The Oil Price: Noone Really Knows What's Going On; Russia economic growth usa oil oversupply opec report

Just two months ago, the World Bank estimated in its commodity forecast report that the price of crude oil will average $51.4 per barrel in 2016, virtually unchanged from the average price last year ($52.5), but since then oil has fallen all the way down to $30 with no bottom in sight.

Just this month the price reached an 11 year low for the third session in a row ($36), despite positive news regarding US supply (stockpile down -5.8m barrels vs +1.1m estimate). The price was as high as $110 as recently as 2014 but $30 oil was not uncommon in the 1990's and early 2000's.

Now Opec which represents a third of the world's oil output, is coming out and saying that improved overall demand will lead to a recovery in the price ($70 by 2020).

And Russia - the world's second largest producer - is saying it doesn't expect oil prices to recover beyond $30 in 2016 which says a lot coming from a nation that loses $2 billion in revenues for every dollar decline.

My opinion - Oil prices will swing wildly in both directions in the upcoming years so prepare accordingly.  However peak oil is not the issue.

this opinion is based on

• The USA oil oversupply cannot continue especially at current prices - most oil production increases in the US are attributable to North Dakota shale exploration the pace of which cannot continue at current prices.
• New Canadian pipelines (Energy East Pipeline will allow Canada to fully utilize refinery capacity in New Brunswick / Northern Gateway Pipeline / others) will permanently lower glut of supply in US North Western PADD regions).
• Higher oil exploration costs in general as tradition sources dwindle (shifts from light crude -> heavy oil which requires more expensive processing).
• However
• in much of the world the infrastructure and technology to utilize renewable sources of energy is not yet in place or too expensive to implement.  Furthermore, it is those parts of the world where most of the population and economic growth is happening (Africa, India, Economy of the Arab League).

Bombardier Flight Test Delay Ok With Customers, BlackBerry (BBRY) Developing New Sources of Revenue Infotainment

Bombardier (BBD.B) cseries delay not a problem for customers
Airlines Lufthansa (fra:LHA) and Odysey have firm orders for 30 and 10 cseries aircraft, respectively;  Lufthansa also has an option for 30 more; that represents 23% of all orders.  First flight was suppose to have occurred back in June 2014 but software upgrades pushed the date back to September 16, 2014.  That date was eventually scrapped in favor of one 15 months later- December 2015.  Engineering is not the problem (already done / confirmed by key customers) rather, the certification process overseen by Transport Canada is to blame as it is time consuming especially since it involves a new United Technologies Pratt & Whitney engine.  The flight test program is scheduled to be 2400 hours long with only 159 logged thus far.  According to Odyssey Airlines, when ready the Bombardier cseries plane will have a flawless entry into service with airlines, making long delays justifiable.

The c100 will cost 15% less to operate versus similarly sized planes (110, 130 seater).  The c300 will seat 20 more passengers than the c100.

Russia crisis affects $3.4 billion Q400 turboprop contract between Bombardier and state owned Rostekhnologii. - Sanctions tabled by the US and Canada prevent Bombardier from moving forward with the contract.  In 2013 Russia accounted for only 1.4% of company revenue ($250m), this deal is pivotal for boosting sales to the region.  Russia is an expanding market and key member of the BRIC group of nations.  In my opinion this is a deal the company must hang onto.

BlackBerry's QNX platform superior to Apple IOS ?

Last month Apple revealed something somewhat surprising:  Apple's new in car operating system Carplay- which enables iPhone to power the infotainment, is actually built on BlackBerry's qnx platform.

"Connectivity to smartphones and other mobile devices is a key strength of qnx Software Systems’ platform", "We have a long-standing partnership with Apple to ensure high-quality connectivity with their devices, and this partnership extends to support for Apple CarPlay".

with automakers Toyota (TM), BMW, GM and Ford (F) already designing their vehicles to be compatible with qnx software it seems inevitable that, as the technology increases in popularity BlackBerry is going to develop a significant new source of revenue.
Also in March:  US department of defense approves BlackBerry Full Operational Capability software to run on government networks.

The week prior to this, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) approved BlackBerry's iOS and Android Secure Work Space mobile service for use by the US and Canadian governments- allows IT managers to create a separate area on any iOS or Android device that's managed by Blackberry Enterprise Service 10.  The partnership with Android is another way BlackBerry is increasing revenue stream and future cash flow.

Blackberry About To Make Up More Ground In Smartphone Battle

The new BlackBerry Z3 is a low cost device (under $200;  Samsung and LG rely on low end devices for their sales growth).
Indonesia will be the first country in Asia to get it / Z3 is the first phone manufactured by contract partner Foxconn.

Gold Looks Good In 2014 Despite Fed Tapering, Canadian Oil Price Differential Under $20 Into 2016 pipelines

Key things to note this first month of 2014:  From December 31, 2013 to January 29, 2014 spot gold gained US$85 to close at just under $1270 but keep in mind that if your currency isn't the US dollar then gold got even more expensive thanks to i) ongoing currency crises in emerging markets ii) Canadian dollar drops to 4-year low versus the greenback; country decides not to raise interest rates. iii) fiscal liquidity problem developing in China.  But don't get too excited just yet - At $1255 the April futures gold price remains lower than spot.  Osisko is suing Goldcorp - alleges misuse of confidential information.  I guess that puts an end to Goldcorp's $2.6 billion hostile bid for Osisko.

Canadian WCS oil price:  Canadian oil price differential expected to remain under $20 for the foreseeable future, well into 2016.  A couple reasons for this

• Enbridge is expanding the capacity of a key pipeline in Wisconsin:  from 400,000 bpd to 1.2 million bpd.  That will have a positive effect on the oil and gas industry in the US NW (three-fifths of oil output in ND is shipped by rail).  Enbridge has also proposed the Sandpiper Pipeline which will add 225,000 bpd to Minnesotia plus another 375,000 bpd to Wisconsin.
• BP and Marathon refineries in the US are being upgraded to handle more heavy crude from Alberta.
•  Glut of supply in Wisconsin may be relieved when portions of the Keystone pipeline come online (southern leg of Keystone running through Cushing, Oklahoma became operational January 22).
• Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby tripled capacity from 300th to 890th barrels per day.

Despite several factors working in its favor, over the last few weeks the price of gold hasn't really moved in either direction, as investors were anticipating a tapering to the Fed's $80 billion monthly bond buying program (put downward pressure on commodity prices).  When it finally happened on January 29 ($10b/mo) gold went up as is to be expected (no more tapering in the short term).  I have some concerns about Fed tapering.. The Fed claims that economic activity picked up in recent months -> this should cause money to flow out of commodities and into equities... however that doesn't appear to be happening (soft jobs growth in December).  If you're concerned about interest rates rising in response to Fed tapering don't be:  The Fed has explicitly stated that it will maintain a policy of record low interest rates (gold does well when interest rates go down).

Counteracting this and lifting the price of gold is

• Currency crisis in emerging markets specifically Turkey, South Africa, Argentina - safe haven investing favors gold, US security notes
• Financial liquidity problem developing in China; banks aren't lending and that's making it worse
• Less US monetary stimulus is wreaking havoc on currencies in South Africa and Turkey where account deficit problems are forcing interest rate hikes.

Big Exploration Companies Only An Investment Away From Becoming Major Industry Players

&nbsp&nbsp It seems weird when a company with more resources of a particular commodity isn't valued higher by the stock market (compare, for example Seabridge Gold or Northgate Minerals to Detour Gold; Cenovus Energy (oil) to Anadarko Petroleum). When companies aren't producing (such as the case with many big exploration companies) people are more skeptical of their estimates, especially if they don't have the financing in place to turn projects into operations; Ivanhoe Mines suffered from that for years before Rio Tinto confirmed the company's standing by calling Oyu Tolgoi 'the biggest copper resource in the world'. Examples of companies that have gotten away with lieing about resources include Greywolf Resources, a group of companies in Argentina which the president claimed in 2004, lied about reserves, even Shell has been caught but that was at a time when regulations industry-wide, were softer. Furthermore, energy consumption experienced the biggest yearly increase since 1973 in 2010, in 2010 it was up 5.6% largely due to China (up 11.2% surpassing the USA) and non-OECD nations (63% higher than 2000 levels). (World energy consumption up 5.6% in 2010, biggest rise since 1973: BP) Brazil, for example was on pace to import 50% more gasoline in 2011 than in 2010 (3.2M barrels Jan-Aug compared to 3.2M barrels Jan-Dec accounting for 5% of domestic fuel needs). In 2010 90% of cars sold in Brazil run on a combination of bio-fuel and gasoline but bio-fuel is getting more expensive: Sugar cane price is up 85% over the last year. (Brazil boom takes world fuel markets by surprise)


Here are three companies that I think would benefit from more investment and media exposure.

Meg Energy - Recoverable oil resource is close to 6 billion barrels. That's almost as much as Canada's biggest petroleum companies Suncor (7-8 billion, with a market value of over US$50 billion), and Canadian Natural Resources (over 6 billion, MV is over US$40 billion). Being heavy oil doesn't really make a difference anymore as synthetic oil is easier to produce and more widely used than it used to be (though oil prices need to be at least $50/bbl for it to be economically viable to produce but I don't think that level will be breached anytime soon). Phase 2B of the Christina Lake project has costs totaling $1.4 billion (about the same as MEG's total cash and cash equivalents) that will be spent in 2011. The biggest phase of the project (will increase production by 250,000 barrels per day or 7X more than what phase 2B will produce) is the third phase. You can imagine the price tag there, receiving regulatory approval shouldn't be a problem but more investment will probably be needed. The company recently reached $10 billion in market value and China's third biggest oil company has already invested in it so attracting more shouldn't be difficult, but when it's announced, individual investors could show a lot more interest. Update: In October 2011 JP Morgan, the world's #1 bank in terms of revenue, forecast oil at $121/barrel by 2013, at the same time it expects oil prodction that year to rise by about 2M bbls/d to 91 million barrels a day.
By 2045 oil sands will produce close to 11M bbls/d and that will continue for a century. Between 2012 and 2020 oil output from the tar sands will double (1.7 mbpd --> 3.4 mbpd) and triple in the next 25 years to 5.1 million barrels per day. Tar sands crude is over five times more expensive to extract than middle east oil however with oil prices up more than 400% since 2001 and Alberta continuing to charge one of the lowest royalty rates in the world (fell from $3 to $2/bbl between 2001 and 2009) there is much profit to be made.

Bankers Petroleum - Has interest in Europe's largest onshore oil field (7.5 billion barrels in place). 2P reserves are over 268 million barrels and rising fast (proved reserves up 30% in 2010), including stakes held