Robert Rapier

Latest articles from Robert

• As Natural Gas Prices Rise, Who Stands to Lose the Most?

  Published 22 May 2013 | viewed 1,123 times

  Chemicals and Fertilizer IndustriesIn last week’s post As Natural Gas Prices Rise, Who Benefits the Most?, I discussed the sectors that would benefit from rising…

• As Natural Gas Prices Rise, Who Benefits the Most?

  Published 15 May 2013 | viewed 1,469 times

  Over the past two years the spot price of natural gas fell from nearly $5 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in June 2011 to…

• North Dakota Oil Boom Set to Continue for Some Time

  Published 10 May 2013 | viewed 2,023 times

  Last week the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provided an update of oil and gas resources in the Bakken region. This was their first update since…

• Energy Storage: The Final Barrier to Wind and Solar’s Success

  Published 02 May 2013 | viewed 4,175 times

  Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of solar and wind power is their intermittency. In locations like Hawaii, where I live, wind and solar power are already…

• A Quick Quiz on US Oil Production

  Published 17 April 2013 | viewed 2,200 times

  As a result of the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) revolution, US oil and natural gas production have been rising for several years. According to the Energy…

• Finding Good Investments in Areas with Growing Oil Production

  Published 17 April 2013 | viewed 1,946 times

  Fortunes are being made in North Dakota right now as a result of the oil boom there. Not only the oil producers but pipeline operators,…

• Government Regulations Harming US Refiners

  Published 11 April 2013 | viewed 2,199 times

  March was a challenging month for refiners. Three weeks ago I discussed the issue of the looming ethanol blend wall, which is leading to soaring…

• Keystone XL – Why Protestors Should be Focusing on a Much Bigger Issue

  Published 27 March 2013 | viewed 2,264 times

  I started to go with “Fiddling While Rome Burns” in the title, but I know many people who would take great exception to the notion…

• Environmentalists Futile Battle Against Keystone XL

  Published 06 March 2013 | viewed 2,559 times

  If not for the US government’s latest demonstration of incompetence that played out at the end of last week (a.k.a. sequestration), the top news story…

• Using Oil Revenues to Research Alternative Fuels

  Published 03 March 2013 | viewed 1,776 times

  Energy Security TrustEnergy policy is a major topic of discussion during almost every State of the Union address. The most recent address was no exception,…

• Al Gore's Hypocrisy: The Climate Crusader Profits from Fossil Fuels

  Published 06 February 2013 | viewed 4,025 times

  Oil Money is Bad Money, Except When…Al Gore has just released a new book — The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change  — and is…

• The Unexpected Boom in US Oil Production

  Published 23 January 2013 | viewed 2,709 times

  A few years ago, I made the observation that the best thing that could happen to mitigate against some of the potentially severe consequences of…

• Oil Industry Cycles Offer Good Investment Opportunities

  Published 10 January 2013 | viewed 3,231 times

  Investing for me is about identifying long-term trends, and then investing in companies whose business I understand, that will benefit from those trends. For more…

• The US Northeast Heading Towards a Heating Oil Crisis

  Published 16 October 2012 | viewed 2,161 times

  The Energy Information Administration (EIA) last week reported on a potential crisis for heating oil customers in the Northeast part of the United States. In…

• The Reasons Behind California's High Gas Prices

  Published 09 October 2012 | viewed 3,001 times

  I am getting numerous questions about the situation with California’s surging gasoline prices. Therefore, I want to take some time to explain what makes California’s…

• The Reason Behind China's Interest in Canada's Oil Sands

  Published 06 August 2012 | viewed 3,461 times

  Over the past two decades, Chinese oil consumption has quadrupled to nearly 10 million barrels per day. For the past decade they have been on…

• Battling the Misinformation Surrounding the Effects of Oil Sands on the Climate

  Published 29 July 2012 | viewed 2,183 times

  Motivated Reasoning This week I was reading an article from the Associated Press called Some fracking critics use bad science. The gist of the article…

• The Danger of Misinformation about Climate Change

  Published 16 July 2012 | viewed 2,463 times

  Global Experiment With the ClimateI want to preface this column by saying that I am very concerned about climate change. The rapid growth of atmospheric…

• Oil Prices Could See a Major Shift in Direction in the Near Future

  Published 11 June 2012 | viewed 9,739 times

  Since I first started writing about energy in 2005, I have said many times that my view on oil prices is long-term, and that if…

• Should we Limit Speculation in the Oil and Gas Markets?

  Published 20 April 2012 | viewed 5,536 times

  Let’s Play ‘Blame the Speculators’Most people would probably agree that speculation in the oil and gas markets is hurting American consumers. Consider the case of…