Yael Pipano

Today's 52-Week High List: Energy Dominates

nearly 80% of world oil reserves are controlled by state-owned firms

Chesapeake: A Top Energy Play

recent BW article: While wind has reached maturity, there are research efforts in Denmark aimed at developing smaller wind turbines that can operate at lower wind speeds and cooler temperatures. That could lead to equipment that can derive two to three times as much energy per acre of land as larger turbines.

Chesapeake: A Top Energy Play

just went to see a lecture in Princeton University of a highly respected and reputable 'green energy' scientist who informed us all of all the new wind projects in the USA (huge growth so far, and much more growth potential to come). good co for that is VESTAS. Also, gas according to IEA is being depleted in USA (fields are getting older, and new ones are hard to find), so alternative energy will have to step in big time to fill in gaps as the demand for gas keeps rising - that is inevitable!

Chesapeake Boosts Forecasts on New Discoveries; Analysts Too Conservative

I think you're overlooking the costs of retrieving the gas in 2008/2009 vs. two years ago. We all know from numerous articles written over the last year that these expenditures are much higher, not to mention that the cost of capital is higher as well (credit crunch).

Chesapeake Energy: Ride the Waves of Change

I agree with natural gas production increasing (supply increasing) in the short run, I'm not so sure how accurate gas reserve estimates are. See the below link about how Exxon will shift to more gas production unlike oil : www.businessweek.com/p...
Quote from article: Unlike oil, Exxon's production of natural gas—much of it liquefied and shipped in tankers to Asia and Europe—is projected to climb over the next four years.

Burst Bubble? Commodities' Long-Term Story Remains Intact

David: the below portion of an article I read yesterday says it all!
Why have the prices of commodities like oil and gold risen so dramatically in the last year? Why has the dollar fallen so much? Normal business cycle? Bad management from the world’s financial institutions? And why hasn’t the world’s largest and strongest economy, backed by the most powerful government, been able to change the course of the situation?

Perhaps the larger picture is that the United States is waging an economic war against China.

The United States could strengthen the value of the dollar. It has not. China is hurt because now Chinese products are very expensive in the United States, and this will reduce the US trade deficit with China. China must import huge amounts of oil and strategic metals which are very much more expensive now. China holds hundreds of millions of physical dollars, the value of which is now much less.

Burst Bubble? Commodities' Long-Term Story Remains Intact

misterchan, you're one of the clearest thinking individuals on this site, I wish more wrote similar sentiments that make sense! People reading weekly data and then applying it to their portfolios (especially those on margin, using derivatives, and covering shorts) are part of the craziness in the markets now. Those 'panic traders' are the reason long term investors like us make money in the LONG TERM...

Chesapeake: A Top Energy Play

lots of evidence for opposition to coal fired power plants:
12:17 AM 3/22/08
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
Kansas Governor Vetoes Power-Plant Plan
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill aiming to remove a roadblock to the building of two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas.

Chesapeake: A Top Energy Play

Wind power plants are not as simple as they sound since they need a very complex transmission line grid to work, which takes time and serious capital, and they also need a backup as power outages would occur when there isn't enough wind (backup would use gas and/or coal powered plants). To solve the lack of wind, the wind turbines would have to be built offshore, in the ocean where there is ample wind, but there has been resistance to that (view from shore front and danger to birds). Denmark has been a big user of wind power, but the high tax rate structure is there to support the costs, whereas the US is not in a position to add a significant amount of wind power anytime soon, as the cost is too prohibitive. The argument of cost and time can also be used for nuclear power, so that leaves gas, imported/domestic, and coal which is cheap and plentiful, but highly pollutive. In recent articles about China and Australia/New Zealand, it is abundantly clear that gas is the preferred energy source and is used more and more and the eyes of the world are now upon the USA which I expect will be using more gas despite a limited supply, which for the long term spells higher prices for gas. In the meantime, construction & engineering firms such as Fluor Corp, Jacobs Engineering and Foster Wheeler have been raking in the bucks for scrubbers to clean the coal from coal plants and also for building nuclear plants around the world (including China), which is the cleanest energy source around. From what I understand emission credit trading can be quite profitable for the clean energy companies , which is in theory the best incentive for companies to plan cleaner alternatives for the future. The question that remains is if the government continues to regulate how much utilities charge customers for heat/electricity, will the government subsidize the extra costs associated with cleaner power or create tax incentives that favor green non-pollutive energy? My guess is that coal will be around for a while... (immediate evidence is the rise in coal prices and rise in railroad share prices).

5 Natural Gas Plays You Don't Have to Dig Too Deep For

For most of the past three years, the fastest growth in the energy patch could be found offshore and overseas. Natural gas prices have been weak, and US and Canadian drilling activity is driven largely by gas, not oil. Therefore, companies with exposure to North American gas markets have vastly underperformed the broader energy indexes.
The list of underperformers includes contract drillers and services firms that serve producers in these markets. As gas prices topped out in late 2005, drilling activity moderated, which meant less demand for various sorts of equipment from drilling rigs to drill pipe. And, of course, exploration and production (E&P) stocks producing gas for sale in North America also experienced headwinds as their main product became less valuable.
But a key shift is now underway. North American natural gas prices are finally rising again; inventories of gas in storage are now approaching normal seasonal levels, and a colder-than-expected winter is driving demand.
And gas prices are even higher in Europe and Asia. That means that companies with the flexibility to ship gas in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) aren’t sending shipments to the US. In fact, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) data, US LNG imports in November--the latest month for which we have accurate data--fell to the lowest level since 2002. That’s further tightened supplies.
A rapidly improving environment for gas prices has reawakened a host of North American natural gas-levered firms; for the first time in three years, there’s more opportunity in these stocks than in the more internationally focused companies. The key to investing in North American energy stocks is simple: Focus on unconventional reserves.

Chesapeake Energy: Why Are Analysts Consistently Off the Mark?

additional reason insider buys will increase:
Quote from Bruce Flatt, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Brascan from 4Q'07 conf call:
"And as coal plants for electricity become more and more costly to build, because of green credits and the scrubbing and the other things that have to get added to them, and as people realize and come to the realization that nuclear takes forever to permit and to build, one of the only alternatives is to turn to gas-electricity plants to continue to generate the electricity that’s required in our most major market, which is North America."