On Sunday we reviewed Vaclav Smil’s Natural Gas: Fuel for the 21st Century. Smil writes about how the world uses energy, well supported by useful facts and figures. Our original review was a brief summary of the book. Below, we highlight some of the fascinating proof statements Smil includes in his book. For example – […]
Vaclav Smil is a prolific writer of books that explain how the world uses energy. Past titles include Making the Modern World – Materials and Dematerialization, Energy Transitions, Energy Myths and Realities, Energy: A Beginner’s Guide and Energy and Civilization: A History. If you want to understand the physics, chemistry and economics of energy, you […]
Most energy investors wish the Shale Revolution had never happened. Energy independence was realized through sharply higher oil and gas output. But the promise of similarly bountiful investment returns was not. U.S. E&P executives have overspent and overproduced. Unfortunately, the midstream infrastructure sector too often followed along. Drilling and building infrastructure is in the DNA […]
On Thursday my wife and I boarded a plane from Newark, NJ to Charlotte, NC. Although Governor Murphy is slowly relaxing the lockdown restrictions that have been imposed on New Jerseyans, it is an incremental process. Each minor restoration of a freedom lost is quietly celebrated. Restaurants will soon be allowed to open for outdoor […]
There’s rarely a shortage of bearish articles. The recent batch incorporates a tone of pleading, or at least reasoning, with investors to acknowledge our circumstances when choosing investments. One of my favorites is a New Yorker essay from mid-May, which asked Have The Record Number Of Investors In The Stock Market Lost Their Minds? The […]
It’s surprisingly difficult to figure out what dividends are doing for midstream energy infrastructure. Just about every company has a free pass on cutting its payout nowadays. Prudent cash management isn’t going to draw much criticism with the size of the economic shock we’re enduring. Given the beating energy stocks suffered during 1Q20, a few […]
The energy sector has been leading the market’s rebound from the lows of March. Demand for crude oil plummeted, and the Saudi decision to simultaneously increase supply caused prices to briefly go negative. No investment sector in energy was safe, including midstream infrastructure. U.S. oil production has already dropped by 1.6 Million Barrels per Day […]
The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects CO2 emissions to fall 8% this year. This is six times the reduction that followed the 2008 financial crisis, reflecting the far greater drop in economic activity. Transportation has plummeted — peak congestion on roads in March was estimated down 50-60% in major cities around the world including Los […]
At Berkshire’s virtual annual meeting recently, Warren Buffett mused that their cash hoard of $135BN didn’t seem that much. Stanley Druckenmiller said, “The risk-reward for equity is maybe as bad as I’ve seen it in my career.” The New Yorker thinks stock investors have lost their minds. To not be bearish is to be insensitive […]
One of the few pleasant surprises of recent weeks is that business for the major pipelines remains solid. Now that 1Q earnings season is complete, we have revised guidance from all the companies in the broad-based American Energy Independence Index. Caution was evident throughout on earnings calls, as one company after another described the impact […]
