My, how the bulls are running through the oil patch, snorting and kicking up clouds of dust. The only thing that could slow them down is a heavy, lumbering Vibroseis truck in their path. "Prospects for E&P companies are uncommonly good right now," a micro-cap firm says in a press release. (I think he means financial prospects, not drilling prospects.) I received a call last week from a guy looking for investors for his multibillion-barrel prospect in Nevada. Another called about his new, patented seismic breakthrough. OPEC hiked its production quota, yet oil prices rose on Nymex. Looks like a market top to me-but is it? At press time, crude oil closed above $56 a barrel for the first time in Nymex's 22-year history. Yesterday, the Senate passed a resolution allowing new drilling in Alaska to be part of the federal deficit-reduction bill. Even if this passes, environmentalists will no doubt tie the matter up in the courts for years, just as drilling permits in the Rocky Mountains have been. Barring any problems, the first lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may not take place until 2007, so we have a long road ahead. Here is the long-term view, as reported from the recent Simmons & Co. International energy conference: "The singular insight emanating from this conference is a relatively simple, yet at the same time, stark message. The entire energy framework, ranging from OPEC and non-OPEC productive capacity, refining and drilling rig capacity on a worldwide basis, and human capital, is stretched to the limit. None of these capacity constraints are subject to a quick fix...we find ourselves in a new era of structurally higher oil prices which we believe will last for the foreseeable future." How much longer will investors flock to energy companies whose cash flows are up on commodity prices, if the companies' organic production keeps falling? How many more acquisitions for growth's sake can occur before there is no one left to buy that is worth anything, that is affordable, that has any decent proved undeveloped locations? With oil at $56 a barrel and natural gas at $6 or $7 per thousand cubic feet, the concept of what is affordable is changing daily at your local gas pump and in the board room. Few have time to contemplate the ramifications. Meanwhile, the industry continues to celebrate a number of significant firsts. At this writing, a tanker was carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the country's first new LNG station in more than 30 years. The facility is off the Louisiana coast and the owner, Excelerate LNG, is composed of a group of El Paso personnel who bought this offshore regasification business plan from their employer, which had to sell as part of its financial reprofiling. The LNG will be regasified on the ship, not on land. In the following week, Cheniere LNG Inc. planned to host a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new LNG regasification and storage facility at Sabine Pass on the Texas-Louisiana border. First deliveries are expected in 2007. The firm also has a 30% interest in Freeport LNG Development, which broke ground earlier on its new facility. And it is working through the final permit stage on two other LNG terminals, one in Corpus Christi, Texas, the other in Louisiana. I am extremely pleased to announce that Oil and Gas Investor has made news too. We have been awarded a 2005 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for Editorial Excellence by American Business Media, the national trade group for business-to-business publishing. The June 2004 issue of Oil and Gas Investor won in the Best Regular Issue of a Magazine category. In announcing the award before a group of 500 journalists in New York last month, the judges cited this magazine's "diversity of stories, handsome layouts and magisterial photography." The judging panel was composed of eight prominent reporters, editors and magazine professors at leading university journalism programs. It was headed by Marshall Loeb, columnist for Marketwatch.com and former managing editor of Fortune and Money magazines, and business editor of Time. The magazine's staff is proud of this award, and always aims to improve our service to you. One new product is the redesign of our 13-year-old Petroleum Finance Week newsletter, which has been renamed Oil and Gas Investor This Week and is now offered in an online format that means we offer real-time data and anytime access to historical information. It's a handy digest full of E&P start-up news, M&A and financing deals, new capital providers of all types, and more. Call us for a sample issue (1-800-874-2544 Ext. 107). It will add news value to your week.