Exxon and Chavez – at it again in Venezuela

Exxon vs. Chavez: More Smoke Than Fire

By Chris Gilpin, Senior Editor, Casey Energy Division

Casey Energy Speculator

Last year, Hugo Chavez kicked off another term as Venezuela’s president by announcing all oil majors in the lucrative Orinoco region would be forced to partner with PDVSA, Chavez’s inept national oil company. This was a surprise to no one. The oil majors had already seen most of their Venezuelan holdings nationalized; the Orinoco announcement simply represented the coup de grace in a long series of legalized thefts.

Most companies meekly bowed to Chavez’s decree, but Exxon has decided not to roll over so easily. On Feb 7^th, it won a court injunction to have US$12 billion of PDVSA’s assets – located abroad in the U.S, U.K and Netherlands – frozen. Chavez responded by halting all oil sales to Exxon, and shooting off his customary threat about cutting off oil exports to the U.S.

Sensing a bad situation could be made worse, the U.S. State Department piped up and announced the creation of “special envoys” to deal with countries that use their oil and gas resources for political means. While Exxon had a perfectly valid claim to compensation, Condoleezza’s “special envoys” have reinforced the notion that U.S. oil companies are only pawns of U.S. imperialism, and should be dealt with as such.

“Thanks for politicizing an otherwise straightforward legal matter, Condi,” I’m sure that’s what Exxon executives are saying to each other in long sardonic drawls.

Of course, this sort of saber rattling excites futures markets, and over the last week, WTI crude futures have jumped from $88 to over $95.

ConocoPhillips, which also has Orinoco assets, plans to launch a similar legal battle, so in the short term, we wouldn’t be surprised to see oil futures break the $100 barrier again. Still, the overall impact of these spats is often overstated. Chavez threatens to cut off oil exports to the U.S. at least once every year, and he’s never followed through on it. By the numbers, Venezuela has been one of America’s most steady and reliable suppliers of oil. Chavez funds a huge portion of his antics with oil money, and it would take some serious maneuvering to find another buyer for the 1.2 million barrels per day of heavy oil that PDVSA usually sends to America.

(Exxon, on the other hand, knows that it won’t produce from its Orinoco assets. It might get a few billion in compensation, but more importantly, Exxon wants to send a message to other nations looking to claw back its corporate interests. ”We will not go easily” is what they’re hoping to convey.)

So then, why is it that every time Hugo Chavez opens his mouth, crude oil futures leap to attention and U.S. politicians wet themselves? It’s an understandable question, and one that few investors have taken the time to understand.

The short answer would be: What if that blustery demagogue isn’t bluffing this time?

The slightly longer answer revolves around the following three essential facts about the U.S. predicament:

1. The U.S. produced less oil in 2006 than it did in 1950.
2. Venezuelan oil accounts for 10% of total U.S. oil imports.
3. Oil imports made up 40% of the U.S. trade deficit last year.

Let’s take these one at a time.

U.S. oil production fits a curve that would make M. King Hubbert sigh and nod sagely. He was the first to trace the patterns of Peak Oil, and he saw this chart coming half a century ago.

The red line in this chart shows how – in a remarkably smooth trend – oil production grows, plateaus, and then heads into irreversible decline. You’ll notice that the rate of decline matches almost exactly the early rate of growth. For something that is the result of a massive and complex industry composed of hundreds of independent players, it’s surprisingly predictable. In 1956, Hubbert forecasted that U.S. oil production would peak in 1966-71, and in 1970 – when rates reached over 9.5 million bpd for the first and final time – he was proven right.

The U.S. now produces less oil than when Hubbert first made those forecasts. The major oil fields of Texas and Alaska are old, and as they age, it becomes increasingly difficult to squeeze out the remainder of their reserves. The bars in the graph above illustrate the change in U.S. oil production from huge growth to steady and continual decline. Since 1986, America has only had one year of growth in oil production rates, proof that the momentum is clearly to the downside. In a few decades, U.S. oil production could be negligible. There are all sorts of new fuel sources – such as ethanol and the oil shales – being held up as the messiahs of energy independence and security. But none of these can be developed fast enough to offset the stunningly rapid decline of U.S. oil production.

I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about the problems with U.S. oil dependency already. Even Dubya realizes that America is addicted to foreign oil. But what you may not yet have examined is the extent of this addiction, and how it has been intensifying.

Not since the energy crisis of the late 1970s has so much of American GDP been devoted to buying oil from abroad. That’s why markets jump every time Chavez opens his mouth. Even a slight reduction in the sources of supply available to the U.S. could cause a major spike in crude prices.

If you zoom in on how this trend has manifested itself in 2007, you see that crude’s last run from $60 in January 2007 to over $90 in November 2007 has pushed oil imports as a percentage of GDP even higher. Data for December 2007 on oil import prices has yet to be released, but we know that spot prices kept moving higher, so you can expect this trend is still in full motion.

In 1980, oil imports as a percentage of GDP reached 2.24%. In October 2007, they climbed to over 2% for the first time in 25 years, and by the end of November 2007, they sat at 2.15%. It’s very likely that oil imports as a percentage of GDP reached a new record high in either December 2007 or January 2008, although we’ll have to wait for the official data to confirm this.

One thing we already know for certain is that the United States had an oil trade deficit of $293.5 billion in 2007, with prices for imported oil averaging $64.27 per barrel. If 2008 continues with oil prices in the range we’ve seen so far, that average price per barrel, and thus oil imports’ share of GDP, will keep increasing, creating a huge strain on the U.S. economy.

As Exxon, the U.S. government and Chavez continue these shots across the bow, there’s always the danger that one of them may hit. Brinkmanship is a fine art, and some of the players involved are not – shall we say – artists of diplomacy.

Chris Gilpin is a senior editor of the Casey Energy Speculator (CES), a monthly newsletter dedicated to uncovering deeply undervalued investment opportunities in oil, natural gas, uranium and alternative energy. The CES specializes in the unbiased investigation of small-cap energy companies with the very real potential to offer 100% or better returns over a short time horizon.

In the current edition of the CES, you’ll read about the ultimate contrarian opportunity in today’s oil and gas sector, and about the under-the-radar junior company poised to exploit these conditions.

You can sign up today for a full-year subscription for just $179. Then take a luxurious three months to decide whether or not the Casey Energy Speculator is right for you… if not, cancel for a no-questions-asked refund of every penny you paid. Click now to learn more.

Gold Hedge Book – All but unwound

Gold Hedge Book – Say Goodnight, Gracie

Information just out is revealing that by the end of this year, the Gold hedge book of the large gold producers will be effectively reduced to zero. In fact, it will be down to just Barrick and Anglo Gold.

This is bullish for the price of Gold, and, we hope, for the Gold stocks we invest in. Selling forward made good business sense for most of the excruciating bear market that these companies had to endure. But that’s over now.

Some ask why the Gold stocks haven’t performed better. Well, the same inflation that eats away at the budget of you and me hits Gold producers in spades. They have been buying only what they need for years and now have to ramp up operations sometimes paying a premium for equipment and skilled labor; the latter of which there isn’t much of, at least below the age of 55.

And how about that dollar? For many of these producers, revenue comes in via the US dollar, but expenses are paid in Canadian dollars or South African – both of which have appreciated nicely against the US dollar. Hit by both sides.

Ultimately, I feel the price of our favorite yellow metal will carry the day – and our stock picks – much higher indeed.

If you are like me and can’t put your boots on the ground to check out these mining companies for yourself, you better enlist the help of pros who can and do, regularly.

For larger capitalization Gold stocks of a more conservative nature, choose Casey Big Gold.

For smaller, more volatile and possibly more profitable picks, choose Casey International Speculator.

For best results, and the least chance of missing the biggest bull market in Gold, Silver, and other precious metals in our lifetime, choose both.

Casey Without Borders – February Issue Now Out

February Issue is best yet

I’ve been reading the latest issue of Casey Without Borders, edited by Simon Black and Fitzroy McLean. Wow, what a great issue.

I can’t give away everything, but let me hit some highlights:

• The same kind of labor problems prompting a city in California to be the first ever to file bankruptcy are driving business from one prominent European country to a more friendly locale to the east. And idiotic tax restructuring driving business from another to the south.
• Get the lowdown on what the editors feel is probably the best country in the world to ride out a global crisis – and enjoy it immensely while you’re there.
• Then one of my favorite sections, Actionable Intelligence. This month was a surprise for me as they cover a topic I learned about from Dennis Gartman. Hint: these things when dropped on your foot will hurt! Last months stock pick popped a nice 30% in just a week or two after the issue went out.
• A special section covers “moving and storing physical wealth”. If you have wealth in that category, this is a must read.
• And, Heir of the Month; always a fascinating read.

I have hit some of the highlights, but believe it or not there is even more.

Try a Risk Free Trial Subscription to Without Borders today!

Platinum and Palladium Continue to Soar

Platinum and Palladium on moon shot

As I mentioned in When Credit Crisis hits, It may be too late to act yesterday, once the train leaves the station it’s too late to check schedules.

No one that I know of was predicting electric power shortages in South Africa being a catalyst destined to send Platinum and her sister Palladium on a moon shot.

You have to recognize that stocks like Stillwater Mining and North American Palladium were beaten down for no good reason and have already picked up some shares.

Stillwater was trading around $10 and North American hit $3.50 right before this rocket launched. After last nights price action in the metals who knows what today will bring; but as of yesterday they were up around 70% and 120% respectively – all in under 3 weeks.

Do I know where it will end? No, but I am glad I picked up a few shares at much lower prices. I’m kicking myself for hesitating and not buying more.

If you want to learn what to look for, when to act and how to know when to get out, you need to subscribe to International Speculator from Casey Research.

Their professional advice and teaching will give you a huge edge over everyone else.

Do The Gold ETF’s Actually Have Any Gold?

This is a legitimate question that I have been seeing a lot lately. The story especially gets life due to the suspicion that those who bring us the EFT’s are the same ones collaborating to hold down the price, i.e., manipulate the market. And the question is many times asked by those who have wondered if there is actually any Gold left in Fort Knox.

Fortunately, someone posed that question to the editors of Casey Big Gold. A lengthy and detailed response can be found in this months edition of Big Gold, just now hot off the presses (digital press that is). I won’t spoil it by giving away the answer here but let’s just say that the answer given is well worth the read. They also point out an alternative investment very similar to the Gold & Silver ETF’s, but with some important differences.

Another reason to try a Risk Free Trial Subscription to Big Gold is the table of valuation models that will tell you which gold stocks to buy and which to stay away from. That and the usual company updates section tend to be what I head for first.

Credit Crisis – Where’s Your Money? Too Late To Move?

When Credit Crisis hits, It may be too late to act

When the current credit crisis began to unfold, many financial commentators started warning about potential failures of money market funds, especially the more aggressive or high yield ones. The concern was that losses on these higher yielding instruments would force these money market funds to “break the buck” or redeem shares at less than the expected fixed rate of $1.00 per share.

The course of action recommended by these advisors was to switch to more conservative money market funds that invest in all U.S. Government obligations or U.S. Treasury instruments, even though it would mean receiving less income on your investment.

One of those “I’m more concerned with the return of my investment than the return on my investment” type suggestions.

So as a little experiment, I called Charles Schwab & Co. and asked about such a switch. The knowledgeable and persuasive registered representative I spoke with explained that their Cash Reserves Money Market Fund paid less than others because Schwab had always been more cautious and conservative, i.e., nothing to worry about.

But I pressed on. What if a person wanted a Government Fund?

Well, he replied, we do have a Government Money Market fund, but it is CLOSED TO NEW INVESTORS. He did not say for how long it had been closed. If you already had a Government Money Market account, you could add money. Probably not due to a shortage of Government (toilet) paper to invest in (LOL) but rather a desire to not have the yields on such “desirable” investments pushed even lower than was already happening because of the credit crisis.

Similarly, a company I am close with finally axed their 401(k) administrator and went direct with Vanguard. Vanguard has some fine funds to choose from, but only one Gold and Precious Metals fund. Guess what? CLOSED TO NEW INVESTORS. You can add money if you already have an account, but if you don’t you’re out of luck. Very LIMITED choices if you hope to prosper on the fall of the dollar and subsequent rise in commodities.

 

Don’t wait for a credit crisis or other problem to hit (or intensify) make your preparations before you need them.

Of course, this is the kind of advice that we have received for a long time in the Casey International Speculator.

Platinum and Palladium – How High Will They Go?

All eyes are on Platinum as it breaks $2100 per ounce. The power shortage in South Africa has the PGM’s (Platinum Group Metals) on a tear.

Buy why is no one mentioning Palladium? As Platinum goes higher, makers of catalytic converters and other users of the white metal, typically start substituting Palladium – thus easing the price pressure on Platinum and increasing the price pressure on Palladium.

Has anyone noticed that Palladium is up $110 per ounce in less than a month – a 30% increase in price? In August of 2005, Palladium was under $200.

We shall see if stocks like Stillwater Mining and North American Palladium can regain their lost luster. The latter is up quite nicely from it’s low of a month or so ago, but still off 50% from last year when Jim Cramer recommended the stock (a sure short signal!).

Time will tell, but in these most interesting times you need help from experts in the field. The experts I follow are the folks at Casey Research who author such publications as the International Speculator.

Golden Triple Play

Casey Research recently released a Free Report titled “The Golden Triple-Play”.

The idea of the report, of course, was to entice you to subscribe to their newsletter Big Gold.

In the report they named one particular stock, one ETF and one mutual fund that they feel will do well for you in the unfolding currency and credit crisis. The report covers the pluses but also the minuses, as ETF’s have a dark side as well.

But while everyone else is complaining that their HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit) is frozen, their energy and food costs are skyrocketing (something that the US Government seems content to ignore) and the dollars they are being paid in continue to plummet in value, YOU can be not only holding your own, but even profiting.

My goal here isn’t to sell you on the idea of a free report.

My goal is to encourage you to protect what wealth you have and to seek to increase that wealth when everyone else is content to lose less than the next guy.

I suggest you try a Risk Free Trial Subscription to Big Gold today.

The Push Toward Unconventional Gas

The Casey Files: The Push Toward Unconventional Gas

By: Dr. Marc Bustin

Senior Researcher, Casey Energy Division

Casey Research

Natural gas prices have inspired nothing but yawns over the past two years. But it would be a big mistake to fall asleep on old “natty”. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita skewed the perception of natural gas prices. After crippling essential infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico, these hurricanes caused prices to jump over $10/MMbtu, and now anything less seems disappointing. What’s lost in this short-sighted view of natural gas prices is the realization that since 1999 they’ve increased threefold.

This should be a great benefit for natural gas producers, right?

The answer is yes and no. Some big producers have raked in big profits. But the universal problem is that conventional natural gas reserves within North America are shrinking fast – despite record high levels of exploration drilling. The next frontier of natural gas is the so-called “unconventional” reserves. Unconventional gas is plentiful, but technically-challenging, and companies looking to capitalize on this sea change in natural gas must find a way to employ one of a handful of unconventional gas experts.

Recognizing this shortage of expertise, we at the Energy Division of Casey Research were quick to invite Dr. Marc Bustin onboard as part of our technical analysis team. Marc is widely respected, and somewhat feared, within the industry as a wealth of unconventional gas knowledge. He’s debunked a company’s overinflated claims of huge reserves on more than one occasion.

[Editor’s Note: Marc’s analysis appears monthly in the Casey Energy Speculator (CES). Learn more about the CES here.]

 

In the following special report, Marc explains the complex geological nature of unconventional gas, and identifies the crucial factors that make, or break, a company exploring for this tricky – but potentially lucrative – commodity.

 

Marin Katusa

Chief Investment Strategist
Casey Energy Speculator

 

The Push Toward Unconventional Gas

 

The push toward unconventional gas – also called nonconventional gas – is a direct result of North America’s dwindling reserves of conventional gas. As with oil, we’ve been using up the cheap and easy-to-extract natural gas resources first, and we’re now compelled to search out deposits of a less conventional nature.

 

How severe could the drop-off in conventional gas production be? Within Western Canada, the National Energy Board of Canada (NEB) projects that production rates will decline between 64 and 79% by 2030.

 

 

Unconventional gas production, on the other hand, is growing fast.

 

 

 

The same story holds true for the Lower 48 in the U.S where production of unconventional gas already outstrips conventional gas.

 

 

So certainly it’s safe to say that unconventional gas (and to a lesser degree, liquid natural gas or LNG imports) shows potential for growth. But the savior to our impending energy shortfall? That’s another animal. To get a better grip on the true viability of unconventional gas, we need to take a closer look at the geology involved.

 

 

Conventional vs. Unconventional

 

To understand what unconventional gas resources are, we need to start by understanding how they differ from conventional gas resources.

 

Natural gas is predominately methane. This methane is generated when sedimentary rocks containing organic matter are exposed either to bacteria at shallow depths in the earth (<1500 meters) or to high temperatures at greater depths. Sedimentary rocks in the subsurface normally contain water in their pores or fractures and thus, when the organic matter chemically transforms into hydrocarbons, the gas and oil – being lighter than the surrounding water – exert an upward force that results in a movement known as migration.

 

The hydrocarbons’ migration upward will continue as long as the rock’s pores and fractures are sufficiently interconnected, a characteristic that geologists define as permeability. However, should they encounter rocks with low permeability, called seal rocks, migration stops and the hydrocarbons become trapped.

 

To be an economically viable oil and gas deposit, the rocks below the trapping seal rock must have three properties in sufficiency: volume, porosity and permeability. That’s how a company can produce at rates and volumes great enough to pay for the well and associated expenses, and then return a profit.

 

To summarize, for a workable conventional gas or oil deposit you need three things. The first is source rock with organic matter that has generated gas or oil in sufficient volumes, the second is a reservoir in which migrating hydrocarbons can accumulate, and the third is a trap. If a company’s project is missing any one of these three key elements in their deposit, or if one element is compromised, we would have been better off leaving our money in our mattress.

 

Let’s note that there are no hard and fast rules to follow. For example, gas will flow at economic rates in rocks with much lower permeability than would be economic for oil. Also, at greater depths, natural gas comes under greater pressure; so even with low porosity and permeability, we may be able to produce at economic rates and volumes.

 

This is only an overview of conventional gas resources, but it provides the framework to understand what makes certain gas resources ”unconventional.” Details on that are coming, but first, a bit of history to set it up.

 

Born From an Energy Crisis

 

The impetus for significant unconventional gas production can be traced back to the U.S. implementation of the Windfall Profit Tax on energy companies in 1980. Some of those funds were diverted for the Alternative Fuel Production Credit, which was established to encourage the production of domestic energy from nonconventional sources. The aim was to reduce dependence on energy imports, a goal that America is still far from meeting.

 

Part of this production credit was applied to Devonian shale, coal seams, and tight formations. The substantial tax incentive spurred unconventional gas exploration into action, and even though the incentive has now expired, its legacy is evident. Today, unconventional production is the fastest-growing part of the gas industry in the U.S. (and a very important part of the Canadian market). In the continental U.S., eight of the top ten gas fields are producing from unconventional gas resources.

 

In Canada, there was never a tax credit. Because of Canada’s relatively higher conventional gas resources, the unconventional gas industry has been slower to evolve.

 

Elsewhere in the world, unconventional gas is in its infancy and, with the exception of coalbed methane in Australia, there have been no major successes… although substantial amounts of investors’ money has been spent.

 

When Unconventional Becomes Inaccessible – Watch Out!

 

The biggest risks that come with developing unconventional gas resources relate to permeability and reservoir access. The size of unconventional gas reservoirs is commonly measured in trillions of cubic feet (tcf) and in tens to hundreds of billions of cubic feet per section (bcf/section). Compared with the size of conventional gas resources, these numbers are staggering and may send you racing for your check book. But wait! Check out the stock performance of a few companies that have been chasing the tremendous coalbed methane resources in China, the high-rank coals in British Columbia, or the companies that raced into the Palo Dura basin in Texas. It takes more than resource size to make a great find.

 

With coals, because of the nature of the material, the permeability may be too low for economic production – even at shallow depths in areas of high stress. There are currently no coals deeper than about 1,200 meters that are producing at economic rates. Examples of this have occurred in Western Canada and Colorado, where deeper coals that have the highest gas content are proving uneconomic in many areas. Putting horizontal wells into coal seams (except in a few special areas) hasn’t worked either.

 

Permeability is also a major problem with gas shales. Shales, because of their low natural permeability, must be artificially fractured to increase the flow rates. This process is part of completing a well, and is normally carried out by injecting very high volumes of water under high pressure either into vertical or, now more common, horizontal well bores. Completing the well is enormously expensive and thus do not always make for a profitable adventure.

 

 

Keys to Exploration Success

 

The days of small-cap companies tying up land underlain by coal or shale, calculating a big resource number and rushing blindly to the market to raise money are gone… or at least we hope so. The good news is that despite the technical challenges and costs involved, there are some excellent companies and investment opportunities in the unconventional field. You’ll need to evaluate them closely, however.

 

So how do we evaluate an unconventional gas company? Below is our synopsis.

 

Land Position: Clearly, a land position in a basin with good potential is crucial. Unconventional gas wells are invariably drilled with greater density than conventional wells – that is, more wells per given area – and thus they require more pipelines, compressors, infrastructure, and so on. Since many wells, especially coal wells, produce at low rates (< 300 mmcf/day), the land position needs to be contiguous for economic development. The need for lengthy pipelines or environmental restrictions, for example, may kill a great prospect. So land-related economic issues need close examination.

 

A Technologically Competent Management Team: Unconventional gas resources require a team of geologists and engineers who know what they are doing. Having a board made up of celebrities may garner a company attention but few solutions in these complex and challenging reservoirs.

 

Access to Capital: In fairly well-developed and understood coalbed methane plays, such as the Powder River Basin (Colorado), San Juan (New Mexico), Black Warrior Basin (Alabama) or the Horseshoe Canyon play (Alberta), companies with limited capital access but a land position can be, and are, successful. But in deeper coals, where wells are expensive (> $1 million) and in which technological issues (mainly related to low permeability) are not solved, the cost rapidly becomes prohibitive. In that case, small companies with good land positions may be prudent to farm out some of their land. Basins that require protracted dewatering of the coal to promote gas production also require deep pockets, patient investors, and probably all three.

 

Gas shales are even more capital intensive than coalbed methane. In Canada, the hottest gas shale prospect is the Horn River Basin of northeastern British Columbia (BC). The Horn River Basin attracted industry attention initially because of a regional study done in 2004 by CBM Solutions for the BC government (available at http://www.em.gov.bc.ca/subwebs/oilandgas

/petroleum_geology/uncog/shale.htm#Studies). This study shows the presence of a thick sequence of Devonian-age shale with attributes similar to those of the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin – the most productive shale basin in the world. The Horn River Basin is larger, the shales thicker, and many geologists think the shales there are even more prospective than those of the Fort Worth Basin.

 

As a result, many of the major companies working the Barnett turned their attention north, which has led to the current land rush. Over the last two years land prices have been astonishing, with the most recent crown sale in the Horn River Basin yielding C$3,000/hectare. In these areas well costs are in the multimillions, infrastructure is limited, and drilling is seasonal.

 

The results of the initial drilling in the Horn River Basin are still confidential. (In BC, an experimental scheme allows the operators to keep the data from drilled wells confidential for a period up to 10 years.) The only announcement to date came on July 9, 2007, when Apache indicated it hoped to commercialize its shale gas play soon. Much of the land acquisition has been by broker, but from what we can tell, it appears that small-cap companies have been frozen out of this play due to high land prices and development costs. Elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada, there are opportunities for small-cap companies in the gas shale business, but we’ll note again… land and a technology-competent team are critical.

 

So here’s the bottom line: Without all three of these factors – land position, technical know-how, and capital – an exploration company looking to profit from unconventional gas resources will flounder. Unconventional gas companies must be examined against a stricter set of criteria than conventional exploration plays because of complications involved with unconventional resources. However, a company that can manage to navigate all these obstacles successfully is poised to participate in one of the fastest-growing fields in the booming energy sector.

 

You must be an intrepid investor willing to weather a few storms if you want to participate in these cutting-edge unconventional gas plays. There are plenty of juniors in the sector trying to pass off inaccessible reserves as a lucrative resource, but there are also a few teams who have proven that they can sniff out an opportunity before it becomes a trend. The Casey Research energy team seeks out these opportunities for our Casey Energy Speculator subscribers. Try a risk-free, 3 month trial subscription by clicking here. If you’re not happy with the research we do (or want to cancel for any reason) do so within the first three months and get a full refund – but keep all the research, special reports and other information you receive with your subscription.

 

 

This report is made possible by the team of researchers and analysts at the Casey Energy Speculator – the go-to newsletter for investors exploring the profit potential in the fast-moving energy markets. From exploratory oil and natural gas companies to burgeoning uranium mines, CES provides investors the information and insights needed to identify the truly lucrative opportunities from the merely promising.

For your opportunity to explore these possibilities along with the CES team, click here now for a special three month, no-risk, no-obligation  trial subscription.

 

The Casey Energy Speculator is published by Casey Research, the finest team of natural resource and precious metals investment analysts in the world today.

Chavez Threatens To Withhold Oil From U.S.

Exxon dispute with Venezuela causes oil price jump

Just when we thought cheaper gas might be ours – for a short time – Hugo Chavez gets in a spat again waving his finger at George W. Bush and threatening to cut off oil shipments to the U.S.

Turns out, we don’t even need Peak Oil to cause higher energy prices here in the U.S., we make enemies of our suppliers too. Granted, Chavez isn’t much of a friendly neighbor to anyone, but others seem to find a way to get along. Face it Mr. President, we need their oil (even if it is a bit sour).

I don’t know about you, but for me there is only one way to compensate for higher energy prices, whether it be from Peak Oil or Political missteps. That way for me is to profit from owning the right energy related companies.

How do I know what to buy & sell? It wasn’t my 10 years experience as a part owner of a retail energy outlet. It’s my subscription to Casey Energy Speculator.

Join us why don’t you. Unless higher energy prices don’t bother you, that is.