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OT: Here is an interesting link of mapping data. It is amazing when they combined maps and satelight imagery.
http://earth.google.com/
OT: IMO is a nice stock if you got in earlier. It has only gone up and split with very little down trends. It looks like it might split again.
OT: CRUDE REALITIES: MINING THE FUTURE
The Dark Magic of Oil Sands
Canada's Alberta province has oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia's, but they're not a liquid asset. We visit Fort McMurray, the boomtown where oil-rich sands are mined-and a black-gold rush is on.
By Abrahm Lustgarten
(Photo: Alex Webb--Magnum)
Pedro Mujica settles in low over home plate, his golden Caracas jersey fluttering in the wind. The pitch comes in fast, and Mujica swings, lining the softball to left field. "Aut, aut," a throng of Venezuelan and Colombian players chant from the sidelines as Mujica is tagged out sliding into second.
It's a familiar scene, except that this August day is cold and blustery, and the field we're on is far from South America—about as far north as you can get and still play ball. It might seem strange to find 40 families from Venezuela living here in Fort McMurray, Alberta, a former fur-trading outpost closer to the Arctic Circle than to the northern border of the U.S. But lately people have been flooding in from places like Newfoundland and South Africa and Indonesia. "They've given me a second chance here," says Mujica, who lost his engineering job in Venezuela when Hugo Chavez came to power in 1998 and who was hired by Shell Canada in January.
Downtown Fort McMurray, where residential side streets hang like fish bones off a strip-mall spine, is bursting. Buying a cup of coffee at Starbucks can take 45 minutes, and bars like Diggers and the Oil Can are packed most nights. New F-150s, Durangos, and Excursions fill the parking lots, and it's not just workers who are coming. It's investment dollars, international corporations, and entrepreneurs, all looking for a stake in Canada's booming oil-sands industry.
Unlike the smooth crude oil that spurts from wells in Kuwait and Texas, oil sands are essentially black mud. "It's like you took a bucket of sand and dumped your old motor oil in it," says Peter Duggan, a manager at the Aurora mine, which is operated by Syncrude, a partnership of Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and several other companies. Through a complicated series of steps (see following diagram) the mud is transformed into gas you can put in your car.
Canadian companies have been mining Alberta's oil sands for nearly 40 years, but since production costs run seven times higher than for the cheapest conventional crude, the frenzy didn't really get going until oil prices spiked. "The oil-sands potential is huge," says Frederick Lawrence, a vice president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. Oil & Gas Journal estimates that Alberta has 174.5 billion barrels of recoverable reserves in its oil sands, enough to meet Canada's needs for 250 years. That figure is second only to Saudi Arabia's estimated reserves of 264 billion barrels. All told, including deposits beyond the reach of today's technology, there could be 1.6 trillion barrels of oil embedded in Alberta.
The race to lock up those riches has begun in earnest. "The oil sands is the most significant development in crude oil in North America and one of the most significant worldwide," says Richard Kinder, CEO of the American pipeline company Kinder Morgan, which last month agreed to pay $5.6 billion for Canadian tar-sands player Terasen. "We've been looking for the right way in for a year." The day after that deal was announced, French oil giant Total put down $1.1 billion for Deer Creek Energy, another Canadian company. Those buys follow a string of new Chinese stakes: Sinopec acquired 40% of Synenco in May, and CNOOC invested in MEG Energy as well as in a pipeline project.
China's investments in the sector, about $255 million, are little more than a dabble so far, but a proposed venture with Canadian pipeline builder Enbridge to pipe 400,000 barrels a day from Fort McMurray to a Pacific port is widely believed to have caught Washington's attention. In July, Treasury Secretary John Snow toured the area. In August a delegation of U.S. Senators paid a visit. And Vice President Dick Cheney had scheduled a September trip before Hurricane Katrina forced him to change plans. Canada sends two million barrels a day to the U.S., from both oil sands and conventional drilling sites. That accounts for almost 16% of U.S. imports and 99% of Canada's oil exports. As Robert Esser, director of global oil and gas resources at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, puts it, Canada is the only U.S.-friendly country on earth where lots more oil is expected to come online. The White House's 2001 report on national energy policy, spearheaded by Cheney, called Canada's oil sands "a pillar of sustained North American energy and economic security."
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/investing/articles/0,15114,1105691,00.html?promoid=yahoo
All right! The technials are going to start reversing. That pull back was artifical. I cannot wait to see a huge contract signed. I want to see the shorts get squeezed.
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=nsol
Techno-I just want to see progress that is all I want to see. I would define progress as significant cash flow followed by significant profits generated from licensing the rights to use or sell products derived from the company's technologies. It has been 3 years and Patrick has basically rebuilt this company from nothing to something. I and many other longs have been waiting for years and we all want to see progress. It appears that NSOL is close to accomplishing what we want to see happen. I have thrown most of what I have into this stock and that is a high risk, but I figure NSOL is worth the gamble because of people like Patrick Herda, Boris Muchnick and now Devito (the deal maker). The good thing is most of my risk has been removed since I did flip my shares once and significantly lowered my price per share.
I can remember the last letter of intent that fell through with Paul Brown back in Novemeber 2001 when I first bought a small amount of shares in NSOL. Those were the days of a low float and the stock would move in increments of 4-7 cents.
I hope your friend is right and I look forward to between now and the end of next year. NSOL has not moved higher for a while and has just bounced between $0.5 and $1.3. It is time that the stock form a higher base.
I appreiciate you sharing your knowlege and connections with people on this board. Keep up the good work!
Lets see if it happens by January 1st next year. We should have an update about whether or not NSOL formed a partnership for commercializing their Nuclear Batteries or will this get delayed until next year just like last time? Maybe they will just forget about them since not much has been accomplished with the batteries anyways. If they are talking about next generation maybe they should wait until one of their other technologies are off the ground.
Well I still think the most valuable is the TWR followed by the Ethonal gas facility followed by the Nuclear Detection.
This pull back seems like it could be artificial. I do not know. I wish NSOL would just focus on one technology instead of being unfocused on 4 different technologies. Maybe the company would have commercialized a tech by now. I am not going to watch NSOL today. Lets hope for a good week beginning on Monday!
The close was interesting. Is Friday the day?
Well I wonder if NSOL will close in the green. The MM got quite a few shares in the low 90's.
0.91. THe MM are getting their panick selling that they have wanted for teh last two weeks.
I wish management would inform us this week. Why wait until next week if it is a done deal. This was a bad week in general unless this is the MM raking up shares because the volume has been weak. The technicals have reversed and hopefully they will release an update before the MACD crosses from poistive to negative terriory.
However, with Devito anything is possible. He would not join NSOL unless the company had something good.
I really want NSOL to focus on commercializing something. If they would get one technology generating revenue that would be great. I still think TWR is going to be the major money maker for NSOL. They filed worldwide patents and soon the patents will be published.
I think Herda is refering to crossing the threshold from development stage to commercializtion because the company generated some revenue from the license fees.
It is amazing how the MM are walking this down on such low volume. The technicals are also not alligned look at the MACD.
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=nsol
Technoman-Has your source providing the information been accurate in the past? Do you think Patrick will wait until October to release it since he has historically dragged his feet in releasing information. What you talk about seems to good to be true, but if the FFI does have permits allready in place than I would have to agree with your assessment.
Patrick has always wanted to surprise shareholders and FFI was a surprise. I wonder how long it will take to construct the ethonal production plants?
Do you predict a trade halt since the possible contract news may be very significant?
Looks like the potential PR will not be today. Ussally Mr. Herda releases news by 11:30am EST!
I winder when the company will release details about the strategic alliance in Rome, Italy about exactly what they are going to do for NSOL! THe quarterly report was vague. Any ideas?
Back in 2003 I almost threw everything I had in savings and cash available into NSOL around 0.085 and now I wish I did. There has not been many great opportunities to flip shares either in the past 3-6 months.
Thanks Tom and Technoman. I have held this stock since November 2001. I added most of my shares at under 0.25 so I am very happy. I can remember thinking what would happen after Mr. Browns death. If the stock dropped it would be a great buying opportunity and it was and I and many other longs loaded the boat during the late 2003 early 2004 era. Looking back we are lucky to get in before everybody else jumped on board.
I am patient and will hold it longer if neccessary now that Devito is on board.
I would like to sell some shares at $25-30 so I can leverage myself in a good way. I hope the contract news is good (if there is any) and that it happens this month.
Tom-DO you think this will be the week that we see the Nuclear Detection Update? I wish the rumors were true, but it might take longer for such deals to be forged. It looks like the technicals are going to begin to reverse now.
This morning is slow. Only 21K shares traded. Is this the week everybodt expects news?
From my water and waste water treatment engineer classes a few years ago. Most landfills solids range between 30-40% organic material because of the food people throw away. For the most part the capturing of the methane gas in solid waste land fills through leech lines strategically placed is very inefficent. The methane is pushed into generators and the electricty is sold back on the power grid.
If you have a batch reactor or more perferably a continous flow reactor (CSTR) and control the environmental conditions and catalyst, the bacteria can produce specific products from all kinds of organic material. The process most likely will be anaerobic since it is what is used typically to produce alcohols and methane gases. Aerobic reactions are generally between 4-10 times faster than anaerobic reactions and the products efficiency will range depending on which process. Most wastewater treatment plants focus on aroebic process since they are concerned with breaking up all organic material into Carbon dioxide gas and the remaining sludge is non biodegradable organics and other solids. PH, temperature, oxygen, and the enzymes or cataylst and type of bacteria is very important factors in the process.
Typical problems that occur sometimes when you have the food for the bacteria and you want a specific product to be degraded or created, sometimes the bacteria will stop breaking down or slow down in the efficiency of the product. That is one reason why wastewater plants recycle their bacteria. The thought is if the bacteria that is recycled you have starved those specific bacteria before resupplying them with additional food.
MM appear to be at it again on such low volume its ridicoulous.
The last 10 minutes volume has picked up!
If the news is as big as the rumors you would think the MM will run it up the last day prior to the news release in order to buy shares cheap.
One of the signs is the volume a week ago. A second sign is the last 6 days the MM have tried to shake this stock 4 times which I have never seen them do it that often only to bring it back to 1.15.
I am sure the rumors are true because why would NSOL bring on Devito unless they had large contracts to be negotiated. He is the deal maker.
I am very happy with NSOL and I was lucky to beable to buy all my shares below a $1.
Well it looks like another slow day with NSOL! I will be gone the rest of the day. I hope we see news today or tommorrow.
I believe the MM will walk it up. THe bid ask just tightened to 1.14/1.15 so they might start moving it up. It was a shake earlier this morning. The MM have tried this 4 days in a row.
Wednesday, Friday and today had significant walk downs in an effort to try to accumulate shares.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=NSOL.OB&t=5d
If the news is real good you can expect the MM to walk down the stock and shake it as good as they can a day or two prior to the release. Especially with this weak volume.
This looks like a typical day after a holiday. It is slow and not interesting for NSOL today! I am hoping that news will be released on Wednesday or THursday!
It was a good close so I expend things will continue upward. News next week would be excellent! I want to see news on Wednesday!
Nice post Making $$$$$$$$$$$$$! LOL!
Gas climbs as U.S. scrambles for fuel By Janet McBride
34 minutes ago
LONDON (Reuters) - Gasoline rode high at over $100 a barrel on Thursday as the United States scrambled to replace fuel supplies lost when Hurricane Katrina slammed into Gulf of Mexico rigs and refiners.
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President George W Bush told Americans he expected close ally Saudi Arabia to do "everything it can" to provide the United States with more oil and said there would be zero tolerance of price gouging at the gasoline pump.
But Europe was unnerved by how ill-prepared the world's biggest economy was for Hurricane Katrina's rampage.
The U.S. holds plenty of crude in its strategic stockpile and has offered to loan some of it to refiners, but the gesture does nothing to address an immediate shortage of gasoline. European operators dashed to charter ships to the U.S. coast.
White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke predicted gasoline prices would go higher then drop when supplies are restored.
"Hurricane Katrina has been an eye opener, highlighting the inadequacy of the global refining system," said Merrill Lynch.
The European Commission said it wanted to revive a plan to coordinate EU oil stocks. In Germany, election challenger Angela Merkel said she could envisage tapping German oil reserves, but her comments were smartly rebuffed by the government.
France announced it would give financial aid to millions of families to help them cope with sky-high oil prices, and promised to boost renewable energy.
"We have entered the post-oil era," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told a news conference.
The European Central Bank raised its inflation forecasts for this year and next, noting soaring oil prices were pushing up the cost of goods and services. The ECB raised its projection for the crude price by $12 to $62.8 a barrel in 2006.
U.S. crude was down 24 cents at $68.70 a barrel by 1518 GMT, below the record $70.85 hit on Tuesday. London Brent crude was up 2 cents at $67.04 a barrel.
Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) continued their relentless rise to a high of $2.465 a gallon then eased to $2.42, up 16.47 cents on the day.
European gasoline barges hit a record $855 a ton, and U.S. heating oil touched a record $2.1430 a gallon.
"We really need to see signs of slowing demand from China, India and the United States before prices can come off appreciably," analysts at Refco said.
But with more hurricanes in prospect risks to U.S. supply remained. "This hurricane season has been unusually active and the peak is just now approaching in early September."
GASOLINE
The U.S. oil industry remained shaken after Hurricane Katrina, with most offshore production from the Gulf of Mexico down, about 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity paralyzed, and pipelines struggling to restart. At least 20 rigs or platforms were adrift, listing, sunk or missing.
The U.S. Department of Energy said some of the eight refineries shut by Katrina could take months to restart, with reports that floodwaters swamped at least three in Louisiana.
European operators have booked 20 gasoline cargoes to the United States since Monday to take advantage of red hot U.S. gasoline prices, brokers said on Thursday.
"Crazy gas (gasoline) prices are certainly reflecting a perception of tighter supply in that product," said Bob Frye, a trader at Access Futures and Options Trading.
"As soon as we start hearing about isolated pockets where gas is unavailable, the emotional response is likely to drive things higher."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it would ease environmental standards of gasoline and diesel nationwide for two weeks to avert a fuel crunch.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) holds more than 700 million barrels of crude in salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. It loaned 5.4 million barrels of oil to refiners last year to stabilize supplies after the weaker Hurricane Ivan.
Further potential supply disruption could come from Nigeria, where the main workers' union threatened a strike, saying proposed fuel price hikes by the government of the world's eighth-biggest crude exporter were unacceptable.
For details of damage to oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico please double click on
(Additional reporting by Paul Marriott and Neil Chatterjee)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050901/us_nm/markets_oil_dc
I look forward to the day when NSOL trades higher than $5 so we can move to the NASDAQ!
1.14/1.13 on 241K
Nice how the stock continued it upward movement. THe technicals look great too! That pull back yesterday allowed the MM to gather cheap shares from the day traders. I bet we close above 1.20 today!
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=nsol
This is natural a pull back. It will help take the stock to the next level. Maybe the buying will return tommorrow, if it did the stock would do much better gaining value. Lets see if NSOL can repeat a similar pattern to IPIX in the next week or two.
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=nsol
KNows they are saying WOW LOOK NSOL BELOW $2 what a STRONG BUY! LOL!
This is their walk down attempt!
I do expect a walk down or maybe the MM will just keep locking the bid ask and allow the traders to sell.
1.19/1.20 with 97K shares traded