Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Hi Top 100,
Receive daily mails from Tobin but only read half of them. Must have a closer look what he is doing.Didn't realise he is that good.
You still have the chance to pick some ERHE up.The best is still to come : signing of PSC's and CVX finding oil in short term
Tamtam
you still have a chance, it looks like it will go quite a bit higher based on rights to oil in the GoG. (not yet proven reserves, but it looks like the agreement is gong to get done)
TFA
Yes, Michael and Tobin Smith.
I never picked up any ERHE although I should have when I had the chance.
Could one of those " Stock Guru's " be Michael Schaeffer?
Bought some more ERHE lately, just in time, and am out of dry power now.
Oeps UTS up 0.22 and CLL also up 0.22
Tamtam
Two "Stock Guru's" are calling for $30.00 on this one by years end. We'll see. I tried buying 10,000 shares at $5.02 this morning and missed it. Now we're back to $5.50. Looks like it might be up from here. Anything close to $5.00 is an absolutely steal in my opinion.
Hi Top100,
thank's for your post. I own 2 sandoil stocks, both done well lately and both went down considerably.
Today CLL is already down 0.20 CAD and UTS 0.35 CAD.
Perhaps some profit taking is going on.
Friends are saying this stock will be even higher than $10.00 by the end of the year but i'm happy with $ 10.00
I'm lucky to live on a continent were there are no hurricanes like you have.
Tamtam
Oil was down in general. No big deal. I will add more if we drop again. Hurricane season is going to be awful once again this year and this stock should be $8.00-$10.00 by summer in my opinion.
What could be the reason of the todays fall
Picked up 1500 more UEYCF this morning. Will see what happens over the next year.
UTS ENERGY CORP
www.streetinvesting.com: Streetinvesting.com Begins Research on UTS Energy
10/13/2005
Oct 13, 2005 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) --
Analysts at Streetinvesting.com have focused their attention on UTS ENERGY CORP (TSX:UTS). With news a month behind and trading volumes holding steady, our analysts are interested in the short-term future for UTS. Streetinvesting.com strives to bring true growth opportunities directly to its valued subscribers. Our strength lies in finding these undervalued and under-marketed companies and delivering our research in a timely manner. Streetinvesting.com will be tracking this company attentively for the subsequent weeks and keeping interested investors and shareholders posted on any new findings and behind-the-scenes update. For a complimentary and comprehensive report on our current analysis and opinions, please visit www.streetinvesting.com for a free membership subscription.
The strategic focus of UTS Energy Corporation is the creation of shareholder value from the Fort Hills oil sands project. Located in the Athabasca oil sands region approximately 90 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the Fort Hills Project is one of the last major undeveloped oil sands mining resources. With the energy demand today, this could shape up to be a very worthwhile company to follow. The advanced project has regulatory approval for the production of up to 190,000 barrels per day of bitumen. The resource is well defined, with a 2.8 billion barrel mine plan and attractive development options. In addition, the recovery rate for oil sands mining projects exceeds 90%, far higher than in conventional or in situ oil recoveries.
With their partner Petro-Canada and newly acquired partner Teck Cominco, UTS is shaping up to be a very well grounded company. William Roach, President and CEO of UTS states that with the help of Teck Cominco, UTS will not only leverage their procurement process but reduce long term costs - not to mention having their incredible track record of mining expertise to back up the shareholder angst that may be developing.
That is one major reason why every major analyst is keeping this company under the microscope. Raymond James, an investment firm that serves more than 1.3 million individual clients and manages more than $170 billion in client assets under administration, recently published an article on Alberta's oil sands and are saying that
To continue with the more in-depth analysis and Raymond James' coverage, please visit www.streetinvesting.com for a complimentary subscription to access this report and other related articles.
All material herein was prepared by Streetinvesting.com, (Street Investing) based upon information believed to be reliable. The information contained herein is not guaranteed by Streetinvesting.com to be accurate, and should not be considered to be all-inclusive. The companies that are discussed in this opinion have not approved the statements made in this opinion. This opinion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. This material is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities. Streetinvesting.com is not a licensed broker, broker dealer, market maker, investment banker, investment advisor, analyst or underwriter. Please consult a broker before purchasing or selling any securities viewed on or mentioned herein. Streetinvesting.com may receive compensation in cash or shares from independent third parties or from the companies mentioned.
Streetinvesting.com's affiliates, officers, directors and employees may also have bought or may buy the shares discussed in this opinion and may profit in the event those shares rise in value.
Streetinvesting.com will not advise as to when it decides to sell and does not and will not offer any opinion as to when others should sell; each investor must make that decision based on his or her judgment of the market.
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a companies' annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and Streetinvesting.com undertakes no obligation to update such statements.
M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com.
(C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
I agree. I remember CMGI and NMKT does remind me of it. Also CMGI is a good example of how fast a stock could rise. I plan to hold onto NMKT and hopefully take a nie ride up to $1. As far as UTS, this sale won't last forever, bought 2K more and now I am fully invested in this one.
mick: I got into NMKT because I see it as a new-improved version of CMGI and remember well how CMGI went to the moon in 1999 before it exploded in space in 2000. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CMGI&t=my&l=off&z=m&q=l&c=
I am still betting NMKT will have a similar takeoff, but this time I plan to exit before the explosion. However, NMKT is a micro and many micros explode on the ground before takeoff.
Smart move. I plan to hold those 2 but I am getting tired of NMKT. Your thoughts?
mick: I opened my OMNI position some months back (Thank you, Toby) figuring that oil services should fly with oil exploration, but not much happened... 'til now! Who woulda thought that it would take a CAT 4/5 hurricane to swamp a major U.S. city to get OMNI off the dime. Not even TS suggested as much!
BTW, you can never have too much MOBL & NEOM. BOOYA!
I wish I had some. I was watching it around $2 and never pulled the trigger. I own too much MOBL & NEOM.
mick: Another TS reco OMNI is coming back to life with its recent purchase of PREHEAT oil services company and third-party FEMA contracts for its TRUSSCO environmental unit to help cleanup New Orleans Arena and the New Orleans Superdome. A Double BOOYA!!
http://biz.yahoo.com/ts/050922/10244007.html?.v=3
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050926/dam031.html?.v=25
Talk about being in the right place at the right time... OMNI is headquartered in Carencro, LA, half-way between New Orleans and Lake Charles. Another Double BOOYA!!
http://www.cityofcarencro.org/city_prof.html
Started up OMNI ihub board... http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=4444
And JC's take...
Take Oil Weakness While It Lasts
http://www.thestreet.com/p/_peprmjc/rmoney/jamesjcramer/10244204.html
Amazing. It just keeps happening. An event, a storm, a strike, will occur, and the oils all spike. Then, the event passes, and the oils sell off, sometimes sharply.
They never go back to where they started. But they do go back to where they can be bought. I am watching this selloff of oil and marveling that it is just like all the others.
But by Monday, Tuesday at the latest, something else will happen to get the group going. Sometimes, it is simply an analyst getting realistic and talking about how his target range for oil has to go from $40 to $50; there's still nobody up where it is by now.
Or it's a takeover over the weekend. Or it's the next storm or strike.
Whatever.
My take: Leg into this weakness and just hope you get more weakness on Monday to keep buying into. Given that it's the end of the quarter, I bet you won't!
Random musings: Coal is coming down. That's another opportunity!
mick: Our friend's call on energy pullbacks...
We need to be patient here -- buying energy investments heading into the Rita disaster is NOT our strategy. We will patiently wait for our favorites to come back down from panic buying and panic short covering. You should, too.
If we break $62 on November delivery oil, then we could see
further selling pressure to $58 and then hopefully $55. Natural gas is different -- with the storage shortages now getting worse each day, a return to $10 seems very unlikely.
But the panicked market may give us the gift we are looking for here post-Rita IF the damage is less than expected, so hold your horses on adding positions.
Rita's damage to rigs may be minimal... all fingers crossed!!!
Oil industry to assess Rita's damage
<By Janet McGurty, Reuters.com, 9/24/05>
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=globalNews&storyID=2005-09-24T222533Z_01_H...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. oil industry snapped into action on Saturday to assess damage to its installations in the wake of Hurricane Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast near Sabine Pass, Texas, around daybreak.
The U.S. Department of Energy was "cautiously optimistic" that refineries in Houston suffered minimal damage but that it was too early to determine the effect of the storm on Port Arthur, according to Craig Stevens, a spokesman for the DOE.
As company damage reports roll in, it appears that significant damage was done to at least one of the three refineries in Port Arthur, east of Houston. Damage is also likely at the two refineries at Lake Charles, Louisiana, to the east, where 15-foot storm surges were seen.
The storm, which plowed through the offshore oil and gas producing region of the Gulf of Mexico before landfall, shut all Gulf of Mexico crude oil production and 30 percent of U.S. oil refinery production.
It was the second major hurricane to strike at the heart of the U.S. oil industry in a month, triggering some worries over fuel supply shortages and keeping energy prices zipping along near record highs.
Oil prices eased toward $66 a barrel on Friday as Rita lost some intensity and the direction veered away from the heart of the Texas refining hub near Houston.
Rita, which reached land early Saturday morning as a Category 3 hurricane, was downgraded to a tropical storm by the afternoon. Refiners said it was too early to tell if they would be able to restart their plants quickly after their precautionary shutdowns ahead of the storm's arrival, but some were hopeful they would find little damage from Rita.
Leading U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp. said on Saturday it could take two weeks to a month to restart its 250,000 barrel per day Port Arthur, Texas, refinery which sustained significant damage from Hurricane Rita.
"Our recovery team for Port Arthur made the trip from Jasper to Port Arthur and reports that we have significant damage to two cooling towers and a flare stack but it does not appear that we have significant damage from flooding," said Mary Rose Brown, a spokeswoman for Valero.
Exxon Mobil said that based on initial assessment, damage to its 557,000 barrel per day Baytown, Texas, refinery, the largest in the United States, does not appear to be severe.
Many of the other Gulf Area refineries appear at first glance to have survived relatively unscathed and some with power around Houston appear to be in start-up mode.
Power outages and some flooding could hamper restart, but most refiners around Houston felt they had emerged from the storm in good shape.
"It's too soon to say but we seem to have dodged the bullet," said Chuck Dunlap, a spokesman for Pasadena Refining LLC which owns a 100,000 barrel per day refinery right outside of Houston.
Valero said it was beginning to get back power at its 243,000 bpd Texas City, Texas, refinery and its 135,000 bpd Houston refinery.
According to the DOE, about 1.139 million customers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi are without power from the double wallop of Katrina and Rita.
At first glance, Rita appeared to have been far less damaging to the refining industry than Hurricane Katrina, which crippled four big refineries with long-term damage.
Phil Flynn, an analyst with Chicago-based Alaron Trading, said the fact that Houston -- with 13 percent of the Gulf Coast's refining capacity -- emerged from Rita relatively unscathed was a positive.
"It could have been a heck of a lot worse. I have the feeling that we will bounce back quickly," said Flynn, who added that if the area refineries come back quickly the market will get back into line.
Offshore, a deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig disabled by Hurricane Katrina became adrift Friday during Hurricane Rita after a tow bridle snapped, a spokesman for Transocean Inc. said.
Other offshore operators had no immediate information. Although Rita was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm at 1400 EDT (1800 GMT), remnants of the storm have made it difficult to get out and assess offshore operations.
"While we won't know till they get the helicopters out, it appears the track of the storm missed the majority of the offshore," said Alaron's Flynn.
Several major U.S. pipelines carrying crude oil, natural gas and refined products were shut or disrupted due to the effects of Rita -- most of them because the products they normally carry are in short supply.
Among them were the massive Colonial Pipeline to the Northeast, the key Sabine natural gas line and Capline's crude pipeline to the Midwest, according to the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.
Colonial Pipeline said it had restarted operations on its distillate line from Baton Rouge to Greensboro, North Carolina, and that it is using portable generators to supplement commercial power in affected areas to help expedite full, normal operations between Houston and Pasadena,
In addition, rough conditions caused by Rita halted marine operations at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, delaying crude imports and offloading from domestic fields in the gulf.
LOOP said in a news release it would restart marine operations as soon as weather conditions allowed.
Officials at the pipelines and LOOP were not immediately available Saturday for comment.
mick: Gotta move fast though! Since Rita spared the Port of Houston, the market is gonna take off Monday morning... realizing that a mother nature induced recession is less likely.
Rita's Destruction Falls Short of Fears
<By JULIA SILVERMAN, The Associated Press, 9/25/05>
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1158289
"As bad as it could have been, we came out of this in pretty good shape," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said after taking a helicopter tour Sunday...
Petrochemical plants that supply a quarter of the nation's gasoline suffered only a glancing blow, with just one major plant facing weeks of repairs...
In Houston, which along with coastal Galveston was spared the brunt of Rita...
Crude oil and gasoline futures traded lower Sunday, a response to news that damage to refineries was relatively light. The 255,000-barrel-per-day Valero Energy Corp. plant in Port Arthur appeared to be the most heavily damaged, facing at least two weeks of repairs from significant damage to two cooling towers and a flare stack...
Still, a rapid recovery for refiners hinges on power being restored to parts of Texas and Louisiana where facilities are concentrated. The area's primary utility, Entergy Corp., said 271 high-voltage transmission lines were down and 275 substations out of service, and there was no immediate timeline of when power would be restored...
Yes we get another chance. I plan to add more on Monday.
mick: Tried to corner it a week back < 4.75 pps, but it got away from me. May come back to papa this week. BOOYA!
Tobin Smith recommends this in his changewave newsletter. Also Welthnet daily send this tickler out:
Tiny Oil Sands Stock Going From $5.75 To At Least $19!
Even one of my competitors loves this stock, saying... "I personally plan on holding this stock AT LEAST until 2010. And I expect to keep this investment in my godchildren's accounts for the next 25 years."
My readers have owned this stock since March and we're already up 142%.
And I just found out that there have been 10 separate insider purchases of this stock in the past 5 weeks.
Click here to see my timeline of a 142% gain in 7 months... and why the stock is going higher:
Read my exclusive report:
[PE... My New Oil Sands GIANT]
McBuy: UTS.TO is a pinksheet. UEYCF works just fine on Scottrade http://www.scottrade.com/. UEYCF.PK works on Yahoo Finance... http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=UEYCF.PK but UTS.TO yields more info http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=uts.to
If BigCharts and AmerTrade can't handle pinks, I suggest you switch! Scottrade is a better deal anyway! http://www.scottrade.com/frame_brokers.asp !BOOYA!
mick: Here's the crude awakening, and most Americans just don't get it!
CRUDE REALITIES: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
<By Jon Birger, Fortune.com, 9/19/05>
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1105683,00.html
The Truth About Oil - Pain at the pump has plenty of Americans ticked. Chances are, though, they are angry about the wrong things. Here are five myths many people believe about today's oil pinch-and what the real story is.
A fellow road warrior pulls up to the pumps at Fillup's Food Store in Panama City, Fla. He looks at the nearly $3-a-gallon price of unleaded, and then with one word sums up the feelings of drivers nationwide: "Crazy."
Crazy indeed. Not that long ago, though, it would have been madness to suggest that oil could go from $18 a barrel to $65 in four years—and even crazier to suggest that such a run-up wouldn't spark a painful recession, with consumers spurning trips to the shopping mall and businesses crippled by cost hikes. Conventional wisdom has held that there are price thresholds that can't be breached without affecting spending habits. In 2003, for instance, Republican pollster Frank Luntz spoke of $2-a-gallon gasoline as a "magic number" that, if crossed, would harm Republican reelection hopes. Well, gas passed $2 a gallon a month before the 2004 election, and the oil guy in the White House still won. Two bucks wasn't so magic after all.
A sustained run of $3 gas could be what finally kicks the legs out from under the U.S. consumer—already, Wal-Mart is blaming lackluster sales on high gas prices —but it's hard to know for sure. After all, so much of the conventional wisdom on oil has been wrong. That's a problem, because if the U.S. is ever to make progress on treating its oil addiction, it needs to understand its source.
MYTH NO. 1:
GAS STATIONS ARE GOUGING CONSUMERS.
REALITY: If consumers are getting gouged, then gas station owners are being impaled. When gasoline prices spike, as they have in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, windfall profits rarely accrue to gas station owners. Kim Do, owner of a Coast station in Pleasanton, Calif., reports that in the immediate aftermath of the storm, she lost 8 to 10 cents on every gallon of gas she sold. "Customers are very angry—they call my prices a rip-off," Do says. "I tell them, 'I'm just like you.'" In fact, because retail prices are stickier than wholesale ones, gas stations make the fattest profits when prices are falling—a point made in a recent study by Berkeley economist Severin Borenstein.
Pumping gasoline is a dog-eat-dog business even when prices are normal, especially with Costco and Wal-Mart now muscling in. Low profit margins on gas are why so many gas stations double as convenience stores. "The objective is to get you to fill up on coffee, not gasoline," quips Gene Guilford, director of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association (ICPA).
Those low margins can turn into no margins when there's a sudden rise in gas prices. Metropolitan service stations don't have much inventory stored in their underground tanks. That means they're buying gasoline from wholesalers at least once a day and are just as vulnerable as their customers to rising prices. What's more, most independent stations can't pass along all their costs because they compete with the likes of Chevron and Valero, which do have large inventories of lower-priced gasoline by virtue of being big refiners (see "The Soul of a Moneymaking Machine"). During price spikes, the majors use this advantage to underprice fuel, relatively speaking, in hope of gaining market share. In Connecticut, for instance, the ICPA figures the retail price of gasoline should have been $3.31 cents a gallon on Sept. 7, adding up all the taxes and costs. But the actual retail average was $3.08. No matter: On Sept. 8, Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal announced he was looking into price gouging by gas stations.
What about Big Oil? Aren't the giants guzzling profits? Sure, but there is nothing sinister about that—no cabal of cigar-chomping oil barons plotting how to squeeze the world for their evil ends. Yes, a few crooked traders were able to game the California energy markets for a time in 2001. But in a market as big and wide-open as oil, there are thousands of traders all over the world making the action. Unlike California power prior to the crisis, oil is a freely traded commodity. The markets, not the magnates, set the price.
MYTH NO. 2:
HEDGE FUNDS ARE INFLATING THE PRICE OF OIL.
REALITY: No, it's the Trilateral Commission in cahoots with the World Bank. Just kidding. Still, even many sophisticated people believe that hedge funds are driving up prices. Sean Cota, a Vermont heating-oil dealer who sits on the executive committee of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, points out that average daily trading volumes in NYMEX crude oil and heating oil futures have risen dramatically—61% and 36%, respectively—since 2000. When the trading volume of oil grossly exceeds consumption, he argues, that is a sign that hot money is firing up the market. "Prices are now being set by fear and greed, not by supply and demand," he concludes. His estimate: At least $20 of the current $65 price of oil is a byproduct of speculation by hedge funds and investment banks. Germany's Economy Minister, Wolfgang Clement, recently put the figure at $18, a sentiment echoed by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
That is not, however, an accurate reading of how financial markets operate. Take Cota's concerns about excessive trading volumes. Futures trading in all commodities far surpasses the amount consumed by end users. And according to NYMEX, hedge funds account for less than 3% of volume in oil futures (a figure Cota disputes). In any case, basic market theory states that high volume leads to more, not less, efficient pricing. That's why thinly traded stocks tend to be more volatile—and vulnerable to manipulation—than heavily traded names like Microsoft or GE.
"People make these kinds of arguments because they have their own ideas about where prices should be," says Stephen Figlewski, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and founding editor of the Journal of Derivatives. "Oil producers think prices should be high, and oil consumers think they should be low. But if the price isn't where they want it, the one thing they all agree on is that it must be someone else's fault." The truth is that emotion—fear of dwindling supply—drives oil prices harder than speculation ever will.
Even if speculators were dominating trading of oil and gas futures, it's still not clear that would lead to higher prices. Futures require two to tango. A hedge fund cannot purchase a contract to buy oil at $65 a barrel in November if someone else isn't prepared to take the bearish side of that bet. That someone else can be an oil company looking to offset some risk or another hedge fund looking to profit from falling fuel prices. Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show that the week before Katrina sidelined much of the Gulf oil industry, 14% of all short, or bearish, positions on crude oil were held by "noncommercial traders"—a subset that includes hedge funds and banks. This same group held only a slightly larger share—16%—of long, or bullish, positions. "For every hedge fund that's made money, I know a lot that have lost money," says Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen Roach.
Still dubious? Consider this: The average hedge fund has gained only 2.1% year so far this year. The average managed futures fund (the type most likely to invest in oil) has actually lost money, dropping 6.6%. Why? Because many have been shorting oil, according to Merrill Lynch hedge fund analyst Mary Ann Bartels. So if hedge funds really are driving up oil prices, they're doing a lousy job of profiting from it.
MYTH NO. 3:
WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF OIL.
REALITY: This one is true. Sort of. Unlike wind or water, oil is not a renewable resource. So by definition we're using it up, in the same way that we are all dying all the time. The real question is, When will it become impossible (or impossibly expensive) to recover enough to meet demand? Answering that question is not easy. New discoveries and new drilling technologies have transformed the science of exploration, which is why global reserves have doubled since 1980 (to 1.3 trillion barrels) even as consumption has soared.
There's no shortage of oil experts, however, who say that the industry cannot keep up the pace, and that the age of ever-expanding reserves is over. These "peak oil" theorists argue that we need to prepare for an era in which supply trails demand, particularly given the fast-growing needs of China and India. The guru of the peak-oil set—and author of its latest manifesto—is Matt Simmons. A leading energy banker in Houston, Simmons spent years poring over oilfield engineering reports and concluded that some of the world's most important fields are thinning out. "I believe the Middle East has no spare capacity," he says. He's even more pessimistic about some newer fields like those in Russia and the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Simmons is no kook—his book on the subject, Twilight in the Desert, is a must-read in energy circles. But there is a Chicken Little aspect to the peak-oil viewpoint. There have been a dozen or so oil shocks over the past 60 years—all replete with handwringing over in-the-ground reserves—and cheaper oil has returned each time. "The one thing I've learned," says Roach, "is that oil is a mean-reverting commodity." This time around, Roach expects high fuel prices to dent consumption—he's predicting a downturn in travel and other discretionary spending—while spurring oil companies to dig deeper and farther afield for oil.
The analysts at Cambridge Energy Research Associates have done their own painstaking global survey of oil production, and they couldn't disagree with Simmons more. In their view, production could rise 16 million barrels a day by 2010, leaving a comfortable gap between supply and demand.
The real problem with the peak-oil argument has less to do with engineering than with philosophy. It lacks imagination. Thirty years ago few thought it would be possible to produce price-competitive oil from Canadian oil sands. Today the cost of producing that oil is about $20 a barrel and is still falling (see "The Dark Magic of Oil Sands"). Similarly, you can't rule out the idea that today's speculative energy technologies (see "Here Come the New Fuels") will become cost-efficient by the time Middle East oil production starts to wane. "The peak-oil argument underestimates the potential for technological progress," says Economy.com's Thorsten Fischer, who expects oil to fall to about $40 a barrel by next year. Simmons thinks prices could triple by 2010.
Peak-oil theory also overlooks alternative explanations for why oil exploration hasn't been terribly fruitful in recent years. It may be that there is oil to be found, but investors haven't given oil companies the requisite incentives to find it. Blame the dot-com boom. Having been burned by accounting cheats and profitless wonders, post-2000 investors demanded cash flow, dividends, and stock buybacks. So despite booming profits and revenues, Exxon Mobil spent less on capital and exploration in 2004 than in 2003. And the $11.7 billion figure for 2004 was $3 billion less than the company earmarked for dividends and buybacks. Of course, $65 oil has a way of changing priorities. After years of stagnation, drilling-rig counts have soared 36% since April 2004. There are 2,895 active rigs worldwide, according to Baker Hughes, the most since 1986.
MYTH NO. 4:
THE U.S. IS RUNNING OUT OF REFINING CAPACITY.
REALITY: So what? It's fair to say that in recent months supply has been straining to meet demand and that U.S. refineries had to work flat-out just to convert enough crude into gas to keep the pumps filled. Then Katrina came, knocking out 20% of the industry. But America's struggle to ramp up capacity—we haven't built a new refinery in 30 years, though many existing ones have expanded—does not mean doom. There are many products that the U.S. happily consumes in which we are not self-sufficient—think kiwi fruit or funny T-shirts.
The U.S. should easily be able to import gasoline and other refined petroleum products from India, the Caribbean, South America, and other places where labor costs, NIMBYism, and environmental regulations don't cripple new construction. The Department of Energy projects that worldwide refining capacity will increase 61% over the next 20 years. Says Fischer: "There's little reason to build a new refinery in the U.S. if you can do it faster and cheaper overseas." And while not all overseas refineries can produce gasoline that meets our environmental standards, who doesn't want to sell into the U.S. market? New plants will be, and already are, designed to meet American requirements. Finally, if oil companies don't want to build, their customers may beat them to it: In mid-September, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson announced plans for a $2 billion refinery that will help his airline defray the high cost of jet fuel.
MYTH NO. 5:
THE GOVERNMENT MUST INTERVENE TO BRING DOWN ENERGY PRICES.
REALITY: Nooooo! The last time the U.S. went down that road, in the 1970s, the end result was gas lines, shortages—and little change in prices. But evidently they don't teach much history in politician school anymore—a frightening number of elected officials seem ready to re-embrace price controls. U.S. Senators Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) want to give President Bush the power to set gasoline prices. In Massachusetts, secretary of state William Galvin has proposed a moratorium on natural-gas price increases. Hawaii's Republican governor has signed a law imposing limited price controls on gas; it will be interesting to see how much gas is left for the state to control.
A confidence-boosting release of some crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve might help to calm tempers, but all in all, the best thing the U.S. can do to bring down oil prices is—nothing. Ask yourself, Which is more likely to deliver cheaper oil: bureaucratic controls or all those new drilling rigs that went up only because of the incentive provided by high prices?
Of course, "I did nothing!" won't fly as a campaign slogan. And in fact, there are things the U.S. could be doing to treat our oil addiction. Because here's another uncomfortable truth: The U.S. now imports almost 60% of the oil it consumes each year, and that figure will only grow. One unfortunate result: Prickly characters like Hugo Chavez have us over a metaphorical barrel .
For starters, Congress could raise fuel-efficiency standards for cars. Even a 10% improvement would save the equivalent of two million barrels a day by 2025—more than we now import from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. We could reverse policies that encourage consumption, like the absurd tax incentives for small businesses to buy pickups and SUVs. We could ease some of the moratoriums on domestic oil and gas exploration. We could think harder about how to diversify supply; displace oil from uses not associated with transportation; and kick-start, through the wise use of market incentives, the journey toward a future beyond oil.
Years of relatively cheap oil—and low gasoline taxes—have allowed the U.S. to get away with being extraordinarily inefficient in our use of energy; we don't get nearly as much economic activity out of a barrel as our economic peers. The U.S. will never be self-sufficient in oil, even if we pave Alaska and drain the Gulf. But we can, and should, get more for our oil bucks. The U.S. is vulnerable to oil tremblors like the kind we are experiencing now because we have made a series of decisions—about taxes, subsidies, housing, transport, lifestyles—that have led precisely to this point. With the Gulf still damp from Katrina, it's time to ask if we can do it better.
No mention yet...
...of Mike Schaefer, who is the prime promoter of this co.
The ticker UEYCF did not work on BigCharts - it'd be great if there were in fact a way to trade via AmeriT which is possible in some cases with Canadian companies....
Hi SeriousMoney, I have owned this for 6 months now and we have lots to go. This can also be purchaced under UEYCF if I am not mistaken.
PR 9/12/05: UTS Energy Corporation Webcast at Peters & Co. Limited 2005 North American Oil & Gas Conference
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/050912/uts_energy_webcast.html?.v=1
CALGARY, Sept. 12 /CNW/ - UTS Energy Corporation Webcast:
UTS Energy Corporation (TSX: UTS - News) Peters & Co. Limited 2005 North American Oil & Gas Conference, September 13, 2005 15:15 ET
To access this event, please enter in your http://www.newswire.ca/webcast/pages/peters20050913/index.html web browser and select the appropriate company link from the day's events.
For a complete listing of upcoming and archived webcasts available through CNW Group, please visit our events calendar at http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/index.cgi. CNW's webcast of earnings calls is consistent with Market Regulation Services Inc. (RS) initiatives to broaden investor access through the use of new technology.
For further information
UTS Energy Corporation, Dr. William J.F. Roach, President and Chief Executive Officer, (403) 538-7030
Stuart Walker, Manager, Corporate Administration and HR, (403) 538-7015
4-Teck Cominco makes first oil sands foray
<Reuters.com, 9/6/05>
http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh41279_2005-09-06_20-41-35_n06...
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Teck Cominco Ltd. (TEKsvb.TO: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's top zinc miner, made good on plans Tuesday to jump into Canada's booming oil sands sector by snapping up 15 percent of the C$5 billion ($4.2 billion) Fort Hills project.
The C$475 million ($399 million) acquisition puts Teck in partnership with big oil producer and refiner Petro-Canada (PCA.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and with tiny UTS Energy Corp. (UTS.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) , which have been scouting since March for a partner with mining expertise.
Shares in Teck and UTS surged on the deal. UTS jumped 36 Canadian cents, or nearly 9 percent, to C$4.48 on a hefty volume of more than 24 million shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Teck gained C$1.68, or more than 3 percent, to C$50.85, while Petro-Canada fell 90 Canadian cents to C$48.81.
Fort Hills is expected to produce 100,000 barrels of synthetic crude a day starting in 2009, assuming the partners opt to build an upgrading plant, as expected. Output would eventually climb to 190,000 barrels a day.
It is one of numerous planned developments and expansions in Alberta's oil sands, which are seen as a key source of North American crude supplies. Oil sands are mined in open pits with the crude extracted using steam and chemicals. The heavy bitumen is then upgraded into refinery-ready oil.
Teck Chief Executive Don Lindsay said buying into the 2.8 billion barrel project represents the first of several investments in oil sands, where margins tend to be fatter than in base metals, especially with oil prices near record highs.
"It will be the core for us building an oil sands division, as opposed to us investing in one project," Lindsay told analysts. He has made no secret of being keen on the industry.
"We've been approached by several players in the oil sands sector, both large and small, and have had various discussions, and intend to keep doing so."
In June, Lindsay said he wanted a meaningful investment of more than C$200 million to justify the responsibility of taking over a project's mining operations. Besides zinc, Teck is also a major coal, copper and gold producer.
Under the deal, Teck will earn 10 percent of Fort Hills by funding C$250 million of Petro-Canada and UTS expenditures. It will gain another 5 percent interest from UTS by funding an additional C$225 million of its spending.
Petro-Canada, the project's operator, will have a 55 percent interest in Fort Hills and UTS will have 30 percent.
Acquisition prices in the oil sands have escalated this year as available opportunities have been picked off by such players as Chinese oil companies and France's Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) .
On Friday, Total was forced to boost its bid for small developer Deer Creek Energy (DCE.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) by 24 percent after a rival offer emerged.
Teck's investment, equal to C$1.13 a barrel of reserves, is higher than recent deals, Brian MacArthur, an analyst at UBS Securities wrote in a note to clients.
However, after two years of buoyant metal prices, analysts estimate Teck could have as much as C$2 billion of cash in hand by the end of 2005.
"We like this transaction. It's a good, strong, continued diversification process," said Haytham Hodaly, an analyst at Salman Partners Inc. "Obviously, the revenues from copper and coal, etc. can't maintain the levels we are seeing forever."
For its part, UTS said the deal allows it to fund all its spending on the project, its only asset, through 2009.
"We have now greatly enhanced our ability to bring this project to fruition," Chairman Dennis Sharp said.
($1=$1.19 Canadian)
PR 6/7/05: UTS and Petro-Canada Complete Transaction
http://biz.yahoo.com/ccn/050627/5ba3de4fd5daaa6366629a4b9299ae59.html?.v=1
CALGARY, ALBERTA--(CCNMatthews - June 27, 2005) - UTS Energy Corporation (TSX:UTS - News; "UTS Energy" or the "Corporation") today announced that it has entered into a formal partnership agreement and unanimous shareholders agreement with Petro-Canada and received the necessary approvals thereby closing the transaction previously announced. Pursuant to these agreements, and a subscription agreement dated April 22, 2005, Petro-Canada and UTS Energy have agreed to jointly fund the first C$1 billion to develop the Fort Hills oil sands project. Under these agreements, UTS retains 40% of the project while Petro-Canada acquires a 60% interest in the project.
Fort Hills is located in Alberta's Athabasca oil sands region approximately 90 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, contiguous to the Syncrude North Aurora Mine and Shell's Muskeg River Mine. The Fort Hills oil sands project area encompasses 46,000 contiguous acres and comprises Oil Sands Leases 5, 8 and 52. Fort Hills contains 4.7 billion barrels of bitumen in place, of which 2.8 billion barrels are recoverable under the mine plan. Supporting this resource estimate is a database comprising very high quality drilling and related analytical information derived from some 1027 boreholes.
UTS Energy is based in Calgary and its common shares are listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange, where they trade under the symbol UTS.
Contact:
UTS Energy
Dr. William J. F. Roach
President and Chief Executive Officer
(403) 538-7030
OR
UTS Energy
C. W. Leigh Cassidy
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(403) 538-7030
Followers
|
8
|
Posters
|
|
Posts (Today)
|
0
|
Posts (Total)
|
82
|
Created
|
09/17/05
|
Type
|
Free
|
Moderators |
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |