Monthly Reading in World Oil

A few fun tidbits from the August 2009 issue of "World Oil" from Gulf Publishing...

1) On page 7 in Perry Fischer's Editorial, a new way to define your position on the political spectrum by testing your belief in Global Warming vs. Professional Wrestling. I guess you might be a Dittohead if you think The Undertaker has more professional credibility than Al Gore.

2) On page 11 a news item about a Morgan Stanley trader who "built up a hefty unauthorized oil futures position after drinking at lunchtime, before hiding the deals overnight". Makes me wonder if he would have stayed under the radar if he had reversed the process and done his dealing at night and hiding during lunch. And okay, who here hasn't "built up a hefty ... GAS futures position" after eating at a Tex-Mex restaurant?

3) And finally a nod to those of us explaining to school age kids why they should pay attention in Math class - on page 17 in an excellent discussion on the potential of shale plays, Arthur Berman casually mixes up averages, modes, and correlations. It pays to think for a moment why there is a 3.5 year difference between the average and the mode of horizontal well producing lifetimes. This tells you a lot about the distribution of values without ever seeing a chart if you remember your basic math. Just like it tells you a lot about the real estate business that they insist on using median home values instead of averages, and refer to home prices "from the 200's".

Enjoy and stay skeptical...