Regular readers know that around this time of the year my thoughts briefly stray from midstream energy to Christmas. My love of Christmas pudding has been well documented here (see English Christmas Traditions, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! and watch The Joy of Christmas Pudding). We all fondly remember the Christmas of our childhood. My […]

2025 has been frustrating for those who must explain short term performance in midstream energy stocks – which is to say your blogger, along with many financial advisors whose clients are invested in the sector. It hasn’t been an especially newsworthy year. In 2024, the realization that natural gas would benefit from the growth of […]

Hydrogen has long been thought to be a viable form of carbon-free energy. When burned, it produces water vapor. But hydrogen isn’t very energy-dense (about two thirds less than gasoline), is expensive to produce and hard to handle. An interesting fact is that H2 molecules are so tiny they can gradually leak through a steel […]

Renewables’ advocates are fond of linking solar and wind with the power needs of data centers. Superficially, the marriage of new technology and new energy seems inevitable. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) is just one example of media outlets that are telling this story (see Power Hungry Data Centers Are Driving Green Energy Demand). Inconveniently, […]

Midstream is mercifully removed from all the angst and excitement of AI stocks and crypto – although in a modern version of selling pickaxes to goldminers, natural gas and its infrastructure enable much of this activity. You have to admire the response of MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor to the bitcoin collapse which has crushed his […]

To be a climate scientist means to live with a dour outlook. The news is never good. We’re always at a tipping point beyond which irreversible damage to the planet will result. Humanity may die out. Therefore, it was cheering to find some good news in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Outlook 2025, albeit […]

Last week an investor asked us for ten reasons why they should commit funds to midstream energy infrastructure now. Typically, three or four bullet points will suffice to make the case, but in this case the request was for ten. Believe it or not, we were up to the challenge! Here they are: Valuations are […]

Your blogger is routinely critical of the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP) — for good reason, as its narrow universe and tax-paying structure offer ample points of weakness. They’ve even struggled to calculate taxes owed, which resulted in two downward NAV adjustments in 2022-23 (see AMLP Fails Its Investors Again). At times I’ve even been critical […]

I just finished reading Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book 1929, which relies on a lot of previously unpublished material to tell the story of the Great Crash through some of the protagonists. For those who enjoy economic history or even a good story, this will not disappoint. Benjamin Strong ran the Federal Reserve until his […]

The link between inflation and fee increases for liquids pipelines doesn’t draw much attention, but it proved to be valuable to midstream investors three years ago when the Biden administration’s excessive stimulus drove the Producer Price Index (PPI) up 13%. Maintaining purchasing power is the goal of most long-term investors. Inflation is reasonably close to […]