Energy

• EnergyScout 7-3-2008-

  Daily News In the Energy Industry

• More winners in the commodity boom- First came the agriculture boom with soaring prices for corn, wheat, soybeans, and other crops. Now, in the upper Midwest, many are benefiting from crude oil being pumped out of the Bakken shale formation via backyard oil wells creating millionaires in North Dakota at an astonishing rate.
  
  This AP report fills in some of the details:
  

  Oscar Stohler was raised in a sod house in western North Dakota and ranched there for nearly seven decades. He never gave much thought to what lay below the grass that fattened his cattle.
  
  When oilmen wanted to drill there last year, Stohler, 83, doubted oil would be found two miles underground on his property. He even joked about it.
  

• If you think gas prices are high, drive less!-

  Please bear with me, I don't mean to be facetious here. Now that oil is over $140/barrel and everyone has a theory about why the price is so high, I thought I'd join the party and throw in my two cents as well.

• Money Minute: Airline Cuts, Yahoo, Oil-

• Petrohawk Energy (HK) and Chesapeake Energy (CHK) Flying on Haynesville Shale News- Petrohawk Energy (HK) and Chesapeake Energy (CHK) both are ripping up 9-11% in early action - right now anything associated with the Haynesville Shale is gold in this sector - not that the other natural gas players aren't doing great as well. [Jun 18: Will Encore Acquisition (EAC) be Bought Out?] Another name I've seen continuously on my top weekly performer list for 2 months now but have not been pulling the trigger (waiting the never surfacing "pullback") is Goodrich Petroleum (GDP). Chesapeake announced a new partnership last night and Petrohawk has a nice upgrade this AM.
• Bush Again Calls for Domestic Oil Drilling-

  PlusBush Again Calls for Domestic Oil DrillingBush Again Calls for Domestic Oil DrillingThe Associated PressDuring a press conference in the Rose Garden Wednesday, President Bush urged Americans to pressure Congress to allow more oil exploration in the United States. (July 2)This video contains ONLY natural sound. No script is available.

• That's gasoline in that hose, not water- This morning's Ahead of the Tape column($) in the Wall Street Journal trots out the same old tired axiom about recent Federal Reserve policy as it relates to financial instability and rising prices, particularly rising oil prices - the old "fireman" metaphor.
  
  Like many others, the "fireman as arsonist" model always seemed to make more sense to me.
  
  Follow the logic, if you will...
  
• Will Electric Power Cause The Next Price Shock?- Recently there was an interesting, albeit somewhat disturbing article at Platts discussing something many of us don't want to admit that we know is coming - higher electricity prices. I know, electricity prices are already high for many of you, along with just about everything else. I am not talking about those high prices, I am talking about the really high ones that are just around the corner. The ones that will result from higher commodity prices, which only seem to keep going higher. The ones that will continue to result from the lack of a coherent energy policy. The ones that result from environmental legislation, which if not carefully considered (no matter how good intentions), may have the ability along with higher commodity prices to bring the power system to its knees. The ones that unlike higher gasoline prices, which are high but still can be paid to purchase the commodity, may not even give us the opportunity to pay higher prices to receive services during a blackout. Yes, those are the ones I am talking about.
  
• Tough Market for Long Investors- Another tough week just ended (June 27, 2008) for the stock market as it tumbled 3% and 3.8% on the S&P and NASDAQ respectively. Declines were broad based as nine out of ten sectors fell, this on top of the 3% weekly loss from the prior week. Four out of the five trading days showed losses, but it was the action on Thursday that made up for the lion’s share of the weekly decline. The main catalysts remain surging oil prices, the struggling financial sector, and concern over a weak economy. Overall the market has lost 8% in June, and over 12% YTD, in a period of high volatility. Clearly this is a tough market for long investors trying to make money, most should be happy with just losing less than the market.
• Oil Sets Another Record, Above $140-

• EnergyScout 6-30-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• PAUL: Rising Energy Prices and the Falling Dollar-

  PAUL: Rising Energy Prices and the Falling Dollar
  Congressman Ron Paul
  June 9, 2008

  Oil prices are on the minds of many Americans as gas hits $4 a gallon, and continues to surge. How high can prices go? How can we solve these problems? What, or who, is to blame?

• Why The McCain Proposal Will Do Nothing For Battery Technology-

  On Monday, John McCain, in a drive to build his environmental credentials, pledged that if he were elected he would initiate a contest to come up with a car battery design that leapfrogs current technology and makes electric car and plug-in hybrids a reality. The winner would get a $300 million prize, or about $1 per American, which according to McCain is a small price to pay for the benefits this technology would yield.

  A politician would only make such a pledge for one of two reasons: (a) he has no insight into how innovation occurs in an economy or (b) he is looking to regain ground with environmentalists following a controversial turn-around on drilling for oil in protected areas. In this case, I have my money on B.

• Oil Sets Another Record, Above $140-

• EnergyScout 6-27-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• Gas Prices Run Off the Road-

  A report shows that some American families simply cannot afford to drive anymore, with Jeff Rubin, CIBC World Markets chief economist and CNBC's Mark Haines.

• Running on Empty: Life Without Cheap Oil-

  It's not a question of if, but when. Futurist and author James Howard Kunstler talks about life in a world without cheap oil.

• Stocks mixed; oil slips-

  June 10. - The Dow gained after an upgrade of Coca-Cola. Meantime, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were weighed down by concerns the Fed will not cut interest rates.

• Wall Street sinks as oil jumps-

  Jun. 11 - Rising oil prices fanned inflation fears, sending investors far from equities.

• McCain Proposes Strategic Energy Independence
• EnergyScout 6-25-2008-

  Daily News; Energy and Strange

• EnergyScout 6-26-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• George Soros on commodities
• The Truth About Offshore Drilling-

  The truth about offshore drilling, with David Kirsch, of PFC Energy, and Matt Simmons, Simmons & Co. International. CNBC.

• Robert Hirsch: Finding Alternatives to oil-

  Robert Hirsch, author of The Hirsch Report, on CNBC, talking about peak oil and what to do about it.

• Simmons Says Raised Saudi Oil Output Is `Drop in Bucket'-

  Matt Simmons on Bloomberg. He talks about peak oil, oil prices, and whether demand destruction/recession can lower the cost of gas.

• Bill O'Reilly on oil and gas prices-

  From June 17, 2008.

• Oil Crisis on CNBC, June 17, 2008-

  Michael Rothman, ISI Group and James Tisch, Loews, talk about oil services, production and peak oil.

• America's Oil Crisis-

  Peak Oil Worries An outlook on fuel prices, with Matthew Simmons, Simmons & Co. international chairman and CNBC's Joe Kernen

• Jared Diamond on PBS-

  Jared Diamond discusses peak oil on Newshour.

• Peak Oil Survivalists-

  CNN short about "energy survivalists."

• Wall of Ethanol Truth?-

  Jim Cramer doesn't like ethanol.

• Bush on the energy crisis-

  President Bush tries to answer a question about gas prices.

• Peak Oil Worries-

  Robert Hirsch on CNBC.

• Oil Firms 'In Liquidation,' Says Simmons-

  Matt Simmons responds to John Hofmeister.

• Behind Oil's Relentless Rise-

  Joe Terranova on CNBC.

• Warren Buffet on CNBC-

  Warren Buffet discusses oil depletion on CNBC.

• Matt Simmons on Bloomberg News (3/4/08)-

  Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International, talks with Bloomberg's Michael McKee and Deirdre Bolton from Houston about the outlook for tomorrow's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, global oil markets, and outlook for gasoline and crude prices.

• Surprise Friday-

  Matt Simmons the surprise guest on CNBC's "Fast Money."

• The 'Peak Oil' Theory: Will Oil Reserves Run Dry?-

  John Hofmeister, president of Royal Dutch Shell's US operations, talks about peak oil and where Matt Simmons went wrong.

• Tanaka of IEA Says Oil May Rise to $150-

  January 3 (Bloomberg) -- Nobuo Tanaka, director of the International Energy Agency, talks with Bloomberg's Paul George from Paris about the outlook for oil prices, the balance between supply and demand and the need to encourage greater use of nuclear and renewable energy. Oil yesterday reached $100 for the first time and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is unable to counter the rally, Libyan and Qatari officials said today.

• T. Boone Pickens on CNBC-

  A wide-ranging interview on energy issues, Feb. 21, 2008.

• Tom Petrie, VP of Merrill Lynch-

  Petrie interviewed on CNBC. He says people in the Middle East are very aware of peak oil, and are planning for it. Much more so than Washington, DC is.

• Robert Hirsch: Finding Alternatives to oil
• Jim Jubak: The Real Reason Oil Spiked-

  When oil jumps $17 a barrel in two days, it's not about the fundamentals of supply and demand, says Jim Jubak. It's the traders who bet a dollar rally would cut oil prices -- but got it wrong. Hear more from Jim Jubak, the Webs #1 investing columnist, on MSN Money: http://tinyurl.com/35smkp

• Gas at $4 Brings Promises, Pandering
• Podcast: Comments on Energy, the US Dollar … And More-

  A couple of weeks ago I was invited by the guys at “The Market Traders” to join in on their weekly roundtable podcast as one of three guest panelists.  If you check out their site, you’ll see that they’re big on commodities.  Possibly a bit more of a speculative bent to their site with ads that make me think that it’s a place where stock pickers come to congregate.  However, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t the only one commenting on ETFs and my fellow panelists didn’t really spend a lot of time discussing specific stocks although a few ETFs were mentioned (not just by me).

• EnergyScout 6-24-2008-

  Daily News; Strange, Energy

• Oil aboard !-

  “Every crowd has a silver lining.” – Phineas Taylor Barnum.

  We are all oil experts now. As simple-minded trend-followers watching CNBC sector analysts on Wall Street have spent recent months trampling over each other to issue increasingly facile pronouncements of ever-rising price “targets”, the value-added commentary department for oil was temporarily closed after the Financial Times quoted Tom Bentz, “senior energy analyst” at BNP Paribas, who exclusively revealed on June 7^th that,

   

  “It’s still a bull market in oil.”

   

• 6 Alternative Energy Stocks-

  Whenever a sector has big winners, cheap, poor and greedy people are gonna look to get in on the action by buying and hyping bottom-of-the-barrel-companies that trade for less than $5/share. It’s science.

• Oil Hits New Record, Then Reverses
• EnergyScout 6-23-2008-

  Daily News; Strange, Energy,

• Oil Bubble Breaking? Barron's Outlines The Case, But The Argument Is Weak- As reported in the cover story this week, Barron's outlines the argument that we may be seeing a near-term top in the crude oil markets, and in fact, this may be a sign of a bursting bubble. To setup the argument, Barron's discusses the impact of supply and demand, along with the effects of institutional investments in commodity-linked indexes. For a quick overview, Barron's provides a nice one page overview of oil supply and demand, along with a chart showing the linkage of the price of crude oil as compared to the rise of the Nasdaq Composite in the late 1990s. While Barron's does present the various points for crude oil prices increasing and decreasing (discussed more below), it refers in both the article and video linked below to the "eerily similar" linkage between crude oil prices and the Nasdaq Composite, and how this implies a correction is possible.
• EnergyScout 6-20-2008-

  daily news; energy, strange

• Gas Prices $139 a barrel!
• EnergyScout 6-19-2008-

  Daily News; Stange, Energy, breaking

• Dave Maney on America's Nightly Scoreboard
• Solar Investing: Where Politics & Finance Come Together- Most solar sector watchers will remember the second half of May 2008, when the solar world collective held its breath awaiting to find out what German policy-makers were going to decide about solar subsidies in that country. All this commotion...
• EnergyScout 6-18-2008-

  daily news; energy, strange

• EnergyScout 6-17-2008-

  Daily News; Energy, Strange

• EnergyScout 6-11-2008-

  Daily news; strange, energy

• EnergyScout 6-12-2008-

  Daily News; strange, energy

• EnergyScout 6-16-2008-

  Daily News, Energy, Strange

• Performance Update: 10 Solid Clean Energy Companies to Buy on the Cheap- Unlike my Ten Speculations for 2008, my Solid Clean Energy Companies series will be much more difficult to benchmark.  The intent of the series was to list some "stocks to buy when you think we've hit bottom."  Since I obviously...
• Are Solar PV and Wind Incompatible with Nuclear and IGCC?- Paul Denholm, a Senior Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), sees an upcoming struggle between renewable sources of electricity such as photovoltaics (PV) and wind with low-carbon baseload alternatives for space on the low carbon grid of the...
• Oil and the Great Deception- "What matters is growth from the emerging markets, not the United States or other mature markets."
  
  Oil Bulls love to trot out China, and to a lesser extent, India, when discussing the unbelievable growth from emerging markets. I heard a money manager call such growth "massive." Well let's see just how massive this growth is. In 2006, China consumed 7.2 million barrels a day, and in 2007 it consumed 7.58 million barrels a day. This is "astounding" growth of 380 thousand barrels a day. In 2008, the barrel per day growth is estimated to be 420 thousand barrels. While the growth rate is fairly impressive on a percent basis, the absolute increase is hardly more than a rounding error in an 87 million barrel a day market.
  
• EnergyScout 6-2-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 6-3-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 6-06-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 6-9-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-22-2008-

  Daily News and Strange News

• EnergyScout 5-23-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-27-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-28-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-29-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-30-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-16-2008-

  Daily News in the Energy Industry

• EnergyScout 5-19-2008-

  Daily News

• EnergyScout 5-20-2008-

  Daily News

• EnergyScout 5-21-2008-

  Daily News

• EnergyScout 5-2-2008-

  Daily News In the Energy Industry

• EnergyScout 5-5-2008-

  Daily News In The Energy Industry

• EnergyScout 5-6-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-7-2008-

  Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-8-2008-

  Daily Energy News

• EnergyScout 5-12-2008-

  Daily News In The Energy Industry

• Oil Supply Shortages- As recently reported in a WSJ article, the International Energy Agency IEA is apparently preparing a downward revision of its oil-supply forecast. An analysis of the top 400 oil fields is expected to show that future supplies of crude oil will be tighter than previously thought. As seen in the WSJ chart below (source: IEA World Energy Outlook, 2007), a November 2007 analysis found that there needs to be 12.5 million barrels of oil added each day to keep the supply-demand balance in order out to 2015. Over the last 6 month the situation has probably stayed the same, at best, even with higher crude oil and gasoline prices.
  
• CFTC Investigating Potential Crude Oil Price Manipulation- As mentioned in recent WSJ and Bloomberg articles, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is conducting an investigation into potential crude oil price manipulation. What is interesting about the story is not only how the CFTC is initiating an investigation, but that they are making a formal announcement of what they are doing, an indirect indication that they are also aware of the public and political outrage given higher energy costs. The CFTC commissioner said it best:
  
• Oil Price Rise Has Big Implications
• Commodities Bubble?
• Do you believe Oil prices are being manipulated by energy traders
• BNN TV appearance May 29, 2008 "Stars and Dogs"
• ETF Update: Nuclear Takes the Lead-
  The Market Vectors Nuclear ETF (NLR) has taken the top position in our weekly sector rankings. The top four holdings in this ETF constitute about 10% each, and the list drops rapidly to holdings of 5% or less.
  
  Reviewing Our Mission
  
  Our weekly ETF Update is designed to assist both investors and traders interested in ETF's and Sector Rotation. Before turning to the current rankings, let us undertake a review for readers new to this series.
  
• Oil and Commodity Trends: Saudia Arabia Signals Higher Oil Price Trend is Here To Stay- On Friday , May 16th the news media carried the story that Saudia Arabia had turned aside a second personal request from President Bush - that the Kingdom raise it's oil production. Higher oil prices - supported by an expanding world economy will drag natural gas prices higher with it . The combination of higher energy costs along with higher food costs is raising inflation in India and China and that inflation will be exported world wide. Investors can ride that trend with the energy sector and gold - see our AMP portfolio suggestions later in this article.

  Oil Price Forecasts Raised

  Crude oil traded little changed after UBS AG and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. raised their 2008 price forecasts to reflect the 30 percent rise in oil since the beginning of the year. UBS AG, Europe's biggest bank by assets, raised its 2008 price forecast for crude oil in New York by 32 percent to $115 a barrel, while Bernstein revised its estimate from $90 to $100. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi forecast that Asian for oil would continue to grow in the next 20 years, satisfied mostly by Middle East supply.

  China - Highest Gasoline Imports in Two Years

• Commodity Roll Over ? Not for Copper , Coal or Moly- Investors are nervous. Some are taking their profits out of commodities before there is a " turn ". Yet - despite ag stocks and energy stocks not climbing - the underlining commodities remain strong. Even a $10 or $ 20 fall in oil will not make the commodity cheap or more available. Higher rice and grain prices won't prevent most people eating or farmers wanting fertilizer for greater growth. It is reasonable to take some of your profits - but don't expect or live in fear of a market collapse in commodities . A) Freeport - McMoran Gold and Copper Inc. ( FCX) Freeport-McMoRan reported record first-quarter profits on Wednesday, April 23 ,despite a drop in production, as worldwide demand pumped up copper and gold prices. But industry observers said investors worried about whether the slumping American housing market would slow the rush on copper, and Freeport's shares fell $2.57 to close at $116.08 Wednesday, after climbing to a 52-week high of $123.27 earlier in the session.
• Natural Gas - the Commodity that Powers Higher Returns- Natural gas in New York advanced to the highest since December 2005 as crude oil rose to a record. Oil touched $123.80 a barrel, the highest price since futures began trading in 1983. Gas touched $11.387 per million British thermal units, the highest since $11.88 per Btu on December 29, 2005. ``Gas has been tracking crude more than not of late,'' said Eric Wittenauer, an energy analyst at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.

  May 7th, 2008 Prices

  Natural gas for June delivery rose 17.7 cents, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $11.327 per million British thermal units at 3:11 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange . Gas has gained 51 percent this year. Crude oil for June delivery rose $1.69, or 1.4 percent, to settle at $123.53 a barrel in New York. Futures have more than doubled in the past year. Oil stockpiles rose 1.8 percent to 325.6 million barrels last week, the highest since August, an Energy Department report today said.

  Gas Inventory Are Below 5 Year Average

  Inventories rose 62 billion cubic feet the first week in May 2008
• Stocks We Love to Hate-

  Investing in clean energy is both an economic and a moral decision.  From an economic perspective, I believe that constrained supplies of fossil fuels (not just Peak Oil, but also Peak Coal and Natural Gas) are leading to a permanent rise in the value of all forms of energy.  From a moral perspective, I know that we and the vast majority of our children are limited to this one planet for generations to come, so we should abuse it as little as possible, so, of all the possible forms of energy to invest in, clean energy (Renewable and Energy Efficiency) is my moral choices.

  A Short Walk Down Wall Street

• Neutralizing Your Peak Oil Risk- by Tom Konrad Lifestyle Risks from Peak Oil In the US, we all have a large exposure to the risk of rising energy prices.  In addition to the cost of gasoline, the whole US economy runs on oil, so a...
• Uranium Mania-

  With recent news of uranium futures contracts available through NYMEX beginning yesterday (May 7th), I was looking for a price chart for the spot price just to get my bearings on its rise which has been well publicized. It really is funny … go to Google, above the text box, choose “Images” and enter “Uranium price” for your search. You’ll get a LOT of uranium price charts all going from the bottom left to the top right. No surprise. But you’ll open one chart, say this one and you’ll think that the price is somewhere around 85.

  

  The heading says that the data is up to February 2007, so your first guess is that this is a fairly up-to-date chart to start with. But then, through the same list of findings from your Google search, you also will find this chart:

  

• Cashing In On High Oil Prices with Canadian Royalty Trusts- Few people know about a class of Canadian public companies that trade on the stock market called Royalty Trusts. They trade like normal stocks; however, Royalty Trusts is a special business entity in Canada which receives special tax breaks from the Canadian government. In exchange for these tax breaks, they are required by law to pay out at least 90% of all earnings to shareholders.