I'm doing my best ...

[dan_s]

It has been like trying to drink water coming out of a fire hose this week. 2nd quarter results are pouring in and so are e-mails from our members wanting to know what I think.

It takes me 2-3 hours to do a reasonably good job of updating my forecast models for each company. My primary focus is on the Sweet 16 companies. I will get all of them updated this weekend and I hope to post a "Sweet 16 Update" this weekend.

Profiles on all of the Sweet 16 have been assigned to our Interns. We have already published new profiles on RRC and SM. Baytex is sitting here for me to review. We now have six MBA Student Interns (five from SMU and one from Texas Tech). This may be the best group of interns we have ever had. They are super smart and they all do a very professional job. It is a blessing for me to get to work with young professionals like this. It also gives me a lot of hope for America's future.

So far, all of the 2nd quarter results for our model portfolio companies have been very good. Unless you think oil and gas prices are going to stay this low FOREVER, these stocks are grossly oversold. All of the companies have done a great job getting well costs down. It looks like $65-$70 is the "New $100" for oil.

I am also seeing more data that confirms my belief that demand for refined products is going up fast. The government reporting agencies are way behind the curve on this. By the 4th quarter they may actually stop using the word "glut" in every other paragraph.

We are posting a lot of new stuff to the website, so check it daily.

FLASH: I just confirmed that Sean Morgan, one of the co-founders of NavPort (www.navport.com) will open the presentation at our next EPG luncheons at The Hess Club on Friday, August 14. His topic will be "The Impact of Giant Fracs on Production by Basin". In addition to being a super sharp guy, Sean is a great speaker. If you own any upstream company or one of the sand companies, you definitely want to hear what Sean has to say.

[mkarpoff]

Is there any reason you don't seem to cover refiners? They seem to be doing well in this environment.

[dan_s]

My entire career has been spend in the upstream part of the oil & gas business.

Refiners are doing well when raw material prices are low and their margins are high. You don't need me to tell you that.