Top Gas Stocks To Own For 2014

Even as the crisis in Ukraine hits a lull with the election of Petro Poroshenko, a pro-Western politician who may declare martial law in the country�� eastern provinces to restore stability, Europeans clearly aren�� ready to declare more than an uneasy truce with Moscow. The rhetoric has cooled and the Russian military appears to be pulling back from the Ukrainian border, but the European Union (EU) and its allies haven�� begun rescinding sanctions. In fact, they seem to be stepping them up.

Europe has long depended on Russia for its energy needs; nearly a third of the EU�� natural gas comes from Russia. Half of that is piped in through Ukraine, and since 2009 the EU has been working to diversify those distribution channels. The goal was originally to find ways around Ukraine to avoid its occasional flow-disrupting spates with Russia. To that end, in late 2012 building the South Stream pipeline began.

Top 5 Integrated Utility Stocks For 2015: Constellation Energy Partners LLC (CEP)

Constellation Energy Partners LLC (CEP) is engaged on the acquisition, development and production of onshore oils and natural gas properties in the United States. All of the Company's proved reserves are located in the Black Warrior Basin in Alabama, the Cherokee Basin in Kansas and Oklahoma, the Woodford Shale in the Arkoma Basin in Oklahoma and the Central Kansas Uplift in Kansas and Nebraska. The Company operates its oil and natural gases properties as one business segment: the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's total estimated proved reserves were approximately 201.3 billions of cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe), approximately 76% of which were classified as proved developed, and 97% of which are natural gas and 3% of which are oil. As of December 31, 2011, the Company was the operator of approximately 88% of the 2,785 net wells in which the Company owned an interest. In March 2013, it announced sale of its Robinson's Bend Field assets, located in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.

Black Warrior Basin

The Black Warrior Basin is a coalbed methane basins in the country. The multi-seam vertical wells in the basin range from 500 to 3,700 feet deep, with coal seams averaging a total of 25 to 30 feet of net pay per well. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned a 100% working interest (an approximate 75% average net revenue interest) in its wells in the Black Warrior Basin, where the Company had 507 producing natural gas wells. The Black Warrior Basin is located in western Tuscaloosa County and Pickens County, Alabama, and encompasses a surface area of approximately 109 square miles. The field has been developed on 80-acre spacing. As of December 31, 2011, the Company was developing its properties in the field on both 40- and 80-acre spacing. The field has seven compressor stations with 800-1,200 horsepower compressors, approximately 170 miles of gas gathering lines (wells to header) and approximately 25 miles of trans! portation lines (header to compressor). In addition, there are approximately 152 miles of water gathering pipes and 28 miles of water transportation pipes. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's estimated proved reserves in the Black Warrior Basin were approximately 84.9 billions of cubic feet equivalent, approximately 88% of which were classified as proved developed, and all of which are natural gas.

Cherokee Basin

The Cherokee Basin is located in the Mid-Continent region in southern Kansas, northern Oklahoma, and western Missouri. It covers approximately 26,500 square miles. The production is natural gas produced from coals and shales. There are multiple producing coal zones in the Cherokee Basin, including the Rowe, Riverton, Weir-Pitt, and Dawson zones. In addition, there are other productive shale zones, as well as conventional sandstone and limestone potential, which can add natural gas and oil production. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned approximately 2,261 net producing wells in the Cherokee Basin. The Company operates in excess of 20 booster compressors and stations to gets its natural gas to sales points owned by ONEOK Gas Transportation, L.L.C., Scissortail Energy, LLC, Enogex Gas Gathering & Processing, LLC, Enogex Inc., and Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, Inc. The Company operates a substantial portion of its production in the Cherokee Basin. The Company also own a 50% working interest in wells operated by Bullseye Operating, L.L.C. (Bullseye) and a 50% interest in Bullseye itself. Bullseye operates approximately 500 gross wells in Washington and Nowata Counties in Oklahoma and sells its production through the Cotton Valley producers cooperative, Cotton Valley Compression, L.L.C. The Company's gross working interest in its Cherokee Basin properties is approximately 80%, with its average gross working interest in its operated properties being approximately 100% and its average gross working interest in its non-operated Cherokee Basin properties being a! pproximat! ely 50%. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's estimated proved reserves in the Cherokee Basin were approximately 110.7 billions of cubic feet equivalent, approximately 66% of which were classified as proved developed, and 95% of which were natural gas and 5% of which were oil.

Woodford Shale

The Woodford Shale is located in the Arkoma Basin in southern Oklahoma. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned 82 well bores, or approximately 9 net producing wells, located in Coal and Hughes counties. This area is gas-rich and is characterized by multiple productive zones. The production of natural gas in the Woodford Shale comes from shale rock that has been stimulated through fracturing jobs after a horizontal well has been drilled. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's 82 wells had an average gross working interest of 11.3% and an average net revenue interest of 9.1%. Approximately 90% of the wells are operated by affiliates of Devon Energy Corporation (Devon) and Newfield Exploration Mid-Continent, Inc. (Newfield), with the remaining wells operated by three additional companies. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's estimated proved reserves in the Woodford Shale were approximately 5.2 billions of cubic feet equivalent.

Central Kansas Uplift

The Central Kansas Uplift is an oil prone region located in Kansas and southern Nebraska. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had a gross acreage position of 4,345 acres, or approximately 1,050 net acres and the Company owned 39 gross wells, or approximately 8 net producing wells. Murfin Drilling Company, Inc., an oil producer in Kansas, operates all of the Company's wells in this region. During the year ended December 31, 2011, the average gross working interest in the wells is approximately 21% and the average net revenue interest is approximately 17%. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's proved reserves in the Central Kansas Uplift were approximately 0.5 billions of cubic feet equivalent, approximately 88%! of which! were classified as proved developed and all of which were oil.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  The bulk of these awards came in the form of a single multiple-award, task-order contract to be shared among several energy companies:

  Constellation Energy Partners LLC's (NYSEMKT: CEP  ) Constellation NewEnergy subsidiary Privately held ECC Renewables LLC Enel Green Power North America, a subsidiary of Italy's Enel SpA LTC Federal LLC Siemens' (NYSE: SI  ) Government Technologies unit

  These five firms are now authorized to bid for individual task orders under an umbrella contract for the procurement of renewable and alternative energy from facilities that are designed, financed, constructed, operated and maintained by private companies on private land under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense. The ceiling value on this contract is $7 billion, thus accounting for 84% of the value of all Pentagon contracts awarded yesterday.

Top Gas Stocks To Own For 2014: Markwest Energy Partners LP (MWE)

MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. (MarkWest Energy) is a master limited partnership engaged in the gathering, processing and transportation of natural gas; the transportation, fractionation, storage and marketing of natural gas liquids (NGLs), and the gathering and transportation of crude oil. It provides services in the midstream sector of the natural gas industry. The Company also provides processing and fractionation services to crude oil refineries in the Corpus Christi, Texas area through its Javelina gas processing and fractionation facility. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated in four segments: Southwest, Northeast, Liberty and Gulf Coast. Effective December 31, 2011, the Company acquired the remaining 49% interest in MarkWest Liberty Midstream. On February 1, 2011, the Company acquired Langley processing plant.

Southwest Segment

The Company owns a system in East Texas that consists of natural gas gathering pipelines, centralized compressor stations, a natural gas processing facility and an NGL pipeline. The East Texas system is located in Panola, Harrison and Rusk Counties and services the Carthage Field. Producing formations in Panola County consist of the Cotton Valley, Pettit, Travis Peak and Haynesville formations. During the year ended December 31, 2011, approximately 77% of its natural gas volumes in the East Texas System result from contracts with six producers. The Company sells substantially all of the purchased and retained NGLs produced at its East Texas processing facility to Targa Resources Partners, L.P. (Targa) under a long-term contract. Such sales represent approximately 19.4% of its consolidated revenue in 2011.

The Company owns a natural gas gathering system in the Woodford Shale play in the Arkoma Basin of southeast Oklahoma. The liquids-rich natural gas gathered in the Woodford system is processed through Centrahoma Processing LLC (Centrahoma), its equity investment, or other third-party processors. In addition, it owns the Foss Lake! natural gas gathering system and the Western Oklahoma natural gas processing complex, all located in Roger Mills, Beckham, Custer and Ellis Counties of western Oklahoma. The gathering portion consists of a pipeline system that is connected to natural gas wells and associated compression facilities. The Company also owns a gathering system in the Granite Wash formation in Wheeler County in the Texas panhandle that is connected to its Western Oklahoma processing complex. The Company completed the expansion of the Western Oklahoma natural gas processing plant in October 2011.

Approximately 70% of its Oklahoma volumes result from contracts with three producers in 2011. The Company sells substantially all of the NGLs produced in the Western Oklahoma processing complex to ONEOK Hydrocarbon L.P. (ONEOK) under a long-term contract. Such sales represent approximately 13.2% of its consolidated revenue in 2011. The Company owns a number of natural gas gathering systems located in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico, including the Appleby gathering system in Nacogdoches County, Texas. It gathers a portion of the gas produced from fields adjacent to its gathering systems, including from wells targeting the Haynesville Shale. In addition, it owns four lateral pipelines in Texas and New Mexico.

Northeast Segment

The Company�� Northeast segment assets include the Kenova, Boldman, Cobb, Kermit and Langley natural gas processing plants, an NGL pipeline and the Siloam NGL fractionation plant. In addition, it has two caverns for storing propane at its Siloam facility and additional propane storage capacity under a long-term firm-capacity agreement with a third party. The Northeast segment operations include fractionation and marketing services on behalf of the Liberty segment. The Company owns and operates a crude oil pipeline in Michigan (Michigan Crude Pipeline) providing transportation service for three shippers.

Liberty Segment

The Company pr! ovides na! tural gas midstream services in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia through MarkWest Liberty Midstream. It is a processor of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, with gathering, processing, fractionation, storage and marketing operations.

Utica Segment

Effective January 1, 2012, the Company and The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG) formed MarkWest Utica EMG, a joint venture focused on the development of natural gas processing and NGL fractionation, transportation and marketing infrastructure to serve producers' drilling programs in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio. During 2011, the Utica Segment did not have any operations.

Gulf Coast Segment

The Company owns and operates the Javelina processing facility, a natural gas processing facility in Corpus Christi, Texas that treats and processes off-gas from six local refineries operated by three different refinery customers. As of December 31, 2011, the Company owned a 40% interest in Centrahoma Processing LLC (Centrahoma), a joint venture with Cardinal Midstream, LLC (Cardinal). Centrahoma owns certain processing plants in the Arkoma Basin and Cardinal operates an additional processing plant that is not owned by Centrahoma but is located adjacent to and operates in conjunction with the Centrahoma plants.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  MarkWest Energy� (NYSE: MWE  ) �has taken this as a challenge and will soon be the top infrastructure provider in the region. During the year it plans on bringing a 100,000 barrel per day fractionation facility on line with truck, rail, and pipeline access. This facility will also have access to fractionation facilities in the Marcellus Shale. This addition broadens a portfolio that already houses multiple facilities capable of refrigeration, cryogenic processing, and fractionation. As you can see from the following slide, the company has a number of projects under construction to meet the growing needs of producers in the region. �

• [By Callum Turcan]

  The Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline is being constructed by another�joint venture, but this time�between�Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and MarkWest Energy Partners (NYSE: MWE  ) . In order for NGL producers to want to use the new�pipeline, they need to know someone at the end of the line will be able to buy and process their product. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is nice enough to offer both the logistics and the processing capacity to allow America's energy boom to happen.�

Top Gas Stocks To Own For 2014: Essar Energy Plc (ESSR)

Essar Energy plc is a holding company. The Company is an energy company with assets across the power and oil and gas industries. The Company operates in the areas petroleum refining and marketing, exploration and production and power transmission and generation. The Refining and Marketing business in India comprises of the Vadinar refinery located on the west coast of India and a retail franchise network of around 1,400 fuel stations across India and the Refining, and Marketing business in the United Kingdom comprises of the Stanlow refinery located near Liverpool, north west England and on the south bank of Manchester ship canal. The Company�� exploration and production segment includes a portfolio of 15 blocks and fields in the various stages of exploration and production of oil and gas in India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam. In Power segment, the Company operates coal fired, captive fuel and gas based power plants in India and Canada together with a number of mining assets. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sarah Jones]

  Essar Energy Plc (ESSR) climbed 2.5 percent to 122 pence after reporting that revenue rose 24 percent to $27.3 billion in the 12 months through March. The company cited higher margins and volumes at its Vadinar refinery in India and its Stanlow refinery in the U.K.

Top Gas Stocks To Own For 2014: Cosan Ltd (CZZ)

Cosan Limited (Cosan), incorporated on April 30, 2007, is a holding company. The Company is engaged in the production of ethanol and sugar, the marketing and distribution of fuel and lubricants in Brazil, and logistics services in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Company imports, exports, produces and sells ethanol, sugar, sugarcane and other sugar by-products. It distributes and sells fuel and other fuel by-products. The Company produces and markets electricity, steam and other co-generation by-products. During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 (fiscal 2011), it operated 24 mills. On February 18, 2011, Cosan, through its subsidiary Cosan S.A. Acucar e Alcool acquired 100% of the voting corporate capital of Cosan Araraquara Acucar e Alcool Ltda., (Usina Zanin).

The Company operates in three in segments: sugar and ethanol (S&E), fuel distribution and lubricants (CCL) and sugar logistics (Rumo Logistica). The sugar and ethanol segment operates and produces a range of sugar products, including raw, organic, crystal and refined sugars and consumer products under the Da Barra and Uniao brands, which are sold to a range of customers in Brazil and abroad, as well as produces and sells hydrous, anhydrous and industrial ethanol, which are sold to the Brazilian market. The sugar and ethanol segment also includes energy co-generation activities and land development businesses. Its fuel distribution and lubricants segment includes the distribution and marketing of fuels, mainly through franchised network of service stations under the brand Esso throughout the national territory, and production, distribution and marketing of lubricants licensed from ExxonMobil International Holdings B.V.. Its sugar logistics segment provides logistics services for the transport, storage and port lifting of sugar.

Sugar and Ethanol segment

As of March 31, 2011 the Company leased 437,698 hectares, through 2,128 land lease contracts with an average term of five years. During fiscal 2011,! it harvested from owned or leased lands 27.4 million tons, of the sugarcane and purchased from third-party growers the 26.8 million tons of sugarcane. During fiscal 2011, its accumulated sugar extraction was 139.0 kilograms of total sugar recovered (TSR) per ton of sugarcane and its agricultural yield was 91.4 tons of sugarcane per hectare. It produces ethanol through a chemical process called yeasting. It produces and sells three types of ethanol: hydrous ethanol and anhydrous ethanol for fuel and industrial ethanol. It sells ethanol through gasoline distributors in Brazil mainly at the mill that sell it to retailers that then sell it at the pump to customers.

During fiscal year 2011, the Company sold 4.3 million tons of sugar. The Company produces a range of standard sugars, including raw sugar, crystal sugar and organic sugar, and refined sugars, including granulated refined white sugar, amorphous refined sugar, refined sucrose liquid sugar and refined inverted liquid sugar. Its Sao Francisco mill and the Da Barra mill produce refined sugar. It also sells industrial alcohol, which is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. It sells sugar to a range of customers in Brazil and in the international markets. Its customers in Brazil include retail supermarkets, foodservice distributors and food manufacturers, for which it sells refined and liquid sugar.

Fuel distribution and lubricants

The Company�� fuel distribution business is engaged in sourcing, storing, blending and distributing primarily gasoline, ethanol, diesel and fuel oil through its retail network of approximately 4,500 Esso and Shell-branded stations. During fiscal 2011, it sold approximately 1.03 billion liters of fuels, consisting of 96.0% diesel and 4.0% gasoline, ethanol and other fuels to its industrial and wholesale clients. During fiscal 2011, Cosan Combustiveise Lubrificantes S.A. (CCL) sold a total of 166.4 million liters of lubricants. Its lubricant operations consist of a wholly o! wned Lubr! icants Oil Blending Plant (LOBP), located in Rio de Janeiro, with annual production capacity of 1.4 million barrels of lubricants per year, including 48,000 barrels of grease per year.

Sugar Logistics

The Company owns and operates a sugar-loading terminal at the Port of Santos in the State of Sao Paulo through its subsidiary Rumo Logistica. It offers logistics solution to sugar producers located in the Center South of Brazil by transporting sugar from the mill by truck or rail to be loaded at its bulk sugar port terminal in Santos. It also offer sugar storage services.

The Company competes with Copersucar, Sudzucker AG, Petrobras, Ultrapar S.A., Shell Brasil Ltda. and AleSat Combustiveis S.A.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Partnership outlook
  I am still hoping that Codexis will be tapped by Raizen, a joint venture between Shell and sugar giant Cosan (NYSE: CZZ  ) , as its exclusive cellulase enzyme provider. Raizen has not been shy about its cellulosic ethanol ambitions -- planning a 10 million gallon per year facility -- but has yet to choose an enzyme technology. Investors should be careful not to assume that Codexis is a lock for the partnership (Raizen is the largest investor in Codexis), but with more than 580 million gallons of first-generation ethanol capacity the opportunity is enormous.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  ADM's renewable-fuel business grabs most of the attention from investors. The drought has also had a big impact in this segment as well, as ADM has had to idle ethanol production facilities because of low corn supplies following the drought. Moreover, with sugar-based ethanol competitors Bunge (NYSE: BG  ) and Cosan (NYSE: CZZ  ) already benefiting from pricing disparities between sugar and corn, prospects of potential tariffs on U.S. ethanol in Europe could give Brazilian sugar-based ethanol a competitive advantage, further hurting ADM.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Lesson learned
  The financial situation at Amyris is less than enviable. Whereas fellow industrial biotech company Solazyme has hit every major milestone and had no problem raising funds, Amyris has had to take the more dilutive route for shareholders. Still, large commercial partners Total (NYSE: TOT  ) and Cosan (NYSE: CZZ  ) haven't backed down in their support of the company. Total upped its investment in Amyris during several rough patches in the past year after incurring significant paper losses on the roughly 20% stake in the company. Total even has its own webpage for the partnership, which speaks to its long-term vision for Amyris' platform, especially in renewable diesel.

Top Gas Stocks To Own For 2014: WPX Energy Inc (WPX)

WPX Energy, Inc. (WPX Energy), incorporated on April 19, 2011, is an independent natural gas and oil exploration and production company engaged in the exploitation and development of long-life unconventional properties. The Company focuses on exploiting its natural gas reserve base and related NGLs in the Piceance Basin of the Rocky Mountain region, and on developing its positions in the Bakken Shale oil play in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale natural gas play in Pennsylvania. Its other areas of domestic operations include the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and the San Juan Basin in the southwestern United States. In addition, it owns a 69% controlling ownership interest in Apco Oil and Gas International, Inc. (Apco), which holds oil and gas concessions in Argentina and Colombia. As of December 31, 2010, it had proved reserves of 4,473 Bcfe, 59% of which were proved developed reserves. Average daily production as of March 31, 2011 was 1,251 MMcfe/d.

Bakken Shale

The Company acquired 89,420 net acres in the Williston Basin in North Dakota that is prospective for oil in the Bakken Shale. It acquired all of this acreage in December 2010 through the acquisition of Dakota-3 E&P Company LLC. As of December 31, 2010, it had three rigs operating on the Bakken Shale acreage. Since acquiring this acreage, the Company has drilled 10 operated wells on the Bakken Shale properties; nine Middle Bakken formation wells and one Three Forks formation well. Six of these wells have been completed and connected to sales with initial 30 day production rates ranging from 750 Boe/d to 1,100 Boe/d.

Marcellus Shale

The Company�� 99,301 net acres in the Marcellus Shale were acquired through two key transactions and additional leasing activities. In July 2010, the Company acquired 42,000 net acres in Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had five rigs operating in the Marcellus Shale.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Paul Ausick]

  After markets closed on Friday, Standard & Poors announced several changes in its indexes. The big news in the announcement was the addition of Keurig Green Mountain Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) to the S&P 500 Index effective after the close on March 21. Keurig replaces WPX Energy Inc. (NYSE: WPX). WPX will take Keurig�� place on the S&P MidCap 400 Index.

Top Gas Stocks To Own For 2014: Athabasca Oil Corp (ATHOF.PK)

Athabasca Oil Corporation, formerly Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., is focused on the exploration and development of unconventional oil resource plays in Alberta, Canada. The Company is organized into two divisions: thermal oil and light oil. Thermal oil includes the Company�� assets, liabilities and operating results for the exploration, development and production of bitumen from sand and carbonate rock formations located in the Athabasca region of Northern Alberta. Light oil includes the Company�� assets, liabilities and operating results for the exploration, development and production of unconventional oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids located in various regions in the province of Alberta. Athabasca has accumulated more than 1.5 million (net) acres of oil sands leases in the Athabasca area of northern Alberta. The Company�� oil sands projects are Hangingstone (100%), Dover West Sands (100%), Dover West Carbonates (100%), Dover (40%), Birch (100%) and Grosmont (50%). Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Dube]

  Athabasca's most notable producers:

  Suncor Energy (SU) (Part 1), see article here.Suncor Energy (Part 2), see article here.Athabasca Oil (ATHOF.PK), see article here.Canadian Natural Resources, see article here.Imperial Oil, see article here.Cenovus Energy (CVE), see article here.MEG Energy (MEGEF.PK), see article here.Devon Energy, see article here.Royal Dutch Shell, see article here.Ivanhoe Energy (IVAN), see article here.Nexen (CNOOC) (CEO), see article here.

  An analysis of the current operations of the company will be examined with the objective to provide the most complete information available to potential investors before deciding to seize the opportunity that the 54,132 square miles of the Carbonate Triangle has to offer. Let's start by introducing Athabasca, a famous and most prolific region in the Canadian oil sands as well as one of the largest reserve in the world.