How to “Earn an Oil Income Fortune from Environmentalists” (Keith Kohl)

by Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe | March 17, 2015 2:46 pm

Sharing a "pipeline inspection" teaser solution originally pitched as a way to "beat Buffett" in late February

I was waiting to see what happened to this teased stock when their annual results are released, but the questions have been piling up from readers and the company still has two weeks left before they have to report, so I thought I’d at least try to get some of the answers out for you today.

The pitch is from Keith Kohl[1] for his new High Yield Energy Report[2], a newsletter that Angel Publishing[3] started late last year with both Keith Kohl and Christian DeHaemer[4] supplying the ideas and commentary — this teaser solution was originally published as part of the Friday File[5] for the Irregulars (our paid members) on February 27, but now that the Irregulars have had some time to chew on it we’re releasing it to everyone.

What follows has not been updated or revised since 2/27/15. The stock has been volatile since they started teasing it, and is now down about 10% from where it was then, with a yield of 9%+.

This teaser ad gets our attention with the idea that Warren Buffett[6] is bribing President Obama, which, given the current political climate and the leanings of most investment newsletter customers, is like throwing a limping zebra in the lion[7]’s cage… the lion isn’t going to think about it, he’s going to jump on it and eat until he falls asleep. That’s the goal of such teaser pitches: to appeal to conspiracy ideas or political leanings so strongly that folks who believe the “red meat” you throw in the cage are inclined to believe everything else you say, and folks who don’t believe it will read carefully out of anger and maybe get sucked into the rest of the marketing message, giving you a chance to sell lots of newsletters to both groups if you trigger the right greed receptors in those brains.

The same thing happens with marketing on both sides of the political spectrum, of course — it’s just that the people who spend the most on investment newsletters tend to be (and have always been) affluent white men in their 60s and 70s who skew firmly Conservative/Republican, so that’s the profitable marketing message. And the worst thing a copywriter can do is create something that’s ignored, making people either cheer or scream when they read your ad is a way to be certain you’re not ignored.

None of that means the stock they’re pitching is necessarily bad (or good), of course — it just means we have to separate the stock from the marketing, as usual, so we can look at it a bit more dispassionately in the light of day.

So we’re going to get a solution to the tease for you… and on the way we’ll skip right over most of that baiting, but here’s just a small taste to give you an idea (you can see the whole ad here [8]if you like):

“Buffett’s $44 Billion Bakken[9] Bomb

“How the biggest buy in Berkshire Hathaway’s storied history completely (and violently) backfired…

“Leaving you with the chance to play the trend Buffett didn’t see coming for $738 per week….

“On November 3, 2009, Mr. Contrarian himself announced that Berkshire Hathaway had acquired the BNSF railroad for the extraordinary sum of $44 billion.

“He was so bullish on this play that he even told Charlie Rose he thought it would bolster portfolios for the next 200 years….

“what the world’s greatest investor couldn’t have known was that he was essentially writing his own financial death sentence….

“And it wouldn’t be long before Buffett would be found scrambling (even involving Obama in the matter) to correct what would turn out to be the biggest blunder of his storied career.

“Best part is… it’s a blunder that could end up making you $738 per week if you play the situation correctly.”

That’s a story that’s been circulating for a long time, the part about Buffett opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline and using his influence to help kill it because that pipeline would compete with the shipment of oil[10] by rail using Berkshire’s BNSF railroad. The part about BNSF being a “blunder” of a purchase by Berkshire is a little hard to swallow — BNSF, like all railroads, is a very long-cycle business (ie, a “bet on the economy”) and was expected to be a pretty stable (almost utility-like) generator of returns for Berkshire for 100 years. The oil shipping has helped BNSF, Union Pacific (UNP)[11] and Canadian Pacific (CP)[12] quite a bit, certainly, but I suspect the business would have been decent without that. Maybe not great, since coal[13] declined and they have fluctuated based on demand for coal, grain, and now oil shipments, but solid — and with the oil demand (which has also created a big capital investment requirement, as tank cars have needed to be built and tracks improved to deal with huge congestion issues brought on by crude and large grain harvests), the railroads have all done extraordinarily well.

Berkshire paid about $45 billion for BNSF (including taking over their debt), and they’ve gotten more than $15 billion in dividends[14] from BNSF so far… way, way better than Buffett anticipated, at least publicly, this was supposed to be a way to put his giant pile of cash to work for the next century, not a way to make a quick windfall in a few years. And the railroad, if it were valued in the market like somewhat similar Union Pacific at about 5X sales, might be worth as much as $100 billion today (Berkshire’s market cap is “only” $240 billion). People called BNSF a blunder when Berkshire was buying it in 2009, but that’s because he bought it at a “full valuation”, not because there was anything wrong with the business… and recall, oil was still in the 2008 collapse then and the Bakken was highly uncertain, at least for the near term.

But anyway, that’s not the main point of the teaser pitch — it’s just there to get your attention. The point from Kohl is that the crisis that will bring down BNSF is the fact that pipelines will inevitably expand to replace the “blunder” of Buffett’s “oil by rail” business, whether Keystone specifically is built or not, and that this is largely because of the risky nature of shipping oil by rail. That’s headline news every few months as a crude-carrying train derails and explodes, as happened most recently to a CSX train in West Virginia, and it’s probably true — efficiency demands that more oil move through pipelines, which are a much cheaper way to transport liquids long distances, and less in tanker cars. It’s obviously not going to happen overnight, and pipelines can’t reach everywhere, but it’s certainly possible that rail shipments of crude oil will fall (particularly if production falls for a while with lower oil prices), and that should hit profitability at the railroads. I sure wouldn’t sell Berkshire for that reason, but that’s not the point of the ad.

No, the point of the ad is that you should buy the company that Kohl says will benefit from increased scrutiny of pipelines, and from the pressure that’s being put on pipeline operators by government regulators (bribed by Buffett, naturally — kidding!) to improve safety and reduce spillage and seepage, the things that worried Keystone opponents most of all (the opponents like midwestern farmers and other folks on the route who worried about spills and their aquifer, at least — Keystone expansion became a political litmus test after a while, so it seems everyone is either an opponent or a proponent now, and feels desperately strongly about it whether they know anything about the issue or not).

So after all that hullabaloo, it appears we’ve got a pipeline service company being teased. And given that the newsletter is called High Yield Energy Report, it’s almost certainly a big dividend payer — so it’s probably either Canadian or a MLP. Let’s dig in to the clues, shall we?

He starts by implying that Buffett got into pipelines to “save” his investment in the railroad after one of the rail car explosions was “blowing up” in his face…

“Buffett knew no amount of presidential pandering could save him.

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“So, on the exact same day that Casselton went up in flames (and thousands of gallons of crude flowed into a nearby lake), Buffett switched gears entirely.

“While his railroad investment was literally burning, he quickly and quietly spent $1.9 billion to alleviate his financial losses with a pipeline company… the very type of investment he’d bribed the President to kill.”

Berkshire has bought quite a few pipeline-related assets over the years as they’ve built up their MidAmerican Energy subsidiary into a major utility/distribution powerhouse (and, like a railroad, a capital-intensive long-lived portfolio of assets that should generate solid returns for decades), they were buying pipelines well before Buffett was making his big investments in railroads. This investment, though, was specifically in a pipeline services company — at the same time as the explosion of the BNSF train, Berkshire was preparing to announce that they had effectively swapped their stock position in Philips 66 for the pipeline services division of that company, and they then effectively tucked that division — which makes chemicals that help make pipelines flow more efficiently — into Lubrizol, Berkshire’s large chemical company bought a few years earlier. I don’t know that it was exactly $1.9 billion they spent in the end, but presumably this is the deal Kohl is talking about.[15]

Here’s some more of the ad:

“All of the major gains in energy transportation in the next two years are going to come from the pipeline sector.

“There will be little to no expansion of rail, and hauling oil by truck is far too expensive (and slow).

“On the flipside, pipelines are cheaper, more reliable, and more efficient.

“So it’s no wonder Buffett is now frantically piling whatever money he can from BNSF into the pipeline movement.

“And while I highly suggest you do the same if you want to make money in the energy sector over the next decade, there’s one caveat…

“I’m not recommending an actual pipeline company today.”

So… what is he recommending? More clues:

“… the company I’ve found researches and develops technologies that improve the flow of pipelines overall.

“So rather than having their hands on just a single project, these guys are involved in every single mile of pipeline that exists and that’s currently being built…

“… it could easily be argued that no single company will be as important to the pipeline boom as the company I’m revealing to you today….

“This play only costs about $13 per share….

“… this new company I’m about to reveal to you — the one that’s about to outperform the market and Warren Buffett — is one of the landmark plays in my service.”

And then, as usual, we get a few more specific clues to whet the appetite (and feed the Thinkolator):

“The group I’ve found looks much more profitable than your run-of-the-mill midstream conglomerate….

“Rather than collecting money from oil companies and spending billions of dollars to dig and lay pipes, this company merely skims a little cash off of the top.

“It collects a small amount of money from each project it can get its hands on…

“And last year, this amount totaled about $200 million….

“… our pipeline capacity is set to double in the next two years….

“That means the new construction could double, maybe even triple the amount of money this company is raking in now.”

And a wee bit more about the company:

“What this company does, among many other things, is test pipelines, oil and gas gathering systems, pump and compressor stations, storage facilities and terminals, and underground disposal wells for safety.

“Since governments in Canada[16] and the United States are now slapping harsh mandates on new pipelines, this company has made its business essential to oil producers, refiners, and midstream companies.

“It currently has 63 customers just for its pipeline inspections alone….

“… since all of the coming gains in the midstream sector will be from pipelines, the company I’ve found stands to have its hand in every single piece of pipe that gets built, every nut and bolt, and every single dig for new construction.”

OK, so that’s an interesting thesis for buying a stock — governments are making it tougher to build pipelines, so they have more safety and inspection mandates…. and more pipelines are getting dangerously old and being replaced or monitored closely, along with new pipelines being built, so the market for these kinds of services should expand substantially.

Who is this company being pitched by Kohl? Thinkolator sez it’s Cypress Energy Partners (CELP)[17], and the info is a little bit stale in the teaser pitch. I got the ad on February 22, but the pricing for CELP (the $13/share and the 12.5% yield) is from about six weeks ago. The stock has staged a pretty strong recovery since then, getting back up to $18 (for a 8.5% yield). The company apparently has a “targeted” distribution amount of $1.55/share (annually — paid quarterly), but is slightly above that now with a run rate of a bit over $1.60 if the payout remains stable. Here’s the quote from their FAQ section, which is a short version of what’s in the prospectus:

“We intend to make a minimum quarterly distribution of $0.3875 per unit ($1.55 on an annualized basis) to the extent we have sufficient cash from operations after establishment of cash reserves and payment of fees and expenses, including payments to our general partner.”

So yes, you could theoretically get the equivalent of a payout of $738 per week from Cypress, but (unless I hiccuped while doing the math) at the current yield that would mean you’d have to own about 24,000 shares, an investment of something like $450,000 at today’s prices. Maybe you have that kind of cash to throw at a small, new and fairly speculative MLP, or maybe you have time for your $5,000 to grow and compound for several decades (assuming the partnership does spectacularly well) to get to the point where it’s spitting out that kind of income. That’s a little above my pay grade — but then, I’m also not counting on any of my individual investments creating that kind of dividend income for me right now.

Cypress Energy Partners is an oilfield services company, initially primarily handling water[18] cleanup and disposal from fracking[19] operations in the Bakken and Texas (they own a bunch of saltwater disposal wells as a primary asset, and manage some others, as well as some water pipelines), and it so happens to have bought a pipeline testing company called Tulsa Inspection Resources over the last year and a half or so (they bought control of it in 2013, and bought the rest in a drop down from the general partner or other affiliated entities just this month, paying about 7X EBITDA). The company’s strategy is playing out pretty nicely on that front, since pipeline inspection should be a steadier business than water disposal if drilling activity continues to slow in the Bakken.

They are very new as a MLP, they have apparently existed since 2012 but went public in January of 2014 at $20 (the “minimum distribution” target is a 7.75% yield on that IPO[20] price, which presumably is what the market required to get interested at the time), and it was well-received, hovering around $24 for the first half of the year until it started to dip with oil prices in the late Summer and Fall, bottoming out between $12-13 in December and January before the recent recovery.

It’s a little tough to get a handle on the business, because although water disposal should be driven by new wells and drilling activity it does also have a sustaining factor — the wells produce water throughout the life of the well, so it’s not like water stops being produced if people halt new drilling for six months, but clearly demand for water disposal will be lower with lower drilling activity. And that is their high-margin business, though it’s a far smaller business in revenue terms than is the inspection business.

Which makes sense — the water disposal business is more typical of the MLP structure, it consists mostly of assets (water pipelines and disposal wells) that have limited ongoing capex requirements and steady cash flow, giving a pretty nice cash margin on the fee income they receive for transporting and disposing of waste water. The inspection business is essentially a consulting business — they get paid a daily fee for each inspector they send out, so the number of inspectors employed is a key indicator of revenue… but though it’s not capital intensive it’s also not terribly scaleable, they also have to pay each inspector, so margins are not particularly high and there isn’t a lot of depreciation or other non-cash stuff that they can take advantage of with a big workforce the way they can with a big physical asset.

I grabbed the results from the first three quarters here to give you an idea of how this plays out in the income statement — you can see the huge disparity in revenue, but the cash flow (adding operating income to depreciation, etc.) indicates how dramatically important the water and environmental services division is for creating that steady cash flow for the distribution. The growth in pipeline inspection shown in this table comes mostly from the fact that the 2013 numbers are really only one quarter, not three quarters, since they made the acquisition in June 2013. You can see the full filing here for more details[21].

celp3q14[22]

I’m not sure exactly when they will report their fourth quarter — the annual report filing is due by the end of March, it appears, and they will likely issue a press release and have a conference call before then sometime.

For me, this looks kind of interesting as a high yield[23] “washout” play to maybe buy when investors are convinced that things were terrible — so had I known about it two months ago when it was in the $13 range it would have been more compelling, but with a yield of just a bit over 8% and what I would consider to be substantial uncertainty about whether they’ll be able to grow that distribution at all, along with a complex structure that has non-publicly-traded related parties involved and selling assets to the partnership, it’s not as compelling. The hope seems to be that the water disposal business will remain fairly stable, though almost certainly at a lower cash flow-generation rate than in the heyday of earlier 2014 when drilling activity was much higher, and that they can grow by continuing to hire more inspectors and get them into the field with their customers.

The inspection business looks like a good business, but it takes a lot of hiring and management and selling to get the revenue numbers up, and the margins don’t seem likely to improve dramatically. If the water and environmental services cash flow gets cut in half, for example (which would probably be very extreme), or they have a lot of expenses crop up in that business, I’m not sure whether the inspection growth can catch up — the low-margin nature of that consulting/services business means they’d need to generate another $25 million in revenue to generate another million dollars in operating income (about $1.1 million in distributable cash, probably).

It’s too early to see any kind of pattern in the business, particularly because they’re small and just finished a big acquisition, and because the sector is unsettled with crashing oil prices, but the September quarter last year (before oil crashed) was a little unsettling, with expenses coming in to turn 18% revenue growth into just 1% growth in distributable cash flow. So there is something to the company, they’re interesting to consider, but I don’t think it’s so strong that I’d be all that tempted to buy for an 8% yield that I’m not entirely convinced is sustainable (I haven’t seen any information from them about operations after October 1, other than the drop-down purchase of the rest of the inspection business and the distribution announcement for the quarter which seems to have helped assuage investor worries).

Let us know if you’ve got an opinion on Cypress, I like the inspection business but I’m a little worried about water disposal volumes and more worried about their valuation and their uncertain (for me, at least) ability to grow the distribution in a sustainable way from here. If you forced me to choose right now at these prices, I’d certainly buy more Berkshire Hathaway before buying Cypress Energy Partners.

Endnotes:
  1. Keith Kohl: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/keith-kohl/
  2. High Yield Energy Report: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/high-yield-energy-report/
  3. Angel Publishing: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/angel-publishing/
  4. Christian DeHaemer: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/christian-dehaemer/
  5. Friday File: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/friday-file/
  6. Warren Buffett: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/warren-buffett/
  7. lion: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/lion/
  8. the whole ad here : http://www.angelnexus.com/o/web/72416
  9. Bakken: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/bakken/
  10. oil: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/oil/
  11. Union Pacific (UNP): https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/unp/
  12. Canadian Pacific (CP): https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/cp/
  13. coal: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/coal/
  14. dividends: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/dividends/
  15. this is the deal Kohl is talking about.: http://blogs.marketwatch.com/energy-ticker/2013/12/31/buffetts-year-end-bet-pipelines/
  16. Canada: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/canada/
  17. Cypress Energy Partners (CELP): https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/celp/
  18. water: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/water/
  19. fracking: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/fracking/
  20. IPO: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/ipo/
  21. see the full filing here for more details: http://d1lge852tjjqow.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001587246/eaea5576-f5ec-49f7-a547-eaf5efcdfc93.pdf?noexit=true
  22. [Image]: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/celp3q142-e1425064889223.jpg
  23. high yield: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/high-yield/

Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/high-yield-energy-report/how-to-earn-an-oil-income-fortune-from-environmentalists-keith-kohl/


22 responses to “How to “Earn an Oil Income Fortune from Environmentalists” (Keith Kohl)”

  1. wkho noze says:

    it reminds me of nes provider of water with means to salvage waste water bret jensen has a tease out for three sure winners anyone know what thy are

  2. Steverino King O' Pain says:

    I went with ‘BBEP’ Breitburn Energy Partners Jan 15. I wish I had not my oil stocks are bleeding money same with ‘NOV’ Nat’l Oil Well Varco. Thought I was buying Novartis.
    Just kidding ! : ))

  3. AQs usual your artical is great!! However I have a different question about the advertiwser just below your report for this co, CELP.. I read his vidio add this morning and he claims on May 13 at the next 10 yr treasurey bond auction The US ecomony will die!! And that we are in debt 700% over the GDP and social se3curity will no longer be!!!! Quite some claims!!! I’m 77 yrs old and living on sci and a small Navy returement.. What do I do now???

  4. westtexaslawrence says:

    BTW,
    Warren Buffet failed to realize that MOST oil and gas is transported in this country in
    PIPELINES, not by rail. So his buying the railroad serving the Bakken was a colossal blunder. And……produced saltwater from the wells HAS to be disposed of by law……and
    that produced saltwater is transported…..you guessed it!….by PIPELINE!
    He had some bum steers from his advisors who were NOT experts in the oil and gas industry such as the major O&G companies maintain.

    So, my advice to investors…..look to people who are actively involved in the niche you
    are planning to try to make a few bucks investing…..who have the expertise and the
    advisors in the business to give you accurate data.

    ol’ Lawrence in west Texas

  5. Keith Schafer is very big on the waste water disposal business, figures it will be the biggest money maker in the oil and gas sector for the next 20 years, wouldn’t be surprised if what he claims to be his biggest investment turns out to be Cypress. Maybe someone subscribes to his letter and can confirm. A Canadian pipeline inspection company has also been touted by several newsletters over the last 6 months, but I have not investigated SYNODON, so can’t comment on its viability.

  6. mwojnaro says:

    While oil is the big part of BNSF’s revenue stream, they do haul other commodities, including containers, from the western ports to their final destination. Not to mention the significant trade in grain and corn. This haulage items, unlike oil, won’t be going away any time soon. Also, Mr Buffet indicated the BNSF acquisition has nearly paid for itself already. Granted there will be some heavy cap ex as these are capital intensive businesses, but should see a continuing revenue stream.

    I do like the disposal industry, so will be putting these on the watch list.

  7. quincy adams says:

    I have a blunder of my own to confess: paying $29 for one year of Mr. Kohl’s “Energy Investor”. It was just up for renewal, but I cancelled. In fairness, I suppose it’s difficult to sell investment advice in an area where the most useful recommendation would have been “Run!!!”

  8. Ronald E. Baker says:

    I am a Canadian and also Chemical Engineer. I have closely followed this story from North of The Border. BNSF has returned a lot of extra income to Berkshire Hathaway since the recent boom in oil transport by rail boom and it has not been a fiasco. It is worth a great deal more than Buffett paid for it. Only recent derailments and fires brought attention to its heavy/dangerous traffic loads, and the need for newer, safer tank cars. Since Buffett is a master of capital leverage and obtaining the lowest cost of capital, he’ll probably figure out how to factor and finance more tank cars at very low interest cost rates. Time is still on his side, as pipelines take years to build and his friend in Washington has helped to stall that competitor to his RR for a decade. Buffett is, by nature, a crafty and wily operator beneath that folksy affable exterior. He uses political connections to enhance his natural advantages of scale. Surely he has benefited from his support of Obama; to think otherwise is naive. Well trained by his Congressman father, whom he often fondly claims (not altogether correctly) was his mentor, Warren is a shrewd political opportunist. But not all his moves are perfectly timed, as for example his big Exxon-Mobil foray and recent NOV and IBM bets. Oil is a very political commodity, greatly manipulated by some very nasty, autocratic people like Putin, Chavez Venezuelan successors, the Saudis and Mid-eastern despots. These guys march to a different drum! Sometimes profit is a side issue. Even Buffett has been caught off guard, it would appear, to some extent, by recent costly losses from the unanticipated oil price/volume developments. In conclusion, Buffett’s game is the long one in a handful of key companies and industries; he thinks ahead in decades, not years. For him a short term loss is almost incidental. His company has gained mightily since 2008-2009 and will likely do so again, so long as he lasts. He is 84 and mortal, so that’s the big risk. Judging him on the short term is a “fools game” in my opinion.

  9. timcarp1964 says:

    CELP may or may not be a good investment – hard to tell at this point. I have been watching them a while but just can’t justify jumping in yet. That said, I was watching them at the $13 level, so hindsight says I should have moved and I would have gotten a dividend payout. Their next major announcement should shed more light on financial situation.

    An unrelated question, has a review been done on the “Alpha 15 portfolio”. I just saw/heard the Newsmax spiel and it was interesting, but I can’t find any credible reviews on the service. Anyone here have a aye or nay on it? Thanks!

  10. Bob says:

    CELF was also recommended by Bryan Perry of Cash Machine. I purchased the stock in April of 2014. So far I’m down 29% not counting the dividends.

  11. manxmonkey says:

    Hey, this one is driving me mad. Any ideas?
    “It’s bigger than gold, it’s bigger than jewelry, it’s bigger than bank accounts,” according to the World Jewish Congress.
    Today, this asset is once again available throughout the Western world…
    And again, powerful groups are trying to hoard it—including America’s wealthiest senator and two presidential candidates.
    This single asset has the power to make you very wealthy over time… and, unlike most investments of its kind, is perfectly accessible to the average person.

  12. That’s yet another version of the “770 account” or “hidden retirement account” — a form of life insurance, we covered this version of the pitch here: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/palm-beach-letter/what-is-the-babylonian-money-code-the-3800-year-proven-secret-to-a-tax-free-fortune/

  13. Dr. Shizz says:

    I like what I see, and took a long position @ 16.75
    Looking forward to the earnings at the end of the month

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