Leslie’s Notebook

Archive for May, 2008

Oil Makes A Fearful Arithmetic

Friday, May 30th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

There are a lot of huge numbers in the oil and gas industry--dollars, barrels, MMcfs. It's hard to grasp their true meaning and context. What's a billion, anyway? But I got ... Read more..

Goldman Sachs at $185, or oil at $145?

Friday, May 30th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Which investment do you prefer--a barrel of oil or a share of Goldman Sachs? On May 28, 2008, an analyst at UBS Securities rated the shares of Goldman Sachs neutral or ... Read more..

Memo to GE: Call Boone Pickens

Friday, May 30th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

We hear that GE may sell its famed appliance unit for as much as $5 billion. Might it deploy that capital in faster-growing businesses--getting away from GE Profile refrigerators to ... Read more..

Playing chicken in the oil game

Thursday, May 29th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

British prime minister Gordon Brown says, in a column this week in The Guardian: "...every country must find ways of being more efficient and diversifying supply.  And as continuing high oil prices ... Read more..

Joe Foster on Teamwork

Friday, May 23rd, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Former Newfield Exploration founder and chairman Joe Foster is one of the most well-respected men in the business. He took Newfield from a small start-up in 1989--whose first three offshore ... Read more..

What oil at $130 means

Friday, May 23rd, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The soaring price of oil, and energy in general,  is having an effect in all sorts of ways on every-day American life. For the automotive industry, cutbacks in truck and SUV ... Read more..

8 million cars

Monday, May 12th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Recent press reports indicate that in 2007, some 8 million cars were added to the fleet in China. I say that even if a recession hits and high gasoline prices ... Read more..

Oil at $200?

Monday, May 5th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

"I think we'll go through $200 oil like a hot knife through butter," said energy investment banker Matt Simmons this week, speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.  When asked about ... Read more..

Matt Simmons: Rust happens

Monday, May 5th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The offshore oil industry is 70 years old this year, and industry analyst Matt Simmons says rust is becoming a bigger threat than oilfield depletion. The CEO and founder of ... Read more..