World Perspectives

Implications of Energy Costs for Renewables

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures hit $130.50/barrel Sunday night, while Brent crude reached a high of $139.13/barrel in overnight trading. Today, WTI opened today at $119/barrel. Brent crude opened at $122/barrel. The front-month Brent contract price first settled above $100/barrel on 28 February and last rose above $100/b in late 2014. The front-month WTI contract price closed above $110/b on 3 March after first settling above $100/b on 1 March. Oil has been volatile since reports that Russian forces further invaded Ukraine on Thursday, 24 February, but the bullish run caught fire last week as the discussions of sanctions heated up and the U.S. announced a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).  See...

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Summary of Futures

Sep 25 Corn closed at $4.0925/bushel, down $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.3825/bushel, down $0.025 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.27/bushel, up $0.0225 from yesterday's close.  Aug 25 Soymeal closed at $275.8/short ton, up $0.2...

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From WPI Consulting

Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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