Dave Gilbert here, Editor of Smart Money.
Who doesn’t like a good riddle?
Here’s one Eric Fry gave his readers earlier this week:
Question: What do Canada, Norway, and Brazil have in common?
The answer to this riddle, however, is not trivial. In fact, it’s very important.
Answer: All of them are not named Russia… and all three of them happen to hold massive oil and gas reserves.
This geopolitical riddle was the backdrop of several new recommendations from Eric’s Speculator trading service on Thursday.
With Russia now a global pariah, its gas and oil are being shunned by most of the rest of the world. That supply must be made up somewhere, so there is even more pressure in other nations to get the most out of known oil reserves and find new untapped sources.
Finding and extracting oil and gas requires massive amounts of money and labor. We don’t readily think of all this as being high-tech, but it is.
Energy companies have increasingly turned to technology to boost their exploration and production success, and it may help them meet the current challenges.
In doing so, those that master this technology most handily – the energy companies that put themselves on the right side of the Technochasm – could also help investors…
Don’t Get Left Behind by the NFT Revolution
The Growing Market of Oil and Tech
As Eric wrote to his subscribers:
The global bull market in oil and gas was already gathering steam before Vladimir Putin decided to terrorize Ukraine. But now that the Western world has exiled Russia to an economic outer darkness, the country’s oil and gas has become politically toxic.
Russia’s pariah status could impact the oil and gas markets for years to come… to the benefit of Western producers.
When you think of drilling for oil, what comes to mind? Probably something like this…
It’s hard, dirty work, so it’s easy to miss the technology now at work behind the process of oil and gas exploration and production. In fact, there is a digital oilfield solutions market, and it’s already huge Analysts at Future Market Insights forecast the sector to grow nearly 50% in the next six years, from $37.2 billion here in 2022 to $54.4 billion by 2028. As the research firm writes:
The rising need to maximize the production capacity from mature wells and the surging return on investment (RoI) in the oil and gas industry are anticipated to propel the sales in this market. In addition, the urgent need to lower the capital and operating expenses subject to the utilization of smart systems and digitalized solutions is likely to drive the market.
Everything else in the world now is becoming “smart,” so why not oil drilling? There are now “smart wells” filled with sensors that monitor the well and feed data that allow valves to be controlled remotely.
Oil and gas companies are incorporating everything from the Internet of Things (IoT), like those sensors in wells, to Big Data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, autonomous drilling, robotics, cloud computing, virtual reality, and more.
Oilfield services companies are on the front lines of this new technology. Some of the biggest include Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB), Baker Hughes Co. (NYSE:BKR), and Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL). Shares of all three have soared already here in 2022.
Last week, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, Kyndryl (KD), announced a $160 million contract with Motiva Enterprises, which owns North America’s largest refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Believe it or not, the first processing units at the refinery were built 120 years ago in 1902. Imagine what some of those early oil drillers would think of what they saw today.
This is all part of what Eric Fry anticipated, even before Russia invaded Ukraine. In the January issue of Fry’s Investment Report , he identified “Energy’s Swan Song” as one of his power trends for 2022. The war has solidified that trend, and Eric believes oil has at least one more big boom before alternative fuels take the reins.
As Eric explained shortly after the invasion:
Everywhere you look, the world is turning away from fossil fuels and turning toward renewable energy technologies. Because of this powerful megatrend, many folks assume oil stocks, and the returns they can deliver, are a thing of the past.
But oil stocks may not be as passé as most folks assume. Like the Rolling Stones, they probably have a few solid performances left in them…
To put it simply, the road to a $10-per-barrel oil price might pass through $150, or even $200, on the way.
Today, the price of crude topped $100 a barrel for the first time in seven years. $150 might not be far away, even if the Ukrainian invasion ends soon.
That’s because the global supply of crude is struggling to keep pace with demand.
Bottom line: The death of oil is greatly exaggerated, and I expect its price to deliver some upside surprises over the next year or two.
Eric is hard at work on the best ways to take advantage of this oil boom that he foresaw months before others. He has already recommended energy investments to readers of his research services, and I know he is finalizing additional ways to profit that we will learn more about in the coming weeks.
In fact, he’s now putting together a big event, scheduled for later this month, focused almost entirely on the booming oil market. Watch for more information on that very soon.
Regards,
Dave Gilbert
Editor, Smart Money
P.S: For years, the media mislead people about the Bitcoin opportunity. Now they’re doing the same with NFTs. Learn the truth here.
On the date of publication, Dave Gilbert did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Eric Fry is an award-winning stock picker with numerous “10-bagger” calls — in good markets AND bad. How? By finding potent global megatrends… before they take off. In fact, Eric has recommended 41 different 1,000%+ stock market winners in his career. Plus, he beat 650 of the world’s most famous investors (including Bill Ackman and David Einhorn) in a contest. And today he’s revealing his next potential 1,000% winner for free, right here.
