Things are bad in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil is gushing out of the ill-fated BP well. The spill is out of control, despite the best – even heroic – efforts of many industry and government players. There’s no quick solution on the horizon. In my view, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
[Read more...]Financial Talk Show Circuit
The recent weird action in gold, namely that its price has not risen despite every reason to rise, has people angrily writing to me and saying, “Dear Worthless Mogambo Moron (WMM), You are always telling us that we are stupid unless we own a lot of gold, silver and oil; so I bought some, just like you said to do, but they are not going straight up in a zooming price rise like I want, and so what else do you recommend so that I can make some real money, real fast, besides this gold-silver-oil loser idea of yours that ain’t doing me much good and now I am wondering who the stupid one really is? (signed) Disgruntled in Canada.”
[Read more...]Schlumberger Scores One for the Oil Biz
According to Addison Wiggin at The 5 Minute Forecast, “Schlumberger just pulled off a super-sized acquisition of Smith Intl. In an all-stock, $11 billion transaction, SLB is now by far the world’s biggest oil service company. Should revenues stay the same, Schlumberger will be double the size of Halliburton, its closest competitor.”
[Read more...]My Favorite Energy Plays: Geothermal and Nuclear
Last month, I traveled halfway around the world to Australia and New Zealand while researching one of my favorite investment themes: the growing scarcity of resources like water, farmland, and energy.
One of the highlights of my trip was taking a group of subscribers to visit one of the world’s best resource investors – Rick Rule – at his farm outside of Auckland, New Zealand. After eating lunch, we got down to the business of the market.
[Read more...]Investing in Natural Gas: The Most Important Source in the World
Until just three years ago, the Marcellus was an obscure name for an obscure rock formation in the backwaters of geological research. Not anymore…
The tipping point came when Penn State professor Terry Engelder demonstrated that the Marcellus holds as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – the equivalent of total US gas consumption for 25 years. There’s over a trillion dollars’ worth of gas down there – probably much more. Even if the estimate is off by 50% or so (and that 500 trillion cubic foot number might be on the LOW side), Marcellus is a very big resource.
[Read more...]The Number One Lesson for Oil Investors
Of course, no one knows what the price of oil will be, but there is no shortage of forecasts. Goldman Sachs says it will be $95 by the end of 2010. Deutsche Bank says $65. They are all guessing.
There is one thing we do know. And fortunately, this is the most important thing to remember as an investor in oil: The market is still pricing proved oil reserves at less than replacement cost. In other words, it is cheaper in today’s market to buy proven reserves in the stock market than to drill for new ones…
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Tech Investing: A Look at Applied Genomics
On Tuesday, as part of a new documentary project we’re working on, we traveled to Boston to meet Enriquez in his office in the Prudential Center. Enriquez is a managing director of Excel Venture Management and the best-selling author of two books: As The Future Catches You and The Untied States of America.
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