Sinopec: A Bullish Signal For Long-Term Investors

HONG KONG/BEIJING — Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc and China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd are among suitors short-listed to buy a US$16 billion minority stake in China’s Sinopec Sales, the world’s largest fuel retail network, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

China may have overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest oil importer, but America is now the land of opportunity for traders looking to profit off energy markets, thanks to changes brought by the shale gas revolution. After a generation in which traders salivated over emerging markets, executives at the Reuters Global Commodities Summit this week spoke about the good old fashioned U.S.A. – soon to overtake Russia as the world’s biggest oil producer – the way they once used to gush about BRICS.

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. is expecting crude oil prices to recover next year as the equity research firm is hoping more merger and acquisition (M&A) activities in the oil and gas industry, Bloomberg reported. Analysts at Sanford C. believe that Asian energy companies, including Natural Gas Corp.

BEIJING — Two of China’s major oil companies said on Wednesday that their profits slumped in the first half of 2015, as a sharp decline in international crude prices hit upstream earnings. Sinopec Corp, Asia’s largest refiner, posted profits of 25.4 billion yuan (US$3.96 billion), down 22 per cent from 32.5 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said in a filing with the Hong Kong bourse.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) , Asia’s largest oil refiner, will buy half of Chesapeake Energy Corp’s Mississippi Lime oil and gas properties for $1.02 billion, becoming the latest Chinese company to pick up shale assets in North America. Chesapeake shares were up 2% at $20.90 in premarket trading on Monday. The stock has risen about 23% this year. Output from shale fields in the United States and Canada has jumped over the last three years due to the advent of drilling methods such as hydraulic fracturing.

Ray Merola submits:Despite some ugly market action, I continue to troll around for values. An interesting stock is Hess Corporation (HES) currently trading under $69 a share. Hess Corporation: One Year Chart and Volume

Susan Weerts submits:New Pricing MechanismAt the end of 2009 speculation started that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China was contemplating implementing a new mechanism to price refined products during the first quarter of 2010. The NDRC regulates the Chinese domestic refined product market by imposing a “price ceiling” on the wholesale price.

By Fredrik Arnold:A way to get relief from high prices at the pump is to make more money. A poetic way to do so could be to buy high dividend paying oil stocks whose prices are predicted to jump.