Monthly Archives: August 2014

David Crane’s Green Vision For Carbon-Belching NRG Energy

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“To further justify NRG’s push into ‘distributed generation’ like solar panels and basement generators, Crane talks up his belief that the U.S. power grid will succumb to a slow death caused by anticarbon regulation and ever-cheaper alternatives like rooftop solar. It’s like the U.S. Postal Service, he says. All the important mail already goes by UPS or FedEx. That puts the post office in a death spiral: It has to raise rates to cover costs, but those higher rates drive away more customers. Electric utilities have already begun responding in the same way by charging home solar adopters new fees for staying attached to the grid.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/07/02/david-cranes-green-vision-for-carbon-belching-nrg-energy/

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Bakken Oil Explorers Told to Cut Flaring or Face Oil Production Caps

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“North Dakota is cracking down on flaring that increases air pollution and also casts a glow in the night sky that can be seen miles away from remote well sites. Oil companies routinely burn off gas that emerges along with crude from wells when local pipelines or demand are insufficient to absorb the fuel.  North Dakota’s daily crude output surpassed 1 million barrels in April for the first time in history, making the state a bigger oil supplier than OPEC members Ecuador or Qatar. In the U.S., Texas is the only state that pumps more crude than North Dakota, according to the Energy Department.  The industrial commission wants a 26 percent reduction in gas flaring statewide this year.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-01/bakken-oil-explorers-told-to-cut-flaring-or-face-crude-caps-1-.html

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Pittsburgh airport to host fracking sites starting this month

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“The floundering Pittsburgh International Airport is expected to soon begin earning nearly a quarter of its annual operating budget by letting a local energy company conduct fracking operations deep under the once booming air traffic hub.  On Monday, the New York Times reported first that the airport in southwestern Pennsylvania cut a deal with Consol Energy that will let the oil and gas company begin drilling next month to extract resources from beneath PIT by way of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing.  Earlier this year, Alleghany County, PA is reportedly expected to gain upwards of $500 million during the next two decades by letting Consol drill as many as 60 wells on 8,800 acres of airport property.”

http://rt.com/usa/179828-fracking-pittsburgh-airport-consol/

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Canada launches mission to map, claim North Pole

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“After a decade of surveying the country’s eastern and far north seabeds and gathering supporting evidence, Canada filed a UN application in December seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary and signaled intentions to claim the North Pole.  Russian President Vladimir Putin followed suit by ordering his country’s military to step up its presence in the Arctic, amid competing claims by countries that also include Norway and Denmark.  Russia and Canada have overlapping claims to both the North Pole as well as large swathes of the Arctic that the US Geological Survey thinks could hold 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and up to 30 percent of its hidden natural gas reserves.”

http://phys.org/news/2014-08-canada-mission-north-pole.html

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The World’s Next Oil Shipping Corridor: The Arctic Ocean

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“The so-called Northern Sea route connecting Europe to Asia via the northern coast of Russia has its advantages.  It’s a shorter and quicker route, and thus more energy efficient. And it avoids many of the geopolitical flash points that make shipping risky–instead of the Strait of Malacca, the Horn of Africa and Egypt’s Suez region, boats can hug the coat of Russia for a chilly but uneventful ride.  The route has been a viable shipping lane only in recent years, thanks to thinning Arctic ice cover. As the WSJ reported in mid-2013, energy companies have been keen to try out the prospect of a faster link between Russia’s giant oil and gas fields and the ports of China and Japan.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/07/09/the-worlds-next-oil-shipping-corridor-the-arctic-ocean/

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China-Russia gas deal creates Arctic winners and losers

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“China’s deal with Russia could put downward pressure on LNG prices in East Asia, where they are generally the highest in the world. Unlike oil, which is sold on a global market, the market for LNG is regional. The deal between Gazprom and CNPC is rumored to be between $10 to $10.50 per million Btu, which is almost 25% cheaper than the current $13 spot price in Asia. As Reuters suggests, the relative bargain that China won from Gazprom means that other countries like Japan and South Korea might not have to pay as high prices. This could spell bad news for Canada and the U.S., which are eager to capitalize on high Asian gas prices by exporting their surplus gas.”

http://cryopolitics.com/2014/06/25/china-russia-gas-deal-creates-arctic-winners-and-losers/

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Myanmar’s new stock market to open in Oct 2015: deputy minister

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“Daiwa Securities Group and the Tokyo Stock Exchange signed an agreement to help set up the exchange after Myanmar started to open up following almost half a century of military rule.  ‘Necessary arrangements have been well under way to open a stock market with a few qualified public companies in Yangon in October 2015,’ Deputy Finance Minister Maung Maung Thein, who chairs the exchange’s preparation committee, told Reuters.  He said half a dozen companies would be listed in the early stages, including Myanma Agro-business Public Co and Asia Green Development Bank.  The new stock exchange will be located in a former central bank building in the centre of Yangon.”

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/06/04/myanmar-bourse-idINL3N0OL2AR20140604

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For U.S. investors sour on Apple, buying Samsung is tricky [2013]

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“Samsung, with a market cap of $236 billion, is not listed as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) on major U.S. markets like other foreign companies such as Toyota Motor Corp and Sony Corp. Instead, an unofficial version of Samsung trades under the ticker on OTC Markets Group, colloquially referred to as the Pink Sheets.  The rise in unsponsored ADRs came after a SEC rule change in 2008 that allowed depository banks such as BNY Mellon and JP Morgan Chase to launch ADRs based on market demand without the consent of a company.  Listing fees and SEC filing requirements have prompted other major companies to bypass sponsored ADRS as well.”

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/uk-samsung-shares-idUKBRE90N17D20130124

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What lies behind this eye-catching 7pc ‘savings bond’?

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“We’ve seen this model before. A lender advances money to borrowers. It then sells, or assigns, some or all of those loans to other investors. The model enables the overall business to grow more quickly.  It also gives the ‘bank’ some flexibility about managing its obligations to different groups of funders. If it needs capital to meet one tranche of maturing bonds, it can raise money through the sale of loans to another group. Could it go horribly wrong? Absolutely, yes. Wellesley hopes to raise £100m through these ‘savings bonds’ so you have an idea of just how big – and potentially complex – this business could quickly become.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/bonds/11005195/What-lies-behind-this-eye-catching-7pc-savings-bond.html

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Buying shares? First take a look at the bonds

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“One of the Invesco Perpetual star manager’s biggest coups in his decades as a fund manager was buying tobacco companies in the Nineties when everyone else was convinced they were going bust as a result of litigation brought by various authorities in the United States.  What gave Mr Woodford confidence about the firms’ future was that he looked at the companies’ bonds and discovered that among the holders were the very bodies that were behind the lawsuits. He concluded – rightly, of course – that the tobacco firms would be allowed to survive.  As he bought the shares when they were priced for imminent bankruptcy, he reaped vast rewards when the rest of the market caught up.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares/10487685/Buying-shares-First-take-a-look-at-the-bonds.html

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