David Phillips has more than 25 years' experience on Wall Street, first as a financial consultant and then as an equity analyst for several investment banking firms. He sifts through SEC filings for his blog The 10Q Detective, looking for financial statement soft spots, such as depreciation policies, warranty...
The Company: Brigham Exploration Company, an exploration and production company with an operational focus in the Rocky Mountains, the Gulf Coast and the Anadarko Basin. The Filing: Form 8-K filed with the SEC on July 16, 2008. The Finding: Energy watchers buzzed over the announcement that...
The Company: Overseas Shipholding Group, one of the largest oil tanker companies in the world The Filing: Schedule 13D filed with the SEC on July 10 The Finding: Bermuda-based Frontline, the leading oil tanker in vessels capable of carrying between 120,000 and 320,000 in deadweight tons,...
The Company: Canadian Solar, a seller of solar-cell and photovoltaic-module products for residential and commercial applications, principally in Europe. The Filing: Form F-3 Registration Statement filed on July 14 with the SEC. The Finding: Canadian Solar said Monday that it shipped about 47 megawatts of solar...
The Company: Continental Resources, an independent oil and natural gas outfit principally focused on developing unconventional resources The Filing: Continental Resources press release dated July 9 The Finding: Continental reported that its second Bakken shale well in a promising area of North Dakota flowed at an...
The Company: Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon Mobil The Filing: Form 8-K filed on July 10. The Finding: In its interim update for the second quarter, Chevron Corporation reported that upstream exploration and production earnings would benefit from an increase in prices for...
The Company: Solarfun Power Holdings is a vertically integrated manufacturer of silicon ingots and photovoltaic PV modules located in Shanghai, China. The Filing: A registration statement filed with the SEC on June 27. The Finding: The prospectus, which allows for original security-holders of $175 million in...
The Company: Solarfun Power Holdings, a vertically integrated manufacturer of silicon ingots and photovoltaic modules in Shanghai. The Filing: A Form 6-K filed on June 30, 2008, with the SEC. The Finding: Reuters, AP, et al., report that GCL Silicon Technology Zhongneng will supply Solarfun with virgin...
The Company: Suncor Energy, the world's largest independent producer of oil and gas from tar sands. The Document: On June 26, the SEC announced an update on a proposal to modernize oil and gas company proven reserve reporting requirements. The Finding: Current rules limit disclosure to...
The Company: Chesapeake Energy, the third-largest natural gas provider in the United States. The Filing: Form 8-K filed on July 2, 2008 The Finding: Plains Exploration and Production is purchasing a 20 percent stake in Chesapeake Energy's emerging play, Haynesville Shale, for $1.65 billion. Despite its...
The Company: British Petroleum, Europe's second-largest oil company. The Document: 2007 Annual Report The Finding: A recent fight between Moscow and BP over expatriates at its Russian-affiliate is more than a minor dispute over extending foreigners' work visas. From Bolivia to Venezuela to Kazakhstan to Russia,...
The Company: China Sunergy, a specialized solar cell manufacturer based in Nanjing. The Filing: Form 6-K filed on June 25, 2008 The Finding: China Sunergy entered into a $400 million purchase agreement with Norwegian-based Renewable Energy, the world's largest producer of silicon wafers to the solar...
The Company: Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer. The Filing: 2007 Annual Report The Finding: Alexey Miller, chairman of Gazprom's management committee, told the Financial Times in a recent interview that OPEC doesn't have any real influence on the global oil market nowadays, and that...
The Company: BioFuel Energy, an ethanol producer The Filing: Form 8-K filed on June 26, 2008 The Finding: BioFuel Energy started commercial operations at its two 115 million gallons per year ethanol plants in Wood River, Neb., and Fairmont, Minn. Surging corn costs suggest that the...
The Company: Atwood Oceanics, a Houston-based global offshore drilling company. The Filing: Form 8-K filed with the SEC on June 25, 2008. The Finding: Atwood announced a new contract for its moored semisubmersible rig "Atwood Hunter," which can operate at water depths up to...
The Company: Synthesis Energy Systems, which builds and operates integrated coal-to-methanol gasification plants. The Filing: A Form 8-K filed with the SEC on June 23, 2008. The Finding: Synthesis Energy is using the proceeds from a $93 million equity offering...
The Company: Occidental Petroleum, the fourth largest U.S. oil and gas company by market cap. The Document: News Release, "Occidental Petroleum to Acquire Interest in Joslyn Oil Sands Project" -- June 23, 2008. The Finding: Occidental is acquiring 15 percent of the multibillion-dollar Joslyn oil sands...
New Generation Biofuels Holdings announced its inaugural biofuels sales contract with Dynegy, a wholesale power generation provider. Should the renewable fuels provider have waited before delivering its big news? As of last week, the company had not procured commodity feedstocks sufficient for production, according to a recent stock registration filed...
The Company: Clean Energy Fuels, the largest provider of compressed and liquefied natural gas for alternative-fuel vehicles in North America. The Filing: Form 8-K filed on June 20, 2008. The Finding: Phoenix's Public Transit Department declined to renew Clean Energy's contract to supply liquefied natural gas LNG,...
Generating electricity from wind power is now a reality, but poor financial performance remains as predictable as the Santa Ana winds at Broadwind Energy. Nonetheless, officers and directors at the maker of tower support structures and gearing systems for wind turbines profit from owned interests in outside ventures that transact...
The Company: Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, a leading distributor and producer of fuel-grade ethanol in the U.S. The Filing: A Form 8-K on June 13, 2008. The Finding: Aventine raised $97.1 million from the sale of student loan-based auction rate securities to various parties. The cash...
David Phillips has more than 25 years' experience on Wall Street, first as a financial consultant and then as an equity analyst for several investment banking firms. He sifts through SEC filings for his blog The 10Q Detective, looking for financial statement soft spots, such as depreciation policies, warranty...
