like eight (8) seconds? Even to a casual observer, it would be very, very obvious that the donkey was moving at "33 and a third" when all his neighbors were moving at "45 rpm." (Of course, only older roughnecks remember the "33 and a third" / "45" vinyls).
So, just throwing that out there. Yes, I need to get a life.
For those who would like their own living room "nodding donkey," see this site: http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/archive/nodding-donkey__o_t__t_56935.html
******************************
Happy
I'm up on the upper deck overlooking a huge indoor swimming pool in north Texas where there must be over a hundred swimmers, ages 6 to 17, practicing, as part of their local swim team. It's a huge team.
At the near end of the ten-lane pool, some of the swimmers are practicing their dives. I had never seen this before, but they can turn on / turn off a huge whirlpool under the diving board -- I did not know this, but apparently, the whirlpool minimizes the pain associated with "belly flops."
It's really quite incredible how good some of the dives / some of the divers are. I got a real kick out of a young man, appears to look about 14 years old -- big grin, athletic body, appearing to have the time of his life. He is just all over the pool; all over the board; flirting with the girls; teasing his male friends. You just know he is going to be the BMOC four years from now.
I was not the BMOC when I was a freshman in college, not by a long shot. But my roommate, Rick, was. He was even elected "freshman king" for homecoming. I knew from the minute I met him he would have a wonderful life, a huge success at whatever he chose to do. And he did.
It brings a huge smile across my face watching this 14-y/o diving. He is having so much fun. This will not be the best time of his life, but it will be one of the best times of his life. Hopefully, his best times will be in his coming of age years sometime between age 16 and 26. You just want him, and all his friends, to succeed. Life should always be so good for everyone.
When I see him diving, I can't help but think of the four friends in the movie immortalized by this song:
Really?
Really? Analysts are reading this blog? That's a scary thought.
About two or three months ago, I started a new tag, "The Road to New England" which tracks the shortage of propane (and energy in a broader sense) in New England after this last winter, when the northeast came close to running out of natural gas.
Over at Drudge Report, this teaser/link: "Power grid at limit: road to electrical blackouts ...."
Sounds suspiciously like "Road to New England." LOL.
Here's the story reported at Daily Caller:
Which leads me to this, and the reason why I posted the above.
Did you all see this poll: 2/3rds of Americans favor the Keystone XL? In other words, if you are an activist environmentalist living in Nebraska, your spouse and your 3-y/o child both favor the Keystone XL. When you go to out to dinner tonight, your spouse and your waiter/waitress will be in favor of the Keystone XL; you will be the lone crackpot. If you are against the Keystone XL, your two elderly parents, barely getting by on social security and paying $4.50/gallon of gasoline will be in favor of the Keystone; you will be the lone holdout.
But that's not the story. The story is not that 2 out of 3 Americans favor the Keystone XL.
This is the story: I found it incredible that polltakers could find enough Americans who had even heard of the Keystone XL to warrant a poll, and then, to have "valid" results. For me that speaks volumes. I have trouble believing that many Americans actually heard of the Keystone. But apparently they have. And when they pay exorbitant gasoline prices this summer driving season, right or wrong, you know they will know who to blame. Some Nobel-Peace-Prize-President who is sending American troops to Poland. To Poland? I thought we won WWII. I thought we won the Cold War. And now the Nobel-Peace-Prize-President is sending troops to Poland, and the Dutch and the Brits are scrambling jets to scare off Russian spy planes.
Lewis Carroll could not have done better writing this narrative.
My hunch is that this will be the theme song for incumbents this summer when they see the poll numbers if a) they voted for ObamaCare; and, b) they are on record dissing the Keystone.
About two or three months ago, I started a new tag, "The Road to New England" which tracks the shortage of propane (and energy in a broader sense) in New England after this last winter, when the northeast came close to running out of natural gas.
Over at Drudge Report, this teaser/link: "Power grid at limit: road to electrical blackouts ...."
Sounds suspiciously like "Road to New England." LOL.
Here's the story reported at Daily Caller:
Last winter, bitterly cold weather placed massive stress on the US electrical system ― and the system almost broke. On January 7 in the midst of the polar vortex, PJM Interconnection, the Regional Transmission Organization serving the heart of America from New Jersey to Illinois, experienced a new all-time peak winter load of almost 142,000 megawatts.
Eight of the top ten of PJM’s all-time winter peaks occurred in January 2014. Heroic efforts by grid operators saved large parts of the nation’s heartland from blackouts during record-cold temperature days.
Nicholas Akins, CEO of American Electric Power, stated in Congressional testimony, “This country did not just dodge a bullet ― we dodged a cannon ball.”
Environmental policies established by Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are moving us toward electrical grid failure. The capacity reserve margin for hot or cold weather events is shrinking in many regions. According to Philip Moeller, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “the experience of this past winter indicates that the power grid is now already at the limit.”
EPA policies, such as the Mercury and Air Toxics rule and the Section 316 Cooling Water Rule, are forcing the closure of many coal-fired plants, which provided 39 percent of U.S. electricity last year. American Electric Power, a provider of about ten percent of the electricity to eastern states, will close almost one quarter of the firm’s coal-fired generating plants in the next fourteen months. Eighty-nine percent of the power scheduled for closure was needed to meet electricity demand in January. Not all of this capacity has replacement plans.And, of course, much more at the linked article, but you get the idea.
Which leads me to this, and the reason why I posted the above.
Did you all see this poll: 2/3rds of Americans favor the Keystone XL? In other words, if you are an activist environmentalist living in Nebraska, your spouse and your 3-y/o child both favor the Keystone XL. When you go to out to dinner tonight, your spouse and your waiter/waitress will be in favor of the Keystone XL; you will be the lone crackpot. If you are against the Keystone XL, your two elderly parents, barely getting by on social security and paying $4.50/gallon of gasoline will be in favor of the Keystone; you will be the lone holdout.
But that's not the story. The story is not that 2 out of 3 Americans favor the Keystone XL.
This is the story: I found it incredible that polltakers could find enough Americans who had even heard of the Keystone XL to warrant a poll, and then, to have "valid" results. For me that speaks volumes. I have trouble believing that many Americans actually heard of the Keystone. But apparently they have. And when they pay exorbitant gasoline prices this summer driving season, right or wrong, you know they will know who to blame. Some Nobel-Peace-Prize-President who is sending American troops to Poland. To Poland? I thought we won WWII. I thought we won the Cold War. And now the Nobel-Peace-Prize-President is sending troops to Poland, and the Dutch and the Brits are scrambling jets to scare off Russian spy planes.
Lewis Carroll could not have done better writing this narrative.
My hunch is that this will be the theme song for incumbents this summer when they see the poll numbers if a) they voted for ObamaCare; and, b) they are on record dissing the Keystone.
Summertime Sadness, Lana del Rey
Eleven (11) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA; Daily Activity Report From Yesterday Corrected
Reporting tomorrow:
Eleven (11) new permits --
First: was the daily activity report for yesterday corrected? Yes, the "permits were not canceled." Those were producing wells that had been completed -- just as the reader had suggested.
Five (5) producing wells completed:
- AMZN: 23 cents, after market close
- Carbo Ceramics (CRR): 80 cents; misses by 7 cents; impacted by weather.
- CAT: blows through forecast; reports $1.44; forecast $1.24
- GM: 6 cents; either beat by 2 cents or in-line depending on analyst
- HP: blows through forecast; reports $1.59, vs $1.48 forecast
- MSFT: 63 cents; after market close;
- NYTimes: beats by four (4) cents
- Noble Energy (NBL): 55 cents well below forecast of 75 cents, but excluding certain items, adjusted earnings at 82 cents/share
- Starbucks: 56 cents; after market close;
- UPS: big miss; misses by 10 cent; reports 98 cents vs $1.08; though others forecast $1.48
- Verizon: $1.15 in earnings and 84 cents in adjusted EPS vs 87 cents forecast
- Weatherford: 11 cents; after market close;
| 4/23/2014 | 04/23/2013 | 04/23/2012 | 04/23/2011 | 04/23/2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 187 | 188 | 212 | 175 | 109 |
Eleven (11) new permits --
- Operators: Legacy (3), XTO (3), Slawson (2), Fidelity, Petro Harvester, Enduro
- Fields: Red Rock (Bottineau), North Tobacco Garden (McKenzie), Big Bend (Mountrail), Heart river (Stark), Portal (Burke), Newburg (Bottineau)
- Comments:
First: was the daily activity report for yesterday corrected? Yes, the "permits were not canceled." Those were producing wells that had been completed -- just as the reader had suggested.
Five (5) producing wells completed:
- 25010, 1,398, WPX. FBIR 13-24HD, Van Hook, t3/13; cum 2K 2/14;
- 25012, 966, WPX, FBIR 13-24HC, Van Hook, t3/14; cum --
- 25416, 1,564, XTO, Rolfsrud State 14X-36E, Sand Creek, t2/14; cum 10K 2/14;
- 25705, 321, North Plains Energy, Solberg 160-101-28-33-21-13A-1H, Sioux Trail, t2/14; cum 6K 2/14;
- 25706, 371, North Plains Energy, Solberg 160-101-21-16-13B-1H, Sioux Trail, t2/14; cum 7K 2/14;
- 22638, PNC, SM Energy, Hatter Federal 16-29H,
- 25380, drl, XTO, Loomer 41X-3G, Tobacco Garden, no production data,
- 25832, drl, American Eagle, Blackwatch 2-2N-163-101, Colgan, no production data,
- 26350, drl, Hess, SC-Berner-157-99-1918H-1, Lone Tree Lake, no production data,
- 26598, drl, BR, Sequoia 14-9TFH, Hawkeye, no production data,
- 26616, 8 (no typo), Enduro, MRPSU 30-13, Mouse River Park, a Madison well; t12/13; cum --
AAPL Earnings Out; Huge Beat; Stock Surges 8% After Hours
Huge beat.
Surges after-hours. Spikes 8%.
The Street.com reports:
Here's an example of a reporter who doesn't get it. The headline: "Apple Reports a Big Miss on iPad Sales."
I saw that headline and said, "oh, boy, Apple is in trouble."
Then I saw the story. Here's the story to that headline:
If you have both, a smart phone and a tablet, which one has the more expensive data / voice plan? Ha. Trick question, of course. The tablet probably doesn't have a voice plan.
My data plan from ATT for my iPad is $5.00/month. Yes, $5.00/month.
Folks use their tablets almost exclusively where free wi-fi is available or at home where they have bundled wi-fi. But on the road, mobile, folks with both a smartphone and a tablet use their smartphone with an expensive data/voice plan.
Second story line: add up total units, iPhones and iPads. Actual, 60, vs expected, 57. Not too shabby. Big miss? Hardly. Tim Cook has to be smiling.
The big worry for ATT/Apple was folks switching from ATT/Apple. Earlier today we learned that ATT had a great quarter, adding more subscribers at a time when "everyone" was concerned ATT would lose subscribers.
By the way, that competition from "cheap" Samsung, Amazon, Google tablets. Volume (sales) are important; margins are more important. Let Samsung, Amazon, Google sell "cheap" tablets; Apple will sell at the high end AND the high margins.
So many more story lines (including the one about the concern about the holiday season -- wow, that's when everybody buys these toys). But the analyst was right about one thing: unlike Microsoft which is dinging users every six months, it seems, with an upgrade, iPads last "forever."
Expands buyback; 7-1 split.
On top of that: will raise dividend 8% and will do that annually.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.
Surges after-hours. Spikes 8%.
The Street.com reports:
Apple shares jumped after the tech giant posted fiscal second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates, and announced a 7 for 1 stock split.
Apple reported second-quarter earnings of $11.62 a share, generating $45.6 billion in revenue. The company shipped 43.7 million iPhones, 16.4 million iPads, and shipped 4.1 million Macs during the quarter. Gross margin, a highly watched level for Apple, came in at 39.3%.
For the fiscal third quarter, Apple said it expects revenue between $36 billion and $38 billion, with gross margins between 37% and 38%. Operating expenses will be between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion, and it will have a tax rate of 26.1%.Forecast: $10.19. Actual: $11.62. H.U.G.E
Here's an example of a reporter who doesn't get it. The headline: "Apple Reports a Big Miss on iPad Sales."
I saw that headline and said, "oh, boy, Apple is in trouble."
Then I saw the story. Here's the story to that headline:
iPhones: 43.7 million units vs. 37.7 million units expected by analysts.
iPads: 16.35 million units vs. 19.7 million units expected by analysts.
That's a huge miss on iPad sales, and just another demonstration of how growth in Apple's tablet business has stalled.
But it was a beat on iPhones. Analyst expected Apple to sell fewer iPhones last quarter because we were coming off the holiday quarter.
The reporter doesn't get it. There are so many story lines, but this is the big story line: folks use their iPads to surf; they use they iPhones to generate cash for ATT with all those expensive data plans.The iPad business is in big trouble though with negative growth. (See chart below.) The theory is that people aren't buying iPads because they don't upgrade them as often as they do iPhones. There are also a lot of competing tablets from companies like Amazon, Samsung, and Google that are much cheaper and do most of the same stuff.
If you have both, a smart phone and a tablet, which one has the more expensive data / voice plan? Ha. Trick question, of course. The tablet probably doesn't have a voice plan.
My data plan from ATT for my iPad is $5.00/month. Yes, $5.00/month.
Folks use their tablets almost exclusively where free wi-fi is available or at home where they have bundled wi-fi. But on the road, mobile, folks with both a smartphone and a tablet use their smartphone with an expensive data/voice plan.
Second story line: add up total units, iPhones and iPads. Actual, 60, vs expected, 57. Not too shabby. Big miss? Hardly. Tim Cook has to be smiling.
The big worry for ATT/Apple was folks switching from ATT/Apple. Earlier today we learned that ATT had a great quarter, adding more subscribers at a time when "everyone" was concerned ATT would lose subscribers.
By the way, that competition from "cheap" Samsung, Amazon, Google tablets. Volume (sales) are important; margins are more important. Let Samsung, Amazon, Google sell "cheap" tablets; Apple will sell at the high end AND the high margins.
So many more story lines (including the one about the concern about the holiday season -- wow, that's when everybody buys these toys). But the analyst was right about one thing: unlike Microsoft which is dinging users every six months, it seems, with an upgrade, iPads last "forever."
Expands buyback; 7-1 split.
On top of that: will raise dividend 8% and will do that annually.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)