Pemex Fire In Gulf Of Mexico -- Shuts In 444,000 BOPD -- Reuters -- August 23, 2021

I think folks are aware of the Pemex fire in the Gulf of Mexico, previously posted. I was unaware how much oil was shut in due to the fire: 440,000 bopd? Not fact-checked. Link here. 

Direct link to Reuters.

Mexico, prior to the fire, was producing less than 1.75 million bopd. Link here.

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The Sports Page

Monday Night Football is airing/playing in the background. I'm really not watching. It's the fourth quarter. New Orleans, 23, Jacksonville Jaguars, 6.

But then my ears perked up, as they say. Trevor Lawrence is not playing. Apparently he played the first half and was then pulled after a pretty mediocre start (and it sounds like I'm being generous).

Deep into the fourth quarter the commentators spent a good ten minutes on how "badly" Trevor Lawrence performed. They didn't use that "exact" word but that's what they were saying. Ten minutes of talking about how bad Trevor Lawrence played. A lot of cliches. A lot of trite statements. My favorite: "College football is different than the NFL." 

Reminds me of the Fitzgerald quote: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me."

It might be interesting to tune into First Take tomorrow morning. I haven't watched that television sports talk show in a long, long time.

Breitbart Is Wrong This Time -- August 23, 2021

I apologize. The subject line is incorrect. I don't know if Breitbart is wrong or not; all I can say is I disagree with their op-ed today.

I don't often disagree with Breitbart but in this case I definitely don't agree with them.

Again, to make things perfectly clear, I don't agree with the thesis below.

The most important message coming out of this year's Federal Reserve powwow in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is that it will not be coming out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which is officially the host of the annual monetary policy conference, announced on Monday that the conference was going to be all virtual. Teton County, where Jackson is situated, has recently gone into the high-risk category for covid infection. There were only an average of 16 cases per day reported in Teton recently, but that is a 76 percent increase from the average two weeks ago. Even fully vaccinated people are supposed to wear masks, which is not really a great garb for communicating intricacies of monetary policy during half-hour speeches. 

This is a microcosm of what is happening all across the country. Conventions are being canceled or made virtual. Airline and hotel reservations are being canceled. Dinner reservations are suddenly easier to come by. Convention centers, which pick up business in the fall, are finding events called off. For many urban economies across the country, these crucial sources of income are drying up. The hand-off from summer leisure travel to autumn business travel is almost certain to be fumbled.  

The resurgent virus showed up first in the spending data for the south but is now spreading across the country. The good news is that the rate of Delta variant infections is likely cresting in the south, according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb. But that means that the rest of the country has weeks or months to go. Businesses that have pushed their office reopenings from September until October will likely have to announce further delays. As long as infections keep rising, there will not be a full reopening. 

While the reality of the Delta variant has already hit consumer confidence and retail spending, the broader implications likely have not. Namely, only a small share of the public and approximately zero of the punditry has acknowledged the risk that the Delta variant surge may not be the last but the first. There are many variants, and there will be many more. And there does not appear to be any plan—for businesses, for the economy, for society—for what will happen if the future holds a nearly endless series of covid tides. 

The stock market, in particular, is priced for covid fading into the shadows of memory. If that doesn't happen, a lot of the more aggressive valuations of the summer of 2021 will look foolish.

– Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network

Oasis WIth Five New Permits; Enerplus Renews Seven Permits; EOG Cancels Two More Hawkeye Permits -- August 23, 2021

YOLO, FOMO, now, add this one: DTGI.

• Jim Cramer's take on today's market action: today's market move -- buying by those determined to get in.

NASDAQ: closes at record high.

CNBC: today's market -- different quotes / comments form various talking heads on Fast Money

• PFE gets full approval; opens door for broad mandates
• schools and Pentagon announce mandates
• Jackson Hole: going virtual
• the market does not stay down
• two "down" days followed by an "up" day
• dips are getting shallower and shallower
• oil: not as good as it should have been; seems to have been a "technical" thing ("short covering")
• more about "central bank" action
• Fed governors take a step back; might be getting a bit nervous; virtual Jackson Hole
• PMI sufficiently weak enough to perhaps not get a "hawkish" statement at Jackson Hole
• it's all about the Fed
• a lot of industrials oversold, but it's all about the Fed
• Jackson Hole possibly not as important this time
• inflation? gonna be a problem
• surprised that rates didn't go higher today
• ten-year treasury: technically, the yield went down but ever so slightly
• none of the talking heads had much to say about "transitory" inflation; one talking head: stagflation;

Cryptocurrency: headline story in WSJ. Closer and closer to a tipping point. 

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$65.64	8/23/2021	08/23/2020	08/23/2019	08/23/2018	08/23/2017
Active Rigs	24	12	64	62	53

Five new permits, #38504 - #38508, inclusive:

• Operator: Oasis
• Field: Dimmick Lake (McKenzie County)
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for five Ramirez permits in SWSE 32-151-96;
• the wells will be sited between 423 FSL and 425 FWL and 1,699 FEL and 1,567 FEL

Seven permits renewed:

• Enerplus: six permits in section 23-152-94: Joey, Joey, Boom, Koala, Possum, Quoll, and Potoroo, al in McKenzie County

Two permits canceled:

• EOG: two more Hawkeye permits in McKenzie County canceled

Note: another FIU well -- Cuskelly FIU

Change of operator: three more wells added to the list Grayson Mill acquired from Equinor

Photo Of The Day -- August 23, 2021

August: summer doldrums.

My favorite chart, US money market fund monitor, link here. These folks are earning zero percent on their money. They are also ignoring the recent $1 trillion infrastructure bill already passed and the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure bill working its way through the US Congress.

Oil Prices Surge On Back Of Stronger Dollar -- CNBC -- August 23, 2021

Moments ago, CNBC just said that oil is surging today because of a stronger dollar. Oh, give me a break. 

The dollar is down 0.52% today, down to $92.98 (from CNBC, by the way). A stronger dollar drives the price of oil down, not up.  I wonder if the "talking head" misspoke? Be that as it may, the strength (or lack of strength) of the dollar today in now way accounts for a four-percent jump in the price of oil.

Link here.

I googled for a stock photo of an oil investor who shorted oil last Friday: