Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Are the Russians on the Verge of a Major Arctic Oil Coup?

Commodities / Crude Oil Dec 05, 2012 - 07:32 AM GMT

By: Money_Morning

Commodities

Dr. Kent Moors writes: As I move into the main meetings here in Moscow, something unexpected has joined the conversations on oil prices, European pipeline prospects, liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading scenarios, and the prospects of unconventional shale.

That something is venture capital funding.

The Kremlin has developed several venture capital funds with potential state-supported investments amounting to at least $12 billion.


It may be early yet, but I see signs of where these new efforts may be directed.

You should watch out for two aspects with this story.

The first must happen in Russia.

But the second is likely to take shape in an unexpected place: Boston, MA.

Here's why. It has to do with Arctic oil.

Several years ago, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that the under-used and under-equipped shipbuilding sector would be transformed into a global leader in the design and construction of offshore platforms and drilling rigs.

Of even greater interest was the initial challenge given at the time - to develop a whole new generation of ice-resistant platforms for Arctic drilling.

Moscow had already recognized it could arrest a serious decline in its mature Western Siberian fields only by moving out in three directions. They are:

•Into highly promising but infrastructure-poor Eastern Siberian;
•Onto the continental shelf; or,
•North of the Arctic Circle.

Then the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) issued its long-awaited Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (CARA).

This major multi-year effort evaluated petroleum resource potential for all areas north of the Arctic Circle (66.56° north latitude) having at least a 10% chance of one or more significant oil or gas accumulations (50 million barrels of oil equivalent or above).

CARA concluded that 84% of the total undiscovered oil and gas left in the world is sitting offshore, the bulk of it in three huge Arctic basins.

Russia, the survey concluded, controlled the largest single chunk of it.

But the remainder of what was extractable would also require new equipment to exploit, regardless of who controlled the fields. Russia would be the first in, with several projects already moving to production. Russia would also need the equipment first.

That has already taken place. The country completed the world's first ice-resistant drilling platform at a former Russian naval shipbuilding base and successfully towed it out above the Arctic Circle. It will be set up for production next year.

The Boston Connection to Arctic Oil
Moscow has demonstrated it can do the job. What it now needs is an infusion of Western technology and expertise, along with a major injection of investment.

The Russian venture funds will provide some of that "private sector" stimulus (forgetting for a moment that the funds may be categorized as private but actually are comprised primarily of state funds).

But the country needs to parlay these billions into much larger commitments by private venture funds in other parts of the world, especially those providing access to markets where the needed technology is located.

That introduces the Boston connection.

Established in 2006, but becoming an element of broader interest only recently, RVC-USA is an American arm of the state-supported Russian Venture Co. and is headquartered not too far from the Charles River Basin. To date, it has funded several of the larger ventures.

From all the Russian initiatives, there have been 45 deals in the past five years having an aggregate value of less than $700 million and comprising a widely divergent market penetration.

It's a start. But it's not what the Kremlin or the venture initiatives have in mind. With the transition to Arctic oil exploration, the country will require significantly more investment.

Which leads me to suggest that we are about to see a larger venture initiative advancing, with some interesting action coming through Boston.

There are other indications emerging. For the first time, the number of financial representatives invited to these annual meetings almost equals the number of representatives from Russian oil companies.

And also for the first time, all seven Russian state-sponsored venture funds are present, as is RVC-USA.

I think we may be on to something interesting shaking out before the next of these sessions takes place at the end of 2013.

For investors, these new developments in Arctic oil could open up a whole new range of investment opportunities.

I'll keep you in the loop on how these conversations turn out.

By the way, demand for my new micro-cap research has been so strong only a handful of spaces remain.

This is your chance to play one of the most explosive segments of the markets. That's because the "penny oils" I have uncovered are primed for enormous gains.

In fact, these tiny companies offer investors phenomenal value for less than $1 a share.

So if you haven't had a chance to review your invitation yet, you can see exactly what I mean by clicking here.

Source :http://moneymorning.com/2012/12/05/are-the-russians-on-the-verge-of-a-major-arctic-oil-coup/

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

©2012 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Street Publishing. 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201, Email: customerservice@moneymorning.com

Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Money Morning Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in