I’m starting to buy Provident Energy Trust (PVX: chart, web, Y!) again in small bits and pieces.  Natural gas ($natgas: chart) is holding its own even with rising temperatures, mostly due to increased use in electrical power generation.

I’ve also noticed that with the advent of LNG technology (liquified natural gas, where they cool the stuff off so much it turns to a liquid, thus facilitating shipping) we’re starting to see natural gas traded more on a global market.

It used to be that natural gas markets were very focused due to the infrastructure required to handle the gas.  Now that it’s exportable, …

Last Wednesday, Provident Energy (PVX: chart, web, Y!) came out with their 2007 year-end and Q407 report, and also provided an update on reserves.

All around a positive report, and I’m curious as to why the stock dropped almost a dollar in two days on a fairly bullish report. The only thing I can think of is that crude oil ($wtic: chart) dropped $6 and natural gas ($natgas: chart) prices waned almost a dollar in those same two days will a lot of money fleeing commodities.

A few highlights from the report:

The payout ratio in the fourth quarter of …

A week ago, I attended a land auction to see if I could pick up some additional oil production. I’m not sure what land is going for in your neck of the woods, but around here it’s gone crazy!

Tracts 1 through 3 and 5 were primarily farm land, with acreage ranging from 30 acres to 300 acres. One of the tracts had some oil royalties attached to it that only amounted to about 200 barrels per year.

The farm land alone went for nearly $2,000 per acre. Unreal.

Tract 4 was what I was interested …

It seems the sentiment on the trading floor is that oil is going higher. Scott Hess, is an crude trader on the Nymex, and if his outlook bears any fruit, oil is going higher.

Back in January, General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz called global warming a “total crock of s—.” when talking to a group of reporters in Texas.

Of course, this completely outraged those who are trying to change global economic policy, and in effect requiring billions of dollars in capital spending, based on a measly 100 years of climate data.

Naturally, no one in global warming party is standing up to defend him, and many ignorant to the world of science have called for his removal from GM. Well, Bob fired back:

In a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said …

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I had a few teaser comments in my post on how Venezuela is cutting off their supply of crude oil to the United States, and I noted the low quality of the crude they export to us, and I touched on the refining requirements to process their oil.

So I thought I’d expand on this a bit and explain the different types of crude oil.

When it comes to crude oil, there are several different varieties, some of which are more familiar than others. For instance, sweet crude refers to hydrocarbons with relatively small amounts of hydrogen …

Last Wednesday crude oil ($wtic: chart) crossed the magic $100 per barrel threshold for the first time ever. But now it appears that the event was an attempt to gain 15 minutes of fame.

Evidently, a single trader bid up the price of crude by buying a 1,000 barrel contract off the floor for $100 per barrel, then turned around and sold it for $99.60 per barrel, a $600 loss (crude crossed the magic $100 line again the next day, but let’s face it, there are no points for second place!).

Most trading in energy futures has shifted …

My good buddy MJ over at Dyslexic Research forwarded me an article on how President Bush signed a bill to increase fuel efficiency standards to 35 MPG by the year 2020. Also lumped into the bill was a required ramp-up of the use of ethanol at refineries from about 6 billion gallons a year this year to 36 billion gallons by 2022 and additional mandates that by then at least 21 billion gallons are to come from feedstocks other than corn.

I like the fact that we’re raising fuel efficiency standards, finally. However I don’t think we’re exactly pushing …

I’ve always been skeptical of the true value of running a vehicle on ethanol. I feel that the next great propulsive fuel must have a net energy content greater than gasoline. Scientifically, this means that the energy content of a given amount of future fuel must be greater than gasoline. Currently, I believe the prime candidate for this is hydrogen.

But I digress. Back to the ethanol farce.

I came across a Consumer Reports revelation from 2006 presenting the results of their gasoline vs. ethanol tests. They ran a battery of tests on a new (2007) flex-fuel …

There are very few people out there that can seem to justify the near $100 price tag on crude oil. The fundamentals based on supply and demand support levels much lower than $100, leading one to believe that the additional premium on black tea is built on speculation, which tends to be the most volatile trait of a commodity.

So one has to wonder, is it time to short crude?

The next question you might ask, is if so, how? The traditional way to trade oil is through a futures account, which tends to be an expensive endeavor just to set up …