Lowman--good posts. Yeah, sometimes I get carried away with the flowery language. (I like $5 words now 'n' then). Anyway, with rising oil prices and world instability (Iran, Venezuela, peak oil), smaller domestic oil companies should do well. TNOG included. Small wildcatter oil/gas pink sheet stocks will get a lot of attention all summer, IMO. This reminds me of my west Texas days when everyone was getting into the oil business after the oil shortage of the late 1970s. Old wells that were shut down due to low oil prices were redrilled and made profitable. (Sound familiar?) Many fortunes were made. Many also lost their shirts during the oil bust in the late 80s. This time it may be different as oil is getting harder to find and demand is only going to increase with China and India demanding more.
As for gold, it is true that has not kept pace with the oil/gold ratio. The MSM tends to imply that gold and silver are in a 'bubble.' They say gold and silver are reaching 20 year highs, but inflation is usually ignored in those headlines.
When factoring inflation in, silver needs to be $25 right now to match those old highs, for example. The gold and silver bull is just getting started. Government spending and demand for entitlements will lead to more money being printed. More money = inflation. That's why they stopped releasing the M3 figures. They've chosen inflation rather than a socially-destabilizing deflationary depression. In either case, they're pushing on a string and many people are starting to realize it's better to turn in some of their fiat money in for 'real' money--silver and gold. The dollar has nowhere to go but down. And now Iran is opening up an oil bourse--in Euros. This could mark the beginning of the end as the dollar as the preeminent world currency.
As for TNOG, the K1 well WAS a dry hole, and although we were all very disappointed with that, it was hardly the demise of TNOG that many bashers wanted. And it may not even be a dry hole. Maybe the target was just missed. After all, they did have some oil and gas there.
We're in for an interesting summer!
Good luck to you.
--M
