The Energy Report

The Energy Report: Please give us your overview of the oil and gas markets. Steve Palmer: Right now, there is a supply/demand imbalance: Too much supply for both gas and oil. The imbalance has created downward pressure on the price of both commodities. Investor sentiment is quite negative in the space, which is shortsighted. TER: […]

The Energy Report: Oil prices have made a minor recovery, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at about $50/barrel ($50/bbl) and Brent at about $60/bbl. Where are oil prices going in the short term? Brian Bagnell: That’s a hard question to answer. What we know for certain is that prices will remain volatile throughout H1/15. The

The Energy Report: Are low prices for fossil fuels winnowing out the weaker juniors and enhancing the potential of stronger firms positioned to survive the downturn? Etienne Moshevich: Yes, they most definitely are. When times were good, too many companies borrowed money against future cash flows, and now have no chance of paying the money

The Energy Report: John, what are the main influences on oil prices today? John White: We don’t believe what we are seeing with the oil price drop is a case of decreasing demand; what we have here is oversupply. To give you some historical context, for the first hundred years of the oil and gas

The Mining Report: You’re fond of the saying, “As January goes, so goes the year.” Given how gold performed last month, up 8%, what does this tell you about the rest of 2015? Jeb Handwerger: Going back over the last 100 years, the statistics are on the side of the sector that outperforms in January.

The Gold Report: Gold and silver have both demonstrated explosive growth in 2015. Why has this happened, and will it continue? Mike Niehuser: Well, I am not sure that I would categorize a higher gold price in the first part of 2015 as “explosive.” Since the beginning of 2015, gold appears to be trading within

The Energy Report: Bob, in January you published an article saying that the drop in oil prices could be the “straw that pops the $7-trillion derivative bubble.” Can you explain the influence of oil prices on derivatives? Bob Moriarty: It’s not the oil prices that are significant; it’s the change in oil prices. If you

The Energy Report: Garth, a year ago, Blackbird Energy Inc. (BBI:TSX.V) was a true penny stock. You were trading at about CA$0.07/share and your market valuation was below CA$11 million (CA$11M). Today your market cap is about CA$120M. How did you create so much shareholder value with energy prices plummeting? Garth Braun: Let me start

The Mining Report: Economic growth rates have diverged this year. They’re increasing in the U.S. and slowing down in China and India. They’re stagnating in Europe, and Russia is going into recession. How is all that affecting the lithium space? Daniela Desormeaux: The lithium industry is growing quickly. It is different from commodities like copper

The Energy Report: David, the price of uranium has been volatile recently. What’s behind that? David Sadowski: Spot prices ran in late 2014, touching $44/pound ($44/lb) as a handful of utilities entered the market, either expressing buying interest or buying material outright. At the time, supplies available to the market for spot delivery were quite