Archive for the 'Investment' Category

$21 Billion of Oil and Gas Deals Announced Third Quarter 2009
PR Newswire

HOUSTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — PLS, Inc. (”PLS”) in conjunction with its international partner Derrick Petroleum Services (”Derrick”) reports that Global M&A activity for the 3rd Quarter 2009 totaled nearly $21 billion in 112 separate transactions. According to Brian Lidsky, Managing Director of Research at PLS, Inc., “Oil and gas deal volume increased markedly beginning in late August 2009 due to a confluence of events. These include: 1) a growing consensus that the economy bottomed in the 2nd quarter 2009 and a recovery is under way, 2) price stability of oil in the $65 - $75 per barrel range, and 3) a dramatic drop of U.S. natural gas prices in late August - early September towards the $2.50 range that signaled a buying opportunity to the U.S. markets. For perspective, the oil and gas forward 12-month strips at 3rd Quarter 2009 end were $73.00 per barrel and $5.93 per mcf (thousand cubic feet) versus year ago numbers of $99.02 per barrel and $8.15 per mcf.”

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Natural gas and how to play it
MoneyWeek

Oil is the energy resource that captures public attention – nearly all of us need its products to drive around every day, and feel the pain of prices of $130 a barrel, or thereabouts, when we fill our cars at the pumps.

But its poor cousin natural gas could be the one now offering more interesting investment opportunities:

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First Solar to Build World’s Largest Solar Power Plant in China
By John Duce and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan / Bloomberg.com

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) — First Solar Inc., a U.S.-based renewable energy company, will build the world’s largest solar power plant in China as the country plans to increase non- polluting electricity generation.

The plant would be about thirty times larger than existing solar power stations operating in Europe, Dulce Qu, a Beijing- based spokeswoman for company, said by telephone today. The 2,000-megawatt complex will be built in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China by 2019, Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar said yesterday. One mega watt is enough to power 800 U.S. homes.

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Winter may heat up natural gas prices
By Markus Ermisch / Sun Media
August, 27, 2009
Finance Minister Iris Evans says she’s not relying on winter to give depressed natural gas prices a boost, but chances are that at this point, Jack Frost is the government’s best friend.

Alberta’s government, in yesterday’s budget update, lowered its forecast for the price of natural gas to $3.75 per gigajoule, a cut of $1.75 from the forecast included in April’s provincial budget. Natural gas royalties for the fiscal year are now estimated at $1.9 billion, $1.8 billion lower than the budget estimate.

The government also adjusted the average oil price to $61 US a barrel, up from the $55.50 US contained in the budget. The higher oil price is offset by an appreciating loonie, and oil royalties are now forecast to drop $333 million to $1.9 billion.

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By Michael Bradwell / Observer-Reporter.com

ARDEN - More than 2,000 people turned out for an oil, gas and coal jobs expo Saturday at the Washington County Fairgrounds, with some coming from as far away as Texas and Colorado.

By noon Saturday, lines of as many as 20 to 25 applicants could be seen at several of the 40 exhibitors at the Oil & Gas Expo inside Exhibit Hall No. 1, waiting to talk with representatives of natural gas exploration companies, coal companies and related support services. Some major corporate participants included Consol Energy Inc., Range Resources, Halliburton and Atlas Energy Resources.

“There were 1,500 waiting to get in; there were people everywhere,” said Pat McCune, president of Community Bank and one of the sponsors of the Oil & Gas Expo, which has held several informational sessions since October in Greene County. The event ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Pacific Energy & Mining Company (PINKSHEETS: PEMC) announces the withdrawal of the acquisition of a 50% operating interest in 16 natural gas wells in the State of New Mexico. After review of the well conditions and further “Due Diligence,” the Company chose to reverse its planned acquisition of the property.

The Company holds interest in the Brennan Bottoms oil field. Brennan Bottoms is composed of approximately 1,700 acres of Federal leases. In Cisco, Utah the Company holds a direct interest in Cisco Springs oil and gas field (11 wells) and in Cisco Township oil and gas field (10 wells).

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Oil and gas producers should expect a political fight after a US appeals court ruled in their favor about royalties from deepwater leases. They also should prepare for wild claims about associated “costs.”Deepwater royalty relief, one of the most effective energy programs in US history, elicited outrage in 2006 when the New York Times reported that the federal budget lacked estimates of royalty income for deepwater Gulf of Mexico leases issued in 1998 and 1999. The leases didn’t reinstate royalty, as did those issued in similarly administered years, when oil and gas prices exceeded statutory “thresholds.”

Courts, meanwhile, have been addressing the question whether the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service had authority to limit royalty relief on the basis of price for leases issued in the five years from 1996 through 2000. So far, the consistent answer is no.

Full Story in Oil and Gas Journal Feb 2009