Oil: Bakken Bigwig Calls It a Bottom, Pulls All His Hedges (CLR)

If I were a psychologist I'd wonder if this stubbornness was in any way related to his impending divorce.
December WTI $78.92 up $1.01.
From CNBC:

Drilling chief calls bottom on U.S. oil

Harold Hamm, the outspoken chief executive of the independent oil driller Continental Resources, on Thursday called a bottom in U.S. oil prices—and said he expected an upsurge in the near future.

"We feel like we're at the bottom rung here on oil prices," said Hamm on an investor call shortly after noon, as WTI futures traded just beneath the $78 range. He added, "I see price improving to the $85 to $90 range" and that that would happen in the "short term."

To underscore his point, the Oklahoma City company recently removed its crude oil price hedges for this year, 2015 and 2016—bets that may have protected Continental from taking losses if crude levels remained low for a sustained period of time. According to someone familiar with the matter, monetizing those hedges, which were handled at least in part by traders at Citigroup, generated proceeds of $433 million for Continental.

A Citi spokesman declined to comment....MORE

Related:
Godfather of the Bakken: "There Is No Oil Glut" (CLR)
Oil: "The Man Who Bought North Dakota" (CLR; HES)