Report: Texas shale can ‘compete with anything Saudi Arabia has’

Scott Sheffield, the outgoing chief of Pioneer Natural Resources, told Bloomberg that pre-tax production costs in the massive Permian Basin of West Texas have fallen to $2.25 a barrel.

“Definitely we can compete with anything that Saudi Arabia has. We have the best rock,” he said, adding that improvements in drilling technology and data analytics have “changed the cost calculus faster than almost anybody thought possible.”

Not just Lake Mead, Lake Powell is also headed for catastrophic drought collapse

Today, Lake Powell’s vastness is diminishing with water levels falling under 45 percent capacity. The conditions at Lake Powell are beginning to look similar to Lake Mead, the world’s largest reservoir, which sits 180 miles downriver and is also drying up at a shocking pace.

Lake Powell’s “Bathtub ring” now appears 100 feet above boaters

Water levels at Glen Canyon dam have fallen more than 100 feet. The shoreline of Lake Powell now shows a deepening “bathtub ring” – a natural phenomenon that shows how high water levels used to be. This “bathtub ring” now shows in the sandstone walls of the canyon some 100 feet above today’s boaters who must now navigate around emerging islands and mud bogs.

OPEC Chief Claims Oil Will Rebound Higher Than In 2008

OPEC’s secretary-general says the 7-month-old plunge in oil prices finally may have bottomed out and may be ready to rise again. In fact, Abdullah al-Badri hypothesized that a decision by his cartel to cut production conceivably could lead to oil at $200 a barrel.

“Now the prices are around $45 to $55 [per barrel], and I think maybe they reached the bottom and will see some rebound very soon,” al-Badri said Monday in an interview with Reuters in London, and if OPEC cut production, that price certainly would rise, perhaps to unimaginable levels.

Former oil exec: $5-a-gallon gas on the way

You have to basically be out of your mind to believe that lower prices are a good thing during this time. The average American citizen in the last eight years has been so inundated with the cost of everything soaring that this money they’re now saving on gas now won’t be used to get put back into the economy. They’re either going to park it in their savings account, pay their bills or increase their debt. This is also further explained and concretely supported in the previous post “Americans: One Small Emergency Away From the Street“.

This oil war also means that many smaller companies that need to see oil over $80 a barrel, for example, to make a profit will go under. That means more unemployment. The only thing that will keep that from happening, and yes it is a given, is the buying out of these smaller oil firms by larger ones who can survive (but not forever) these low prices. Think ahead while you enjoy these low prices now, because they will skyrocket — along with the price of every other essential good.

Also, expect to see in typical fashion the simple minded will blaming ‘big oil’, their favorite after ‘evil banker’, and not see the bigger picture: There’s a war between Russia and the West that’s causing all of this. What is causing the war between Russian in the West is also another story all together. You can find that explanation in such readings as New Lies for Old, The Perestroika Deception, Red Cocaine or articles from expert analyst JR Nyquist.

What we’re watching now is tantamount to seeing beach goers watching the water recede half a mile and then proceed to walk further inward where the water once was thinking it’s fun as they collect shells, play and run around on the ocean floor. Yet what they don’t know is that is a precursor for a tidal wave only moments away and they will be caught up in it.

Enjoy your prices now, but be smart and use this to plan ahead in any way that is beneficial for you — i.e. storing gasoline for when the prices predictably go sky-high. A $250 investment at this moment might save you $750 in five months from now.

 

John Hofmeister attracted national attention in 2010 when he predicted that average U.S. gasoline prices would soar to $5 a gallon in 2012, thanks to rising crude oil prices. His forecast fell short, as the cost of filling up flirted with $4 in 2012, but never went higher.

Now, with gasoline prices at $2.14, their lowest level since May 2009, the former president of Shell Oil is issuing another warning, telling motorists that their joy ride may end sooner than they think.

NOAA Employee Charged With Computer Breach Met Senior Chinese Official in Beijing

This is a new development in what was previously posted, showing the level of access and its official state support.

 

A federal weather service employee charged with stealing sensitive infrastructure data from an Army Corps of Engineers database met a Chinese government official in Beijing, according to court documents that reveal the case to be part of an FBI probe of Chinese economic espionage.

Xiafen “Sherry” Chen, an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office in Ohio, was arrested in October and charged in a federal grand jury indictment with illegally accessing the Army’s National Inventory of Dams (NID).

The NID is a sensitive database containing information on all U.S. dams. U.S. intelligence officials have said the database was compromised by Chinese hackers in 2013 as part of covert efforts by Beijing to gather sensitive information on critical U.S. infrastructure for possible use in a future conflict.