The Trading Floor

[mick]

this is related to #1625 ,,,oil and natural gas subject.
Thursday, May 13, 2004

http://www.NaturalGasStocks.com Reports on China-Energy and Raw Materials

China's Fast Pace in Industrialization Has Created a Huge Demand For Energy

Point Roberts, WA - May 13, 2004 - http://www.InvestorIdeas.com and http://www.NaturalGasStocks.com are pleased to provide investors interested in researching the natural gas sector with a free global research portal. As natural gas prices continue to rise, interested and concerned investors can use the portal as a resource tool to research industries. http://www.InvestorIdeas.com features an exclusive research report, "CHINA OPPORTUNITY - STILL "THE NEXT BIG THING" by Frank Liu, CFA, with a special focus on China's fast pace in industrialization and how it has created a large demand for energy.

Research Report Excerpt:

China-Energy and Raw Materials
China's fast pace in industrialization has created a huge demand for energy. This year, China will likely surpass Japan as the world's second largest consumer of oil, only after US. But the per capita use of oil in China is just 1.7 barrels a year, compared with 30 barrels in US, and close to 20 barrels in Japan and South Korea. With a strong demand but limited oil reserves in its own ground, China has become increasingly dependent on oil imports. Last year, its imports of crude oil jumped 30%. Now, China imports a third of its oil, and the US Energy Information Administration forecasts that by 2020, China will import two thirds of its oil, or 7 million barrels a day, over a quarter of today's OPEC production.

The country's thirsty for energy also created a huge demand for *****coal***** and natural gas. In 2003, the nation's consumption of electricity increased by 15.4%, compared with 11.6% and 8.7% in 2002 and 2001 respectively. But there is no sign of slowing down in this trend: in the first quarter of 2004, the consumption of electricity increased by 16.4% over the same period of last year. The country has been suffering from severe shortage in electricity for years. This year, China is expected to have a shortfall of at least 20 million kilowatt in electricity supply.

*****Many places, more accurately, 21 provinces out of 31 in China have experienced blackouts last year because electricity was cut off at peak times*****. The situation this year is expected to be worse. This rapidly growing demand and a lag in supplies have encouraged the launch of a series of new power plant projects, and most of them will be coal-fired plants. It is estimated that over the next 25 years, nearly as many coal-fired power plants will be built in China as in the rest of world combined.

With increasing concerns over the heavy pollution cased by coal-firing power plants, China has been promoting more use of natural gas. In 2004, a total of $17.3 billion will be invested in East China Sea to build 10 natural gas platforms. But that's far away from enough. According to an estimate by China National Offshore Oil Corp, China's demand for gas will be growing at 12% a year for the next 15 years, reaching 160 - 210 billion cubic meters in 2020. By then, half of China's gas will be imported.

This trend in China's demand for energy will not change soon. This is a huge thing in the picture of world energy demand and supply. In the case of oil, many experts around the world have concluded that most of the world's oil supplies have reached their peak outputs, because the age of the world's core oil supply is already old, and no super giant fields have been found since 1975. For coal, there are abundant lower grade coals in the world, but not many good coal supplies. And for natural gas, the conventional gas supplies have peaked, and it takes years for unconventional gas wells to develop.

All the factors lead to one conclusion: a long-term bull energy market in the many years to come as demands from China and other developing countries keep growing strongly.

The situation with raw industrial materials, particularly base metals, is similar to the energy sector, as proved by the soaring commodity prices last year. Investors' expectation on China's huge demand for industrial materials was a major driving force behind these price changes. Since earlier this year, commodity prices have been eased as the "hot money" is moving out of the sector, but that does not change the long-term upward prospects of industrial commodities. Supplies of many industrial commodities have not increased since the long lasting bear market started in the 1980's and it normally takes a cycle of 5 to 10 years for a mine from exploration to reach a meaningful production capacity.

The best strategy to benefit from the bull energy and commodity market is to buy in oil, gas and mining companies with large reserves, because commodity prices are so volatile that an investor can easily get burned. By investing in oil, gas and mining companies investors can benefit from the rising energy and commodity prices on a much smoother ride.

Recommendations: Investors could find some good energy and mining companies from resource rich countries such as Canada and Australia. I recommend two of them: Esprit Exploration (EEE.TO) and BHP Billiton (BHP).

Please check the website http://www.NaturalGasStocks.com for more natural gas stocks.

Full research report:
http://www.China-AsiaStocks.com/Companies/China-AsiaStocks/China_Opportunities.asp
Featured Company:

Miller Petroleum, Inc. (OTCBB: MILL) hmmmmm,,,i have been seeing this one lately.

Miller Petroleum is a revenue producing oil and natural gas Company with 50,000 acres under lease in the heart of Tennessee's prolific and hydrocarbon rich Appalachian Basin. The Company's C.E.O., Deloy Miller, has had a successful track record spanning over thirty five years in this Basin's oil and gas industry.

In the last reporting quarter, the Company reported a 41% increase in revenues to $482,149 up from $340,936 in the previous quarter. Increases are primarily due to natural gas sales from the Lindsay Land Company lease and higher oil and natural gas prices.

Heartland Oil & Gas Corp. (OTCBB: HOGC) ,,,this is a favorite.

Heartland Oil & Gas Corp. is a coalbed methane (CBM) company whose operations are located in the Forest City Basin in the state of Kansas. The Forest City Basin is the northern part of a CBM rich fairway, which begins in the south in the adjacent Cherokee Basin. Heartland is unique in that it has amassed a major portfolio of coalbed methane leases covering much of the fairway's thickest and most gas rich coals. Heartland's focus is to fully develop its CBM leases. On Jan 26, 2004 the company announced that the drilling and completion of its initial 5 well pilot program in the Forest City Basin of northeast Kansas had been completed, on time and within budget. These wells are currently dewatering. The company has commenced the drilling of an additional 15 CBM wells and 3 water disposal wells.

NaturalGasStocks.com includes a growing list of public companies in the sector. The following is a growing list of companies involved in natural gas: http://www.NaturalGasStocks.com/Companies/HOGC/News/NaturalGasStocksList.asp

ECON Corporate Services owns http://www.InvestorIdeas.com and http://www.NaturalGasStocks.com

Disclaimer: The site does not make recommendations but offers an information portal to investors to research news, articles, and recent research. Its featured companies, Heartland Oil & Gas Corp and Miller Petroleum, currently compensate the site, but the current list of stocks is provided as a free research tool.

Compensation specifics: http://www.investorideas.com/About/News/Clientspecifics.asp
Disclaimer: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp

For more information contact:

me:
eee.to use to trade on the amex but decided to stay on the cndx.