When I started my subscription service back in June 2009, I truly wasn’t sure how it would evolve.  The core was to be stockpicking some junior and intermediate oil and gas producers listed in Canada and the US. I also thought I would be able to educate a lot of investors with many interesting story ideas that came out of my daily research.

I hoped, but could not have guessed, that my portfolio would perform as well as it has.  One of my key tenets is transparency; this is my real portfolio. Every  portfolio company which I present to subscribers is one in which I invest real real money; it’s not a model portfolio.  I think it’s important for subscribers to know I put my money on the line with them. Subscribers get alerted to trades within minutes of their addition to the Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin portfolio.

The service has proven itself.  It has made me hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past nine months.  While there is a mix of domestic and international plays, the fact that I was in early to several of the hot new Cardium oil plays in Alberta was a big factor in the subscriber portfolio performance.

The numbers and subscriber feedback tell me the service is creating huge value for investors.  My company reports are simply written, and easily understood.  Plus, I use the same formula for each write up.

Subscribers can expect several new developments in 2010.  The first and most exciting is one of my next two picks, which has me more excited than when I bought Wavefront Technology (WEE-TSXv; $2.30) at 71 cents.  Second, is an increased focus on US stocks – there are some great opportunities there (especially if the oil price keeps dragging down stocks!).  Third,later this year there will be  a new Community Centre, inside the Members Centre on the website, where subscribers will be able to post their oil and gas stock ideas for others to read, all juried by me. 2010 is already looking like a very interesting and exciting year!

With that said, on February 6, 2010, our subscription rates will be increasing. The price for an annual subscription will become $399 (currently US $299), and monthly subscriptions will become $39 per month (currently US $29).  There is a 60 day, 100% money back guarantee on annual subscriptions, and a pro-rata refund thereafter.  There is no refund for monthly subscribers, who may cancel at any time. 

Just as a comparison, several newsletters on the mining side charge $1500 – $3000 for the same, real- time information.

My team and I have many ideas we’re working on, to increase value to subscribers.  But the main one, by far, is profiling opportunities for huge capital gains to subscribers in oil and gas stocks (no coal, no uranium, no lithium etc), and putting my own money on the line with subscribers.

I think 2010 will be a very exciting year for oil and gas investors, as the new technologies that are being used in North America to increase cash flow, profits and stock prices are implemented around the globe by very technically competent management teams. 

In fact, one of my next two picks is an international play where horizontal drilling will be used for the first time in a highly prospective new oil field. This field is independently estimated to hold billions of barrels of oil – and this tiny junior owns a colossal sized land package in it. Two vertical wells have already shown the formation exists; to me it’s just a question if it can be fracked properly.  This  could quickly become the most profitable investment I have ever made.

Take advantage of the current subscription rate, and my 60 day money back guarantee, before February 6, 2010.

God Bless & prosperity to all in 2010!

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

It had to happen sometime.

Nobody ever hits 100% of their wells forever.

Shareholders in Coastal Energy (CEN-TSXv) woke up this morning to see their stock drop over $1 per share, or 15%, down to $5.35 after the company reported they had stopped drilling on their first well in the new Songkhla B field in the Gulf of Thailand.

Coastal Energy grew from 2000 – 12000 barrels of oil per day in 2009 as they hit two big wells in the Gulf of Thailand, one of them within 2.5 miles of where they drilled this recent well.   I discovered the stock at $2.50 in August last year, and put it in the subscriber portfolio.  It was recently trading over $6 and I have been very public in saying that it’s one of my favourite stories for 2010.  You can read my 9 page report on the company for free by signing up to receive my free blog (just to the right here on my home page.)

In announcing it was abandoning the well, the company said it “encountered a breached trap”.  In English, this means there was a hole in the reservoir.  And, at some time in the last 100 million years most of the oil seeped out through it.

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

(a shorter version of this story appeared in the Financial Post Trading Desk online edition on January 6)

How do valuations get set for oil and gas companies?  I ask because I’m seeing very fast-rising valuations in the junior and intermediate oil sector that I cover. I have seen junior oil producers valued at $200,000 per flowing barrel recently – more than triple the peer group average.

Industry statistics concur. A December 24^th report by Peters & Co., a Calgary-based securities firm that is an oil and gas boutique, showed that the average purchase/sale price for oil weighted production in Q4 2009 was $100,000 per flowing barrel. 

This is up more than 50% from the Q3 valuation of just over $60,000. (Oil and gas equivalent is the way the industry puts the two commodities into one valuation, usually at 6:1 ratio of gas-to-oil).

The report showed that valuations for natural gas weighted purchases also jumped up more than 50% in Q4, from $35,000 per flowing boe to $54,700.  These numbers have an immediate impact on junior and intermediate stocks across the board, as you’ll read.

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Junior oil producers with land packages in the Cardium formation are jumping up today after Berens Energy (BEN-TSX) was bought out today by Petrobakken for $2.70 a share. Berens’ stock price had moved up from 50 cents to $2 over the last six months as its Cardium land position became more widely known.

This transaction is significant for a couple reasons.  It’s a huge validation of the emerging Cardium play.  The Cardium has quickly become the next “hot” play in Canada, after the high profile Bakken play in Saskatchewan.  And Petrobakken is one of the top intermediate producers in Canada.  The market has great respect for this management team’s (CEO John Wright and CFO Corey Ruttan) technical and business expertise.

I would suggest that Berens was sold at a significantly higher valuation than people expected – $90,000 per flowing barrel of oil equivalent (boe) based on average December production of 3700 boe/d. 

Part of the reason was Berens land base – Petrobakken indicated it saw 100 Cardium drilling locations there.  One analyst report on the deal this morning noted that even backing out the land price at $2 million per section, the deal was worth $70,000 per flowing boe.

The market is taking this news and immediately re-rating all of the juniors in this play (which is great for our subscriber portfolio!). Many of the juniors are natural gas weighted, with high debt issues – just like Berens was/is – and were/are trading at roughly $35,000 per flowing barrel.  That leaves a lot of upside for investors.

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I’m taking 4 days off before Christmas, and it’s almost going to kill me – there is so much happening in the oilpatch!  The subscribers’ portfolio is heavily weighted towards the new Cardium oil play in Alberta, and I read this morning that one brokerage firm just dramatically raised targets on two of our picks.  The Cardium play has now become the hottest oil play in Canada.

My portfolio addition this week came to me as I was reading a research report on Tuesday morning, and it said Company X had a large Cardium land position.  This is one of the most followed junior producers in Canada, and one quick look at the stock showed that this was not priced into the stock – so I quickly alerted subscribers.  The stock is now up 15% and analyst updates are pouring out touting the latest Cardium play.  I expect this company – with one of the most respected junior teams in Canada – to provide subscribers with great growth in 2010.

I’m also looking at a US listed oil producer that is likely to double oil production – in the next 4 months!  The only issue is its rather large debt position.  There is also an international play – where subscribers have done incredibly well with companies like Petrominerales, and Pan Orient – that has me very intrigued.  It’s well cashed up and has two plays – one for 2010 and one for 2011 – that could see it be a 3-5 bagger or better over the next 24 months with drilling success. (And one of their first wells is twinning an old one that already hit the payzone!)

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The new Cardium oil play in Alberta is rapidly approaching the stature of Saskatchewan’s famous Bakken play – and this is very good news for investors in Canada’s junior oil and gas sector.

The four year old Bakken play has created huge shareholder wealth for investors, as companies like Crescent Point Energy and Petrobank bought out junior after junior after junior to increase their land base and production profile.

The same thing is now starting to happen in Alberta’s Cardium play.  And valuations (read: stock prices) are getting much richer, much faster than what happened in the Bakken.

As an example, TSX listed Result Energy is a Cardium-focused play that was just taken over and re-capitalized by the management team from TriStar Oil and Gas, a Bakken play that itself was bought out in August 2009.

Brett Herman and his TriStar team announced several acquisitions immediately, and one Canadian analyst estimated they paid $275,000 per flowing barrel for them.  As comparison, the average Canadian listed junior trades at about $60,000, the intermediates at $71,000, and if it’s a natural gas weighted producer, it can be as low as $30,000.

Even the leading juniors in the more profitable Bakken play – Painted Pony Explorations would be a good example of this – trade at $140,000 per flowing barrel. 

[click to continue…]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }