After a decade in which unprecedented upstream production growth
triggered massive investment in infrastructure to get crude oil, natural
gas and NGLs to market, 2020 is a major inflection point for the U.S.
midstream industry.
The good news is that after peaking at a whopping
$37 billion in 2019, midstream capital expenditures are forecast to
steeply decline over the next few years as the lion’s share of the
infrastructure needed to gather, transport, process, and store current
and expected hydrocarbon volumes has already been built or is nearing
completion. And, despite continued cutbacks in capex by exploration and
production companies, output is still forecast to rise in 2020, which
should boost earnings growth for the midstream sector. But all midstream
companies aren’t alike, and the prospects for individual entities vary
widely because of the specific basins and hubs where they’ve decided to
build, acquire, expand or divest. Today, we analyze the headwinds and
tailwinds these companies will experience, and how their decisions over
the past few years will help determine their prospects..
BP Plc’s outgoing Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley warned Big Oil
of moving too fast on investing in new technologies to counter climate
change, because their failure could lead to financial ruin.
“If you go too fast and you don’t get it right you can drive yourself
out of business,” Dudley said in a Columbia Energy Exchange podcastwith
Professor Jason Bordoff.
Oil companies must retain a strong financial footing to be able to
invest when game-changing technologies are developed, he said. In the
early 2000s, before his tenure as CEO, BP invested heavily in solar
technology only to write off much of the spending.
Boeing: new nominee for Geico rock award? Javier E. David -- writes that Boeing posts shock Q4, annual loss as 737 MAX crisis grow. Are you kidding? This was a shock?
Boeing on Wednesday reported a surprise loss in the fourth quarter, as the company struggles to contain the fallout from the grounding of its flagship 737 MAX plane, which shows no signs of taking to the skies again anytime soon.
The grounded 737 MAX plane — which has idled on runways for nearly a year in the wake of two fatal crashes — is bleeding billions from the company’s bottom line, and gave Boeing its first annual loss in over 20 years. The controversy forced Boeing to oust Dennis Muilenberg as its CEO last month, and the company still has no concrete timetable for when the plane can fly again.
Here’s what Wall Street expected on key metrics:
revenue: $17.9 billion vs. $21.73 billion expected
adjusted loss earnings per share: $2.33 vs $1.30 profit expected
GAAP loss per share: $1.79
Politics: Senate impeachment trial. Suggestion for Mitch McConnell -- allow each senator to call two witnesses (two hundred separate and unique witnesses) and let's see how fast the US Senate votes to shut this charade down.
3983, 234, Cobra Oil & Gas/Enduro Operating, North Dakota C A 3, a Devonian well, vertical, 320-acre spacing, t1/66, cum 1.404564 million bbls; 11/19; celebrated its 54th anniversary, January, 2020; still producing about 500 bbls/month, 6/17; up to 700 bbs/month, 11/19;
Monterey, Eric Burdon & The Animals
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The Lego Page
I don't recall if I enjoyed Lego bricks and mini-figures prior to having our second daughter. I honestly don't recall if I enjoyed Lego sets while growing up. I don't think so. I think my introduction to Lego was when I was about thirty years old when we were transferred to Germany and our second daughter was six months old. We set aside one room in our house for Lego and Laura and I grew up together with Lego, from the time she was six months old. She's still a huge Lego fan, and I'm embarrassed to say I would rather "invest" in Lego than in silver bullion. LOL.
It's been awhile since I'm paid a lot of attention to Lego. But I've become interested again: Sophia, age five years old, absolutely loves the "Friends" line of Lego. I was completely unaware of this line of Lego.
I was introduced to Lego Friends this past week. When I went to pick up Sophia, age 5.5 years, from Tutor Time she was so excited to show me the Lego sets, "Friends." It turns out that a group of girls, ages 4 to 7 gather round the table every afternoon at Tutor Time and play with this line-up. I can see why they like the sets: think Polly Pocket meets bricks.
I find it incredible I completely missed the "Friends" line. Lego introduced the line-up in 2011, and the sets were first available in Lego stores after Christmas, 2011. See this article in Wired.com back in early December, 2011. See also this article in adweek, February 25, 2013, "LEGO hits jackpot with 'controversial' line for girls." [It's interesting that the first article linked is in Wired, and the second article linked is in the "Digital" section of adweek.]
Apparently there's a lot of discussion over on social media whether "Friends" was needed. I don't know. But now that I know they exist, I'm eager to visit our local "Bricks & Minifigs" store to talk to the proprietor there to see what she thinks. I'm curious to find out whether "Friends" is a big hit among girls. By the way, if you are a Lego fan and haven't visited a "Bricks & Minifigs" store you are really missing a huge experience. I prefer "Bricks & Minifigs" to the company's Lego retail stores.
On another note, this is purely coincidental, a bit of serendipity. There are five main characters in the "Friends" line:
There are five main characters, most unfortunately following typical
girlie stereotypes: animal-lover Mia, beautician Emma, pop star Andrea
and "social-girl" Stephanie. Lego does toss a proto-geek in there with
Olivia – her set (shown above) is an awesome she-garage complete with a
microscope, a little robot, math equations and purple tools! Somebody
please help me.
Our middle granddaughter -- some might describe her as a proto-geek -- just so happens to be named Olivia. From wiki, In 2019, Lego revamped the minidolls and gave them new looks.
Wow, I'm in a good mood. Just dropped off Olivia at evening
soccer practice. Pitch black outside, Texas starting to shut down for
the night, but still see hard-working Americans working hard. Perhaps
the best thing that ever happened to me ... the years I spent overseas,
especially in Turkey and Africa to get a better perspective on America.
America simply gets things done. No, one step forward, two steps back.
Can-do attitude. On the way home, two new hotels have just opened up
about a mile from where we live. So much construction, hard to believe.
On the north side of DFW airport.
I was reminded of that earlier today after dropping off Sophia at Tutor Time and driving over to McDonald's for breakfast. The radio station I was listening to happened to have a special segment on Frisco, a "town" north of Dallas which is growing by leaps and bounds. Right, wrong, or indifferent, I think of three "cities" north of Dallas that are quite incredible: Plano, McKinney, and Frisco.
The comment was made that people are moving into Frisco, TX, from all over the country. Obviously hyperbole, but the real estate folks say more folks in NYC are talking about Frisco, than folks in Frisco talking about NYC. Or something like that. But apparently Frisco's a pretty big deal.
But
growth alone is not what makes Frisco the best place to live in
America. Rather, it’s the way the city has translated its growth into a
higher quality of life.
“The
mentality here is, Let’s build the place we all want to have fun in and
live in,” says Pitchford. While the company considered going as far as
Quebec, “by every metric we had, Frisco came out on top,” Pitchford
says.
One
of those metrics: Frisco’s outstanding public schools. With more than
70 campuses, the Frisco Independent School District has the highest
graduation rate of all the cities and towns MONEY evaluated this year.
“I
can afford private, but the public school system here is so great,”
Pitchford says, citing the district’s career training center, which
offers high school students the opportunity to gain real-world
experience in specialized programs from hospitality to health science.
Like
many Frisco institutions, the schools have benefited from a city focus
on public-private partnerships — arrangements that bring high-level
sports, art and technology to the Texas town.
Take
the Ford Center at The Star, an indoor athletic facility where the
Dallas Cowboys have practiced since 2016. It was built as a partnership
between the team, city government and the Frisco schools — so when the
Cowboys aren’t using the indoor field, high school teams get it for
practice and games. It’s a model that began in 2003, when the city
partnered with two business groups to build Dr. Pepper Ballpark, now
home to the Frisco RoughRiders baseball team.
A day or so ago I said I would not be watching network news or blogging about non-Bakken news until the current craziness dissipates, perhaps going off the grid as it were for about ten days. Curiosity got the best of me; I was curious how Apple did this past quarter. I wasn't sure how to find the story without going to business news but I wanted to avoid that at all costs. And then I remembered: Macrumors.
Note: this is the first fiscal quarter of 2020 -- the holiday quarter, 2019, October - December, 2019.
This graphic pretty much says it all.
I can hardly wait to read the comments.
The dividend remains unchanged but will likely be increased by 10% in May, 2020.
Margins were great.
This quarter was the best in Apple's history in terms of revenue and profit, topping the first fiscal quarter of 2018.
Conference call on-going:
Apple's Wearables, Home and Accessories hit $10.0 billion in revenue; surpassed the Mac ($7.2 billion) -- first time ever after coming very close in several previous quarters
iPhone revenue was just under $56 billion; up 8%; exceptional iPhone 11 demand; iPhone 11 was top selling model every week; Apple's second highest in history (best ever quarter was two years ago, $61.6 billion
shares surging
set records in most geographical areas and growth returned to China
active install base surpassed 1.5 billion
From the comments:
And analysts on CNBC are complaining because iPhone numbers were too good. So Apple is back to being just a hardware company and their PE is too high now. -- another reason I no longer watch CNBC
