I learned a valuable investment lesson this past weekend…
From my teenage niece.
Those of my readers that have been with me for a long time know my family sticks to its traditions — including our annual festivities for Memorial Day. And yesterday’s celebration was the first time in a long while that I had to catch up with my niece.
She is, by far, the youngest Peak Oil investor I know.
Six years ago, I was surprised when the subject of Peak Oil even came up at our family picnic. At the time, she was a precocious 12, asking me what it is I do for work. She was able to break down what I do in the simplest terms: I find the most valuable oil plays and stick with them for the long haul (which can actually be a lot more difficult than you might think).
Believe it or not, I found it was easier to explain the concept to her than it is to a lot of adults.
To tell you the truth, I’ll put her portfolio up against some of my day-trading friends that won’t hold on to a stock for more than a few hours… and it’s all thanks to the Bakken.
Find the Next Bakken
As you can imagine, there’s been a lot of change in the Bakken play since Memorial Day 2007.
Back then, my niece decided to pick up shares of my favorite energy company at the time, Continental Resources.
This company was the perfect example of the early bird getting the worm: It was trading for under $15 in late May of 2007. When most hardened investors I know panicked and dumped their positions after oil prices crashed from $147 per barrel to as low $33 per barrel in December 2008, my niece wasn’t concerned (the fact that she was 12 at the time may have helped).
Today CLR is ready to break past triple digits:
She still has a few months before her first college semester. If Continental tops $100 by then, at least she won’t have to worry about buying books for the next four years, after she takes a near 600% gain…
In spite of the massive economic downturn we’ve experienced since 2008, our thirst for petroleum products has been relatively flat for the past two decades.
Considering how much our biggest oil-producing states have been in decline for decades, it means this new shale production is more valuable than ever.
Look, the demand chart above isn’t going to change much over the next twenty years.
Even at 12, my niece understood that oil is getting much more expensive to produce.
As I explained it to her years ago, the low-hanging fruit has been picked — a fact that is becoming increasingly clear with each passing day:
Source: Energy Watch Group, Fossil Fuels – The Supply Outlook, March 2013
The price spike you see isn’t the result of oil companies trying to find a new way to gouge customers. It’s because the oil we’re going after today isn’t in conventional locations. It’s no longer a matter of drilling a hole straight down and watching crude gush to the surface.
The shale boom that we’ve enjoyed since the late 2000s comes at a hefty price (we’re talking as high as $12 million per well). And that’s still infinitely cheaper than the ultra-deepwater wells that ExxonMobil and friends are drilling for at up to $100 million per well.
With that kind of price tag and commitment, are we really surprised that these major oil companies spent billions of dollars to move to onshore shale fields?
The best part is that it’s happening all over again — this time on the other side of the globe…
Some of the most expensive areas for companies hoping to strike oil are off the coast of Australia and New Zealand.
That’s where Christian DeHaemer and his readers are about to rake in a small fortune.
You see, Chris has been following the developing shale boom down under for awhile now. And he’s gotten the jump on Wall Street with two companies going after the billions of barrels of oil locked in New Zealand’s biggest shale play, the discovery of which has already sparked an onshore rush.
As I said before, it’s 12 billion barrels or bust for the players involved…
Until next time,
Keith Kohl
Check us out on YouTube!A true insider in the technology and energy markets, Keith’s research has helped everyday investors capitalize from the rapid adoption of new technology trends and energy transitions. Keith connects with hundreds of thousands of readers as the Managing Editor of Energy & Capital, as well as the investment director of Angel Publishing’s Energy Investor and Technology and Opportunity.
For nearly two decades, Keith has been providing in-depth coverage of the hottest investment trends before they go mainstream — from the shale oil and gas boom in the United States to the red-hot EV revolution currently underway. Keith and his readers have banked hundreds of winning trades on the 5G rollout and on key advancements in robotics and AI technology.
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