EUROPE’S ENERGY CRISIS IS KEEPING ENERGY PRICES HIGH
America leads the world in oil and gas production. We believe midstream energy infrastructure offers predictable cash flows to investors.
NuStar Acts Like a Hedge Fund
Last Tuesday, in a kind of return to normalcy, NuStar Energy (NS) funded an acquisition the way Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) normally do; by issuing equity. NS is an MLP controlled by a publicly traded General Partner (GP) called NuStar GP Holdings (NSH). As we’ve noted in the past, an MLP with a GP looks […]
The Global Trade in Natural Gas
One of the many benefits of the Shale revolution has been a reversal of the U.S. terms of trade with respect to natural gas (see U.S. Natural Gas Exports Taking Off). We’ve long been a net importer and the Sabine Pass LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) facility in Louisiana was originally intended to augment pipeline inflows […]
The Folly of Leveraged ETFs
Recent weakness in crude oil has spilled over into Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). Some connection between the two is understandable, because part of the bull case for MLPs lies in growing shale output increasing demand for energy infrastructure. Lower oil prices dampen the enthusiasm for the idea that Exploration and Production (E&P) companies will be […]
The Slow Shift in Power
The U.S. produces electricity from diverse sources; burning coal and natural gas each provide just under a third of our needs (natural gas is steadily displacing coal, which is good for those MLPs that transport, process and store natural gas). Nuclear is 19%, with the rest being other renewables of which hydro is the biggest. […]
Emerging Markets: Promises Unfulfilled, Time to Upgrade into MLPs
Most MLP investors are attracted by the regular distributions paid out by midstream infrastructure businesses. Some though, are wary of a repeat of the heightened volatility of 2015 even though evidence increasingly supports our analysis from early last year that an improbable confluence of circumstances was responsible (see The 2015 MLP Crash; Why and What’s […]