Changes in US oil inventories sometimes cause a sharp move in the price of crude. It makes perfect sense, even if it’s hard to tease out much of a statistical relationship from the data. Oil stocks, meaning oil held in inventory, have been falling since the early days of the pandemic when the collapse in […]
Students of stock market history will know that September is seasonally the worst month of the year. This month is typical. Some may think it’s October because of the crashes that month in 1929 and 1987. Only a few years into my Wall Street career, I returned home on October 19th, 1987, and solemnly warned […]
In March of 2020 when crude oil was collapsing dragging energy stocks, including pipelines, along, I tried to focus on the positive, which was that it had become cheaper to drive places. Except there was nowhere to go because of the lockdown. And even if there had been, I would have had to make roughly […]
A couple of weeks ago in Windpower Faces a Tempest, we highlighted the challenges facing offshore wind both in the US and Europe. A good friend of mine, a lawyer who has made his career doing energy deals, took issue with the blog post. A spirited text message interaction ensued, continued in person over two […]
Crude oil has rallied recently, in a much delayed reaction to numerous analyst forecasts that have been bullish all year. A couple of months ago Goldman’s commodities head Jeff Currie, who is leaving the bank, cut his year-end forecast for Brent crude from $95 per barrel to $86 while maintaining his long term bullish outlook. […]
The old MLP model rarely saw stock buybacks. Traditionally the General Partner (GP) would sell assets to the MLP it controlled in a non-arms-length transaction. The MLP would issue equity and debt to pay for them. MLPs were sellers of their own units, not buyers. Today’s midstream energy infrastructure sector has left that model behind. […]
At the end of August Orsted, a Danish developer of wind turbines, announced they’d be delaying their first planned installation off the New Jersey coast until 2026. They blamed supply chain issues, interest rates and insufficient US Federal tax credits. The Federal government had only recently approved the project. New Jersey Democrat governor Phil Murphy […]
The members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) could be forgiven for feelings of quiet satisfaction. They’ve raised short term rates higher than most observers expected, and odds of the consequent recession have been receding. The increase in the unemployment rate to 3.8% on Friday leaves it still well below full employment. Yet inflation […]
Nearly three years ago, French utility company Engie pulled out of negotiations with NextDecade (NEXT) to buy Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Concerns about leaks during the production of natural gas (methane) were the reason. Methane is a GreenHouse Gas (GHG) that is many times more potent than CO2 over a decade or so at trapping heat in […]
We’ve been critical of Magellan Midstream’s (MMP) proposed sale to Oneok (OKE) for months (see Oneok Does A Deal Nobody Needs), mostly because it forces MMP unitholders to pay taxes now that didn’t need paying and for some may never be paid. But we do agree with MMP CEO Aaron Milford that the growth opportunities […]
