A private think tank with an all-but unlimited budget… A maverick genius with a history of world-rattling results… A secret Pentagon "skunk works" defense project…
And a fuel technology that could not only reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, but also reverse global warming.
Combine those four elements with corporate titan ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and you'd have the basis for the next James Bond movie, right? The fact is, those agents and agencies, as they say in the spook community, aren't doing anything secret. You can read about it on the front page of The New York Times or find the details in Exxon's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The maverick genius is Dr. J. Craig Venter, who decoded the human genome. And now he has switched his focus to another organism, one that's smaller and simpler than Homo sapiens, perhaps, but whose ramifications might prove just as far-reaching.
You see, what Dr. Venter and his team have done, at the behest and with the financial backing of Exxon, is to develop an algae — the stuff that grows lightning-fast in water — that can spit out a ton of oils called lipids.
If you've ever heard a lecture about cholesterol from your doctor, you've heard the term before. These oils can be refined into petroleum-like products that can be employed for all sorts of useful purposes, including running internal combustion engines.
In short, Exxon is working out a synthetic version of the geologic process that converted Mesozoic-era plant remains into crude oil, without the need to wait a million years or drill thousands of feet into the earth's crust to get it.
Think about what this could mean. This algae can be grown at sea. It can be grown in places where no other crops could survive. It is, in short, the golden ticket. And look who's doing it: The world's leading energy company and the most celebrated scientist of his time. Amazing what you can do with money, isn't it?
Exxon, it should be noted, was a longtime biofuel holdout. It panned the idea for years. So you can bet that it didn't arrive at this point lightly.
The company, confessing its reluctance, noted that it had previously considered every type of alternative biofuel technology out there. "We literally looked at every option we could think of, with several key parameters in mind. Scale was the first. For transportation fuels, if you can't see whether you can scale a technology up, then you have to question whether you need to be involved at all," a top Exxon official told The New York Times.
In other words, getting something to work in a computer simulation or in a beaker wasn't enough. Exxon needed something that could be replicated on a massive scale, not just barrel by barrel. It needed a technology it could ramp up to a refinery-sized operation. It needs to be able to fill tankers, not test tubes.
And it settled on algae.
The trouble with Exxon, of course, is that it's not a "fast-track" stock. It's too large to see the big returns I hunt for. Meanwhile, most (certainly not all) the small players in this industry are privately held.
Now, I don't cover private companies that often. After all, if you can't put your money in it, there doesn't seem to be much of a point. However, I expect some of the companies in this space — names like Energy Derived and Solazyme — to go public.
Action to Take –> In the meantime, we'll keep these companies in mind as we watch the financial news, because they may be the most valuable names we'll ever hear.
Note: As I said there are a handful of companies in this new field that are publicly traded. And I've added one to my Fast-Track Millionaire portfolio. But you have to invest smart — some trade just a few hundred shares a day and the shares can move sharply on small orders. I'd recommend using a limit order.
To learn more about the ground-breaking investment ideas I'm covering in each issue of Fast-Track Millionaire, you can read this memo.
–Andy Obermueller
This article originally appeared on StreetAuthority
Author: Andy Obermueller
Exxon Is Investing Millions in This New Technology
Do you agree or disagree that the oil companies are fiddling while America burns?
Exxon Mobil, BP and the other giants made $123 billion last year (combined) while the average working-class American struggles to pay $3.29 per gallon at the pump.
What could possess them to be so selfish to petition Congress for additional tax breaks?
Are oil executives fundamentally greedy people who really don’t care about the average working American?
Spare me the argument about how much they are required to invest in new technologies. $100 million in yearly investments is a drop in the bucket when you’re earning $40 billion a year in profits (as is the case with Exxon).
Fuel truckers (I’m in their corner) are paying over $4 per gallon for diesel fuel. These guys work their butts off and they’re barely scraping by.
By the way…Bush voters, we have you to thank for this.
The rectum is about eight inches long and serves, basically, as a warehouse for poop. It hooks up with the sigmoid colon to the north and with the anal canal to the south.
The rectum has little shelves in it called transverse folds. These folds help keep stool in place until you’re ready to go to the bathroom. When you’re ready, stool enters the lower rectum, moves into the anal canal, and then passes through the anus on its way out.
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Well, I read somewhere, the clintoon’s got an off-shore bank accounts in Dubai, Oil Sheikdom, uhndisclosed amts.??
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What part of the free market confuses you son?
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It’s like you people have no clue.
Ash, Thanks for the biology lesson.
Back to the question: Contrary to popular belief, oil companies don’t set the price for oil. Domestic oil companies can’t even manipulate production enough to effect price. OPEC is the only organization that can manipulate production enough to effect price. (Hence, them thumbing their noses at the US and told Bush "there is enough oil in the system".) The price of oil is set in the trading pits of New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong among others. If anyone is "fiddling while America burns" it is the SPECULATORS in the markets, and those on the left that are against using ethanol and other renewable sources.
BTW, My occupation requires me to burn 150 to 200 gallons of diesel fuel daily in the machine that I operate, that doesn’t count support vehicles. So I’m in the same boat as truckers.
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Just how are you blaming Bush for the cost of gasoline or the cost of oil ?
When the democratic Congress was elected in janurary 2007, just 15 months ago,
The average price of gasoline was $2.00 a gallon,
Just 12% higher than the $1.78 a gallon it cost in 2001.
But in the last 15 months, after the Democratic party took control of Congress,
Gasoline prices have increased 64% , from $2.00 to $3.29 a gallon.
You really think US oil companies, control the worldwide cost of oil ?
You think Bush is calling Chavez , down in Venezuela and saying " Hey Hugo old buddy, why don’t ya boost the price of oil another $2.00 a barrel this week "
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