Not a lot of news to share about my Real Money Portfolio this week, so I thought I’d dig into a teaser solution for your Friday File… this one started running fairly recently as oil returned to “top of mind” status following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The pitch is for Luke Burgess’ Junior Mining Trader ($1,999/yr, 90-day refund period), put out by the Outsider Club, and the order form sums up the pitch pretty well:
“We’re about to make a fortune off this oil discovery of the century… Argentina’s ‘Project Petrogonia.’
“Resource studies now prove it’s the second-largest shale basin in the world… second only to the Bakken in the U.S.
“And oil and gas industry insiders are calling it the world’s fastest-growing oil play — one that could dwarf the wealth created by the Bakken and Permian oil shale revolutions.”
We’ve seen several pitches over the years about little energy companies that were planning to mimic the success of the U.S. shale oil (or gas) industries, bringing horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to new areas of the world. Most of them haven’t worked out, either because of local objection to “fracking” or to the vicissitudes of the oil markets — but I guess we’re primed to see more of these again, what with oil and energy security on the minds of so many people right now.
So what’s this particular company? Let’s dig some more clues out of the full “presentation” from Burgess…
He starts out with a bunch of satellite images, emphasizing the large scale of the drilling going in in this “Petrogonia” area…
“Nestled between the Andes Mountains and the Neuquen River in Argentina sits a shale gas and oil basin so large and prolific, NASA scientists have called it a ‘geologic wonder.’
“In fact, there are so many sites being cleared, NASA satellites can see it from space… and have been taking pictures of the formation and the drilling activity.”
And this is another, “the secret is in the hands of one tiny company” tease… from Burgess:
“There is a mostly unknown $5 energy company that’s been in ‘Petrogonia’ for years, perfecting its drilling technology.
“And now it has.
“In fact, the company is pumping out so much oil and gas now, its revenues have jumped from $669 million in 2020…
“To over $1 billion in 2021.
“That’s a 63% jump on ...