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Revealing Keith Kohl’s “Petroplex” Stock

Oil & Gas Trader teases: "Profit from the Petroplex: The $8 Driller that Will Help America Reach Energy Independence"

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, January 7, 2014

I’ve been getting questions about Keith Kohl’s pitch for his (secret) favorite “Petroplex” stock for almost three weeks now, so I guess it’s time to dig in and see if your friendly neighborhood Stock Gumshoe can throw a few answers your way.

The pitch is for Kohl’s pricier newsletter, Oil & Gas Trader, which they say has a capped readership at 3,000 people and is looking for “fast money” trades in the energy space — so probably, like most “premium” letters that carry a heftier price tag, they’re looking at a lot of smaller capitalization stocks where you simply couldn’t get 20,000 investors in and out of the stock without throwing the price into a tizzy.

And, of course, they’re not going to be hurting if they can get 3,000 people to shell out $799 (or $999, if you’re not getting the “special discount”) for a subscription — that’s close to $2.4 million, in case you don’t feel like doing the math. For what it’s worth, they do also throw in Kohl’s “entry level” newsletter Energy Investor for free when you subscribe.

Kohl has been banging the table for Bakken stocks for several years now, and claims some pretty good picks as that rising tide lifted a lot of boats — but now he’s pitching an oil field far larger than the Bakken.

He calls this new field the “Petroplex”, but it’s a pretty thinly veiled pitch for the big unconventional shale discoveries in the Permian Basin, particularly the Wolfcamp and Spraberry shales, sometimes called the “Wolfberry” (though there are other large potential shales and areas nearby, and a zillion different names still floating around for these thick shale areas in West Texas). There’s a decent piece on the emergence of these fields as “world class” here, one that tries to distinguish between the Wolfcamp, Cline, and Penn shales in the Permian basin, and another here if you just want a quick backgrounder — but yes, there’s a freakishly huge amount of oil in these very, very thick shales, and it could well amount to the second biggest oil field in the world and produce far more than the Eagle Ford or the Bakken in time.

And I’m no geologist, so I’m not even sure I understand which shale is which (they’re different ages, at different depths), but yes, we can stipulate that thought the Wolfcamp and even the Cline get less mainstream media attention than the Bakken, they are now widely considered the next “hot” areas among oil investors. Or at least, among the folks who write about investing in oil.

The “Petroplex” is indeed the heart of the region where this new wave of shale development and drilling is happening now — Kohl didn’t make up the term, it was coined years ago for the Midland-Odessa metropolitan area, which is the population center in the region and home to a lot of new West Texas millionaires these days.

Here’s a taste of Kohl’s tease before we get into looking for the specific company he’s pitching:

“The Petroplex peaked in production between 1973 and 1974, as predicted by Shell geologist M. King Hubbert.

“At its height, it was pumping out over 1.7 million barrels per day.

“When it peaked, it marked the end of American oil domination and ushered in OPEC… and for the next 40 years, OPEC would have a stranglehold on the world’s energy economy….

“Thanks to the American revolution in hydraulic fracturing (or fracking, as it is popularly called), the Petroplex is about to regain its stature in the global oil market.

“To the point, drillers using state-of-the-art technology can now access and extract oil from the actual massive source rock that was feeding the Santa Rita well 90 years ago….

“And the early results from these new wells are already a game-changer.

“According to an October 16, 2013 Forbes report:

‘… the region [Petroplex] is producing more oil than the pipelines can handle…’ and ‘New infrastructure is being laid to send oil from the Petroplex straight to the refinery center in Houston… ‘

“And on October 21, CNBC reported:

‘Oil flows like water in the Petroplex.’

“And it’s all because of the technological revolution in hydraulic fracturing developed in the United States.”

So that’s the basic background — Midland, Texas is getting re-heated because companies are figuring out how to get at the “source rock” shales that created the easy, near-surface oil fields that spurred the first West Texas oil rush. And Kohl argues that the best companies to buy are those that have just started production, before investor interest really heats up.

Then, of course, he finally gets into hinting about this little $8 stock that he says is already producing and is looking to expand in the Permian basin shales. So who is it?

Well, here are the clues:

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“In fact, as you read this, the Petroplex has over 400 drill rigs currently moving into it or operating. To give you an idea of how much that is, it accounts for 10% of all drilling rigs currently in operation on the planet.

“That’s why the play is the hottest in the world right now.

“But even though it’s hot, the mainstream investing public knows nothing about it.

“I can assure you that will change in the months and years to come…

“And that’s why I want to tell you about one company that has been there since the beginning — and is already selling its Petroplex oil to the market.

“They control over 52 square miles of the Petroplex — enough land to blanket the entire city of San Francisco and then some.

“Their wells are pumping out 2,350 barrels of Petroplex oil per day.

“That’s $227,950 worth of Petroplex oil every single day, or $83 million every year.

“And it keeps growing…

“The company is cash rich, too — with over $100 million ready to buy more oil-saturated acres.

“Let me be very clear about one fact: This isn’t some wildcatter exploring for oil. They’ve already found it — to the tune of more than $100 million in annual oil revenues per year.

“As you read this, the company is selling their oil into the market.

“No wonder insiders have been buying the company’s stock all year.

“And here’s the best part…

“You Can Buy the Company’s Stock — Right Now — for Under $8 a Share!”

So who is it?

Well, we can’t be 100% certain on this one, but I’d say we’re up there in the 98% range given those clues … the Mighty, Mighty Thinkolator, cold as it was when I started it up this morning, chugged away for a few minutes in the garage and spit out a solid answer for us: This is almost surely Callon Petroleum (CPE — free instant trend analysis here)

Callon did have revenues of about $100 million over the last four quarters, and the share price is under $8 (it’s in the $6.50 neighborhood at the moment). It’s also very small, with a market cap of about $250 million.

And perhaps the slightly sneaky bit is that they don’t really have $100 million in cash to invest in more Permian basis projects according to the last quarterly report … but since that quarterly report, they sold their Gulf of Mexico assets to WTI for, yes, $100 million (the purchase closed in December for $88 million in actual cash, since it was backdated to Summer). They also paid down some debt, so we’ll have to wait and see what their balance sheet looks like when they report next, but they do also have a credit facility available so I suspect they have the ability to invest $100 million or slightly more in these shale projects if they want to.

Incidentally, Callon also has preferred stock trading — and there was, as teased, a small spurt of insider buying in both the stock and the preferred shares earlier in the year… though much of it took the form of options exercises, and most of the buying was in the common stock when it was down below $4 in the Spring and Summer, before the Gulf of Mexico sale and the positive chatter about the Permian projects started to bump the shares up (they did get close to $8 in late October).

The preferreds, if you’re interested, carry a high yield but have no maturity and no convertible feature — they were offered at $50 with a 10% yield, so at $47 or so the yield is a bit better, and the sale of their Gulf of Mexico assets means they might be a bit of a better credit risk with a better balance sheet, but there’s no real upside beyond the 10% coupon. The ticker for those preferreds is CPE-PA on Yahoo Finance, though preferreds often get different tickers from different brokers and quote services. No convertible feature, so if the shares go up by several hundred percent the preferreds won’t get any piece of that — they might go up a little bit, since investors might be willing to take, say, a 6% yield from a larger and more successful company (that would mean the preferreds could trade up to possibly $75 or so if you’re very optimistic, but they can also be called by the company at $50 in 2018 so that’s a stretch), but they could also go down if we get substantial inflation or interest rate hikes and the 10% yield starts to look less delightful.

Just to dot the i’s of our clue unraveling they also do have “over 52 square miles” of interest in the Permian shales, the Wolfcamp or whatever else you want to call it — though they use the more conventional measurement of acres in their literature (35,000 acres, which is what they claim, is about 54 square miles). That’s big relative to the size of the city of San Francisco, as they tease, but not so big for a West Texas oil company, the much larger Devon Energy (DVN) claims 1.3 million net acres in the Permian (though on a “Permian acres per dollar of market cap” basis CPE would come out ahead of Devon … probably an irrelevant metric, since DVN has lots of non-Permian operations and CPE does not).

And they are ending the year with an average of close to 2,350 barrels of oil per day of Permian production, though they downgraded that number slightly a few weeks ago thanks to some storm delays.

Probably the biggest immediate on CPE shares right now, with the sale of their Gulf of Mexico assets done, is the fight they’re having with activist investors Lone Star Value — Lone Star is looking for some way to “unlock value” at CPE, probably by selling the company because they consider it cheap relative to their assets, and they’re looking to get some seats on the board at Callon; Callon, meanwhile, believes this is short-sighted and that they’re just at the beginning of creating great value in their West Texas projects. I haven’t looked at the argument, and don’t know much else about the company, but they’ve been engaged in a Press Release showdown and you can see the latest from Callon here and from Lone Star here.

As I said, don’t know them particularly well and just started looking into the stock when I uncovered it this morning — you can check out their latest Investor Presentation if you want to see how the company would like you to understand them. I’ve only mentioned them once before, when Porter Stansberry was pitching Devon as his “secret shale play” back in 2012 (was a good story, but DVN is flat since then), but given the positioning as a “pure play” on a hot exploration area there’s certainly potential for Callon to do well if the production matches the hype, and the fact that they do have enough financial flexibility to start sinking money into increasing production (planning 25 new horizontal wells this year, I think) means there is certainly the possibility that the stock could be an interesting speculation with a bit of meat behind the hype.

Is that wishy-washy enough for you? If we’re going to see a hype-cycle for these Wolfcamp-focused stocks the way we did for the Bakken stocks five years ago, this is the kind of pick that could get a lot of attention and spike as production increases… or, of course, they could hit a lousy drilling patch or oil prices could fall 20% and the shares could stink up the joint.

So that’s about all I can tell you — go forth, researchify, cogitate, and let us know what you think with a comment below.

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baygreen
January 7, 2014 5:06 pm

Travis I think there is some other fires burning down Tx way there is a company called Terrace Energy Corp TCRRF is symbol and there is a little teaser history that has not been brought up yet. I will let you decide if it is worth a chat. I have some friends down that way from my old days of living in the Tx. heat, been all over down there working with them in old days, here is what they sent me , they said that Black Bush and GASFRAC HAVE BEEN ON THERE SITE AND A FEW OTHERS. They also brought up that Gasfrac had a no talk disclosure for two years on who they where working for besides Black Brush , the companies that Gasfrac has been working for and this is shop talk where Shell and Chevron, the TCRRF AND GSFVF HAVE BEEN BOUNCING AROUND PRICE WISE. I did some digging and TD WATERHOUSE PUT AN ARTICLE OUT ON GASFRAC get this the article was on December 20th 2013 about GASFRAC in the EAGLE FORD. Also on the SHALEFORUM.COM ON DECEMBER 4 2013 they put a GASFRAC article out also, could this old horse be coming back to life and for a kicker there has been some CLNE PICK UP trucks ON SOME OF THE SAME SIGHTS AND THE OLD MAN HAS PAID A VISIT THEY TOLD ME. Just thought I would let the cat out of the bag that is some pretty big fish having SHELL,CHEVRON and now Pickens all in the same subject. Like to see if you can dig some more out of that, I know my old buddies down there would not tell me that if it was not true, they are all old oil hands there self just thought you have some avenues to use to check this out let us know before Keith does that would be a good one. Thanks for all your work on shaking the teasers up,you can always renew me for a customer, I like a straight shooter and you and the Thinkolater are pretty much always on target.
Happy Trails

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John Harris
Member
John Harris
January 14, 2014 12:23 pm
Reply to  baygreen

I would love to see Gasfrac get resurrected because I still hold a full position of their stock that I had given up for dead and not even worth the sales commission to sell. Yeah I have a handful of other similar positions that I hold because they are worth too little to sell, holding on to them in the unending hope they too may rise from the dead. I used to bite at more of those wild teases of small and micro cap even penny stocks, many of which got reviewed here, but have become a bit more gun shy and more blue-chip oriented over the years. Still some like African Oil did ok.

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Roger Tumlin
Guest
Roger Tumlin
January 7, 2014 5:12 pm

Keith Kohl has been beating a dead dog for the last 4 years. He jumped on the shale phenom early, got lucky with some of his picks. I subscribed to Energy Investor, bought all their recos the first 3 months and promptly lost 20 to 25%. of every reco he published.
He also added my name to several other in house letters and I believe sold my email address to several other newsletter publishers.
WOW! 2.4 Million. (revenue of 3000 subscriptions x 800.00)
He continues to beat the same dead horses and they are all continuing to fall.
As Malcolm Forbes often said “We make our Money selling subscriptions, not selling advice.”

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R. Crotty
R. Crotty
January 7, 2014 5:44 pm
Reply to  Roger Tumlin

Very well said, Roger T. I too have lost 20% following Keith Kohl’s picks, one of them being Kodiak Oil & Gas, which has been getting spanked since Q3 earnings. Although Keith puts a lot of effort into fact gathering production estimates for his picks, he really has no substantive background as a stock professional. Plus the fact that he’s almost completely concentrated in Energy, not much diversification, which you need to protect your portfolio. I would stay away from Angel Pub completely. You’ll get much better results in the long-term by jumping onto something established and well-diversified, like True Wealth (Steve Sjuggerud). Good luck.

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J. MAC
Member
J. MAC
January 7, 2014 8:37 pm
Reply to  R. Crotty

I am a long time subscriber to Stansberry Research newsletters as well as subscribing to all of Angel publishing letters. Over the past 12 months I have done better with Angel Publishing picks. Kieth Kohls Oil Trader letter picks have treated me very well.

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James B.
James B.
January 11, 2014 6:51 pm
Reply to  Roger Tumlin
techscan
Irregular
techscan
January 7, 2014 6:39 pm

Looks like it has almost doubled since last summer in anticipation of sale of Gulf assets. What’s the possible upside?

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sphereya
January 7, 2014 9:41 pm

Question the preferred shares? What is the batting order for assets if they go under? I take it the common shares get nuked first and then…? Debt is a mystery to me.

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imthtchik
Member
imthtchik
January 8, 2014 8:54 am

I’m new to this. Is this a good investment?

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Ferruccio Fortini
Member
Ferruccio Fortini
January 8, 2014 10:34 am
Reply to  imthtchik

Qualified-dividend cumulative preferred stock like CPE-A can be a pretty good investment if you need income from a taxable account _and_ pick companies that won’t go bankrupt (it’s OK in a tax deferred account but there you may want to focus on non-qualified ones such as REITs’ preferred). Don’t buy over par, usually (they’re callable!), but at 47 on a par 50 CPE-A is OK on that score. Essentially no capital gains can be expected (unless you buy deeply distressed preferred and it recovers, then maybe a bit), nor any dividend raise. Bankruptcy risks, like for junk bonds, are the crux of the matter and one really needs to do one’s own due diligence on those (10-K’s &c)…

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tim z
Member
March 7, 2014 7:23 pm
Reply to  imthtchik

i have done well with cpe/pa up 7% in 3mo. going to sell at 10%

golfer1john
Guest
golfer1john
December 30, 2014 2:07 pm

Unless it’s GM

april39
January 10, 2014 12:11 pm

The Cline shale brought back Midland memories from 1960 when the talk was more about whether JFK was going to move the Pope into the White House than oil. After 3 yrs tracking missiles from Ft.Bliss/ White Sands I tried roughnecking for a couple months before deciding that being dragged between bed and church 3 times per weekend that neither the job nor girl were for me. Seeing Pioneer Resources [drilling] @ $8.01 and Callon in the range I bought a bit of each as well as some other players.

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Bigdaddyo
Guest
Bigdaddyo
January 14, 2014 3:57 pm

Who are the other players drilling in that area?

wisco
Guest
wisco
January 28, 2014 10:45 am
Reply to  Bigdaddyo

laredo petroleum has 141,000 acres in the Midland basin and is improving on their well results past year (higher IP, lower drilling completion time and cost)

JERRY DUTKA
Guest
JERRY DUTKA
March 4, 2014 9:40 pm

THANKS FOR ALL THE INSIGHT.

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Richard Milner
Guest
Richard Milner
March 9, 2014 7:18 pm

Thanks for all the info.

Richard Milner
Guest
Richard Milner
March 9, 2014 7:19 pm
Reply to  Richard Milner

Thanks for the info.

Frenchy
Frenchy
March 14, 2014 1:43 pm

Hi Cathy,
Have you heard anything else since your Jan 9 post? Thanks.

Cindy Workman
Member
Cindy Workman
March 27, 2014 2:23 pm

I really appreciate all info this site has . Being new to this, it is hard to know who to trust!

Pam
Irregular
April 2, 2014 12:56 pm

Thanks for all the info, especially from both sides. More info = better choice.

Dario
Member
Dario
April 18, 2014 11:58 pm

I am very new to this and don’t know who to listen to. I subscribed Motley Fool and Stanberry but nothing happen yet.

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J. Watson
Guest
April 22, 2014 5:33 pm

It is refreshing to run accross “Stock Gumshoe” thru Google since I am tired of joining reports and then being hit with multiple offers of bigger and better services for additional money. I think I will explore Callon and see how it looks. Someone is making a lot of money by writing the material in Mr. Kohl’s and multiple other marvelous junk touting great investment s. One thinks that the advice-givers should get home equity lines of credit on their beautiful homes and resist sharing their info with the world for a price. I think tha t selling their advice must be more certain of a good reward. Nevertheless I am happy for them. JW

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jim p
Guest
March 2, 2017 5:35 pm
Reply to  J. Watson

I agree that People like Kohl will hurt more suckers than they will help.
Their ideas are like buttholes everyone has one and they all stink.

TW Harris
Guest
TW Harris
May 4, 2014 4:49 am

Hey! as “Phil of Duck Dine-sty” means it, Mr. Gumshoe…… Also, I am “HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY, with your mind-set and service to/for all of us oil-stained investors whom are over-run by [cheap (?) for the investment advice/information (?)] news-letters that over flow our mail boxes…….. I sign up for most that I receive, get the free stuff that is sent oot, give them the time of 2/3 months of advice/info (good/bad [ ? ] ), and then cancel to get my $$$ back. My credit card carrier must really hate me and also hate even worse, making my monthly statement balance oot. Ha ha Ha But, enough of this drivel and to the reason of my first ever comment to/on a comment page…. One of the best oil co’s. being traded today, and for many yesterdays, is WLL. Whiting (white-ing) has been the “SELLER” of large amounts of SW Texas, and SE New Mexico, oil lease land (should give one reason enough to be wary of any/all [supposed to be] fast $ growing $ and cheap [stock] priced oil/gas driller/producer Co.) being hype-ed up by most/many Oil and Gas newsletters…. Take a few moments, I recommend a LOT of moments, to absorb this site, wwx.whiting.cox [ya-al know what goes in the x’s]… I, now retired, sold a business involved in the early days of Colo., Neb., Wyo., Utah, Mont., S. Dakota oil-sand and deep oil development. WLL has spent $’s developing new methods, and testing, of fracking long horizontal drill bores with great rewards. Ya-al give yerselves, and the Ol’ bank balance a reward, now. Ya-heer!!! Do be Well n’ of Good $pirit (;- )

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advantedges
July 25, 2014 12:56 pm

Wow. Travis, maybe you should start an English course on here! (Or at least a writing class). Let’s keep it brief, folks.
This discussion should be a pinned post to add to over time. The Energy Revolution is happening in the world — and we need to stay on top of it.
CPE is interesting, especially since some of the names mentioned here have since been bought out, (like KOG). Ironic the buyer was WLL, also mentioned
Let’s research some other names that could be acquired, like CRZO.
Just renewed my membership, Travis. Let’s take this to another level. Who needs these teaser writers — they are a distraction.

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SURESHOT TRADING LTD
SURESHOT TRADING LTD
August 10, 2014 3:35 pm

Take a look at Global Hemp Group (GBHPF) , The real thing in Hemp Ag with a huge harvest already sold for this Fall…..This is the BEST play in the Hemp sector from grower to the table !!!
My Hedge fund has a large position in the company and I never sell a share but add on dips !!!
Do your DD and you will see for yourself…..
Keep Up The Great Work My Friend

Allan Meadow

MediaMee
Guest
MediaMee
August 13, 2014 4:44 pm

Mr Sureshot, I looked at the graph for GBHPF and you can’t be serious about this tip… must be one of those sh**ty penny stocks you want to push higher by rumors and so… I will surely do my DD but not on this one – waste of time.

Rick Evans
Guest
Rick Evans
August 23, 2014 1:03 pm

This guy talks to much and his numbers are old.

dan yariv
Member
dan yariv
August 31, 2014 11:37 pm

Travis, hi!
I am a novice in stock place but not in reading between lines.
I appreciate greatly yr work and mind honesty, as well the brain investments.
Eep the good work/deeds and let the lamp lit

Dan

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BOSKO
Guest
BOSKO
September 22, 2014 10:02 am

Has anyone got any info on a small penny stock tradeing just over a dollar now. Virtus oil and gas. Ticker symbol is Voil. Their really talking this little baby up. Any feed back would be great.

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Ron
Guest
Ron
May 23, 2015 1:04 am
Reply to  BOSKO

I bought VOIL in October 2014 for $1.75 It is down to .46 cents.

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