Mar 17 2017

Rising Rig Count Is Pushing OPEC To Breaking Point

Re-Posted From ZERO HEDGE Mar 17, 2017 1:02 PM

For the 9th straight week (and 35th of the last 37 weeks), the US oil rig count rose this week (surging by 14 to 631 – highest since September 2015).

The rig count continues to track the lagged WTI price

US Crude production has accelerated at a faster pace than the lagged rig count…

And that is pushing OPEC to the breaking point:

*OPEC COMMITTEE SAID TO SEE COMPLIANCE WITH CUTS OF 106% IN FEB
*JOINT OPEC, NON-OPEC COMPLIANCE SEEN AT 94% IN FEB.: DELEGATES
*CUTS COMPLIANCE BY NON-OPEC ALONE SEEN AT 64% IN FEB.: DELEGATE

Who’s the sucker at that table?

As OilPrice.com’s Michael McDonald points out, the trend in the United States of accelerating oil production does not seem to be slowing down. Recent reports show that oil production from U.S. shale producers will increase in April, according to the Energy Information Administration. High market prices are currently being supported by OPEC cutbacks, and these higher profits are funding the growth of American drilling.

The release from the EIA predicts that net oil production will increase by 109,000 barrels per day in April. The seven major oil and gas basins that were included in the report will then have an output over nearly 5 million barrels per day collectively.

The monthly projections from the EIA have been climbing month after month since December. That month, 11 large oil exporting countries joined the supply cuts established by OPEC to control what they believed was an oversupplied market for crude oil.

In the United States, the main benefactors have been drillers at the Permian Basin, in Western Texas and southern New Mexico. The basin has been producing high volume since the end of 2016. The EIA expects the Permian drillers to see a gain of 70,000 barrels per day next month in their projections.

However, the Permian Basin is not the only United States site trying to capitalize on high prices. Drillers in southeast Texas, the Eagle Ford region, have also been ramping up production. Those drillers will amount for an increase 28,000 barrels per day in the EIA’s overall growth projections. Prior growth expectations for Eagle Ford producers was half on that number, at an increase of 14,000 barrels per day; the growth is not only steady, but is accelerating.

The EIA report for next month also shows a decline at several U.S. drilling sites. Take, for instance, the Niobrara region of Colorado and the Bakken Shale production in North Dakota. Both will experience declines of 11,000 barrels per day, and 10,000 barrels per day respectively.

The supply increases by the U.S. have capped any gains to be seen for OPEC nations from their cutbacks. This has been keeping crude futures within a tight range. On Monday, March 13th, U.S. crude ended at $48.40, a price that hasn’t been seen since before OPEC announced their cutbacks in December 2016.

These recent developments have led analysts to believe OPEC’s cutback policy is fated to end in the near future. It is clear that the United States has a sustainable means to regulate prices in the global oil market. Furthermore, the dynamics of U.S. outputs indicate that the country will not have any desire to participate in the cutbacks; U.S. law prohibits any such price controls. The United States will continue to threaten any gains to be had by OPEC.

Saudi Arabia has been the leader in the cutbacks thus far, compensating for Russia’s hesitation with withholding supply. Historically, the kingdom has refused to participate in such cuts. However, under the tutelage of new oil minister Khalid al-Falih, they have exceeded their cuts far beyond the original OPEC deal. However, without total compliance, markets will remain unstable – regardless of how much the Saudis holdback.

These factors combined have led analysts to believe the OPEC deal will be forced to end, if only to end the profitability to U.S. growth and production.

Mar 16 2017

President Trump Delivers His Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Outline – (Full pdf included)…

Source: President Trump Delivers His Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Outline – (Full pdf included)…

Mar 16 2017

President Trump Interview With Tucker Carlson – 3/15/17…

Source: President Trump Interview With Tucker Carlson – 3/15/17…

Mar 15 2017

President Trump Delivers Stunning Remarks at The Hermitage – Recognizing Andrew Jackson’s 250th Birthday…

Source: President Trump Delivers Stunning Remarks at The Hermitage – Recognizing Andrew Jackson’s 250th Birthday…

Mar 12 2017

Trump Deploys Dozens Of Judges To Battle Massive Backlog Of Deportation Cases

by Tyler Durden

In response to the ‘paralysis’ facing immigration courts, dealing with over 500,000 pending cases, President Trump is deploying 50 judges to immigration detention facilities across the United States, according to two sources and a letter seen by Reuters.

As the Associated Press points out, there are 58 immigration courts in 27 states around the country with a total of 301 judges. The problem, of course, is that those 301 judges already face a mountain of 534,000 pending immigration cases which is likely to balloon even higher under Trump’s administration.

Of 374 authorized immigration judge positions, 301 are filled. Fifty more candidates are in various stages of the hiring process, which typically takes about a year, said Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

In all, more than 534,000 cases were pending before immigration courts nationwide in February, according to a recent memo from Kelly.

The massive backlog means that processing errors are a common occurrence and ultimately just result in illegal immigrants getting a free pass to reside in the country even longer, which is unacceptable to President Trump, and as Reuters reports the Department of Justice is also considering asking judges to sit from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., split between two rotating shifts, to adjudicate more cases, the sources said. A notice about shift times was not included in the letter.

Two sources familiar with the Justice Department’s plan said the department would ask more judges to volunteer for one or two month deployments at detention centers. If the department cannot find enough volunteers, the department would assign judges to detention centers, the sources said. Judges who volunteer for the first 50 deployments would be sent to detention centers in Adelanto, California; San Diego, Chicago and elsewhere, according to the letter.

Judges are employed by the Justice Department to oversee cases that determine if immigrants are given protections, such as asylum, or ordered deported. A handful of judges work from detention centers but most work from courts around the country.

Of course, as we noted previously, one way to relieve the court burden is to simply increase deportations without using the court system at all, a strategy that has the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project, and the 1,000s of immigration lawyers that earn a living filing appeal after appeal, up in arms.

Advocates worry the Trump administration will increase the use of procedures that allow authorities to deport people without using the court system at all.

“Instead of actually trying to make the courts better, they just want to use them less, even though that obviously is deeply problematic from a due-process standpoint,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Mehlman agrees the system is broken, but said advocacy groups and lawyers who keep filing new motions and appeals are part of the problem.

“They understand that time works to their benefit and that the longer you can drag this out, the more bites at the apple you can get, the greater the likelihood that you can find some plausible reason for remaining here in the United States,” he said.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for commen