Even a first grader can look at this market and know anything but fundamentals are driving the action. Fortunately for guys like me, few grade-school can figure out why.

These days, it is all about the macro-economy. More specifically, the only thing anybody cares about is the value of the dollar. When the greenback is up, the market is down (like today). When the dollar is weak, the market rallies – like last week.

There are several reasons for the trend: flight to safety, inflation, political risk… you name it.

What matters for us as traders is the pattern is unwaveringly true for the crude markets. With oil settlement denominated in dollars, the ever-important energy source is tied directly to the greenback.

The correlation makes oil a great hedge against the dollar, even better than the politically critical gold markets (few entities can dump billions of dollars of oil reserves into the market like the IMF may do).

Unfortunately, today’s strength in the dollar has sent crude prices back below the critical $70 level. As I write, a barrel is trading at $69.14, down $2.90 on the day.

That is not good news for industry giants like Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), BP (NYSE:BP) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX), which all gapped down at the day’s opening bell.

Could be worse

While a small drop in Big Oil valuations erases billions in paper wealth, their shareholders are not feeling nearly the level of pain as the folks unlucky enough to be long on Delta Petroleum (NYSE:DPTR).

The stock is down 43% on news its Columbia River Basin test well performed far below expectations. While some gas was pumped, the company has deemed the level s “uneconomic.”

While the action has little to do with the value of the dollar or even commodity prices, the nasty decline goes a long way in showing the increasing levels of volatility in the nation’s energy industry.

As political, currency and economic risk swirl into a virtual perfect storm fueled by speculation, we are going to see larger and larger swings in the oil and natural gas industry. For some investors, it is exactly what they were hoping for. But for others, it will be a costly trap.

The folks with the most to win are options traders. Over at TFN Strategic Trader, we have used the increased volatility to our great advantage. Last Thursday, we locked in gains of 40% on a set of Chesapeake Energy call options.

Even better, the portfolio currently boasts a Big Oil short position and a dandy covered call already worth double-digit gains. Increased volatility will be a boon for options traders.

But for speculative investors looking to play the global economic rebound by grabbing shares of small-cap producers on the cheap, I have just three words… do your homework. If the dollar gets much weaker, the industry is going to start looking very different.

I am a huge fan of the commodities market, especially with China on a buying spree, but oil industry investors have a few more risk factors to handle.

Fail to understand how they all work together and you could have serious trouble on your hands. But get it right and make the smart moves, well, the rest of this year is going to treat you very well.

Keep your eye on that dollar.

Source: Oil Investors: Keep Your Eye on That Dollar

• Reliable sources of energy.
• A modern, efficient infrastructure, consisting of a good road and rail system, reliable power grids and high-speed digital communications networks.

And if a country wants to be considered a “global economic powerhouse,” it’s nearly impossible for it to do so without these critical building blocks.

So it’s not too surprising that China is spending unprecedented amounts of money to beef up its infrastructure.

It’s also spending huge amounts of money on long-term oil and gas contracts. And with nearly $2 trillion on hand, it’s the perfect time for China to go on an energy acquisition spree.

Right now, it’s spending like a thirsty sailor on shore leave…

You see, despite the recent pullback in the Chinese stock market, the country is still on an economic roll that will continue for the next 50 years. According to The Economist, China’s capital spending is a whopping 44% of its GDP, and in raw dollars could exceed that of the United States for the first time this year.

And you can bet that its increase in energy use will track right along with its growth.

But China’s energy problems are similar to those of the United States: It doesn’t have enough of its own sources of fossil fuel to meet its needs.

So what is China doing to combat this? And is there a way to tap into this in terms of investing? Answers below…

China’s Energy Asset Acquisition Spree

At the moment, China is importing coal, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil. And to guarantee that those supplies are uninterrupted, it’s buying some major deposits of oil and gas, along with the refineries to process it.

We’re not just talking small potatoes, either. Since Christmas, China has been on an overseas energy asset acquisition spree. The country has spent a total of $17 billion, easily topping the $13.1 billion it spent in all of 2008. What’s more, the pace of acquisitions doesn’t appear to be slowing – and could even ramp up into 2010.

Many companies are teaming up, putting together joint deals that insure even the largest purchases have funding behind them. And some are very, very big. For example…

• In April, PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) partnered with KazMunaiGaz and plunked down a cool $5 billion to purchase JSC MangistauMunaiGas from Central Asia Petroleum. This was one of the first instances of Chinese firms partnering together to purchase a foreign oil company.
• June saw a highly publicized $20 billion deal, in which China National Petroleum Corporation joined forces with BP (NYSE: BP) to buy a 75% stake in the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq. The consortium’s bid topped that of the Exxon/Mobil (NYSE: XOM)/Shell (NYSE: RDS) partnership.
• Just one month later, the China National Offshore Oil Company (NYSE: CEO) – often referred to as CNOOC – hooked up with Sinopec. The two of them coughed up $1.3 billion to acquire a 20% stake in a deepwater block off Angola from Marathon Oil.

China’s Knee-Deep In Canadian Oil Sands

Now, the Chinese have landed in Canada. And it’s not because they like hockey. They’ve quietly bought up several parts of different oil sands operations.

Just a few days ago, PetroChina announced a $1.7 billion deal, in which it will acquire a 60% stake in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp’s MacKay River and Dover oil sands fields.

This isn’t the first time that China has invested in Canadian oil sands. Back in 2005, CNOOC purchased a 16.7% stake in MEG Energy Corporation, while China Petrochemical Corporation plunked down $83 million for a stake in Syneco Energy, Inc.

So why is China interested in something like oil sands – oil that is very difficult and expensive to bring to fruition? Simple. All the easy, lucrative projects have already gone. It’s a disturbing indication of China’s quiet determination to increase its oil and gas reserves… at any price.

So what’s next?

How To Invest In China’s Energy Acquisition Express

As evidenced by the variety of different operations that China has acquired recently, the country is taking a shotgun approach to energy.

And while it’s not easy to see what it’s focused on next, the best way to play this trend is by owning shares of the buyer. This includes big Chinese oil companies like…

• PetroChina
• Sinopec (NYSE:SHI)
• CNOOC

All these firms have American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which means you can trade them on the U.S. exchanges.

One note of caution before you do, however: If you read my colleague Louis Basenese’s piece on the China sell off earlier this week, he highlighted 10 reasons why the Chinese market is set to fall from here.

I agree with Lou – and I believe waiting until we see evidence that the Chinese markets have bottomed will represent an excellent time to take a position in some of these companies.

Good investing,

David Fessler

Source: China’s Energy Acquisition: Three Ways to Invest in China

Now, Chavez’s aggressive economic policies are again being called into question, this time as the country slides into what could be a protracted period of stagflation, which is defined by the exasperating mixture of torpid economic growth and high inflation.

Before that, however, the period from 2004-2007 was marked by rapid economic growth – punctuated by a miraculous 19.42% burst in 2004. Since that time, unfortunately, Venezuelans have watched as their standard of living was slowly eroded by restrictive price controls, rapid inflation, unsustainable public spending, and widespread nationalizations that have put a stranglehold on industry.

Even as these problems festered, an unprecedented surge in oil prices allowed Chavez to maintain his questionable – and ultimately unsustainable – economic policies. When the bull market in commodities abruptly stalled last year, Venezuela’s economy lumbered to a stop.

Venezuela’s economy grew by 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and just 0.3% in the first quarter of 2009. Then – for the first time in more than five years – that country’s economy contracted, shrinking 2.4% in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for Venezuela, the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) did little to quell surging inflation.  The annual rate of inflation climbed to 26.2% in July, according to the Central Bank of Venezuela. Many foreign sources have it higher.

President Chavez insists his country is not in the midst of a financial crisis, but analysts believe this is just the beginning of a bad-news saga that will trip up a country whose heavy-handed economic policies have made it few friends.

“To sum up, we could say that such scenario of stagflation has two basic components,” Orlando Ochoa, an economist and professor with Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB), told El Universal. “On the one hand, price control, exchange control, nationalizations and restricted distribution of foreign currency damage supply. On the other hand, lower oil prices curtail revenues and have an impact on demand.”

Going forward, Venezuela’s currency controls are perhaps the biggest hurdle for the economy to overcome. Chavez and his cabinet have said they are preparing to announce measures to stimulate the economy, but that may not be enough.

The problems that come with over-reliance on oil and a vast net of unwieldy social programs and the cost burden of nationalized industry aren’t going anywhere. And the nation’s other obstacle – the gap between its official and parallel exchange rates – won’t be addressed until at least the end of September.

An Unparalleled Problem

Indeed, the problems facing Venezuela are many. But President Chavez and his cabinet believe they have the solution.

“There is a remedy,” Venezuelan Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said in an interview broadcast on state television. “The differential between the official dollar and the [so-called] ‘parallel dollar’ can be reduced.”

Rodriguez was referring to the difference between the country’s “official” exchange rate – which remains at 2.15 bolivars per U.S. dollar – and the so-called “parallel market,” which suggests a rate of about 6.5 bolivars per U.S. dollar.

The official exchange rate of 2.15 bolivars per U.S. dollar was arrived at in 2003, when Chavez imposed currency controls that force Venezuelans who want to import goods to apply for a government permit. Importers that are unable to get permits to buy currency at the official exchange rate have been forced to turn to the parallel market, where they pay three times the official price.

The problem now is that a large drop in oil revenue has sharply reduced the amount of dollars the government has available to exchange. That has driven more importers to the pricier parallel market. Some have stopped importing entirely.

With limited access to imports, Venezuela’s manufacturing sector contracted by 8.5% in the second quarter.

“The manufacturing sector is going to have a negative performance, mostly because of the restriction in imports and dollars, which has caused a drop in the supply of primary materials,” Miguel Carpio, an economist at Banco Federal CA in Caracas, told Bloomberg News. “Add to that the drop in consumption, and this is going to be a very difficult year.”

Now, with the threat of stagflation looming large, Chavez has no choice but to take action. But economists are unsure of what the government will do.

Few analysts expect the government to order an outright devaluation, because it would push inflation beyond the 28% annual rate. (Venezuela last devalued the official rate in 2005, weakening the currency by 11%.)

Instead, the government could try to lower the parallel rate by issuing dollar-denominated debt, by creating a second, separate exchange rate for “necessary” industries, or by doing both those things.

Traditionally, the government chooses to subsidize certain favorite industries – mainly heavy machinery, foodstuffs and medicines – by allowing them to trade bolivars at the official rate and driving other non-essential goods producers to the parallel market.

This could be taken a step further by imposing a tax on lower priority industries seeking dollars at the official exchange rate, Russ Dallen, head trader at Caracas Capital Markets, said in a research note. Or the government could simply create multiple “official” rates for different industries. Venezuela may create four different exchange rates to help the government deal with a drop in oil revenue.

“This complicated system, if implemented, would satisfy the requirements of the government of pretending not to have a formal devaluation of the exchange rate,” Dallen said.

Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE ADR: CS) said in an Aug. 28 report that it expects the government to avoid devaluating its currency by selling dollar-denominated debt to the parallel market. In 2008, after an aggressive sale of dollar-denominated bonds, the administration was able to bring down the parallel rate to around 3 bolivars.

Ultimately, it’s Chavez – who opened the door to speculation in August by saying he would “restore balance” to the parallel rate – who will decide what to do about his country’s quandary. But he won’t be making a decision until later this month.

“Is there going to be an adjustment? I can’t respond to that right now,” Chavez said Sunday at the presidential palace in Caracas. “If any adjustment comes, it will be in September, towards the end of the month.”

But whatever Chavez decides to do, his remedy is likely to fall short, analysts say. That’s because the parallel rate is not the problem – it’s actually a symptom of flawed economic principles. The restrictive price-and-exchange-rate controls, government expansion, and political obtuseness that Chavez has made the cornerstones of his economic policy will continue to conspire against Venezuela until there is reform.

“We always said the situation was only tenable for the government if oil prices not only remained high, but also rose constantly. But that has not happened, and the fall in oil income is now clearly in evidence,” UCAB’s Ochoa told Inter Press Service News Agency. “That’s the first factor contributing to stagflation, to which are added price and exchange controls and restrictions on hard currency availability, which harm supply and investment, and thirdly, the policy of nationalization.”

Venezuela’s Crude Oil Slick

In the years leading up to the financial crisis, Chavez used PDVSA’s growing revenue to finance large social programs, as well as the nationalization of other industries.

Spending on social programs soared 340% from 2000-2005, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. It rose even higher as oil prices soared into 2008, boosting purchase orders and fueling a spending spree among even the poorest Venezuelans.

But since the financial crisis eviscerated commodities prices, Venezuela’s oil bounty has all but evaporated. Oil brought in $22.8 billion in the first six months of 2009. That’s less than half of the $52 billion it brought in during the first half of last year. For 2008 as a whole, oil generated about $90 billion in revenue for Venezuela.

Meanwhile, FONDEN – Venezuela’s development fund – has already committed all but $3 billion of the nearly $20 billion it had available at the end of January, as the government used most of the money in the first half of the year to sustain fiscal spending.

And while Venezuelan oil traded at an average of $53 a barrel in the second quarter, up from $40 a barrel in the first three months of 2009, that’s still a far cry from last year’s levels.

That means borrowing has had to rise to compensate for the decline in revenue.  Venezuela’s domestic debt jumped 44% during the first half of the year to $20.42 billion from $14 billion at the end of 2008.

“Public spending keeps rising and is financed by more public debt, which increases spending in a vicious circle, while the government defers or postpones workers’ demands, which is itself another sign of the approaching recession, although the government seeks to deny it,” economist Domingo Maza Zavala, a former head of the Central Bank told the IPS.

Calculations based on official figures suggest domestic and foreign debt repayments will total about $19.6 billion between the second half of this year and 2011, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported. Roughly $10 billion of that total will be due on foreign debt, with the remaining $9.6 billion destined for the domestic account. Total state debt is estimated at $50.3 billion.

What’s the government figures don’t include is the cost of compensating private companies that have been taken over or bought out under Chavez’s nationalizations and expropriations.

Chavez’s government earlier this year seized the assets of more than 70 foreign and domestic oil service companies after conflict erupted over nearly $14 billion in debt owed by PDVSA.

PDVSA demanded that service companies accept a 40% cut in their bills; when they refused, the Venezuelan government seized at least 12 drilling rigs, more than 30 oil terminals, and about 300 boats.

The demonstration was a pointed reminder of a 2007 incident, which is still playing out in the international courts. Two years ago, Venezuela forced six oil majors to hand over equity stakes of 60% or more to PDVSA. However, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Conoco Phillips (NYSE: COP) opted to walk away from their contracts rather than accept a minority role.

This conflict is still being disputed, and last year Exxon won a court order to freeze $12 billion in assets from PDVSA as compensation for its lost projects. Additionally, Chavez’s heavy-handed policy has cost the country untold billions worth of oil-related investments, as many oil majors now refuse to operate there

“There is the uncertain outlook over how the extensive nationalization pursued over the past 12 years will pan out,” Alvise Marino, an analyst at Ideaglobal, told The Wall Street Journal. “Based on the government’s unimpressive track record on the economic management front, we tend to take a less-than-optimistic view.”

The Colombia Conundrum

In addition to alienating foreign oil majors, Chavez has also sequestered Venezuela from many of its neighbors, especially Colombia. Chavez has ordered his country to prepare for an outright “rupture of relations” with Colombia after that country gave the United States permission to use its military bases.

The United States says access to the bases will help it fight drug trafficking, but Chavez has his own theory. He says American use of the bases could be used as a launch point for an invasion of his oil rich nation.

“Those seven military bases are a declaration of war,” Chavez said last week. “We must prepare for the rupture in relations with Colombia. There is no possibility of a return [to normal relations] with Colombia, an embrace.”

However, cutting off ties with Colombia poses yet another economic hurdle for the Venezuelan economy to overcome. Colombia provided about $6 billion in products to Venezuela in 2008, or about 15% of Venezuela’s total imports, according to Venezuela’s government statistics institute INE.

In fact, when Chavez closed the border for three days in 2006, there was shortage of food in Venezuela.

Chavez can turn to other South American countries, but his credit extends only so far.

“Nobody wants to sell to Venezuela if payment isn’t made in advance,” José Rozo, president of Fedecámaras Táchira, the region’s main business association, told the Latin American Herald Tribune

About 70% of trade activity in Venezuela depends on imports from Colombia, Rozo said, adding that the only country that had been willing to export on credit had been Colombia.

Without Colombia, Venezuela will have to settle for trade terms that heavily favor its partners.

For instance, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made a visit to Venezuela last month, and signed no less than 22 accords. Virtually all of the deals were in Argentine’s favor, the Tribune reported.

“We’re going to drive a horse and cart through all the regulations if they want to do business with us,” an Argentine official told the paper prior to the signing of the deals. “Prompt payment. Simple procedures. Fewer controls. Less bureaucracy. No delays. Hard currency. I’ll tell you the rest when I’ve thought of them.”

That means if Venezuela wants to keep doing business with Argentina, it’s going to have to pay more.

And that will fuel inflation.

“The cost of purchasing in Argentina is higher, and that means that prices will be higher in Venezuela,” Abelardo Daza, an economics professor at Caracas-based IESA business school, told The Journal.

Source: Is Venezuela’s Stagflation the Beginning of the End for Chavez?

You see, as a small-cap investor, you’ve got very different concerns compared to those who only buy and sell blue chips. One of those concerns is order execution. And most likely, it’s something that you haven’t heard about anywhere else…

That’s because for the most part, order execution is a term that’s relegated to the big players – firms like Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price that have teams devoted solely to proper order execution. But penny stock investors have many of the same order execution concerns on tiny, thinly traded stocks that the big Wall Street firms do with companies like GE and Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT).

But before we get down to brass tacks, let’s take a look at what order execution means…

Order execution is the process that swings into action when you try to buy or sell a stock. When most investors place an order with their brokers, execution is nearly instant. But when small-caps are concerned, thin trading volume can play havoc with share prices and with your profit or loss.

It’s important to remember that as its name implies, the stock market is a market. That means that stocks move based on supply and demand, and not necessarily their intrinsic value. While that works well for heavily traded stocks like Exxon Mobil  (NYSE:XOM) or Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), where thousands of investors keep shares around their fair value by buying and selling millions of shares each day, some small-caps only trade a few hundred shares during any given trading session – some trade even less than that.

As a result, penny stock share prices can sometimes deviate pretty far from where they should be. And while that can provide prescient investors with a whole lot of profit potential, it can also be a big problem for those who don’t protect themselves.

Understanding Bid-Ask Spreads

Like mentioned before, stocks trade in a market. In markets, prices are set by the participants – in this case individual and institutional investors who buy and sell shares of stock. There are two pieces of price information for any stock: the bid, which represents how much investors are willing to pay for a stock, and the ask, which represents how much current shareholders are willing to sell for. When those two numbers intersect, a trade happens.

The bid and ask aren’t hypothetical numbers – they represent real outstanding orders.

For any stock, there’s a separation between the bid and the ask, knownas the spread. If someone’s willing to sell shares of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) for $16.84 and another person’s wiling to buy shares for $16.83, your bid-ask spread is one cent. The spread is kept small by the large number of traders in the stock, who volley back and forth maintaining a tight range for BAC’s share price.

But for a stock that’s more thinly traded, spreads can be huge. That’s a big problem for small-cap investors because a spread that span’s 2% to 3% of a stock’s share price can essentially shear that kind of performance from their position from the get go.

And starting out 3% in the red from the second you buy shares of a stock isn’t a good deal…

When you’re missing out on 3% of every trade, that disadvantage begins to add up big time. But follow these three secrets, and you can ensure that you’re making out on your small-cap trades:

1. Love Liquidity

The best way to avoid being burned by a lack of liquidity is to only trade stocks that have enough trading activity to keep share prices in a reasonable range. And while that may sound limiting to some investors, the truth is that there are ample investing opportunities in small-caps that still see decent trading volume on the market.

As a general rule, if a stock doesn’t trade thousands of shares during any trading day, it’s best to keep your distance.

2. Use a Limit Order

Market orders are a bad idea for small-cap investors. That’s because they automatically execute at the price necessary to make a trade, meaning that every time you initiate a market order to buy shares of stock, you’re rising up to meet the price the seller wants. With huge spreads common in small-caps, market caps are a sure way to lose money from the get go. Instead, use a limit order.

Limit orders are essentially market orders that only execute below a certain price when you’re buying shares, or above a certain price when you’re selling. They’ll help ensure that your entries and exits are happening at prices you set, not the other party.

3. Beware of Promotions

Stock promotion is a popular way for small-cap companies to increase daily trading volume. The practice, which often employs dubious ethics, involves hiring firms that spread good news or sentiment about a tiny stock. But being on the wrong end of that strong sentiment can be a very bad thing. Since volume in small-caps is often so thin, the huge volume surges caused by stock promoters can sometimes move a stock’s share price by more than 20%.

To avoid getting into stocks that are being manipulated, check out promoters’ favorite places – investing message boards and press release websites – for over hyped language that goes beyond what one of the company’s shareholders would spout off. If you see the same language in multiple locations, chances are that a promotion is underway.

The stock market is a tricky enough place to operate. After all, there’s no way to guarantee that the next stock you pick will deliver 100% profits. And there’s no telling whether the company you just added to your portfolio is a sure thing. But even with all of that uncertainty, you don’t have to give away your gains before you place a trade. Now you’ve got three ways to make sure that order execution mistakes don’t squeeze your profits.

Cheers,
Jonas Elmerraji

Source: 3 Secrets to Profitable Small-Cap Order Execution

This is how giants are born, one small advance at a time. It was just eleven days ago I last wrote about Rentech (AMEX:RTK) and its biofuel industry advances.

Shares of the company traded for just $0.62 on the day I wrote, “If done well, Fischer-Tropsch technology could be the transitive fuel source this country needs as it seeks its energy independence.”

Today those same shares traded as high as $2.24. That is a 260% gain in less than eight trading days.

The news keeps getting better for this company. Two weeks ago I was writing about its breakthrough in the aviation industry. A standards-creating board gave the go-ahead to use the company’s fuel in aviation-grade jet fuel.

It was a major step forward for a company that has been working to prove its fuel-source capabilities for several long years.

Selling what they don’t have

Today’s news comes from the aviation segment, but it involves vehicles that will hopefully never leave the tarmac.

Rentech just inked a deal with eight major airlines to provide its synthetic diesel, RenDiesel, in airport-based ground service equipment working out of Los Angeles International Airport.

Starting when its production facility is finally online in 2012, the company will begin supplying 1.5 million gallons of diesel each year to the various airlines.

The equipment will be the first of their kind to run the low-emission fuel source that boast a near-zero carbon footprint that meets California’s stringent fuel standards.

As I have always said (usually with a negative, political connotation), “It starts in California and heads east.”

This time, starting on the Left Coast is good news. It will set a precedent for the nation’s other large airports as they work to lower their emissions and qualify for tax credits and other incentives.

Of course, the news is not without risk. Any $350 million company that was a $150 million company two weeks ago is going to be filled with various levels of risk.

In Rentech’s case, it will come down to the company’s proposed Rialto, California production site.

Yes, the facility that is expected to make all of this diesel and jet fuel is not on line just yet. In fact, the ribbon cutting is still over two years away. Heck, ground breaking isn’t even scheduled for at least another fifteen months or so.

A lot could happen during that time to jeopardize those future revenue streams investors are betting on today. Getting rich off of Rentech’s success is far from a sure thing, but it is more possible today than it was yesterday.

Remember, no giant was ever born an oversized monstrosity. Even Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) started as a mere notion of a business plan several evolutions ago.

Rentech appears to be taking the steps it needs to grow into a large, successful firm.

It is a company worth watching and, if you can afford some risk in your portfolio, is a company worth engaging in some due diligence. I’d start with Rentech’s latest earnings report.

That quarterly profit figure sure is intriguing.

Source: Airline Cutbacks? Not for Rentech

If you’re looking for the next “Big Oil” play, bet on Beijing.  As we’ve been reporting for the past several years, China has been on a global commodities shopping spree, which includes locking up every source of oil that it can.

The Red Dragon has cut deals in Africa, South America Russia and the Middle East – and won’t stop there. Even the mainstream news media is finally becoming aware of this crucial trend.

But here’s the thing. It’s not enough just to know that this is happening. In order to profit, an investor really needs to understand why it’s happening – and to invest accordingly. Investors who lack this insight may make the strategic misstep of betting heavily (or exclusively) on the Western heavyweights – Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), BP PLC (NYSE ADR: BP) or Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE ADR: RDS.A, RDS.B) – while ignoring the oil sector’s real growth story, which is China.

Just this year alone:

• China and Russia have signed a multi-billion-dollar, intergovernmental agreement to construct an oil line from Russia that will supply oil directly to China. Actually seven agreements in one, the terms depict a deal worth trillions of dollars – including a 20-year oil contract to pump Russian oil to the Chinese market. In return, China has agreed to provide a total of $25 billion in loansto Russian oil companies Transneft and OAO Rosneft Oil Co. China even gets a cut of Rosneft’s production, as part of the deal.
• In Africa, China’s CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE ADR: CEO) and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (NYSE ADR: SHI) are teaming up to buy a $1.3 billion stake in Angolan offshore development rights from U.S.-based Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO). A key point of note: Angola – historically one of Exxon’s favorite investment targets – has recently overtaken Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer.
• While noting that it’s hardly a done deal, The Wall Street Journaldid report earlier this month that China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) is interested in buying all or a part of Argentina’s YPF SA (NYSE ADR: YPF) for $14.5 billion.
• In Africa, China’s CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE ADR: CEO) and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (NYSE ADR: SHI) are teaming up to buy a $1.3 billion stake in Angolan offshore development rights from U.S.-based Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO). A key point of note: Angola – historically one of Exxon’s favorite investment targets – has recently overtaken Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer.
• Reports continue to circulate that CNPC will be taking the majority stake in Iraq’s Rumaila oilfield from BP. Rumaila is Iraq’s biggest oil field, producing more than a million barrels of crude oil per day.
• And China has become quite chummy with Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE ADR: PBR). Petrobras is developing a huge new offshore field – one of the biggest new discoveries in decades, in fact – and any deal would include a production-supply agreement.

This flurry of deals hasn’t been a surprise to Money Morning readers. Even so, it’s worth taking a moment to look at some of the key catalysts behind many of these deals. Let’s look at the Top Three:

• Nervous Reserves: China is sitting on the world’s largest pile of cash – more than $2.3 trillion by some estimates. With an estimated 70% of that, or about $1.61 trillion, in U.S. dollars, there is no question it’s a huge source of financial firepower strength at a time when global markets are uncertain, if not downright weak. But it’s also a liability, too, in that China can’t diminish its high-concentration of greenback holdings without pushing the dollar off a cliff. So buying oil is a great way for China to diversify its reserves without kneecapping poor old Uncle Sam.
• Those Not-So-Free “Free” Markets: China has less faith in the “free” markets than the West does. Ironically, the United States and other Western powers are partly to blame for Beijing’s free-market skepticism. For instance, not only did the United Statesslam the door in China’s face when China tried to buy Unocal Corp. [now a part of Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX)]  a few years back, but when former U.S. President George W. Bush invaded Iraq, the war summarily cut off China’s ability to source oil from that Middle East member of the OPEC 12 (the Organization of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries). Prior to the invasion, Beijing really didn’t consider the need to diversify China’s foreign-oil sources so our military action prompted their economic reaction. Now the genie’s out of the bottle.
• Peerless Perspective: China’s leaders know that they must lock up oil supplies at a time when the Western world can’t seemingly be bothered to understand that this is a zero-sum game. In other words, China views the global financial crisis as an opportunity to be exploited for economic gain and the security of its people, not as a problem to be solved. China understands the big picture, and even though we apparently painted it, the West doesn’t.  By scouring the earth for oil at a time when the West is hamstrung by the global financial crisis, not only is China able to strike more favorable deals at more favorable prices, but it’s locking up huge supplies of commodities for its own use for years, even decades, to come. In doing so – and this is the part of the equation so many experts don’t get – these resources are no longer available for our use here in the United States, which has major supply and pricing implications for this market.

Bamboozled by the Western media – which has perpetuated the “global-recession-means-lower-demand” story – it simply hasn’t dawned on most people here in the West that China doesn’t care about the majorlong-term impact this global buying spree will have on our economy.
Besides, this whole story thesis is flat out wrong. While the recession is definitely dampening our use of oil and gasoline, China’s oil demand is growing by more than 20% a year. And of the 8 million barrels a day that China already uses, half comes from imports. Beijing sees those as troubling statistics, which means that China:

• Absolutely must lock up as many significant external supplies oil as possible right now.
• And must accelerate its domestic exploration-and-processing efforts at warp speed.

Nor is this a static situation. China’s auto market is growing by 50% a year. It’s already the world’s largest, having passed the United States earlier this year. In fact, according to some estimates, China will have more cars on its roads in the next 20 years than all those we currently have in this country – even if you include the engine-less “restoration project” your next-door neighbor’s son has sitting under an oak tree in their back yard.

China’s never known high prices and its consumers haven’t either. So they don’t care like we do about what “price” is posted at the pump. Sure, you can argue as many Western analysts do, that China’s fuel is highly subsidized, but so what? That’s a moot point. Consumers who remember what it was like back when gasoline was 99 cents a gallon aren’t going to grouse about how it now costs $6 a gallon – these newly minted motorists will merely see gasoline as just part of the cost of having a car.

Because it understands its need for continual economic progress – as well as the role oil has to play to make that a reality – China is doing whatever it takes to guarantee future supplies, including structuring deals in ways that have caught Western companies by surprise. For instance, China’s companies are looking at how they can get a deal done by giving the other party something it actually needs. Moreover, in a move that’s as frustrating to Western leaders as it is surprising, many of these deals come with no strings attached. I suppose you could call it the “Red Dragon Option” – although Western firms would do well to embrace these as potential Harvard Business Review case studies.

After reading this overview, a U.S investor might want to conclude that China’s already got this one wrapped up and that “any resistance is futile.” But that’s not necessarily true. While China’s grown by leaps and bounds in terms of its financial sophistication when it comes to these deals, the country still lacks the relative exploration-and-production technology to go after the deep-water reserves and complicated fields where most of the still-undiscovered oil remains. Those are also the same kinds of locations where natural gas may be the better bet.

And that suggests that investments in both sectors – including deep-water drillers and companies that specialize in natural-gas liquification -may pay off for investors anxious to dine with the Red Dragon, instead of being listed as an entrée on the menu.

Source: Three Reasons China is Positioned to be the Oil Sector’s Next Big Profit Play

[Editor's Note: The global economic recovery will create an estimated $300 trillion worth of global-investing-profit opportunities. To find out how to capitalize and profit, you just need to know where to look.

]]> http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/three-reasons-china-is-positioned-to-be-the-oil-sector%e2%80%99s-next-big-profit-play/19976/feed 0 http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/biofuels-are-back/19857 http://www.contrarianprofits.com/articles/biofuels-are-back/19857#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:35:34 +0000 Patrick Cox http://www.contrarianprofits.com/?p=19857 I’ve been surprised over the past few weeks by the pace of biofuel development. These aren’t breakthroughs that are likely to produce obvious winners in the next few months, but the time line keeps pulling in. There’s a lot of skepticism about this technology, but there was also skepticism for every major tech development of the last three or four decades.

If you were at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver, you may have heard Juan Enriquez announce that Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) had given Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI) $300 million to work on producing biofuels using algae. SGI is run by Craig Venter, the man who broke the human genome. Exxon is not a company known for wasting money on…

The number was so big and the results beat Wall Street estimates by so much at a time when the credit crisis was wreaking havoc on so many other sectors that Oppenheimer & Sons (NYSE: OPY) oil analyst Fadel Gheit couldn’t help but quip that he didn’t think Exxon “will be lining up for any TARP money or government handout anytime soon.”

Exxon wasn’t the only heavyweight reaping the benefit of a zooming energy market that had seen crude oil climb to an all-time record of $147 a barrel in July. The combined revenue for Exxon and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) for all of last year actually exceeded the gross domestic product (GDP) of all but 16 of the world’s nations, Bloomberg News reported.

What a difference a few months can make.

If the name of the game is corporate profits, the global economic slowdown has transformed some of the world’s biggest oil companies from leaders to laggards.

Global-energy heavyweights Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE ADR: RDS.A, RDS.B) yesterday (Thursday) became the latest players to feel the one-two punch of dwindling demand and rising supplies, reporting profit drops of 66% and 67%, respectively.

Exxon’s net income fell to $3.95 billion, or 81 cents a share, compared to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. The results were well below Wall Street estimates for earnings of $1.02 a share. Shell’s bottom line fell to $3.82 billion, or 62 cents a share for the second quarter, compared to $1.87 per share in the same period last year.

“Global economic conditions continue to impact the energy industry both in the volatility of commodity prices and reduced demand for products,” said Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson.

With consumers and companies alike slashing costs in any way possible in an environment of spiraling unemployment and the looming possibility of inflation as a result of government stimulus efforts around the world, Exxon, Shell and other Big Oil companies are feeling the squeeze and are cutting back in almost every way possible.

“Our second quarter results were affected by the weak global economy,” Shell CEO Peter Voser when the results were released. “This weakness is creating a difficult environment both in upstream and downstream” oil production.

Shell, for instance, said it’s embarked on a cost-cutting program that will pare billions of dollars in operating expenses. In one bright spot, however, The Netherlands-based oil giant did say that it had increased its second-quarter dividend 5% to 42 cents a share, and Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said Shell will be able to keep raising the dividend to keep pace with inflation.

Exxon’s shares fell about 1% yesterday to close at $70.72 each. They’re down about 14% from their 12-month high of $84.76. Royal Dutch Shell’s “A” shares edged up 0.13% to close at $52.53; they’re down 29% from their 52-week high of $73.97.

“There’s a lack of follow-through on production” at Exxon, Macquarie Research analyst Jason Gammel told Barron’s in an interview. “The Street rewards companies that grow production, not those who are flat.”

Exxon’s combined oil and gas production dropped 3% in the quarter, and the company blamed the year-over-year decline on restrictions imposed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Shell’s production suffered more, falling 5.3%, placing part of the blame on a politically unstable Nigeria.

The heft that gave Big Oil companies the huge advantage of global scale last year is now working against them; with their large size, and against the backdrop of a global economic downturn, finding new revenue to bump up profits – and, ultimately, their share prices – will be a major challenge, analysts say.

“I think it’s generally going to be difficult for the Big Oils to move the needle,” Howard Weil analyst Doug Leggate told Bloomberg News. “Those companies that can move the needle in terms of adding value through exploration or other methods of improving their portfolios, they’re the ones who are going to win out.”

Profit at Exxon’s production and exploration unit fell to $3.81 billion in the second quarter, down $6.2 billion compared with a year earlier. In its refining business, its profit fell to $512 million, down $1.05 billion from a year ago. Profit in the same category at Shell dropped 77%, to $1.33 billion, from $5.9 billion a year ago, mostly on lower oil prices.

The grim oil earnings news yesterday followed Wednesday’s report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that U.S. crude stocks rose by 5.1 million barrels to 347.8 million barrels for the week ended July 24. Estimates by market research firm Platts were calling for a gain of just 1.1 million barrels, MarketWatch.com reported.

U.S. crude stocks are 29.8 million barrels above the five-year average and 52.6 million barrels above year-ago levels, according to Platts.

“The data has been bearish for most of the year, and the market may be ready to acknowledge that we are awash in crude oil and products, and demand is lower than last year despite the fact that oil and product prices are much lower,” WTRG Economics analyst James L. Williams told MarketWatch. “We will be well into the recovery from the recession before there is any appreciable increase in demand.”

As of yesterday afternoon, crude oil for September delivery was trading at $66.80, up $3.45 a barrel. But that’s down $55 a barrel from this time last year – a 45.16% decrease.

Those hoping for a rally may find that they’ve only engaged in a bit of wishful thinking, since a number of analysts say there aren’t any catalysts for higher prices in sight.

Take James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group, who says that the rally to prices in excess of $70 earlier this year was “well overpriced.” He expects prices to continue to fall in the weeks and months to come, Cordier said in an interview with Yahoo Inc.’s (Nasdaq: YHOO) Tech Ticker.

Cordier points to the speculative demand driven by government stimulus packages, notably the liquid commodities in China, a nation whose economy looks “a little bit like a bubble to us.”

Cordier’s firm, which trades commodity-based options, is “selling calls with both hands.”

If there’s an upside to any of this, Cordier says it will be lower gas prices, which he expects to fall 15-to-20 cents per gallon around August or September, a welcome relief for consumers.

The low demand and rising supply of oil is catching the eye of regulators worldwide, who are applying the heat to speculators who are believed to be behind the main force behind wild swings in the futures markets over the past two years.

Here in the United States, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) this week held the second of three hearings on energy trading. In the United Kingdom, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will hold a special meeting on Aug. 5 with oil companies, banks, hedge funds and oil brokers to review regulation in the market.

“A lot of what we’ve seen in recent years has nothing to do with the underlying fundamentals of the market,” Tom Bentz, a senior energy analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. (OTC ADR: BNPQY), told Bloomberg. “Something has to be done to reduce some of the speculation, no doubt about it.”

Indeed, the supply-and-demand fundamentals taught in high school and college have actually come under fire just because of how speculators have allegedly distorted the oil-price market in recent years.

This year’s volatility in the market defy the “accepted rules of economics,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an opinion column published earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal.

“The surge in prices last year gravely damaged the global economy and contributed to the downturn,” the two statesmen said. “The risk now is that a new period of instability could undermine confidence just as we are pushing for recovery. Governments can no longer stand idle. Volatility damages both consumers and producers.”

Big Oil executives said it is doubtful the looming U.K.-based meeting would result in any substantial new initiatives, but added that it would discuss “whether the current arrangements [in the oil market] remain appropriate,” The Financial Times reported. “The question of position limits does not seem to have the same level of priority (in Europe) as it does in the United States,” Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) Chief Energy Economist Adam Sieminski told the FT.

Source: Global Slowdown and Plunging Profits Have ‘Big Oil’ Companies Searching for Ways to Rebound

Of course that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still making money.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) reported that profit dropped 66% last quarter. Although it still made $3.95 billion, it’s just not making money hand over fist like last year.

In a eerily similar report, Royal Dutch Shell ADR (NYSE: RDS.A) said that it’s profit dropped 67% to $3.82 billion. ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) fared even worse, with profits plummeting 76% to $1.3 billion.

Hard times indeed in the petroleum industry.

This all comes on the heels of a volatile market in oil prices, regulators considering limits on oil speculation, and oil stockpiles fluctuating.

The real reason oil supplies have been moving so much is the contango situation that caused millions of barrels of oil to be stored offshore in tankers. As the capacity has opened up some of this oil is migrating ashore – but not much.

This is skewing the supply numbers up and down depending upon the pricing and motivations of the sellers.

Oil is opening up at almost $67 a barrel today, and it’s easy to see how supply and demand pressures will keep that fluctuating for a good deal into the future.

Source: Oil Companies Still Making Piles of Money

CNOOC and Sinopec will form a 50-50 joint venture to buy the stake in the so-called Angola Block 32, which has 12 previously announced discoveries. The Chinese energy giants purchased the stake from U.S.-based Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO), but the sale is still subject to government and regulatory approval.

Marathon’s existing partners in the block – France’s Total SA (NYSE ADR: TOT), Portugal’s Galp Energia SGPS SA, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), and Sonangal, Angola’s state-owned oil company – have a right of first refusal. Marathon will keep a 10% interest in the block.

The oil field “is a significant resource base with estimated recoverable light crude oil reserves of 1.5 billion barrels,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) analysts wrote in a report, according toMarketWatch. “The $1.3 billion consideration compares with our valuation of $1.4 billion to $1.65 billion and Marathon’s publicly disclosed offer of $1.8 billion to $2 billion.”

The acquisition will build on CNOOC’s “growing deepwater exposure” and values the recoverable reserves at $4.30 a barrel, the analysts said.

The acquisition will also build on two of Beijing’s broader objectives: Securing long-term energy resources and expanding its presence in underdeveloped, and riskier, countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Since last fall, China has been using the Western world’s financial crisis as an opportunity to stock up on commodities while prices are low.

Sinopec recently paid $7.22 billion to acquire the Addax Petroleum Corp., a Canada-based energy company with operations in West Africa and Iraq.

Meanwhile, Sinopec’s rival, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), made its own foray into Iraq, winning the first contract in more than 30 years to develop the Rumaila oil field.

China’s involvement in Africa has an even richer history.

In 2006, Beijing hosted the China-Africa Cooperation Forum – an event attended by more than 40 African heads of state.  At the forum, China unveiled $9 billion in preferential loans, export credits, and trade incentives – all part of a strategic plan to achieve a preferential status with key African nations.

The meeting was more than a mere publicity stunt to play up Beijing’s humanitarian efforts. It was a symbolic acknowledgment of growing cooperation between the regions.

China has invested tens of billions of dollars directly into African-infrastructure and social-development projects, all in an effort to tighten its grip on the continent’s resources. Some examples:

• In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, office blocks, military headquarters and a refurbished stadium are all the work of planners from Beijing.
• In Uganda, the new State House was built with Chinese money.
• In the city of Rwanda, Chinese companies built 80% of all new roads.
• And in Nigeria, China’s Civil Engineering Construction Corp. is building an $8.3 billion railroad linking Lagos and Kano.

And Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald says this is only the beginning.

“It’s a virtual certainty that China will maintain this policy going forward,” Fitz-Gerald said. “My contacts in China and Africa have told me point blank that China’s leaders ‘don’t care about human rights or nukes or hostile governments.’ What matters is anyone who provides oil to China no matter what the rest of the world thinks.”

Source: China Tightens Grip on Africa’s Energy Resources with Stake in Offshore Field

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