On the other hand, in the US, new gas equals LNG. That means problems and makes gas a good investment in the US. My play there is Exelon, the biggest private nuclear utility in the world at about 20 000 MW. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Classic case is the Shtokman field, where although Statoil ostensibly lost out to Total, I think that their hard won technology and experience in inhospitable places is going to be their major winning card in years to come, backed by a Norwegian tradition of actually investing in engineers and engineering excellence.
That being so, Statoil's return on the capital they actually commit (Intellectual Capital, if you will)will wipe the floor with that of their competition.
So Statoil is IMHO structurally a buy:
(a) for the gas in the short and medium term;
(b) for its IP, if you see the future - as I do - as a disintermediated future.
As far as I know Petrochina is all about ownership and exploitation - they are the ones who will be paying the Statoils to do what they cannot. ie it's another gambling chip, IMHO, in a casino market with a pretty rigged wheel. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
