Apache. One of the most loved companies to hate on over the Alpine High (but that’s not the point of today’s post – I will leave that speculation to the Twitter’s EFT… for now).

With many companies shut down until January for the holidays, imagine my surprise when late Sunday, Apache announced a 50/50 JV with Total to develop their 1.4mm acres in Suriname. What a sneaky and wonderful Xmas week press release!  And for now, they shall have their revenge on the shorts.

Perhaps you haven’t been following that closely-which is forgivable-because all 2019 I’ve been focusing you on US shale productivity and production declines. Let me catch you up. 2 weeks ago, APA issued a vague press on it’s Maka well results (drilled, tested, and drilling deeper) and caused lots of speculation. It didn’t read like good results and not surprisingly, the stock fell and the shorts began to feast.

Flash forward to yday when it looks like the vague press release was to cover up a JV with Total (who also bought the APC assets from Oxy). The JV frees up $2.5b in required development capital over the coming years and seems to indicate that the well results were better than was speculated 2 weeks ago.

For Apache shareholders, it’s a Xmas gift. For the shorts, it’s a big lump of coal.

#hottakeoftheday