Geopolitics and Energy Mash Up

Surprisingly, the geopolitics in play in my last post are not much different than today's. The Q&A below offers some insights into Putin's moves on the world stage. With low oil prices still lingering and whipsawing around, the green side of energy has seemingly decoupled from oil's tethers. In offering a balanced lineup of subject matter —from global security and shale gas to edgy academic research and energy market plays, the following new works are highlighted:

• A Q&A with Ambassador Pinkering on global hot spots. See the 11/06/15 entry.
• New findings that shale gas wells are not over-drilled.
• Re-freshed content and design of the Cox School faculty research site. (The profile about crowd-sourced investment research is interesting.)
• A look at Toyota's claim about conventional gas engines going by the wayside in 2050, and how various scenarios could present themselves.
• Finally, a couple of firm's reporting in the third quarter offer clues as to how various sides of the oil and gas business are faring: Halliburton here and Pioneer here. In a depressed pricing environment, firms are focused on strengths like never before.

Arctic Exploration by Russia's Rosneft

With geopolitical tensions strife across the globe, news of Rosneft's Kara Sea well result makes for an interesting diversion. The firm announced the "northernmost well" in history. The area in question is said to contain more oil and gas than the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, more drilling results will be needed over time to confirm or adjust the resource projections. See a Seeking Alpha article of mine for more detail and indications of Russia's Arctic passageway infrastructure build out. The Moscow Times says:

"The first oil was extracted. It is an astonishing sample of light oil, which based on the results of the analysis performed, is comparable to Siberian Light oil," [CEO] Sechin said in a statement on Rosneft's website. He said Rosneft would like to call the discovered field "Pobeda," Russian for victory...But it was not yet clear whether commercially viable quantities of oil could be recovered from the well. Rosneft said data from the well will be analyzed and only then could a conclusion be reached on the reserves there.