Good morning, this is the Oil Patch. We're gonna be less GM memes, and more straight to the news from now on.

Here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Buffett Is Bullish on OXY

• Cynthia Lummis vs. The Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act

• Twitter Did Not Like What Equinor Was Peddling

• Tweet of the Day

Buffett Is Bullish on OXY

Warren Buffett has doubled down on his Occidental Petroleum bet.

Berkshire Hathaway has increased its bet on Occidental Petroleum by purchasing nearly 5.8 million shares of the oil company, totaling more than $350 million.

Berkshire Hathaway now owns 22.2% of Occidental Petroleum.

Why does Buffett like OXY?

Despite being the best performer in the S&P 500 last year, there's a number of reasons Buffett loves Occidental Petroleum:

• OXY is one of the largest Permian producers

• Oil is in big demand post-COVID lockdowns

• Highest inflation in 40 years, hydrocarbons are a good hedge

Plus, Buffet put $10B into OXY in 2019, funding their purchase of Anadarko Petroleum, and making Berkshire Hathaway $800M/year. (Carl Icahn thought this deal was ridiculous)

Berkshire Hathaway now has around a total of $12B invested in ~22% of OXY, though they have permission to buy up to 50% of the company.

The pace of "renewable" energy adoption is slow….

And oil demand is expected to continue to rise through 2050.

Occidental is betting big on carbon capture and storage – mainly in the form of federal and state tax incentives.

But in the meantime, Buffett is bullish about the future of oil and sees promise in Occidental Petroleum.

Cynthia Lummis vs. The Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act

During the March 7 Hearing on Crypto-Asset Mining and Environment at a U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee hearing, Mark Altenburg with PennFuture stated, “The issue with Bitcoin and proof of work cryptocurrency is the work that we are doing is not actually necessary to have cryptocurrency or to have blockchain technology.”

The subcommittee chair Ed Markey (D-MA) recently proposed the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act, which would require Bitcoin mining companies to report their emissions.

Cynthia Lummis asked what a digital asset mining operation looks like and whether it emits pollutants. The answer was no, but its energy sources were emitting pollutants.

She then compared it to an EV charging station and asked why the same monitoring is not being requested for EV stations.

Is one energy use more worthwhile? 

Lummis asked if it is Congress's role to decide if one energy use is more worthwhile than another.

She pointed out that both gold and Bitcoin are stores of value that require the usage of large amounts of energy in order to mine.

Rep. Lummis then posed the question, “Is a gas-consuming vehicle a less worthy use of energy than an electric vehicle powered by electricity produced from coal and natural gas?”

When asked by Senator Lummis, Courtney Dentlinger of Nebraska Public Power stated that digital asset mining operations have not caused any negative impacts in Nebraska, and “In my opinion, it's much better to actually use the energy and produce something of value.”

But the issue isn’t environmental, it’s control

The Bitcoin network is a decentralized network of nodes and miners, working independently of each other to secure the network and validate transactions.

The Bitcoin network is permissionless. It has no trusted third parties. This leaves no room for the government, or banks, or any other institution to toy with the supply.

Institutions like PennFuture, aren’t necessary. Go take a look at PennFuture’s website. What have they produced that’s actually valuable and usable in society? 

A whole lot less than the Bitcoin network.

(Even if Warren Buffett thinks it's worthless)

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Twitter Did Not Like What Equinor Was Peddling

For reasons unbeknownst to the OilPatch crew, some large publicly-traded oil & gas companies feel it is necessary to pan to people like we featured in yesterday's Tweet of the Day.

Case in point

Here is Equinor (in another life Statoil) completely undermining all the good they do (by producing much-needed hydrocarbons for modern civilization) with this ridiculous ad:

But don't be too disappointed yet

Because here are a few of the gems from the comments:

The Oilman sure does love Twitter, especially when Twitter does it's thing.

Around the Digital Patch

💰 Everyone wants Middle Eastern moolah.🗻 Record oil production has peaked, according to Pioneer CEO.🤠 The Cowboy boot is a lifestyle. 

Tweet of the Day

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