Meghan And Harry -- May 18, 2023

Locator: 44684ROYALS.

Link here.

EVs And Legacy Auto Manufacturers -- May 18, 2023

Locator: 44683EVS.

They must be reading the blog. LOL.

We discussed this before.

'Nuf said.  

Also, May 3, 2023.

From March 24, 2023:

Seven New Permits; Five Permits Renewed; Nine DUCs Reported As Completed -- May 18, 2023

Locator: 44682B.

Active rigs: 34.

WTI: $71.91.

Natural gas: $2.594.

Permitted for recompletion:

• 23676, EMEP Operating, Charles Davis 1-4-9H-142-94, Murphy Creek, Dunn County
• open hole; stimulated 1/27/2013 -- 21 stimulation stages; 53,377 bbls; 1,290,363 lbs proppant;
  

Seven new permits, #39904 - #39910, inclusive:

• Operators: Oasis (6); Enerplus
• Fields: Buford (Williams); Painted Woods (Williams); South Fork (Dunn)
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for three Andrews Federal and three George Federal wells, NENW 24-153-104; 
• to be sited between 381 FNL and 721 FNL and between 2179 FWL and 2142 FWL;
• Enerplus has a permit for a Spoiler well, lot 4, section 4-148-93; 
• to be sited 685 FNL and 639 FWLL;
  

Nine producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• CLR (6): three Dennis FIU and three Flint Chips FIU, all in Dunn County; all nice wells;
• XTO (3): three Allie wells; no IP test available for any of them.

Five permits renewed:

• Enerplus (3): a Yttrium, a Beryllium, a Niobium, all in Moccasin Creek (Dunn County)
• Foundation Energy (2): two Roosevelt Federal permits, Roosevelt (Billings County)

The "Fed Rate" -- May 18, 2023

Locator: 44680ECON.

Headlines that the Fed could still raise rates one or two more times this summer.

The "jobless rate" plummeted last week. All things being equal: the Fed needs to raise rates based on that data point, at least from the Fed's / JPow's point of view.

Link here. 

Warren Buffett says he pays no attention to the "Fed rate." He said that most recently at the 2023 annual meeting.

If so, this is why:

In round numbers "we're" at 5%. With 25-bp increases each time, it would take ten more 25-bp hikes to get to 7.50%. [Yes, I know: that sentence has a redundancy, but .... ].

An alien from outer space would suggest that the jagged line going back to 7.5% this year would simply be expected, background white noise. This doesn't seem to be rocket science, even though the alien from outer space probably understands rocket science. 

The alien might ask about the "12-year era of 'free money.'"

***************************
About That Jobless Rate

The "jobless rate" plummeted last week. 

Entirely unexpected.

Right, wrong, or indifferent, it's this data that is part of the information on which the Fed makes decisions.

Does One Really Think The Biden Administration Will Refill The SPR With Sour Oil To Any Meaningful Degree? May 18, 2023

Locator: 44679SPR.

Link here.

Quick: why sour oil? What's it good for? A rhetorical question, please don't reply. And why is there a global shortage? By the way, this is what the Keystone XL was all about. But, oh well.