Your Salsa Pub

Overseas property specialists Property Index sell a range of properties such as apartments and villas.

Though Property Index is actually a rather young syndicate, they were founded in March 2007, they have proven their mettle very quickly. On closer look, they’re a extraordinarily accessible syndicate focusing on guiding essentially anyone who is designing to sell, buy etc. real property across the globe. Their avowal is to offer you assistance to unearth bang-on what’s required swiftly and, obviously, in a trouble-free manner. Property is up for grabs no matter where currently, maybe the most exclusive area being property you can purchase in Spain. It’s easy as one-two-three to write up the wonderful properties on the market in Spain, the motivation for picking property here is the houses and apartments on the market and the sensational option of being able to live amongst such a active populace.

This is one of the most popular property markets currently, and with the scenic splendor and great weather that surrounds you night and day, how can you say no! Property in Spain is rich in history, this part of the world is and has always been home to various indigenous cultures. Just one generation ago you would find a mere dribble of Englishmen looking for properties in Spain. Ask any person who has moved to Spain and they’ll tell you the same. Quite a few people would will see it as a vogue and others will see it as a virtually a compulsion… Customers who will remove here may range from young urban professionals who are looking for a life perspective to older generations who intend to unwind and enjoy themselves.

Note, however, that you may have to deal with hindrances when buying properties abroad - you’ll find there are dozens of actions when budgeting, inspecting or actually purchasing. Even if one single minute step is missed that may engender huge hindrances as well as, even more importantly, a failed investment. As you’re sure to expect with this popular location, properties might be rather dear in this area and that’s basically because of the steep market pressure. In spite of this the client is definitely rather spoilt in a location full of vivacious site. Patently it’s got most everything patrons may feasibly hanker after, and lots more.

In a previous interview about coalbed methane (CBM), Sprott Asset Management CBM analyst Eric Nuttall told us he would remain, “quite excited about the prospects for companies with coal bed methane assets so long as natural gas prices remain above $6 per Mcf (thousand cubic feet). The economics would be very skinny under $6.” That’s because CBM exploration and development can get pricey. What if there was a drilling firm regularly bringing gas out of the ground for under $1.50/mcf? There is and they’ve proven it with more than 250 wells in Australia. They’ve moved into India, where they drilled another 30 to 50 wells and another 70 wells to come. Mitchell has taken acreage in southern Kansas, where the company just finished its first CBM well. And the company formed a joint venture with Pacific Asia China Energy (TSX: PCE) to bring its Dymaxion® technology to China later this year.

You don’t get to be Australia’s largest privately owned drilling company without timing your markets right. The Mitchell family’s great timing ability began in 1969, when company founder Peter Mitchell bought his first drilling rig at a repossession sale for $11,500. Parts of Queensland, Australia were in the grips of a drought. Mitchell put his rig to good use as he began drilling water wells for farmers in the surrounding rural counties. Just as the drought had ended, Mitchell caught the boom in coal. His growing company began drilling in the oil shale and coal fields around Moranbah, then a remote part of Queensland. They then caught the drilling boom in mineral resources through the 1980s. By then, the company was drilling oil, gas, uranium and coal reserves throughout Australia. In the 1990s, Mitchell Drilling got the first whiff of Coalbed Methane (CBM) exploration entering Australia. That is when the major U.S. oil companies, such as Amoco, Conoco and others, came to the country searching for new CBM fields.

But, the major U.S. oil companies abandoned CBM in Australia because they soon discovered Australia’s shallow coal fields were too expensive for their big oil rigs. “The economics just didn’t work,” Nathan Mitchell told StockInterview. “They needed high gas flow, but the fracing technique just didn’t give them what they needed.” Still they persisted and asked Mitchell Drilling to run his smaller water well rigs. “That was the start of it,” Mitchell recalled. “We made CBM work with the water well rigs from an economics point of view, but they still weren’t making enough gas.” Still, the economics of the smaller rig made it work to a degree.

Enter the politicians. “The Queensland government made a law that said five percent of all coal-fired power stations had to be run by gas,” explained Mitchell. “That spawned the industry and CBM really took off.” Mitchell continued with the vertical rigs, but it was the economics of the smaller rig that made CBM work.

GETTING BLOOD OUT OF A STONE

It was during the CBM boom when Mitchell developed the better mousetrap. Coal miners didn’t see the gas resource beneath their feet. “They just saw them as coal fields,” said Mitchell who knew there was “nuisance gas” there. “There was never even a thought there was enough gas there to make it viable.” With natural gas selling for $2/mcf in Australia, the economics didn’t make sense. Australian coal seams are found at shallower levels where greater pressures have to be created to liberate gas from the extended horizontal seams. The Australian one-two punch of shallow coal seams and low gas prices drove Mitchell to become innovative.

“We’d seen in the coal business the underground in-seam drilling of horizontal holes and degasification,” Mitchell explained. “But, there was usually a lot of water involved and no way to get the water out.” Because of the company’s decades of experience in drilling water wells, Mitchell combined the vertical well with the horizontal well. Mitchell described the process, “The vertical well became the conduit for the coal mine, the gas and the water, and gave us a huge surface area. Suddenly, in areas where there wasn’t a resource, we could produce something like a million or up to 2 million a day from these Dymaxion® wells.”

The technology was put to the test in central Queensland, Australia. An Australian newspaper reported in June 2004, “In an industry where tradition plays a strong role, innovative drillers Mitchell Drilling have chalked up the 100th example of their revolutionary Dymaxion surface to in-seam (SIS) methane gas drainage hole for gas producer CH4 Limited at their Moranbah gas project.” CH4’s website spoke highly of this gas project, “The Moranbah Gas Project will utilise innovative drilling and gas extraction techniques, allowing increased potential gas yields while leaving the coal resource undamaged.”

How does this impact the industry? “We see this as revolutionary,” Mitchell cheerily remarked. “It has changed the face of CBM. It works in areas where people didn’t think it would work.” For example, the Dymaxion® drilling works in high permeability with low gas. “We can get such high gas from low gas content reservoirs, where people didn’t previously think there were reservoirs.”

It has worked in Australia, where every penny counts. “Our price may cost around $1.25 or $1.10 (US$) per mcf so they are still making reasonable profits at around 50 percent.” How will it play outside of Australia? Mitchell shot back, “If you can imagine costs at $1.25 and you’re selling it for $6/mcf, that’s some pretty good bloody profits.” Drilling at reasonable profits for $2 gas, Mitchell said, “We are keen to take this technology around the world. Even if we were to double our costs, our clients would still be extremely happy.”

USING BOTH VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL WELLS

When discussing the Dymaxion® technology with an oil and gas man, his puzzled response was, “Did I hear you right? You are using both a vertical and horizontal wells to get the gas?” There are the skeptics. “Contractors from the larger oil and gas companies came over to have a look,” Mitchell said. “Some people thought we were sliding by or sort of skimming costs.” He explained the procedure, “We have to intercept (the vertical) because we actually line up every one of our lateral wells with a slotted liner, a perforated liner. It is stacked into the vertical well, by the arrangement we’ve developed, so we know we’ve intercepted it.”
Mitchell said the key is the ability to flush and know that the finds are coming out. “We can have a number of wells lined, going from one point to another,” he explained, “and we’ve got continuity of connection and flow between one well which is 1000 to 2000 meters away and the vertical well. We can flush between both.” He gave an example, “We can have three horizontals going into one vertical and two of the horizontals can be closed. Number one can be opened and flushed; then number two can be open, flushed and closed. So you have this over the 10 to 20 year life of the well.”

How does the SIS hole de-gas a greater area than a regular horizontal? “When we put two wells into a chevron pattern, you start to get absorption between the V at the start of the well,” Mitchell said, describing the Dymaxion process. “Once you get the wells done, in a V with each other, you start to get better flows, a bit more gas and greater increasing gas in a slow decline.”

Mitchell’s website does admit the old technologies may be suitable for deeper drilling, “In the case of very deep deposits, up to 3000 meters underground, a vertical well may be adequate to create sufficient water table pressure to liberate and bring to the surface large quantities of methane gas.” Because of the greater surface area draining the underground gas in the coal seams, the same website is quick to point out, “SIS drilling also provides valuable exploration data on seam rolls and faults, allowing greater certainty in mine planning and development.”

The SIS process begins by using modified, multipurpose mineral drill rigs with specially designed bottom hole assemblies. In the SIS technique, a hole is drilled at 60 to 90 degrees from the surface. It is then steered through a medium radius bend to horizontally enter the target coal seam. The 96 millimeter hole is steered in the seam toward a previously drilled vertical production well. A homing device is lowered down the vertical well to the target seam, which helps the horizontal hole intersect the production well. The vertical well dewaters the seam. Once the hydrostatic head has sufficiently been lowered, gas flows to the surface.

MITCHELL’S WORLDWIDE EXPANSION

Developing the Dymaxion® technology in the late 1990s, the first test took place in Australia in the year 2000. Now, going on nearly seven years later, the company has drilled more than 250 wells in Australia, another 30 to 50 wells in India with another 70 more to drill, and has moved on to both Kansas and China. Mitchell talked about Kansas, “We finished our first well, but we don’t really want to be a contractor in the United States. We don’t see a lot of benefit to handing over our technology, but we would be interested in doing some sort of equity deal or partnership with clients.” He believes that in the right areas, what Mitchell has got is “exceptionally good.”

So where did Mitchell first make an equity deal? “The two big powerhouses of the world for the future are going to be China and India,” he noted. “Both of them will have energy problems in the future. Mitchell’s first equity deal came about with Pacific Asia China Energy. “We just astounded them with what was happening in Australia,” Mitchell laughed, “to see this small compact rig drilling 2000 meter holes of a well and making it work at $2 gas.” He explained that although rigs were cheaper in China, the logistics, the costs of roads and access for trucks and pumps, gear and equipment, costs start to go up. “It like a U.S. aircraft carrier,” Mitchell compared with a drilling operation, “you have 40 planes on deck but it takes 70 people to run it.” Even in China, costs can go up when running these logistics. The deal with Pacific Asia China Energy involves reduced drilling costs and a 50/50 arrangement for income produced through the use of the Dymaxion® technology in China. The joint venture company has exclusive use to this technology in the world’s largest coal producing country, China.

How does Mitchell see business growing in China? “Exponentially,” he quickly replied. “In China, there is a push to degasify their mines. There are some several thousand large mines, many with over one hundred million tons in reserves, and a lot of mines are being shut down because of degasification problems.” In an earlier interview with the Tunaye Sai, president of Pacific Asia China Energy, he reported that every single coal company at a recent symposium approached both Mitchell and himself about the Dymaxion technology for China. Was that true? “Very much so,” Mitchell confirmed. “Mine safety is now at the forefront of China and international observation. They’re looking forward to international help and technology to come to China and fix these problems. They’re looking at it from they want to sell coal, but they also want to sell gas. It worked well in Queensland and will apply to in China. That’s why we see such a growth for Mitchell.”

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. Sign up for your free subscription to articles by James Finch by visiting http://www.stockinterview.com Additional information about Dymaxion can be found at http://www.mitchelldrilling.com/
Additional information about Pacific Asia China Energy can be found at http://www.pace-energy.com

When you are shopping for car insurance, one convenient way to look for the best deal is to get car insurance quotes on the internet. Most car insurance companies realize that savvy customers want to be able to click there way through a few quotes before they speak with an insurance service professional. Sometimes buying insurance can be intimidating and many people have had experiences where an insurance agent pressured them into getting a policy that was not right for them. By shopping for you insurance on the internet you can wait to speak to an agent until you are ready to buy, or you can cut them out of the deal completely.

One drawback to getting your car insurance quotes online is that you don’t have the benefit of discussing your coverage with an insurance professional. If something in your life has changed recently, for example, you bought a new car. You made need to change your car insurance coverage to compensate. If this is the case, shopping for your coverage online is going to give you very little insight into your needs. By talking to an insurance professional online or on the phone, you are able to get information and advice about the type of policy you really need.

Investing in the stock market is probably one of the riskiest ventures you can delve into with your money you really need to know how to trade stock.

It is also one of the most profitable undertakings you may make at the same time.

So it’s only normal that you may have reservations about actually trying your luck in the stock market.

The best thing to do is to get a stockbroker to handle your stocks initially. He will be able to give you professional and dependable stocks tips and advice.

It is also a good idea to find a friend or an acquaintance who already has some experience with how to trade stock . They will be able to give you stock tips and advice for free.

One of these pieces of advice is which is the worst stock to put your money in.

One of the worst stock moves you can make is with variable annuities using the premium of your insurance.

A variable annuity is an insurance contract that allows you to invest your premium in mutual fund-like investments.

This sounds good in paper, but if you look at it a little harder, you’ll find that they are bad investments in the long run for the following reason:

Tax cuts. Ordinary investments in stocks and mutual funds qualify for low capital gains treatments, thus smaller taxes. Your gains from investing your premium, on the other hand, get taxed as income as soon as you withdraw the money.

Early withdrawal penalties. Insurance plans are designed for retirement. Taking out money from your premium entails a certain amount of penalty from both the insurance company as well as the government. So if you withdraw your profits, you will be penalized.

Death benefit. If your stocks are down upon your death, your beneficiaries can get as much as the investments you put in. Unfortunately, if your stocks are up, they get taxed as a regular income.

Costs. Annuities with insurance features are actually more expensive than ordinary mutual funds. The more insurance features your annuity has, the more annual feels are heaped against it, which naturally eats up your profits.

There are other stock market investments that are not a good choice to put your money in.

There are specific times as well as when to not to make an investment. Times of natural calamity may drive prices of stocks down but there are no insurance these would recover to make a good profit, this is why it is so important for you really learn how to trade stock.

As always, it is best to diversify where and when you put your money in.

Article by Ray Mills,

webmaster of http://www.find-information-about.com A complete resource to help you understand how to trade stock.You’ll find answers to basic stock market questions,as well as up to date news and information.

I have a 2-car garage. There are nice shelves on one side and a good practical workbench with a vice on the other side. Plenty of room for 2 cars yet I have to be careful when I pull in so I won’t run over stuff stacked on each side. Sound familiar?

Kinda reminds me of the investment portfolio of many people. Full of junk. If I threw out almost all of that stuff I really wouldn’t miss it. For whatever crazy reason I still have a stock certificate of 100 shares for a copper mine in Cuba. You know how much that is worth. Fortunately, I don’t have any of those now defunct dot.com company shares.

Oh, I did own a lot of technology issues in 1999 and into 2000, but when they started down I put in my stop-loss orders and someone bought them from me. I sure hope he still doesn’t have them. Some have no value at all now and others are worth less than 10% of their high prices. I remember Priceline.com when it went to $104 and then took a nosedive to $2.00. I even made a nice profit in the mutual fund Janus 20 that took off from $40 and went to $93. Today it is $37. The Buy and Hold crowd have become the Buy and Prey people. Needless to say your broker did not call you to sell out with a profit. No, he said, “Don’t worry the market always comes back”. Maybe not in your lifetime.

I have not been very careful about keeping the junk out of my garage, but I have not collected many pretty stock certificates that have no value. Once each month I have taken about 15 minutes to see what is going on with my money. That is what is supposed to take care of me when I do not choose to work any more and I know Social Security is not going to be enough.

When that bull market was raging I made sure that I was not going to give back the profits I made. I placed following loss limits on each of my securities every month. You really should do it weekly, but I did not seem to have the time. A good friend of mine taught me to place what is called Good ‘Til Cancelled Stop-Loss Orders. The are also called GTC stop orders. This has been the difference in my having more money in my retirement account today. If I had not done this I would have less than half of what I have now. Don’t let that happen to you.

If you have a lot of worthless securities or those that are still going down I think you should give serious consideration to cleaning out that portfolio and putting those funds in a cash money market account until you can find something that will make you some money.

You can live with a messy garage, but you can’t live with no money in your retirement account. Clean out the weak ones now before they become worthless.

Al Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy
It!” has helped thousands of people make money
and keep their profits with his simple 2-step
method. Read the first chapter at
http://www.mutualfundmagic.com
and discover why he’s the man that Wall Street
does not want you to know.

Copyright 2005

al@mutualfundstrategy.com; 1-888-345-7870

“Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper. To trace the history of the most prominent of these delusions is the object of the present pages. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” –Charles MacKay, 1841

Have you heard about the speculative tulip bulb craze that gripped seventeenth-century Holland? The peak of the mania saw a single tulip bulb selling for the equivalent of $150,000 or it might have been $1,500,000, depending on which historian is doing the talking. This story is true, it really happened, and it could happen again.

In 1559 Conrad Gestner brought the first tulip bulbs from Constantinople to Holland and Germany, and people fell in love with them. In very short order tulip bulbs became a status symbol for the wealthy they were very beautiful and difficult to get.

Early buyers were people who truly prized the lovely flowers, but it wasn’t long before speculators got invovled and many buyers were merely in for the money. They created trading activity, and eventually tulip bulbs were placed onto the local market exchanges. By 1634, the demand to own tulips had spread from the wealthy class into the middle classes of Dutch society. Merchants and shopkeepers began to vie with one and another for single tulip bulbs.

How bad was it? It was so bad… it was so bad that at the height of the tulip bulb bubble in 1635, a single tulip bulb was sold for the following items:

• four tons of wheat
• eight tons of rye
• one bed
• four oxen
• eight pigs
• 12 sheep
• one suit of clothes
• two casks of wine
• four tons of beer
• two tons of butter
• 1,000 pounds of cheese
• one silver drinking cup.

The present day value of all these items comes to nearly $40,000! For a single tulip bulb we don’t even know the color of. Things became so bizarre that people were selling everything they owned - their homes, their livestock, everything - to buy single bulbs on the expectation that the bulbs would continue to grow in value.

By 1636, tulips were established on the Amsterdam stock exchange to accomodate the speculators and gamblers who had become the primary purchasers of tulip bulbs.

Tulip notaries and clerks were appointed to record transactions, and public laws and regulations were developed to control the craze. Late in 1636, a few tulip owners began to liquidate their holdings. At first prices began to weaken slowely, then more rapidly as confidence was destroyed. By then panic seized the market.

Within six weeks, tulip prices crashed by 90%. Defaults on contracts and liens on owners were widespread and the Dutch government refused to interfere. Instead, it simply advised tulip holders to agree among themselves on some plan to stabilize prices and restore public confidence. Eventually assembled deputies in Amsterdam declared null and void all contracts that were made at the height of the mania, these were the ones made prior to November 1636. Tulip contracts made after November 1636 were settled if buyers paid merely 10% of the prices to which they had earlier agreed.

Tulip prices continued to fall. Next, the provincial council in the Hague was asked to invent some measure to stabilize tulip prices and public credit. Tulip prices continued to fal. In Amsterdam, judges regarded tulip contracts as gambling activities and court rules held that gambling debts were not debts in the eyes of the law. No court in Holland would enforce payment. Tulip collectors, speculators, and gamblers who had tulips at the time of the collapse were left with ruinous losses.

Tulip prices soon plunged past the present equivalent of a dollar each. Is it possible for you to imagine buying an investment for $76,000, only to discover six weeks later that it was worth no more than one dollar? Commerce in Holland suffered a severe shock it did not recover from for many years.

Now I know you are thinking “What kind of fool would possibly get caught up in that?” I understand, we’re talking TULIPS here - not food, shelter, clothing, or firearms! TULIPS! What could cause people to lose such control of their senses?

I believe the answer is greed. Instead of building the value of their portfolios carefully and with understanding, they went for the quick buck. As long as it looked like the sky was the limit, nobody wanted to accept the fact that they were buying very expensive tulip bulbs.

Do you think people are too smart to fall for this kind of speculative risk today? Do you remember the Internet Craze of the late 90’s? Otherwise how about these great investment words: Beanie Baby.

Roger Sorensen

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