And you are here why?

On our recent stay in Curacao, the the Titanium Explorer , (view from our balcony above) a drillship owned by the Vantage conglomerate was having a crew changeover at the dock outside our hotel.  Its a $630 million ship which ...is a self-propelled,   dynamically positioned   drillship suited for drilling in remote locations because of its mobility and large load carrying capacity. It is currently equipped for drilling in water depths up to 10,000 feet, and is designed to drill in water depths up to 12,000 feet. Another Vantage subsidiary is party to an eight-year contract with   Petrobras   to operate the Titanium Explorer. Its really, really hard to get perspective on the ship, but the next Patel Snap shows you the dock slightly better view of the dock and the lettering on the bow (each of the letters is around 8 feet high!). So yeah, the whole ship is  781 ft. long by 137 ft. wide.  Basically, HUGE . A night shot... And below, its ...

Well heres a change.  From FT Alphaville, according ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance “In 1990, North American reserves and production were falling but thanks to unconventionals, proved reserves have risen 68 percent since then,” Lance told an audience of OPEC ministers on Wednesday. “North America could become self sufficient in oil as well (as gas) by 2025,” he said at a conference before OPEC’s policy-setting meeting in Vienna” Seriously? Well, it turns out that he is pretty serious, as are a whole bunch-a other people.  Its due to a confluence of factors - unconventional sources (shale gas), increasing exports in the US, Candian tar-sands, etc. etc.  The bottom line is that the U.S. might, actually, be getting closer to energy self-sufficiency, something that I find unexpected and shocking (in a good way!) Mind you, this is causing ripple effects all over the place, the main one being that Saudi Arabia seems to be (slowly) becoming a lone-wolf in OPEC.  FT ...