Gasoline Demand -- May 5, 2021

Link here.

Calm before the storm.

Darkest before the dawn.

Best is yet to come. 

Largest draw since January, 2021. Link here. Data suggests gasoline prices may hold steady for a week or so.

Tea leaves: electricity and gasoline are going to get very, very expensive in California this summer. In fact, energy expenses in California may be the big story this summer for the state. By the way, my hunch: the California recall will never happen. The Democrat legislative body holds the purse. 

This song is five minutes too short:

Sempra Energy Delays FID On Mega-LNG Export Terminal, Port Arthur, TX -- May 5, 2021

Too much too fast?

Link here.  

Sempra Energy expects to delay a final investment decision on its proposed Port Arthur liquefied natural gas export facility in Texas until next year, as it continues to face commercial challenges a year after the pandemic began, CFO Trevor Mihalik says.

The continued impact of the pandemic on global energy markets as well as improving the project's greenhouse gas emissions profile means it is more likely that the FID for Port Arthur LNG "will move to next year," Mihalik said during today's earnings conference call.

While acknowledging strong market fundamentals, CEO Jeff Martin said the size and scope of the 11M mt/year Port Arthur project is a factor in Sempra's decision-making process.

"I don't see any scenario that we would probably take FID without having it fully contracted," Martin said on the call.

The only firm supply deal tied to Port Arthur LNG announced so far is a 2M mt/year sales and purchase agreement signed in 2018 by Poland's PGNiG. 

Still not finalized is a preliminary agreement signed in 2019 for Saudi Aramco to take a 25% stake in Port Arthur LNG and lift 5M mt/year of supply from the facility.

One New Permit; Number Of Active Rigs At Seventeen; Eight Permits Renewed; and, Three DUCs Reported As Completed -- May 5, 2021

Active rigs:

$65.26	5/5/2021	05/05/2020	05/05/2019	05/05/2018	05/05/2017
Active Rigs	17	25	64	62	50

One new permit, #38300:

• Operator: Ovintiv
• Field: Westberg (McKenzie)
• Comments:
• Ovintiv has a permit for a Rolla well on lot 4 section 1-152-97; 485' FNL and 462' FEL;

Eight permits renewed:

• BR: eight Abercrombie permits in McKenzie County;

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 33806, SI/A, BR, CCU Gopher 6-2-15TFH, Corral Creek, first production, 3/21; t--; cum 42K after 28 days;
  
• 33810, drl/A, BR, CCU Gopher 8-2-15TFH, Corral Creek, first production, --; t--; cum --;
  
• 33811, drl/A, BR, CCU Gopher 8-2-15MBH, Corral Creek, first production, --; t--; cum --;
  

"Vaccine Hesitancy" -- May 5, 2021

One has to go all the way back ten weeks -- all the way back to February 24, 2021 -- to find a "Wednesday" in which fewer vaccinations were given than reported in today's "Wednesday" report.

CDC data here.

See sixth column. The country has a capacity of 4 million + doses per 24-hour period; most recently, less than 2 million were administered.. 

By the way, look at how the amount of vaccine being delivered is dropping; it came very, very close to dropping below 3 million doses when recently as many as 6 million doses were delivered.

There was a story earlier today that some states are not using their full allocation; the federal government will re-allocate unused vaccine to states that "need" it. Posted earlier.

This past week, the vaccine was opened up to everyone over the age of 16. 

		Doses of vaccine distributed to health facilities	Change from day before	Vaccinations given	Change from day before	Percent of distributed vaccine that is actually administered
Wednesday	May 5, 2021	321,549,335	3,075,300	249,566,820	1,797,771	77.61%
Wednesday	April 28, 2021	301,857,885	4,314,250	234,639,414	2,231,745	77.73%
Wednesday	April 21, 2021	277,938,875	5,908,080	215,951,909	2,563,671	77.70%
Wednesday	April 14, 2021	250,998,265	5,633,460	194,791,836	2,509,055	77.61%
Wednesday	April 7, 2021	225,294,435	6,100,220	171,476,655	2,884,580	76.11%
Wednesday	March 31, 2021	195,581,725	6,130,440	150,273,292	2,670,947	76.83%
Wednesday	March 24, 2021	169,223,125	6,244,285	130,473,853	1,982,059	77.10%
Wednesday	March 17, 2021	147,590,615	4,672,090	113,037,627	2,299,771	76.59%
Wednesday	March 10, 2021	127,869,155	4,636,380	95,721,290	2,028,692	74.86%
Wednesday	March 3, 2021	107,028,890	4,674,950	80,540,474	1,908,873	75.25%
Wednesday	February 24, 2021	88,669,035	6,554,665	66,464,947	1,432,864	74.96%

MDU Reports Earnings -- 1Q21

Link here, SeekingAlpha:

• EPS: 26 cents, beats by 6 cents;
• revenue: $1.23B, up 3.4% y/y
  

Press release:

• EPS: 26 cents vs 13 cents on year ago;
• earnings: $52.1 million vs 25.1 million one year ago