Featured Trades: (OIL), (XOM), (OXY), (COP)
2) The Price of Oil is Going Up. The free Ben Bernanke put also applies to the commodities markets. I received another scratchy, crackling cell phone call from my drilling buddy in the Texas natural gas fields today. You could almost choke from the dust on the line.
He told me that the BP Gulf disaster was turning the fundamental assumptions of the oil industry upside down, and that sharply higher oil prices were in the cards, probably $100/barrel by year end. Major oil companies with deep pockets at risk were rushing to offload their existing offshore leases and partnerships in producing wells to avoid BP's potential $30 billion hickey.
If nothing else, the majors have learned that liability caps are nothing more than wishful thinking. They can only speculate what a new round of vengeful regulation will cost them. Hedge funds looking for 'the next big play' were willing buyers, but only at substantial bargains. We are witnessing nothing less than the birth of a new distressed junk market.
It is all part of a repricing of risk that values offshore assets at a discount, and onshore ones at a new found premium. Only big swinging dicks need apply, as minimum participations are going for as much as $50 million.
The impairment of Gulf assets is also breathing life into the once moribund natural gas market. Enough gas supplies are being left under the Gulf to offset the enormous new production coming online through the new 'fracting' technology, where everyone is using a volume strategy to offset plunging prices. Gas is not heading off to the races, but supplies will be tight enough to sustain it in a $3.50-$5.00 trading range for the next 18 months.
It all makes me want to go back and buy more ExxonMobil (XOM) ( click here for my piece), Occidental Petroleum (OXY) ( click here for the report), and Conoco Phillips (COP). I'd love to get more out of my friend, but I don't think my aged, arthritic back could take another three hours driving down washboard roads in a beat up pickup truck with no springs to track him down at his newest drilling location. Besides, I already have enough 8 x 10 signed glossy portraits of George W. Bush to last a lifetime, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings by turning down more.
