Total SA: Affirming the Super Major Business Model
The environment is changing but the super major business model is alive and well.
Earnings Cavalcade
Regardless of developments in global currency markets, the picks in our International Portfolio continue to execute and grow their earnings, putting them on track to deliver robust returns over the long haul.
Getting Back Together
The doomsday forecasts for oil prices will have to wait a while. Despite uncertainty in Asia, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil climbed to more than $100.00 per barrel–good news for North American producers positioned to benefit from this trend.
Staying Focused
In the previous issue of Energy & Income Advisor, we reviewed the performance of our Focus List in the second quarter and the first half of 2013 and made a few changes, swapping out shares of marine-seismic provider Petroleum Geo-Services (Oslo: PGS, OTC: PGSVY) and small-cap contract driller Pacific Drilling (NYSE: PACD). Our high-grading of the Focus List continues.
WTI-Brent Spread Narrows, Shares of Refiners Pull Back
With the spread between Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude oil narrowing, shares of US independent refiners have come under selling pressure.
Shelf Life
Drilling activity has accelerated in the shallow-water Gulf of Mexico, a region where upstream operators enjoy relatively low production costs and contract drillers are benefiting from a tightening supply-demand balance.
A Moving Trend: Orders of Tank Cars Surge to Support US Oil Boom
Upstream operators in the Bakken Shale and other oil-producing unconventional plays that lack sufficient pipeline capacity to transport their output increasingly are turning to rail for its scalability and flexible access to end-markets that offer the best price realizations.
Going for Growth
The unit prices of many master limited partnerships that offer superior distribution growth have been bid to the moon. But pockets of value do exist.
Midwest Refinery Turnarounds Widen WTI-WCS Spread
Although the spread between the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil and Western Canada Select (WCS) has narrowed considerably in 2013, a rash of maintenance-related refinery turnarounds in the second Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD 2) have caused this price differential to increase in recent weeks.
Niobrara Shale Comes into Its Own
The oil and gas industry has blown hot and cold toward the Niobrara Shale over the past several years, with a lack of takeaway capacity, uneven well results and elevated production costs offsetting the promise of an oil-weighted resource base. The huge successes achieved in the Bakken Shale and Eagle Ford Shale also overshadowed developments in Colorado. But upstream operators have stayed the course and honed their production techniques to the point that the play is starting to shift from the exploratory stage to full-scale development.
Live Chat with
Elliott and Roger on Aug. 31, 2021
Portfolios & Ratings
Model Portfolios
Balanced portfolios of energy stocks for aggressive and conservative investors.
Producers and Drillers
Our take on more than 50 energy-related equities, from upstream to downstream and everything in between.
MLPs and Midstream
Our assessment of every energy-related master limited partnership.
International Coverage
Roger Conrad’s coverage of more than 70 dividend-paying energy names.
Experts
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Elliott H. Gue
Founder and Chief Analyst: Capitalist Times and Energy & Income Advisor
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Roger S. Conrad
Founder and Chief Analyst: Capitalist Times and Energy & Income Advisor