Oil holds near 2012 low

The future of the U.K.’s 40-year-old oil and gas industry lies on a stretch of windswept bogland in the Shetland islands 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Scotland. Among those islands of 22,000 people living closer to Oslo than London, Total SA is spending US$5.1-billion to build a plant to process gas from undeveloped fields 125 miles away in the North Atlantic. On the same coastal inlet, a BP Plc facility will take petroleum from a 4.5 billion-pound project.

I inadvertently left off an item regarding trade wars that I intended to mention in Mish 2012 Predictions; 2011 Year in Review with Max Keiser. I also have some commentary on the US election, precious metals, and energy. Trade Wars

CALGARY — Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., fresh from a tumultuous year of management and board shakeups that saw veteran railroader Hunter Harrison installed as chief executive officer after a bitter proxy battle, is hitching a ride on the great U.S. petroleum revival.

What a decade! A rapidly urbanizing global population driven by tremendous growth in emerging markets has sent commodities on quite a run over the past 10 years. If you annualize the returns since 2002, you find that all 14 commodities are in positive territory.

By Stan Holland:Chariot Oil & Gas (OIGLF.PK) has the following two prospects offshore Namibia that they expect to spud in 2012 (values as determined by the independent third party reserve auditor, Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc.):

By Aaron Murdoch:Oil service stocks have long been considered underpriced by analysts - as a group they traded well below analysis price targets throughout 2012.