Daily Archives: September 5, 2006

Big news from the oil patch

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oil rig offshore2.jpgChevron Corp. and partners Devon Energy Corp. and Norway’s Statoil ASA are expected to announce today (WSJ ($) article here and NYT article here) the first successful oil production from a deep-water region in the Gulf of Mexico called the Jack Field that could become the biggest domestic source of oil since the discovery of Alaska’s North Slope over 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal ($) is reporting that Paris-based Compagnie Generale de Geophysique has agreed to acquire Houston-based geophysical seismic company Veritas DGC Inc. for about $3.1 billion in cash and stock.
And Clear Thinkers favorite James Hamilton notes a drop in gasoline prices, which is good news. Or is it?

Costly assumptions

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Metrorail car-Houston2.jpgTory Gattis over at Houston Strategies continues to do a great job of analyzing Houston Metro’s proposed Richmond (or is that Westpark?) rail line (see here and here). However, I continue to be amazed by the Houston mainstream media’s myopia in failing to take a look at the rail experience of Los Angeles, an area that shares many characteristics with the Houston metro area, but is much more densely-populated, which is normally a requirement for making an urban rail line successful.
That myopia is leading to a dangerous dynamic in the rail transit debate that USC urban economics professor Peter Gordon notes in commenting on this LA Times story regarding extension of the LA region’s rail system. Professor Gordon observes that, despite irrefutable evidence that the LA rail system has been a boondoggle of massive proportions, the LA Times article does not even bother to address the threshold issue of whether more money should be dumped into the black hole rail transit system in the first place. Rather, the article assumes that the money will be spent and then simply addresses the issue of where it will go. Professor Gordon notes the incongruity of it all:

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It’s football season, so let’s talk golf

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Tiger-Woods2.jpgThe start of the college football season over the Labor Day weekend tends to overwhelm all other sports news, but it’s hard to overlook the fact that Tiger Woods shot a 63 yesterday to win his fifth straight golf tournament, a streak that includes two major championships. Doug Ferguson puts it in perspective:

Byron Nelson won 11 straight tournaments in 1945, a streak regarded as one of the most untouchable in sports. Woods won six straight at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000, and Ben Hogan won six in a row in 1948.
Woods now takes a week off before heading to England for the HSBC World Match Play Championship, followed by the Ryder Cup. His next PGA Tour start will be the American Express Championship outside London at the end of September.
He still isnít even halfway home to Nelsonís hallowed mark, but he surpassed Lord Byron in one category with his 53rd victory, moving into fifth place alone on the career list. Woods, who finished at 16-under 268, won for the seventh time this year. No other player has won more than twice.

By the way, only Hogan has had a streak similar to Woods’ current one where more than one major was involved. Hogan won four straight in 1953, including three majors.

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