PrintDecember 19, 2008
The oil opportunity
It has been said that crisis leads to opportunity. This principle tends to hold true regardless of whether you believe Saul Alinsky's version, or hope for genuine solutions to problems that benefit us all. The incoming administration is touting infrastructure renewal as a viable stimulus to the economy. Jim Cramer from TheStreet.Com believes that the new President has a "no brainer" of an opportunity right out of the gate, but fears that his Green Ideology could squander this unique window that plunging oil prices have given America to bolster supply and reserves"
"Memo to Barack Obama: Start building oil facilities right now -- tankers, tanks, whatever. Fill up every preserve you can. This is the time to buy oil for America even if you don't like carbon footprints.
The new president is being given a once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure opportunity to build enough tankers and tanks to sop up the supply. That's what is needed more than anything. We can't drill for these prices economically anymore, and oil is obviously overflowing everywhere. Right now, we are out of storage in this country. That's one reason the price has fallen so precipitously -- there is nowhere to put it. I don't think there is a soul who believes that oil will be down here two years from now. We should be filling and creating a strategic petroleum reserve that is big enough that this will never happen again. NEVER. "
We have tons of infrastructure companies that could put people to work right now building storage facilities: Chicago Bridge & Iron (NYSE: CBI) (Cramer's Take), Jacobs Engineering (NYSE: JEC) (Cramer's Take), Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) (Cramer's Take), Shaw (NYSE: SGR) (Cramer's Take). They should all get work. We don't have enough ships to store oil in -- and that's not as economical as tanks -- but we have plenty of old, capped wells that could take a ton of product.
It makes so much sense.
It's the best plan of action for these low prices. And it will put thousands upon thousands of people to work.
Why not?
"But the prices aren't going to jump right back up, and the decline is breathtaking enough to bet that it is temporary. There just isn't that much new oil to be found. It's a buyer's market for certain. I hope Obama's not so intellectually and dogmatically driven to hate carbon enough to miss this chance. "
