Recently, I had a long talk with Ali Moshiri, President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company. Mr. Moshiri has been working for Chevron for over 30 years. He’s one busy man, whose responsibilities begin in the southern waters of the Gulf of Mexico and extend to the cold reaches of the southern Atlantic Ocean.
[Read more...]Some Oil Spill Perspective
August 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Indeed, even with the government’s report declaring the cleanup 75% complete, the Gulf of Mexico recovery will be slow and laborious. And expensive…
As of a few hours ago, there’s enough fresh cement in the Macondo oil well to hold down the “mud� that’s keeping the oil beneath the seafloor. It’s not the final step in plugging the hole, but it’s a big one. Now the tallying begins.
[Read more...]Oil Spill Overreaction
August 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Despite headlines screaming “the worst oil spill in history,� it turns out the BP blowout disaster wasn’t really as big a deal as you’d have thought.
Oh, well…sorry.
According to the feds, 74% of all the oil leaked into the Gulf has already been removed. “Much of the rest,� The New York Times summarizes a government report released today, “is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm.�
[Read more...]The Brighter Side of the BP Oil Spill
August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Yes, you can think of the BP well blowout as the end of the road if you want to – if not the end of the world. Or you can look at how this will change the energy landscape in general, and the oil industry in particular. And then you can get out in front of it, and act and invest accordingly.
[Read more...]The Namibian Oil Rush
July 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
While BP has been busy spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, many other oil companies have been busy finding oil under the waters of other gulfs, seas and oceans. In fact, Brazil’s state-controlled energy giant, Petrobras (NYSE:PBR), just announced a major oil discovery in offshore Angolan waters. Water depth is about 1,500 feet. The “net pay� zone is almost 1,500 feet of oil-bearing reservoir, far below the seabed. The preliminary estimate is that there are over 500 million barrels or recoverable oil in place. That’ll likely grow, as additional wells go down over time. It’s always nice to strike oil.
[Read more...]A Crude Display of How to Invest in Oil
July 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I get a lot of mail concerning my single-minded fanaticism about how gold, silver and oil are the best investments to buy when your stupid government is deficit-spending and allowing excess amounts of money to be created, in our case by the Federal Reserve, and particularly that part about buying oil, meaning, of course, oil company stocks.
[Read more...]China to be Brazil’s Number One Investor, Trading Partner
July 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Consistently adding to its long list of “world’s largest fill-in-the-blank,â€� China – having already invested more than $20 billion in Brazil so far in 2010 — is now projected to become Brazil’s biggest investor. Although China’s year-to-date investment is an enormous increase over last year (when it was 29th), China had already become Brazil’s number one trading partner in 2009.
[Read more...]Stock Picks From the Vancouver Conference
July 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
“President Obama said he would’ve fired Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs, if he worked for the White House… Unfortunately, the White House works for Goldman Sachs.â€� – from my presentation at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium.
I’m back from the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver. As usual, this great event offered a diverse mix of ideas. Doom seemed to prevail often enough, with many speakers calling for a healthy drop in the stock market and challenging economic times ahead. Even so, there was plenty of enthusiasm for certain ideas. More about which, below…
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Three Flashpoints to $220 Oil
With oil sitting comfortably at $73 a barrel this morning, we cast a nervous eye toward the Middle East…where three little-noted developments are setting the stage for a return to triple-digit prices. Maybe very soon.
1) On the surface, this looks like a pretty routine Iraq story: An ambush there yesterday killed six members of a Sunni militia known as the “Awakening Councils.�
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