A couple of weeks ago I was in Fort McMurray, Alberta. I was visiting two large oil sands operations, courtesy of Conoco Phillips (NYSE:COP), Syncrude Canada and the American Petroleum Institute, which sponsored the trip. I’ve been all over the place, but never to a working oil sands operation. This was a first for me, and quite an eye-opener.
Government budget hits all-time insanity… record monthly, year-to-date deficits… “Cash for clunkers” helps GM, but not economy… July retail sales stage surprise fall… Fed plans exit strategy, ends bond buys… why the FOMC is still not helping you… Byron King’s crude reality: How Canada could be the next Saudi Arabia…
Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) said it will buy rival Petro-Canada (PCZ) for $14.9 billion (C$18.43 billion) in a deal that will create Canadia’s largest energy company, with a refining capacity of 433,000 barrels per day.
Last week, a few investors started to dip their stubbed toes back into the market. There’s no question we might still see a few more large drops to the downside, but those who are waiting for the “very last correction” will likely miss a significant portion of the next bull-run.
With commodity prices through the roof, governments and businesses see investing in resource-rich Africa as an increasingly attractive proposition.
Chris Mayer explains in The Daily Reckoning why investing in Africa holds such potential for profit:
Africa increasingly is right in the middle of the global quest for natural resources. It has the highest ratio of light and sweet crude in the world – the best-quality stuff you can find. And most of its oil – some 83% – comes from large fields that produce at least 100 million barrels per day.
There is a map of the world on my office wall. What I like about this map is that the mapmaker paid particular attention to getting the scale right.
Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive has weighed in alongside OPEC, claiming that there is no shortage of physical oil supplies, and the crude oil prices should drop.
“As the post-Memorial Day hangover lingers, and $4 per gallon gasoline becomes a national reality, expect more and more daily energy prognostications,” says William Patalon III in Money Morning.
The number of OPEC countries has dropped to 12 from 13 after Indonesia an OPEC member since 1962, has announced it will leave the oil producers’ consortium due falling oil production. This from Bloomberg:
Indonesia, the only OPEC member in Southeast Asia, will pull out of the group as aging fields and declining production force the region’s biggest economy to boost imports.
Oil prices gained a dollar today to approach last week’s record high of $133 a barrel after Nigerian rebels blew up a pipeline belonging to Royal Dutch Shell, forcing it to cut production. This from the Financial Times:
Crude prices jumped on Monday in electronic trading as news of the attack broke, but analysts said the impact on prices spilled over into Tuesday, when exchanges on both side of the Atlantic re-opened after the long weekend.
One of the drug industry’s biggest superstars right now is a cancer drug called Sutent.