Kinder Morgan stands out as oil stocks fall
Oil stocks tumbled on Friday after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision not to cut oil production despite indications of global oversupply.
Exxon Mobil fell 4.2 percent, Chevron fell 5.4 percent, BP dropped 5.5 percent, and Halliburton plunged 10.8%.
Amid the shakeup, analysts found a bright spot in energy producer Kinder Morgan, which fell just 2.3 percent, and at $41.35 a share, was near its 52-week high of $42.49.
Why?
Last week, Kinder Morgan completed its mega merger with its various midstreams Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinder Morgan Management and El Paso Pipeline Partners.
In the “new” Kinder Morgan, only 14 percent of earnings are from oil production. More than 50 percent comes from natural gas pipelines, and its pipelines are the main route for natural gas to Mexico, which is upgrading its power plants to use gas.
Further, the “new” Kinder Morgan is looking like a dividend powerhouse, expected to increase its dividend at a double-digit rate through 2020, from a current yield of about 5 percent.
$2 gas is in sight for parts of U.S.
For the first time in five years, $2 gasoline is making a comeback in parts of the U.S., just in time for Christmas.
Retail stations scattered across the South and Midwest are about 20 cents shy of $2 a gallon. In New York, gasoline futures slid more than 13 cents Friday in response to OPEC’s failure to cut oil production. That decline alone could drag down pump prices by as much as 20 cents a gallon, Michael Green, a spokesman for the Heathrow, Florida-based motoring club AAA, said by telephone.
The first place to reach $2 gasoline will probably be somewhere in the Southeast, where fuel taxes are low and stations have cheaper supplies flowing in from oil refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Magpul to pull out of Colorado in 2015
A company that produces ammunition magazines for guns is expected to shut down its operations in Colorado in the first quarter of next year.
The Denver Post reports about 100 employees at Erie-based Magpul Industries were notified in October that they would lose their jobs.
Magpul decided to move its production, distribution and shipping operations to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and its headquarters to Texas after Colorado enacted gun-control laws last year.
The company will vacate its 100,000-square-foot Erie facility but plans to keep a small Colorado office for regional support.
Electrolysis by Sonya opens locally
Sonya Marsell recently opened Electrolysis by Sonya at 16050 Colorado Highway 145. Marsell is available by appointment only by calling 560-4924.
For more information, visit electrolysisbysonya.com.
Marsell recently opened her business locally after running a successful electrolysis business in Fruita for two years. She moved back home to Cortez, she said.
Marsell was trained by Electrology Today, who has been in business for 20 years.
Cortez journal & Associated Press
