Is the rebound in natural gas prices likely to continue? Robert Rapier shares his outlook. 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
Many next-generation biofuel companies will fail, but the leaders in palm oil production could add pep to your portfolio for years to come. Read More
There are a couple of reasons I am extremely bullish on oil over the long-term. One is that despite much hype to the contrary, there is no scalable, economically viable replacement for oil on the horizon. Oil rose to prominence as the world’s dominant transportation fuel for three key reasons:… Read More
In the Golden State, rising prices at the pump are creating nuggets of opportunity for savvy investors. We explain why and recommend two refiners that stand to benefit. Read More
In this issue, we focus on three powerful trends in the energy patch and highlight the stocks that represent the best ways to play them. Read More
Rising prices at the pump in the Golden State are creating nuggets of opportunity for savvy investors. Read More
Rising prices at the pump in the Golden State are creating nuggets of opportunity for savvy investors. Read More
This publication’s new chief investment strategist discusses his credentials, his investment philosophy and his outlook for the energy sector. Read More