Commodities Non-Oil

Yullo from London, Today a look back at the past week in London, tomorrow a short Sunday look forward: Best line of the week, from major energy transition fund in London. “Our client mandates are extremely ESG-conscious, like University superannuation funds, yet nowadays we are allowed to own oil & gas stocks… But we absolutely cannot lose money in them. We can be long First Solar and lose a ton, that is fine by the […]

Gossip from dinner with my London lawyer friend who is familiar with, let’s say, “emerging markets law”: Russia’s power rests between the Oligarchs who have the money, vs the military, that have the weapons. The single crossover oligarch, who controls the military, is Putin alone. Can the oligarch class form an ex-Putin alliance with the military? Difficult. Rational analysis of Nordstream pipeline explosions, which logically would conclude that Poland done it, with NATO deep state […]

Your correspondent is flying tomorrow at 7am La Guardia to Houston for Steve Chazen’s Memorial at 2pm assuming flights co-operate, and so this week’s Sunday is here on a Saturday; a brief highlight reel, or should that be “bloopers” “fails”, and “cringe” in this tape. From the UK pound, to Japanese Yen, to Credit Suisse credit default swaps (CDS) this is a market at war with itself, quite literally. The incredible sabotage to the Nordstream […]

We mourn the passing of Steve Chazen on 23rd September, he will be remembered as a legend. It was a privilege to have known him. Rest in Peace. We wrote the History of Oxy in December 2021, which includes the almost 30 year impact of Steven Chazen (joined in 1994, died as Chairman 2022). ~ Bill Bishop at Sinocism: For those who have not heard the rumors, Xi [Jinping, China President] has been supposedly removed […]

Refining getting worse LNG export developer Tellurian whacked as it struggles to finance “by mid-2022”. It’s Q3 2022. As the share price falls, financing from the at the money issuance facility becomes even more problematic. Macro influencer Luke Gromen on Happy Hour Fedex profit warning Fiscal 2Q23 guide $2.75 vs cons $5.46 (!!!) Xi-Putin As we feared refining is getting worse. China export quotas as we highlighted yesterday have further pressured weak Asian margins that […]

Labor Day outlook for oil and energy markets into year end; there is plenty more research to be done. You could make a big call on oil today for the next four months, and be wrong by Tuesday this week, with OPEC+ meeting Monday. If they cut and crank oil prices, you could make a bear call today, reverse your view on Tuesday and be wrong by Thursday when the ECB may be pushed towards […]

Happy Hour this week with Michael Lynch, absolutely tenured energy analyst. Michael can explain the last time California had an EV mandate and why it  bombed, he had a good article in Forbes this past week about it. Long time MIT, totally established energy expert. I will be chatting to him, and if the attendance is graveyard slot (this Thursday evening before Labor Day weekend) I will persuade him to return. Mike Lynch President at […]

One of the many lessons of Wall Street, is “don’t expect any sympathy”. This is more sharply put: “If you want a friend, buy a f#^@*# dog.” I’ve got two dogs. As I have been proclaiming, this is a long summer. We don’t have Labor Day until September 5th, and with me stewing nicely in Brooklyn with the dogs, thinking of what fun the run is from Labor Day to Christmas, to be in NYC […]

Sometimes I get depressed. It’s not just what I have messed up, it’s the theme of recognising I lived since 1967 through an epic era of human expansion, in terms of post World War II peace, juiced by the collapse of Communism, and then the massive expansion of government spending for tomorrow. And I feel like tomorrow came.  The key question, when I came to Wall St in 2004, and everyone wanted 2% GDP growth […]

Greetings fellow earthlings, (Dow Jones WSJ 7/17/22) — Investors hoping a strong start to earnings season would jolt the stock market from its slump haven’t gotten much satisfaction. Early reports from U.S. companies have refocused attention on some of the biggest challenges facing businesses, from the threat of an economic slowdown to the pressure that rising costs are putting on corporate profits. JPMorgan Chase, Delta Air Lines and industrial supplier Fastenal are among those last […]

Greetings from La Villa des Orangers, Medina (Old Town), Marrakesh, Today – are the big E&Ps cheap? Antero LNG exports – 70mmcfd or 1bcf/d? Postcard from Morocco They say if you want a question answered on the internet, don’t ask the question, but rather post a bold false statement, and you will be flooded with corrections. It is an interesting point on human psychology. Earlier this week we said that Antero was exporting 1bcf/d of […]

We have postulated, for example in our note on Dr Copper (Sweet Chile & Mines, Jan 2022), that China’s total dominance of global primary commodity processing, would eventually force the US and Europe to re-domicile supply chains and manufacturing industry. Having massively and excessively out-sourced energy and commodity-intense industry to China over the past 15 years, the world, not least the US & EU governments, are now recognizing the need to re-domicile core production, back […]

A couple of weeks ago, we highlighted that week ahead as being packed with high multiple growth stocks that could airdrop. And airdrop they did, led by the notorious Upstart, made viral by the analyst live on CNBC who pretended to have an audio problem when pitching the company bullishly, then being asked what Upstart actually did. “I’m sorry… sorry… you’re breaking up…” hilarious. He then compounded the error by furiously posting a video on […]

Happy Sunday in May, Never a bad thing. Fog this morning has lifted. Aramco results this morning rounded out a week when it became the largest stock in the world by market capitalization, surpassing Apple (not by free float, the Saudi government owns 94%). It  generated an enormous profit in a quarter when Brent averaged just about $100/bbl (actually $99.53/bbl Q1 average).   Refining earnings, as well as continued huge upstream earnings, will be even […]

Sankey Research core focus: energy, but you don’t want to skip leg day. A couple of interesting results today, this brief covers ADM. While ADM does not screen spectacularly on valuation, cheap or expensive, it has a track record of consistently beating expectations. The company official target is $7 EPS by 2025. It on track to $8 EPS this year. The stock has run from a $40-$50/share range prior to COVID, dropped to a COVID […]

Quick read today as you got a longer note yesterday on LNG, and I am running late. Just pictures today, and Betsey asked to be on the cover of the Sunday Sankey so it’s a presentation. All the fun favourite charts. Key slides: next week’s earnings highlights starting with Valero. Relative performance, oils performance, high free cashflow yields, and a cash return chart that will be updated on a rolling basis through earnings. Earnings calendar […]

Extremely busy this weekend, juggling Patricia wanting to go spring-time walking dogs and window shopping in (packed) SoHo, and me wanting to solidly sit in front of the TV watching March Madness while making bets online. Somehow she does not see the appeal of watching seven games of college basketball back-to-back over seven hours. Of course, she wins. I did snag North Carolina to win it all at 50-1 BEFORE they beat #1 seed and […]

Tonight Strategy Session with Jan Stuart, Cornerstone Macro global energy economist, on oil markets. Zoom call, 5pm. Kathleen Kelley is busy, unfortunately for us, happy for her, she is hosting a St Patrick’s Day party. God Bless Ireland! My paternal grandmother was from Cork, Ivy Sankey (nee Jefford). We have an oil trader joining to ask questions. A real live, oil trader. In the early 1990s, Jan was my first colleague at the IEA in […]

Up bright and early this morning, I will miss “the clocks going forward” now that, as the world ponders World War III, the US Congress has addressed the urgent issue of daylight savings time. The big picture remains that the Democrats are headed for a shelacking in the November 2022 mid-terms and the legislative potential for a major offset victory for the Biden Administration before then is getting very tight. Kudos to Biden for the […]

“Only the dead have seen the end of war” – Plato (Attributed). The Quote is writ large at the entrance of the Imperial War Museum in London, one of London’s great museums, if lesser known. Recommended. Thoughts & prayers with the suffering in Ukraine. Peace in Brooklyn, the weather our worst direct concern. The hard yards, I always say from my First World Wall St perch, are January 1st through to March Madness. And today, […]

There have been massively structural changes as a result of Vladimir Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine. In the short term we believe that negotiations for peace are more advanced than seemed to be the case yesterday morning. We also received intelligence that the loss of a disproporionate number Russian commanders, starting, it was said, with the Chechen death squad sent to assassinate Ukrainian President Zelensky, who were apparently “neutralised”, indicates that elements of the Russian […]

The following chart shows the spot price this morning of key commodities, vs their average price 2010-2019. That is, where is the greatest shock. Most extreme of course, to an extraordinary extent, is European gas. As a fixed asset market with certain major structural limitations, notably Germany’s total lack of LNG terminals, this will take years to fix, although restarting German nuclear would reduce gas use in power generation. Biggest recent suprise and enormously out […]

In the drama of the week, we never got to publish the dreaded and yet celebrated “Sankey Porcupine” charts that reveal the key message from two analyst meetings last week, Chevron and ExxonMobil, in four charts: capex and volume targets. We do that in this note, and cover Chevron risk in Kazakhstan. Do NOT try to pick the top in this oil & oil equity market; there could be a long way further up to […]

After a very enjoyable Strategy Session with the impressive Kimmeridge Team yesterday, I had a one hour debrief with a Senior US Government Official with long energy experience yesterday evening: Notes from deep Washington source. Watch out for oil exports from Chevron’s Tengiz, reports that 3 cargoes (of 3 tendered) were unsold yesterday. The oil is transported from Kazakhstan across the CPC pipeline in Russia and mixed with Russian crude before loading at a Russian […]

Strategy Session Tonight, Mark Viviano & Megan Hays of activist Kimmeridge. A former Portfolio Manager at mega-player Wellington Management, Mark leads the first public/private active funds at Kimmeridge, one of the top activist managers in the oil space. Megan Hays has joined Kimmeridge after 15 years of IR experience including Concho and Cimarex, and even allowing for that length of experience, still recently rated as one of Hart Energy’s “40 under 40.” Please click this […]

Extraordinary times: In the great energy regression that has massively further regressed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was somewhat surreal to watch Chevron’s Colin Parfitt (VP Midstream) conclude at the company’s analyst meeting yesterday at the NYSE, that we need more export capacity in the US, particularly for natural gas, and for the company then to confirm $10bn of spending on New Energy Ventures over the next decade, on hydrogen, carbon capture, and […]

We have been pretty rude about biodiesel, because it makes no money. Things should get worse. So Chevron’s decision to buy major biodiesel player Renewable Energy Group (REGI) was greeted with quite the lack of enthusiasm by us and indeed from other analysts on their deal call today. We were presented with a deal at over 10x EV/EBITDA that would make perfect sense, apparently, based on 2025 multiples. Assuming… a bunch of assumptions Chevron were […]

Well, this bloody mess was why we could not believe Russia would launch a full Ukraine Invasion. Reports that Ukraine has fought back and held Kharkiv are somewhat incredible – Ukraine’s second largest city is to the east and very close to Russia. The idea that Russia could not take control here, is a massive problem for Putin. Military experts are expressing surprise that Russia has not obtained air control, and is suffering logistics issues. […]

A correspondent asked if I would be writing this Sunday about what to do if Russia invades Ukraine. “I wrote about it in early January,” I sourly texted “I am more likely to write about Venezuela,” I added snootily. “But you’ve been saying Russia won’t invade.” He pressed. “I had to take a week off because I didn’t know. No point in chasing the puck.” Not wanting to chase the “will they/won’t they” puck, I […]

In the war of the market, we have reached a crucial battleground: the 200-day moving average on the S&P500. Do we hold, do we bounce, do we break? That is pretty simple; we broke the 200 last week. Re-gaining it will be a battle. And by the way, we broke the 200-day on the Nasdaq like throwing a crystal decanter against a brick wall. The market went through the NASDAQ 200 like a falling chain […]

Strategy Session “Happy Hour” tonight 5pm, special guest is William Su, Director of Research/Head of Energy at Blackrock in New York. One of my jokes about “Happy Hour” is that we don’t have a quorum to start until we have a trillion dollars on the line, with Will we get $10trn in one go, as Blackrock reported this week assets in excess of that number assets under management. Obviously we want colour on CEO Larry […]

Stunning revelation: bullish copper. The genesis of this note was taking a look at Chile, given the very interesting political developments there. Electing a left-wing President (Gabriel Boric) in late December 2021, just two months old enough to be a candidate aged 35, was one thing, but the complete re-write of the constitution that is currently undergoing, with a due date of July 5th, is pretty fascinating from a global historical perspective, although rest assured, […]

Well, I’m in one of those mindsets where every headline I read my reaction is “Bullish oil.” Iraq Oil report carries a much higher oil production number for Iraq than other sources. My reaction: “Bullish.” Libya struggles, my reaction: “Bullish.” These two elements are theoretically in opposition, but on the one hand, variable Libya performance is ongoing, on the other, the lack of spare capacity in oil markets is clearly driving prices and if Iraq […]

Mike Masters was the first American to score a goal at Wembley. But we had a different Mike Masters on Happy Hour last night, the hugely successful hedge fund manager who had a swimming scholarship to Tennessee, and started Masters Capital in 1994. He became highly prominent in 2008, testifying to Congress on oil speculation. Mike Masters: the market is obsessed with post-COVID recovery, but is not thinking enough about the decade prior to COVID […]

Yesterday I took on re-modelling the oil market according to the new world order: OPEC+. But I also spoke to a top hedge fund portfolio manager, US mega-player, who is based in Singapore for a couple of months. He made the following points: Strong Singapore economy with staff shortages – he waited an hour for a coffee the other day China cutting back on energy intensity. Brain drain from Hong Kong. Massive capex cycle starting […]

I got up thinking about a quick look at Russia for the Morning Note; ALMATY, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Fresh violence erupted in Kazakhstan’s main city on Thursday after Russia rushed in paratroopers to put down a countrywide uprising in one of Moscow’s closest former Soviet allies. Police in the main city Almaty said they had killed dozens of rioters overnight into the early hours of Thursday morning. The authorities said at least 18 members […]

Heading to the World Petroleum Congress in Houston today, a couple of players have cancelled participation. My understanding is that Qatari Minister is out, so is BP CEO Bernard Looney. Omicron. We shall see the final count, but I look forward to seeing a raft of CEOs over the coming four days before heading to Midland to write a focus on Diamondback, $FANG, one of the best players in the Permian, known for its outstanding […]

Warning: this note is about Bitcoin/cryptocurrency thematically. Because you opened the email and may not wish to continue, here is a bonus non-crypto chart. Again, sick of crypto this weekend? Stop reading now. Bitcoin will not be considered again for a while; we covered it bullishly a little last year, then got bearish as noted below around Q1 this year. I’m off to Houston, hope to get you a Sunday Sankey before leaving. If not, […]

The entire fiasco at Jurassic Park could have been avoided by hiring more than one IT guy. Every mocking online reply to a crypto bro is an NFT, because it’s a digital record of them being owned. Anti-stalking – learning another person’s routine in order to avoid them. Bonus information: what is being ratioed? It is when a searing response to your idiotic post gets more likes and re-tweets etc than the original. Hence ratioed. […]

Good day, Pretty mixed, at best, Q4 so far for oil & gas and “old energy”; but thrilled to see our new energy plays,  Li-Cycle and Embark trucks, catching a bid. Oil & Gas are clinging on to our 2021 market leadership. More of that in the attached presentation. Also in the ppt, I ran a whole load of valuation tables, and performance tables. Beautiful day here, although darkness has fallen as I am late […]

Huge week for earnings on deck this week, just about 50% of the market cap of the S&P500 reports,  and to celebrate, the traditional Sunday Sankey is back with a full presentation attached. Sample slide: Bloomberg lists Kuwait’s oil production capacity as 3.08mb/d. In the slide shown in the Sunday Sankey presentation today from the authoritative MEES, Kuwait’s production capacity has dropped by more than 500,000 b/d over the past three years to just 2.63mn […]

Key points: ExxonMobil increased profit guidance As predicted by my BBG TV “it’s a global energy crisis” rant: Chinese government to energy companies: “buy all the energy you can” – link below Positive feedback from “influencer” investors on Embark autonomous trucks $NGAB Small-cap MLP? UAN is a fertilizer producer that uses petcoke feedstock advantage; just the ticket for this macro-environment; almost no coverage on Wall Street. It’s Friday, and in Sankey Research world that means […]

Welcome to mid-August, I am taking it easy for a couple of weeks. Good week ahead for fishing offshore Ixtapa on the Pacific. Really nothing on the calendar next week for oil analysts unless we stretch to retail such as Walmart, Home Depot, and Target, all reporting. Roblox is an interesting company. A call last week from the White House for OPEC+ to produce more oil and for the FTC to investigate high pump prices […]

Greetings, It is all about the presentation this week; please click on the attached file for a look at what is in store for the week ahead – earnings; OPEC chat; what to buy when US natgas prices hit $4/mmbtu, which they did this past week; factor performance disconnection; and our only solution since we wrote The Renaissance Thesis of US E&P in 2017, namely hard cash return to shareholders. These oils have to bribe […]

They say, if you are the manager of a rock band, and the drummer comes to you and says “…I’ve been thinking…”, It’s over. Yes, with a week off in Mexico, I’ve been thinking. One thing that helped me think, I deleted the Twitter app from my iPhone. It was a great move, so that rather than only increasing the constant noise that we face covering markets, when I would instinctively check my phone, my […]

Things in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, are okay, the upper-middle-class here do not like Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) but ultimately, as we know, do politicians make a difference? Yes and no. Things are never as bad as you fear, and never as good as you hope. Broadly speaking, thinkgs are okay. Mexico has a major population – 127m – and huge natural resources, particularly we note agriculture, major wealth. There is a large […]

Please join the Sankey Research party in DUMBO this Thursday as we celebrate the crazy past year, since first publishing the first Morning Sankey as independent research, on the Friday, of July 4th weekend 2020. What a muted occasion that was. Now New York is raving, and that is before international tourists return. RSVP for the party. It’s meant as an opportunity for people to come to see the remarkably transformed and very cool Brooklyn […]

The note today is delayed by England vs Croatia, thankfully the currently ongoing Austria vs North Macedonia game is not imperative for me to watch.  There are some great slides in today’s presentation. For example on how solar projects do not deliver their IRR, on worrying Indian oil demand, on the global petchem balance by company, and our new mega-theme, of new young CEOs following through on our “Renaissance” theme of US E&Ps. This new […]

OIL RISK HIGH. We have an OPEC meeting tomorrow, and the word is that Iran is pumping into storage on anticipation of successful negotiations with the Biden administration, which, for reasons I do not fully understand, is very keen to make a nuclear deal. This will allow Iran back into global oil markets. We understand that OPEC is warning Iran not to flood the market, and Iran is saying “we are going to flood the […]