Apache Comes Up Empty in Suriname, Shares Plummet

Image Source: Apache Corporation – November 2019 IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On December 2, Apache Corporation (APA) announced that its first exploration well off the coast of Suriname (a small nation in northern South America) was a dud. The Maka Central-1 well was drilled to a total depth of 6,200 meters (~20,300 feet) in Block 58 and drilling activities commenced in late-September. While the well was testing two Upper Cretaceous plays, neither play appeared to have commercial level of hydrocarbons (more information will be provided by management on this issue in the near future) so Apache opted to drill down to a total depth of 6,900 meters (~22,600 feet) to test a third Cretaceous play. This news sent shares … Read more

Chesapeake Energy’s Pain Indicates Nothing “Safe” About Energy MLP Distributions

Summary There is nothing “safe” in the stock market, and given the track record of the distributions of pipeline MLPs, there is nothing “safe” about pipeline MLP distributions. The MLP business model continues to be phased out, a trend that we anticipated when we made our bearish call on the group in June 2015. Chesapeake Energy’s pain is a yet another reminder of the pipeline MLP group’s exposure to energy resource pricing through the health (or rather ill-health) of its customer base. We continue to encourage pipeline operators to disclose free cash flow (cash flow from operations less all gross capital spending) prominently in press releases, alongside other industry-specific metrics. Investors of Chesapeake could get completely wiped out in a … Read more

High Yield Dividend Newsletter Portfolio Holding BP Sees Cash Flow Profile Improvements Ahead

Image Source: BP plc – Third quarter 2019 earnings infographic If you may wish to add the High Yield Dividend Newsletter to your membership, please click here. By Callum Turcan On October 29, BP plc (BP) reported third-quarter 2019 earnings, and shares of BP have since climbed higher due in part to the energy giant’s nice cash flow profile and likely due to the improving outlook for a narrow US-China trade deal. We include BP in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio as a way to play the raw energy resource market and generate sizable income streams while taking advantage of the protection its large midstream (pipelines, storage facilities, etc.), downstream (refineries and petrochemical plants), and retail (gas stations/convenience stores) operations … Read more

High Yield Dividend Newsletter Portfolio Holding Magellan Midstream Keeps Growing

Image Shown: Magellan Midstream is focusing heavily on growing its fee-based operations, with an eye towards expanding its refined products pipeline segment. Image Source: Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. – August 2019 IR Presentation If you may wish to add the High Yield Dividend Newsletter to your membership, please click here. By Callum Turcan On October 31, Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. (MMP) — 6.6% yield — reported third quarter 2019 earnings. Its quarterly GAAP operating income climbed 8% year-over-year due to a combination of top-line growth (GAAP revenues up 3% year-over-year) and lower operating expenses (GAAP operating expenses down 3% year-over-year). Cost reductions were largely a function of reduced cost of products sales, meaning Magellan Midstream’s marketing division had a decent quarter … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week Ending October 11

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending October 11. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week A.O. Smith (AOS): now $0.24 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.22. American Corporation (AEE): now $0.495 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.475. ConocoPhillips (COP): now $0.42 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.305. Eaton Vance (EV): now $0.375 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.35. Enterprise Products Partners (EPD): now $0.4425 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.44. FS Bancorp (FSBW): now $0.20 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.15. … Read more

Saudi Arabia Attacked, Oil Prices Shoot Higher

Image Shown: Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure was attacked over the weekend, causing WTI and Brent to rally at the start of the trading session. By Callum Turcan Disaster struck this weekend when several drones took out the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the massive onshore Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia (KSA) on Saturday, with WTI and Brent both surging on the news once trading resumed at the start of the week. The Khurais oil field produces around 1.5 million barrels of crude per day and the Abqaiq oil processing facility is the largest in the world. Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity was reduced by 5.7 million barrels of crude per day due to these attacks and the country is … Read more

BP Says Goodbye to Alaska After 60 Years

Image Source: BP plc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan On August 27, BP plc (BP) announced it was selling its entire Alaskan operations to privately held Hilcorp Alaska (an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy Company) for $5.6 billion. BP sold Hilcorp some of its Alaskan assets five years ago and both companies have had a working relationship since then. This truly marks the end of an era as BP was long a staple of Alaska’s oil & gas industry. BP operates the Prudhoe Bay oil field, one of the largest in the world, which was responsible for over half of Alaska’s oil production in 2018. Additionally, BP is a major shareholder in the company that owns the 800-mile long Trans … Read more

Kinder Morgan Reaches a Deal to Divest Stake in Canadian Spin-Off

Image Shown: A look at Kinder Morgan Inc’s (KMI) massive oil & gas infrastructure operations that crisscross North America. The natural gas midstream giant is selling its Canadian segment by divesting its 70% equity stake in Kinder Morgan Canada and the US portion of the Cochin pipeline to Pembina Pipeline Corporation (PBA). Image Source: Kinder Morgan Inc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio holding Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI), a giant in the natural gas midstream space, finally reached a deal to sell the remaining stake in its Canadian spin-off. On August 21, Kinder Morgan announced that it had sold its 70% equity stake in TSX-listed Kinder Morgan Canada Limited (KMLGF) along with the US portion of … Read more

Tallgrass Energy’s Growth Runway Shorter Than Expected

Image Source: Tallgrass Energy LP – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Valuentum’s High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio parted ways with Tallgrass Energy LP (TGE) on August 1, as we wanted to reduce our exposure to the midstream space. We don’t like TGE as much as we once did and think it’s best to move on to better opportunities. Please note Blackstone Group Inc (BX), through affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, closed its purchase of Tallgrass’ general partner in March 2019 which included those parties acquiring a 44% economic interest in Tallgrass. In 2018, Tallgrass reorganized as a C-Corp which we were very supportive of. Additionally, the midstream company has been very free cash flow positive historically (when defined as net … Read more

Kinder Morgan Modestly Disappoints But Its Problems Are Transitory

Image Shown: Kinder Morgan Inc expects a lot of organic growth opportunities will be generated via surging domestic demand for natural gas and rising natural gas export capacity in the US. Image Source: Kinder Morgan Inc – IR Presentation By Callum Turcan Natural gas pipeline giant Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI), a holding in our simulated Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio, reported second quarter earnings for 2019 on July 17 which generally disappointed. Problems at its Elba LNG development in Georgia and weaker realized prices for raw energy resources produced by its upstream CO2 segment held down Kinder Morgan’s financial performance. We appreciate Kinder Morgan’s focus on fiscal discipline and see several of its problems as transitory, other than the raw energy … Read more