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Some folks, e.g. Siemens and hitachi, might dispute the assertion that the PRC is leaving anything behind other than payment.
Does Nancy Pelosi know what bitumen is?
WSJ op-ed which obliquely addresses some of the reasons as to why NE US refineries are going kaput.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204573704577184730401558626.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0
It helps to realize that not too long ago, the US had something like 70% of the refining capacity in the world. It is now very much lower. Not unrelated: it was also not too long ago that export of industrial chemicals consistently exceeded import - one of few US product categories that was consistently positive on trade balance. Also, no longer true but not particularly difficult to change. The next time you hear folks in the NE belly aching about high gasoline prices relative to their brethren in most of the rest of the US you should point out that they've only their own voting records to blame.
Makes perfect sense from a number of angles. Refineries in the NE US are living on borrowed time. Then there's the usual problem with it being a low margin business met with high raw materials costs in a low demand market. And then companies like cop spinning off parts of their downstream biz....
OT CNN, Obama and truth
from CNN's "Truth Squad" review of Obama's SoU speech
Did public dollars unearth new energy resources?
President Barack Obama made a pitch for continued federal support of energy research.
The statement: "The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don't have to choose between our environment and our economy.And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock - reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground."
The verdict: True, but incomplete
the 'funny' thing about the grounding is that at least one set of breaches in the hull happened on the seaward side of the ship.
at the risk of getting myself in a huge amt of trouble i'll say of course "something may happen" but i don't see how the 2nd part of the 2nd highlighted sentence necessarily follows from the 1st part. The entire snippet is fluff which is why i don't tend to read the 'roundtable' transcripts in Barrons. In anycase, SA has already taken part in the Arab Spring. Women are now allowed to drive. More seriously, most of the Arab nations have not participated in the Arab Spring so the concept is a bit flawed.
same in KY, IN and vicinity
The frightening thing is that those numbers are modest compared to others in the industry. Kind of annoys the lower level employees as much as the shareholders.
C
[nyt big oil article]
Hi Dew,
your brief commentary was too kind. Guy Chazan clearly doesnt understand ME producers, the oil industry, or the economics of the consuming countries. With regard to the producers comment: not all Saudis have been sitting around doing nothing more strenuous than taking dinner flights to Switzerland for the past 40 years. Aramco (and other NOCs) have been taking on more of the activities previously managed by western oil companies and drilling in-fill wells doesn't require the high level expertise of XOM. In addition, there are simply more oil companies competing for contracts with ME oil producers. Chazan doesn't seem to understand why this competition did not exist in any meaningful way until relatively recently.
However, the most important reasons for western oil companies to produce in "rich, developed countries" is that it is more profitable to operate in those countries. Those countries tend to respect contracts and private property ownership, provide safer working environments, more dependable supply and support infrastructure, and stable royalty/tax rates. Chazan does allude to these things but those are quite a bit different than refocusing operations areas because they were "shut out" of the previous areas or because "unconventionals" are fashionable. Chazan should've paid more attention to Amy Jaffe's quote.
Chazan might also want to compare BP's cost of obtaining and moving a barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia to Japan versus obtaining and moving it from Alaska. The selling price is roughly the same.
He had most of the parts right, he just doesn't understand their relative levels of significance to making profit (which, strangely, was a word never used in the article).
cheers,
Charlie
been a big headache for them for a very long time.
yeah, the futuregen project is almost certainly dead - for good this time. another huge expense with zero to show. On the flip side, the Decateur Archer-Daniels Midlands project (which received a huge amount of funding directly from ADM) did its first test CO2 injection recently and should go on-line very soon.
OT Bakken
you are correct that temporary housing is the way to go but not because the job market in ND may fall apart. Oil and gas development in ND will continue to grow for many yrs (>10); however, many of the humans involved in that development have transient functions or simply get tired of the climate.
North's literal statement may have been overly specific but his point was correct: there are plenty of unfilled construction & service jobs in ND. The needed construction is for pipelines, rail, hotels, machine shops, service bays, storage tanks/bins, cement manufacturing, restaurants, food supply/storage .... which are probably higher paying jobs than building houses yet there is no shortage of clueless humans who would rather whine than go to where the jobs are. And not that Walmart jobs are fun or high paying but there are Walmarts in ND that send out buses in 40 mile radii to get workers to the stores.
mnta
presuming a settlement which includes a payout to MNTA from Amphastar; how will Momenta have assurance of the sales/profit that Amphastar is making on a-enox?
While that may seem naive, cynical, or impossible, i have worked for a company that was supposed to receive royalties on a product partially distributed by another company and it was clear that the royalty payer was not accurately reporting sales on the royalty product. Anecdotal evidence from product buyers provides hints to such things but gaining actionable evidence can be more difficult and expensive.
Charlie
the juxtaposition with the lead story of >80% judicial acquittal rate on boston drunk driving arrests is precious. Add in the stories about income disparity, urban occupiers complaining about lack of jobs, and obama's jobs bill and it makes for all kinds of irony.
Dew,
i think the last 4 paragraphs of the story you linked are the most important part of the story. I still see/hear no indication that resumption of normal operations is imminent. I'd also guess that operations offshore and near the coast will resume 'normal' operations long before those in the interior.
i tried to respond to your post regarding Jim Chanos. Poor delusional fool seems to think everyone but him is on stupid pills. But since i'm in the "cost structure" business i'm happy to do my 2-bits to help him not be completely wrong.
Your comments are supported by the relative valuations of the oil and "cost structure" companies. Since they tend to perform the same over the long haul, at the moment i'd prefer the former over the latter - if i was so permitted ;^).
cheers,
Charlie
jbog,
the filing date of the patent is relevant and the filing date on the 886 patent was 03/11/2003.
regards,
Charlie
i've searched applications and patents and found nothing pertinent to enox that has come out of Amphastar. I also looked under the principals names but that is more problematic since the principals seem to be fond of using variants of their names and the surnames are 'legion'. So i can't claim that i've been thorough on the latter round of searches.
would you not expect them to have their own patents if they had their own proprietary techniques? I see no evidence that Amphastar has obtained such patents.
cso
Pennsylvania Governor proposes $160K drilling fee in Marcellus shale:
Amphastar is much more substantial than i originally thought - at least as far as its US properties are concerned (also >1000 employees). Anyone looking up their Cucamonga address in google.maps (air photo view is handy) will see a large, 2 building lab/production and office complex at 11570 6th Street and just south of that address is an Amphastar shipping warehouse. Anybody thinking that Amphastar doesn't have deep pockets might want to reconsider their position. What I don't understand is their extremely meager patent estate.
Also, as bladerunner pointed out earlier, these facilities are practically a stone's throw from I-10 and I-15. Of course, they're also very close to the West Valley Detention Facility which is probably hoping for too much ;^).
How do you surmise that bankruptcy might be in the offing?
I believe the $80-90m was the amount of expenses MNTA will have for 2012.
There were no specifics from MNTA about the level of cash burn they anticipated.
yeah, not a surprise which is why i looked for it. However, I think that connection might make infringement difficult to prove, i.e. how can MNTA prove infringement done by Amphastar Nanjing Pharma?
the lobbying part is worth a giggle (contributions below). On a more serious note, I don't see any pertinent patents by these guys (i just did a quick look).
Jack Zhang (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/CEO), (Zip code: 92120) $1000 to MCNERNEY VICTORY FUND 2010 on 09/02/10
Jack Zhang, (Zip code: 91730) $5000 to AMERICAN SUCCESS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE on 08/04/09
Jack Y. Zhang (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/Executive), (Zip code: 91730) $1000 to CONGRESSMAN WAXMAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE on 07/23/09
Jack Yongfeng Zhang (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/Executive), (Zip code: 91730) $2400 to KEN CALVERT FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE on 06/30/09
MARY ZI-PING DR. LUO (AMPHASTAN PHARMACEUTICALS/SCIENTIST), (Zip code: 91765) $2300 to MCCAIN VICTORY 2008 on 08/31/08
Mary Zi-Ping Luo (AmphaStar Pharmaceuticals/COO), (Zip code: 91765) $1000 to JOHN D. DINGELL FOR CONGRESS on 02/13/08
Youngfeng Zhang (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/President), (Zip code: 91765) $1000 to JOHN D. DINGELL FOR CONGRESS on 02/13/08
Yongfeng Zhang (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/President), (Zip code: 91765) $2300 to DREIER FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE on 10/23/07
Dr. Jack Yongfeng Zhang (AmphaStar Pharmaceuticals/Executive), (Zip code: 91765) $1000 to DIANA DEGETTE FOR CONGRESS INC. on 09/28/07
Dr. Mary Ziping Luo (AmphaStar Pharmaceuticals/COO), (Zip code: 91765) $1000 to DIANA DEGETTE FOR CONGRESS INC. on 09/28/07
Jack Y. Zhang (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/Executive), (Zip code: 91730) $1000 to CONGRESSMAN WAXMAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE on 06/30/07
Mary Zi-Ping Luo (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals/Executive), (Zip code: 91765) $1000 to CONGRESSMAN WAXMAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE on 06/30/07
Jack Yongfeng Zhang (Ampha Star/Executive), (Zip code: 91730) $1000 to PALLONE FOR CONGRESS on 06/29/07
Mary Zi-Ping Luo (N/a/Home Maker), (Zip code: 91765) $1000 to PALLONE FOR CONGRESS on 06/29/07
Amphastar looks like a shell company. From what i can tell the 2 principal owners are Mary Luo and Jack Zhang who are also involved in entities called: Applied Physics and Chemistry Laboratories (an environmental outfit); Microscience Institute; and Naturastar. As of 2005 the China Development Industrial Bank owned ~10% of Amphastar. The husband-wife team are 100% owners of APCL which, as of 2005, owned roughly 22% of Amphastar; the spouses owned roughly 30% each of amphastar directly.
the amphastar-china website (amphastar nanjing pharmaceuticals) uses the same picture as the amphastar.com website so i'm assuming they are "closely related". looks ultra fishy. Even though they probably have deep pockets, I suspect they are inaccessible.
typical shoddy NYT reporting with a stab at fracking and no mention of French Guiana
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sharewatch/investment-column-tullows-oil-find-has-barrels-of-potential-2354294.html
Contrary to Mr. Yergin’s assertion that advocates of Peak Oil have been wrong at every turn, six years of annual global production data show flat to declining crude oil and total petroleum liquids production data
continuing the Daryl Hannah theme
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904583204576544442837912856.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0
'Green Jobs' vs. Real Energy Jobs
For every two cents of tax subsidies for 'Big Oil,' wind and solar get nearly $1.
By STEPHEN MOORE
President Obama is expected to seek another $250 billion or so in new stimulus funds next week, with plenty of money for clean energy and the creation of so-called green jobs.
sensible nursing shoes
i finally have the answer to my question about what cultural resource is being threatened
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-08-30/Daryl-Hannah-arrested-in-White-House-oil-protest/50191802/1
i hope Hillary seeks clemency
yeah, i saw the bit about the State Dept approval but i was wondering what cultural resources were threatened.
As far as i know the plains Indians are no longer tracking buffalo so i'm befuddled as to what 'culture' State is worried about.
i did like the threat and reference to greedy oil companies at the end of the FT article.
keystone pipeline
anybody know what the hell this refers to?
The government said, however, that the 1,700-mile pipeline would present "significant adverse effects to certain cultural resources"
Have they done anything to alleviate their dire financial straits?
EIA shale gas est.
growing scrutiny from Congress about how the administration calculates its numbers and why it depends on outside and industry-tied consultants to produce some of its reports.
Accurate estimates are important for lawmakers who are making long-term decisions about subsidies and policies relating to the nation’s energy mix. They are also essential for landowners and investors as they decide where and whether to lease their land to drillers or invest in gas companies.
Some market analysts say that the large differences between public estimates for natural gas resources provide further evidence that there may be more risk and uncertainty involved with gas drilling than many investors realize.
A spokesman for the administration added that ... drilling costs and well performance may have a larger impact on future natural gas productio
[OT] earthquake
i felt it in Cambridge. 2 episodes of gentle rocking over ~15 seconds.
re COP: lmao - again.
more seriously: i haven't heard a peep about service folk going back into Libya. I suspect all of the sane people are thinking what the COP guy said. It was extremely chaotic when folks were leaving and some of the stories were quite disturbing.
LMAO - bit 'unusual' commentary
LA foreign investmnt
what are they counting as investment? I believe that foreign ownership is restricted in most of those countries. I believe Brazil, for example, is developing a large ship/boat construction industry because importation of foreign built boats (for operation in Brazilian waters) is either restricted in some way (e.g. heavily taxed) or forbidden. That's my impression; i don't know it to be fact.
water
this might be useful for you
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/editor/89/8927editor.html
water is a tough thing to invest in: there does not seem to be a lot of differentiation in technology for recycling or purification. At the moment i think scale (as in operational capability), integration with other infrastructure, and experience in widely varying political/social/geologic environments are the important 'differentiaters'. Even then it's probably a low margin business.