• Aetna (NYSE:AET) reported third quarter earnings of 69 cents a share, 3 cents better than Zacks estimates, on revenues of $8.72 billion, up 14.4%.  The company sees full year earnings of $2.75 a share

• OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX) posted third quarter earnings of 8 cents, 6 cents below Zacks estimates on inline revenues of $1.83 billion, down 12.6%. The firm issued cautious guidance, anticipating macro employment trends will not turn positive well into 2010

• Nintendo (NASDAQ:NTDOY) posted first half profits off 52% to $768 million, while sales dropped 34.5%. The company slashed its dividend for the first half by 37%

• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) reported third quarter earnings of 79 cents a share, 24 cents above Zacks estimates, as revenues of $2.05 billion, up 49.5%, bested Zacks estimates of $1.78 billion

• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) reported a 73% drop in net profit, with earnings ex-items of $2.62 billion slightly ahead of estimates

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Australia has ambitions to dethrone Qatar as the world’s largest LNG producer by the end of the next decade. The Australian government’s current goal is the production of 60 million tons of LNG per year for export. The Australian government is looking to achieve their goal largely through the Gorgon LNG Project. In Greek mythology, a gorgon is a hideous monster, but this Gorgon is a ‘monster’ of liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia.

Gorgon’s network of fields is believed to hold as much as 50,000 billion cubic feet of gas and the 40-year project is expected to produce 15 million tons a year, which is equal to 8 percent of current global capacity.

The Gorgon project has already attracted ready and eager buyers for the LNG that will be produced. PetroChina, China’s largest energy company, agreed to buy $41 billion worth of Gorgon LNG over a 20 year time period.

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Russia has done a good job cementing its title as one of the world's leading resource nationalists, having effectively expropriated and stolen the assets of dozens of companies, including Yukos, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and probably ExxonMobil next at Sakhalin.But when it happens in Africa to a Russian company owned by a Kremlin-friendly businessman, the government is up in arms in protest and threats.  I can sympathize with them given my international law practice area ... now that would be an interesting call to take.From Bloomberg:

"Guinean authorities have attempted to expropriate Rusal's property," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its Web site today, adding it hopes Guinea "realizes the possible consequences of such actions both for the overall climate of traditionally constructive Russian-Guinean relations and for the socio-economic situation in their own country."...

PetroChina Company Ltd. (PTR) has discovered solid gas flow at an onshore well in the east Sulige gas field, China. Daily output from this well is 610,000 cubic meters.

Discovered in 2000, the Sulige field has a projected 534 billion cubic meters of natural gas. It is located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, one of the most resource-rich areas in China, which produced 3.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2008.

China National Petroleum Corporation, the parent of PetroChina, had received a grant from the Government to start building a natural gas plant in Inner Mongolia in 2009, which will process the production from this field. The new plant is expected to be online by the end of 2010. The new gas plant will be the fourth one at the Sulige natural gas field in Inner Mongolia's Ordos basin.

Using its own technology, and in partnership with foreign companies

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Seasoned EquityTrader

July 30, 2009

Dow 9,154.46 +83.74 +0.92% Nasdaq 1,984.30 +16.54 +0.84% S&P 500 986.75 +11.60 +1.19%

Financial News:

Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday added to the industry’s worst midyear showing in years, stung by slumping global energy demand that threatens to further slow exploration and production.

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European shares were down in afternoon trade today, Wednesday, with banks leading the decline after quarterly results from U.S. banks Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo disappointed investors.

By 1306 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares was down 0.4 percent at 884.79 points after trading between 879.97 and 888.23 points.

“Morgan Stanley’s operating loss per share looks on the high side, compared to others in the sector. I think Morgan Stanley’s paying back public aid has distorted results; it is not known if this has been incorporated into analysts’ expectations of the results,” said Heino Ruland, strategist at Ruland Research.

Bank shares took the most off the index after Morgan Stanley reported its third consecutive quarterly loss and Wells Fargo reported rising credit losses.

“The continuing decline in asset quality is a worry, and whilst they are making money in other areas it just goes to show that conditions in the consumer segment

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In the energy market on Thursday, crude for August delivery was higher, closing at $70.23/barrel, up $1.56. July reformulated gasoline rose 5.58 cents, to $1.8983/gallon. “It seems oil is rallying with stocks,” said Zachary Oxman, managing director at TrendMax Futures. “There are no major supply demand issues present.”

However, traders were also reacting to the weaker-than-expected inventory report from Wednesday, and to further violence in Nigeria.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, claimed responsibility yesterday for a predawn attack against Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A/RDS.B) facilities, calling it a warning to Russia not to invest in the African country’s oil and gas industry, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The attack on the Bille-Krakama pipeline, which feeds the key Bonny export terminal in southern Rivers State, was carried out to coincide with a visit to Nigeria by Russian President Dmitry Medvedevk, MEND reportedly said.

Source:

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Oil prices rose for the third consecutive day on Friday, nearing $72 a barrel, as rebel attacks in Nigeria hit output from the OPEC-member country and economic optimism propelled equities markets higher.

U.S. crude rose 49 cents to $71.76 a barrel by 1515 GMT, having topped $72 earlier. London Brent crude gained 45 cents to $71.51 a barrel.

Nigeria’s main militant group MEND said Friday it had attacked a pipeline operated by Italy’s Agip , close on the heels of previous attacks on facilities operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron . Together, the attacks have cut at least 133,000 barrels of daily output.

Rebels in Nigeria, the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter, have been carrying out attacks on the oil industry for years in what they claim is a struggle aimed at spreading the region’s energy wealth to the poor local communities.

Oil prices also got support from political turmoil in Iran, the world’s fifth largest exporter, in the

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Ukraine has apparently paid its May gas bill and expects an apology from Moscow about aspersions casts upon its ability to pay for gas supplies.  Medvedev has counseled Ukraine to not look 'offended' when asked about insolvency but instead try 'to honor their liabilities.'  Vice-Premier Igor Sechin has said that the Saudi Arabian prediction that oil will reach $150 a barrel is realistic.  Alexei Kudrin has apparently called OPEC 'ineffective' at preventing volatility in the oil market.  In the future, gas from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan could be exported to Russia rather than to Western Europe.  Germany's E.ON group has made a deal to acquire 25% of the Siberian Yuzhno Russkoye gas field from Gazprom.  The CEO of Royal Dutch Shell has warned that oil prices may spike if there ...

On June 10, 2008, Alexei Miller, CEO of Russia’s Gazprom, told a French audience that crude oil prices would reach $250 a barrel in 2009. His former Gazprom cohort and then freshly minted Russian prime minister Medvedev did him one better… pegging crude oil prices at $500. Was it wishful thinking? Did the gentlemen overdose on “hard-money” investment newsletters and Peak Oil Theory? We may never know.

After dropping from $147 last July close to $30 this past winter, crude oil is now trading within a reasonably tight track around $40 and $57.

Now it’s on the move again, breaking through $60 right at the beginning of the summer driving and hurricane seasons.

But oil companies’ proud profit margins of yesteryear have disappeared… along with the easy credit that allowed investment banks and hedge funds leverage crude prices to record highs.

Suddenly, not even the most pink politician is talking punitive taxation against

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