According to Abdulla Salatt, chairman of the company’s fertilizer unit (QAFCO), Industries Qatar–the country’s largest firm by market cap–will increase production of urea (used as a nitrogen-release fertilizer) and related products to supply growing global demand with a specific focus on South America, and in particular, Brazil.  “We are thinking of sending more products to Brazil because it is a big agriculture country, consuming a lot of urea, and we see their appetite for urea opening up year after year,” Sowaidi told reporters.  The company is currently contemplating a proposed $610 million plant which would increase urea production to 5.6 million tons/year by 2012, up from the current rate of 3 million.  Upon completion the fertilizer unit would hold 15% of global urea production, say analysts.  Urea has the highest nitrogen content of all solid nitrogenous fertilizers in common use (46.7%).

The company overall is still reeling from recession,

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Many investors are somewhat dazed and befuddled as they watch what used to be called “The Natural Resources Sector” bounce up and down as the summer season commences.  With the dollar up again, commodities including the precious metals and oil were off sharply yesterday. All in all, it was just a broadly negative day. Little was spared, including equities, which also took a serious hit.  Even perennial bull James Moore, of TheBullionDesk.com, was forced to write that, “Short-term the metal [gold] could extend lower as a result of the dollar.”  John Reade, of UBS in London, concurred, writing that, “We would not be surprised to see further short-term declines, especially in the absence of any material jewelry, physical-investment or ETF demand.”

How do you put a happy face on that? Easy, according to the folks at Casey Research. “However, the current correction is likely to prove beneficial longer-term with the

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Growing Stockpiles Weigh on Natural Gas PricesThe Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported today another 100 billion plus addition to natural gas stockpiles, highlighting the commodity's weak supply-demand fundamentals. Continued strength in domestic production despite the massive retrenchment in drilling activities from last summer's peak level and recessionary industrial demand has resulted in a major storage overhang.As this chart from the EIA clearly shows, natural gas in storage has reached approximately 2.4 trillion cubic feet, which is up 30.3% from last year's level and 21.8% above the five-year range. As a result, natural gas has been a less-than-enthusiastic participant in the ongoing market rally, left far behind by crude oil. This is clear from the nearby chart plotting the NYMEX front-month oil and natural gas contracts since the start of the current rally in Feb'09. Year to date, oil ...

Growing Stockpiles Weigh on Natural Gas PricesThe Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported today another 100 billion plus addition to natural gas stockpiles, highlighting the commodity's weak supply-demand fundamentals. Continued strength in domestic production despite the massive retrenchment in drilling activities from last summer's peak level and recessionary industrial demand has resulted in a major storage overhang.As this chart from the EIA clearly shows, natural gas in storage has reached approximately 2.4 trillion cubic feet, which is up 30.3% from last year's level and 21.8% above the five-year range. As a result, natural gas has been a less-than-enthusiastic participant in the ongoing market rally, left far behind by crude oil. This is clear from the nearby chart plotting the NYMEX front-month oil and natural gas contracts since the start of the current rally in Feb'09. Year to date, oil ...

In some instances, investing in a sector that is out of favor is one of the more savvy things to do. Others may say that an investment in such a sector is a waste of time and money. Others, however, will see the longer view and take the rollercoaster ride for a final reward. If the reasoning is sound, an investor can make a nice profit by living by their convictions.

Northern Explorations Ltd., a natural recourses exploration company, works to develop properties primarily in North America. Although the company works across the range of natural resource opportunities, it is currently focused on natural gas plays in California, Texas and Alberta Canada.

The company has been making solid headway in establishing itself as a leading regional player within the natural gas sector. Today, it announced an agreement which gives it a 47.5% net revenue agreement in a West Texas natural gas opportunity.

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Source: David and Eric Coffin, Hard Rock Advisory Journal  05/29/2009
The greatest economic realignment since Genghis Kahn took over Eurasia’s trade routes is continuing apace. The west remains mired in an assets contraction of its own making, and the east is refocused on channeling its growth engines into domestic consumption. The resource sector, which is our focus and which has been governed by those growth engines for a decade and half, is indicating at least the expectation of continuing gains in the east. That does not mean we ignore what is going on the developed west, plus Japan.

Most of the planned bad news on the US banking system is now on the table or at least anticipated, in some form. The stress test requirements for US banks at $75 billion of new capital required are workable, though heavily dilutive. There are legitimate doubts that this will actually be sufficient given …

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 26, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Family Dollar (FDO), Big Lots (BIG), Nabors (NBR), Patterson-UTI (PTEN) and BJ Services (BJS).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

Wealthier Shoppers Trade Down

Recently, the Nielsen Co. put out a report on the increase in the number of high and middle income consumers shopping at dollar stores. According to Nielsen, households with incomes higher than $100,000 spent 18% more at dollar stores in the second half of

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Highlights include Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR), Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (PTEN), BJ Services Co. (BJS), EnCana Corp. (ECA), EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG) and Chesapeake Enery Corp. (CHK).Growing optimism about the economic outlook has pushed the equity markets significantly higher from the March 2009 lows. Crude oil and most of the other commodities have been active participants in the rally.As this first chart shows, natural gas has largely been absent from this rally. In fact, natural gas prices have been particularly weak in the last couple of days, erasing the gains made in the preceding three weeks and pushing the commodity back under the $4 level.  Blue line: Oil; Red line: Natural Gas (Source: wsj.com) This decoupling of natural gas prices from other commodities in general and crude oil in particular is rooted ...

A few years ago, RA had a series of blog posts arguing that in terms of geopolitical interests, energy, and simple geography, Washington and Tehran could find that they have much more in common than the fiery and hostile diplomacy (or lack thereof) might dictate. Russia's mild protection of Iran from sanctions in the UN represents not a true alliance or mutually rewarding friendship, but rather the maintenance of a "swing position" whereby Moscow can ensure that Iran and the United States continue to have poor relations, and especially prevent Iran's natural gas sector from developing into a competing supplier to Gazprom (enormous amounts of foreign capital are required). Indeed, many policy analysts have explicitly identified the urgency of including Iranian supply in order to make the Nabucco pipeline a possibility (not that Dick Cheney understands this...). ...