Tag: Energy 2012
The Weekly Report: Energy & Iran in 2012
17 January 2012
Many readers may be familiar with the film “300,” an adaptation of an ultraviolent graphic novel that depicts the historical Battle of Thermopylae where a few thousand Greeks (and 300 Spartans, hence the title of the movie) held off a substantially larger Persian force (estimates range between 70,000 and 300,000 soldiers) by using a highly militarized ultra-patriotic culture, and (most importantly) the terrain to their advantage.
What does “300” have to do with finance and investments? Honestly, not too much, except that you must be as tenacious and knowledgeable of the terrain as Leonidas, King of the Spartans, to invest in today’s environment. However, we can use “300” to explore some very heavy subjects in a somewhat light-hearted way. Coincidentally, both Greece (and the Eurozone as a whole) and Persia (now called Iran) figure heavily in global macroeconomic developments, so the “300” theme isn’t completely out of the blue.
Particularly, developments in Europe and Iran could lead to very large swings in energy prices. Read more…
The Weekly Report: Energy in 2012 – Part I
10 January 2012
Two weeks ago, we summarized some of the events and notable developments in the energy sector during 2011. This week, we’ll try to give a broad outlook of what 2012 might have in store, both here in T&T as well as globally. For this post, we’ll delve into what is in store for the local energy and commodity industries in our twin island republic.
Upstream
The upstream sector showed strong momentum in 2011, which will spill over into 2012. We are not even halfway through January, and one new exploration well was successfully drilled by Range Resources, a U.S. based independent oil firm.
A big driver of increased upstream activity is Petrotrin’s (and the Government’s) need for more crude. This is just one way they can reduce the 3 billion TT fuel subsidy bill, as they have to import increasing amounts of crude from Africa, Russia and South America to make up for falling local production. Read more…
