Northwest Natural Gas Co. (NWN)
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- General Discussion on NWN
- Many Companies Are Still Raising Dividends [view article]
- 10 Reasons To Look at 10 Oregon Stocks [view article]
- The Top Dividend Paying ETFs and Stocks [view article]
- The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
- Utilities Shine Again in Q2, Trailing Only Energy [view article]
- Gas Utilities Stocks: 3Q06 Earnings Results [view article]
- Natural Gas on Track for a Seasonal Low [view article]
loading ...Recent NWN Articles
- Many Companies Are Still Raising Dividends
- 10 Reasons To Look at 10 Oregon Stocks
- Utilities Shine Again in Q2, Trailing Only Energy
- The Realities of Natural Gas
- Russell 3,000 Dividend Stocks With Upcoming Ex Dates
- Natural Gas on Track for a Seasonal Low
- The Top Dividend Paying ETFs and Stocks
- Gas Utilities Stocks: 3Q06 Earnings Results
- Complete Guide to Gas Utilities 2Q06 Earnings
- Chart: Utility Stocks - Annual Earnings Growth
- Full List of Articles »
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Many Companies Are Still Raising Dividends [view article]
Please remember though if going long in the market, to always have an intelligent exit strategy in place for yourself at all times. One that is constantly adjusting to the stock's behavior and overall market conditions. One that can keep losses to a minimum but allow for profits to grow. see www.smartstops.net ReplyGrowth
Investor
Many Companies Are Still Raising Dividends [view article]
Over the past 30 years dividend payers have outperformed non dividend payers; in addition to that dividend growers and initiators have much better long term total performance results than the rest of the pack.But you don't have to take my word for it. Check these charts out:
www.dividendgrowthinve...
www.dividend.com/img/d...
Reply
Many Companies Are Still Raising Dividends [view article]
Nice happy talk. Dividend increases are not necessarily good news, it typically means that the firm is not growing much, AND has no needs for research and development or new initiatives. There are monopolists who can reward their shareholders, but as a rule be suspicious of the management that invests in stock buy-backs or dividends. Reply10 Reasons To Look at 10 Oregon Stocks [view article]
Excuse me but house prices are falling at a dramatic rate....especially in Bend and Central Oregon. The Salmon industry is finished and the eastern filbert blight is wiping out many hazelnut farms. One in five children go to bed hungry at night in Oregon. Oregon has close to the highest rate of suicide, meth use, unemployment and poverty in the nation since the loss of timber jobs and high tech....and it's tax hell....by standing on a two legged stool without a sales tax (drug dealers don't pay income tax) ....those who work are paying for those who do not work.....come on over to visit...and enjoy the rain for 200 days each year in the valley. Reply10 Reasons To Look at 10 Oregon Stocks [view article]
I believe what the author was describing on #8 - revenue limits pertains to our property tax limitation. Oregon several years ago passed a limit to the general obligation portion of it's property tax - limited to $5/$1000 of assessed value. This limit can only be exceeded through state wide bond measures that are for specific governmental needs. Despite the limit, property taxes are still going up due to the dramatic increase in assessed values over the last 10 years. ReplyThe Top Dividend Paying ETFs and Stocks [view article]
for Frank Li, Dividend stocks are a great way to make aliving especially for those of us who are retired. I have been
investing in dividend stocks for 52 years and have no regrets.
I retired at 44 (23 years ago) and make a 6 figure income, which
is really what you want and need when you retire. Reply
10 Reasons To Look at 10 Oregon Stocks [view article]
Great stuff, i love you state specifc ideas. Keep the coming.Can you explain number 8 to me. What does a revenue mean? what is the investing impact? what are the other 6 states? Reply
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
all the regulation gurus never explain how you get demand reduction when you artificially lower the price of a finite commodity through regulation. ReplyUtilities Shine Again in Q2, Trailing Only Energy [view article]
Good article.For a list of ETFs that invest in the Utilities sector, please visit my ETF Ranking and Signals page here for Utilities:
www.maxmoneyblog.com/b...
For the Ranking dashboard post:
www.maxmoneyblog.com/b.../
Reply
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
So, did I do the right thing when I signed a 5 year Declining Natural Gas Price plan at 41.9 cents per cubic meter on April 24 and falling by one cent per cubic meter each year thereafter??Reply
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
The article was rather wordy but made valid points about the misconception of unbundling and deregulation and their premise that they would lead to lower prices more supply and customer choice. Deregulation has been an failure. If you don't believe me ask the citizens of Georgia and California.A central point that is missed in this whole conversation is that price volatility really became a reality after deregulation. Up until then, nat gas was a minimal player in electrical production. Gas was primarily used for heating, water heating and in manufacturing and chemical processing such as the fertilizer industry. With the advent of efficient gas turbine technology it found a niche in electrical generation, starting with peak load production in the hot summer months and then by supplying some year round demand. Turbines were relative cheap and the environmental permitting process was a breeze compared to coal and especially nuclear. It was cheap and easy (is that concise enough?) and became the path of least resistance. If you don't believe me, does Calpine Energy ring a bell? They were going like gang busters installing turbines all over California and other states back in the late 90's but subsequently, like the tech bubble, they busted as well. Never the less, as a result, the normal summer period where gas used to put into storage at low prices for winter heating use was gone. Gas was being bought and used in the summer for peak electrical generation keeping the price high and introducing more price and supply volatility into the market. That my friends... is why we are in the situation we are today. Gone are the 20 year firm contracts for 3-4 dollars an mcf and they are not coming back. It is a shame because gas is a great efficient and environmentally friendly source of fuel for generating heat and heating water at the source. And, it could be a great fuel for transportation but we have ruined it for the time being. Large scale electrical production is NOT the best use even though turbine technology has made great strides, it still looses energy/efficiency as the electricity is transported from the producer to the end user. I have been in the business for 20 years and have witnessed this first hand, but if you don't believe me....read some articles by Boone Pickens, you will hear the same story.
As for investments, natural gas is a great place to be pipelines and local distribution companies are great dividend low risk plays with steady growth. Exploration and production companies offer more risk and possible returns and the support network companies that surround these companies are attractive as well. I am invested in all of those areas and have been reasonably successful. Not gangbusters mind you, but I sleep well at night. Good Luck.
Reply
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
"Probably the most important observation on the ambitions of natural gas deregulators was rendered by Professor David Teece of the University of California (1990). According to him, market liberalization in the U.S. has already “jeopardized long-term supply security and created certain inefficiencies.” He also notesthat “While more flexible, a series of end-to-end, short-term contracts are not a substitute for vertical integration, since the incentives of the parties are different and contract terms can be renegotiated at the time of contract renewable. There is no guarantee that contracting parties will be dealing with each
other over the long term, and that specialized irreversible investments can be efficiently and competitively utilized.”
For this reason I never miss an opportunity to remind my students that as far as I am concerned, large and complex gas systems operating in a climate of uncertainty are most efficiently run on an integrated basis that emphasises long-term contracting. This kind of arrangement promotes optimally dimensioned installations, and although it may not be mentioned in your economics textbook, if pipeline-compressor-pr... systems which fully exploit increasing returns to scale in order to obtain minimum costs are to be readily financed and expediently constructed, then – as I interpret the evidence – the kind of uncertainties associated with short to medium term arrangements should be kept to a minimum. Failing to do so could cause a reduction in physical investment, and in the long run lead to higher rather than lower prices."
Garbage dressed up in unintelligible English.
Let me try to summarize.
In the first paragraph he cites a "scholar" that believes de-regulation energy was a bad idea, and is citing one reason for his belief. I worked for two regulated entities - one in energy and one in telecommunications. Regulation simply doesn't work - regulated industries are inefficient and are focused on perpetuating themselves. "Creative Destruction" is a foreign concept to a regulated entity - and necessary if we are to deal with a changing environment.
In the second paragraph our good professor eschews regulation, (good for him!), in favor of long-term commitments. I also believe in long-term commitments. My wife and I have been married almost 50 years. Good for the kids, and good for each of us. I wish our author had taken a course in expository writing while he was a freshman. It could have helped. Reply
Investor
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
Pipeline gas in the Northeast and on the West Coast will originate from the Pinedale anticline in Wyoming--tens of trillions of cubic feet of it.On a worldwide basis, we are nowhere near the peak of natural gas production. A couple of decades ago many foreign finds of natural gas were considered a nuisance as part of a quest for oil. The problem is, much of the gas is stranded and costs billions to market. Nevertheless, LNG imports are growing and, as a natural gas investor, I'm concerned about the growth of LNG imports in North America. Reply
Sterling
The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
HUGE FREE GAS RESOURCES IN BLAKE RIDGE; OFFSHORE SOUTH CAROLINA.The Blake Ridge hydrate resource is super-giant sized but the 250 meter thick free-gas underneath is the real commercial prize. The Hydrate zone above serves as a nice cap to trap the free gas underneath.
The entire Blake Ridge-Carolina resource has been estimated to contain between 1,000 to 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane, mostly 99% pure. An estimated 25-40% of this is a free gas resource much of which is commercially viable today, (Estimated, 100-250 trillion cubic feet recoverable).
Significant clean free gas reserves and associated lower concentration Hydrates are known to be locked beneath the seafloor under vast areas within the Blake Ridge-Carolina Rise region. These super-giant Probable free-gas reserves cover an area, which is 75% within the US OCS 200 mile EEZ.
1. The Strategic Nine Corp., Consortium has made an International Resources Rights Claim, for the approximately 25% area of the Blake Ridge Gas resource located outside of the US 200 mile EEZ.
2. The Consortium has also made application for a very large unsolicited OCS Petroleum Extraction Lease on a non-competitive basis, within an area of the Blake Ridge-Carolina Rise, located beyond state jurisdiction but inside the US EEZ, within an area currently covered by a nation-wide Federal moratorium on new offshore leasing until June 2012. A waiver has been requested.
The Blake Ridge Free gas resources have the following attributes;
1. Confirmed presence of super-giant areal extent of high FREE GAS saturation (proved by coring and well logging, and by geophysical methods) in shallow, easily accessible reservoirs.
2. Occurrence within fine sediments much of sufficient reservoir quality to support horizontal well-based fracc production methods.
3. Site accessibility through close proximity to existing major US East coast markets and other infrastructure.
4. Additional 1,000 Tcf speculative resources of Gas Hydrates, some of which may become economically viable in the future.
WWW.STRATEGICNINE.COM
Messoyakha Gas Field : While the west postulates methane-hydrates recovery, the Russians have been producing from it for years. The Messoyakha gas field in the frozen northern Russia is an excellent example of a hydrocarbon accumulation from which gas has been produced commercially from hydrates, mostly by simple reservoir depressurization.
At least one-third and, most likely, two-thirds of the Messoyakh reservoir, which for 13 years has been in commercial production, occurs in the form of natural gas hydrates.
It is conservatively estimated that about 36% (about 5 billion cubic meters) of the gas withdrawn from the Russian field has come from the gas hydrates.
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The Realities of Natural Gas [view article]
PEOPLE WHO READ ALPHA (AND I'M BEGINNING TO WONDER WHY WHEN I SEE ARTICLES LIKE YOURS) ARE LOOKING FOR EQUITY AND COMMODITY ANALYSIS FOR INVESTMENT...Leeches Reply