I hold about equal values of two stocks.
Duke Energy (USA) - Until recently, one of America's most admired companies. Duke got caught up in deregulation, merchant energy and power trading and invested heavily.
Then along came the recession, Enron and potential natural gas shortages. Will Duke Energy stay the course or try to go back to being a widows and orphans stock.
duke-energy.com
Mosenergo (Russia) - Provides electricity, and district heat for Moscow region. It's majority shareholder is RAO EES which is majority owned by the Russian Government. Russia needs to reform it's energy sector and is now beginning to install combined cycle power plants. This combined with improvements in insulation and new building automation systems promise to improve efficiency about 30%. This translates into increased energy exports, and economic improvement.
mosenergo.ru
The stakes:
The energy efficiency of America's power plants has improved little since the 60's. The USA imports more than 50% of the country's oil supply and increasing amounts of natural gas. Large scale LNG imports may be necessary in the years ahead. The effects of corporate intrigues in the Enron era and the lack of a US energy strategy are now becoming apparent. Waste of energy and resources is a big problem.
Russia is a energy exporter with large reserves
of oil and natural gas. Russia is hindered by lack of capital and corruption in the recent era.
They have ample technical resources and a low wage skilled workforce. The energy sector remains to a great extent, a central state controlled subsidised monopoly. |
