Archives for May, 2014

US Shale Oil & Gas: A Revolution?

In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald a few days ago it was claimed that there is an “energy revolution” underway in the US. The upshot was that cheap gas & oil was luring foreign manufacturers to build factories in the US. It would also undercut Australia’s export LNG…

The Petrodollar: All Good Things Come to an End

President Richard Nixon introduced the petrodollar in 1974 to allow continuation of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. A brilliant economic strategy. Read more here. Since I last wrote about the petrodollar in February this year, America has managed to alienate both Russia and China. The first with the…

Investment Success: Luck vs Skill

As a geologist I have long been interested in the contribution of luck to exploration success. It is much more important than many people wish to believe. At BHP we used to say, only half-jokingly, that it would be more cost effective to just drill Australia on a grid than…