So there I was the other day, walking through the waiting area of a local hospital. I looked over at a glowing television set. I saw a silver flying saucer. The caption at the bottom of the screen stated, helpfully, "Flying Saucer Over Colorado." We're Not Alone… Thank GOD! I thought to ...read more

Marcio Mello, the former explorationist from Petrobras (PBR: NYSE) and now independent petroleum consultant, electrified the Denver meeting of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO). In a riveting talk that lasted well over an hour, Marcio detailed the immense petroleum potential of offshore Brazil, as well ...read more

Let's take a quick look at what's happening in Brazil, over and above the 2016 Olympics being awarded to Rio de Janeiro. "I don't know if I will live to see it," said Brazil's president Luiz (Lula) da Silva a couple weeks ago. "But Brazil has to transform itself into a ...read more

In our history, the American nation committed obvious sins against select groups of people, and we've paid bitterly for some of that. But now it's our sins against the land itself that threaten to sink the USA as a viable enterprise. It's odd, that in his otherwise excellent blow-by-blow account ("Eight ...read more

Each year, generally in May, the Energy Information Administration publishes a less-than-eagerly-anticipated tome called the International Energy Outlook, 250+ pages of mind-numbing text, charts, graphs, and tables. No one reads it. The mainstream media ignore it. It’s the product of the best prognosticators in the Department of Energy. Okay, that may be ...read more

Always follow the oil market closely, because it will impact the fundamentals of many businesses -- including those we are selling short. Drivers in the U.S. no longer determine the global price of oil. So oil prices can remain high despite a weak labor market -- as we saw in the ...read more

Recently, I had the unique opportunity to tour two different oil sands operations near Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta. I saw a massive open-pit oil sands mine, and the associated reclamation effort, operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd. I also visited an in situ oil sands recovery project called Surmont, operated ...read more

Can plaintiffs in a lawsuit generate infinite favorable publicity, yet have virtually no substance to back up their claims?  The Amazon Defense Coalition (ADC) has found a way to play into many peoples’ concerns about oil companies—but with very little substance behind their accusations.  ADC is shaking down Chevron for ...read more

There I was, surrounded by thousands of barrels of Kentucky’s finest -- seemingly, enough bourbon to get every of-age taxpayer in the U.S. a little tipsy. By any stretch of the imagination, this place was paradise. Rolling hills as far as you could see and the air was thick with ...read more

"It's only gas," said the geologists. And wow, were they ever frustrated… The year was 1959. The geologists were in the Netherlands, near a small town named Groningen, at the southern edge of the North Sea. They worked for Shell and Esso (now Exxon Mobil) and were drilling a well. Instead ...read more