This week, I take a look back at the sector winners and losers of the first quarter. Energy returned to the top of the leaderboard, while real estate turned in the only sector decline. Read More
It's hard to imagine anyone better suited to covering the energy-investment waterfront than Robert Rapier.
Robert is no armchair analyst—he has two decades of in-the-trenches experience in a wide range of fossil fuel and biofuel technologies, including refining, natural gas production, gas-to-liquids, ethanol production and butanol production.
During a six-year stretch at ConocoPhillips, Robert ran a team of engineers in Scotland working on oil and gas projects in the North Sea.
For two years, Robert was an efficiency expert in a Texas petrochemical plant. The process changes he implemented saved the facility $9 million a year. He later worked as the Engineering Director for a Dutch environmental-technology company and provided engineering support for a Chinese facility the company was constructing.
Robert was also a butanol engineer in Germany for the Celanese Corporation, where he designed a novel butanol unit that cut production costs by $5 million per year.
In all, Robert has spent more than a dozen years working on liquid fuels technologies. Along the way he's picked up five patents, including one for a breakthrough way to convert ethane into ethylene (U.S. Patent 7,074,977).
Now, in addition to guiding readers to timely investments in Utility Forecaster and Rapier's Income Accelerator, Robert travels the world evaluating startup energy companies for deep-pocketed investors. After grilling management and assessing the technology on-site, he makes a go/no-go investment decision. His wealthy private investors and hedge fund backers trust him to make the right choice for the same reason we do: his vast real-world experience in just about every facet of the energy industry. If Robert votes thumbs-up, millions of dollars flow into these cutting-edge outfits.
Robert earned his master of science in chemical engineering and a bachelor of science in chemistry and mathematics (double major) at Texas A&M University. He tells us he was "this close" to finishing his Ph.D. before he decided he was having a lot more fun making money in energy stocks.
A prolific writer, Robert's articles have appeared in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor -- and he has been a featured expert on 60 Minutes and The History Channel. His new book, Power Plays: Energy Options in the Age of Peak Oil (Apress, 2012), helps investors sort through doom and gloom, hype and misinformation to understand the true costs, benefits and trade-offs for each of our major energy options.
In what little spare time he has left, Robert consults for a number of energy projects, including biodiesel, ethanol, butanol and biomass gasification facilities.
Analyst Articles
Jobs growth is remarkably strong, pushing up bond yields. Will the robust economy cause the Fed to delay rate cuts and kill the stock rally? Read More
The crypto market is undergoing its first significant price pullback in over a year. Here is what to do next. Read More
The investment landscape has changed. In today's inflationary environment, what does the past teach us about where to invest? Read More
The safety scandals that are pummeling Boeing’s stock provide an instructive case study for investors. Here’s what we can learn. Read More
If the numbers for new car sales for March are lower than expected, that may present a profitable trading opportunity in the stock market. Read More
Could the next big trade in crypto be so obvious that everybody is missing it? Here's why Ethereum could be primed for liftoff. Read More
After a period of turbulence and uncertainty, marijuana equities are experiencing a resurgence this year. Here are the major reasons why. Read More
A super cycle is a multi-year rise in a wide range of raw material prices, stemming from structural economic change. Here's how to profit. Read More
We strongly recommend gold. However, another metal that's primed to make a big run is silver, which deserves a place in your portfolio. Read More