Based on this write up from Agora
Here's a midweek mind-bender: The all-American "fracking" revolution that's reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil is getting a boost from technology developed... in the Soviet Union.
For real. At the moment, the technology is in use only in a handful of fields in the Rocky Mountain West. It's nowhere near mainstream awareness yet -- hence the opportunity for early investors to make a small fortune. Or even a big one.
The opportunity stems from a fact you might not know unless you work in the oil business: Bacteria can be an oilman's biggest enemy. If water is present -- and it often is -- bacterial blooms can follow. That can "gunk up" an oil well in no time.
The ideal fix is a "miracle water" called hypochlorous acid -- the same stuff your white blood cells produce to kill bacteria. It's easy to make using water, salt and electricity. But it's really hard to make in commercial quantities as a liquid; left to its own devices, the solution will break down and release gaseous chlorine.
Thus did an enterprising scientist in 1970s Soviet Russia develop a means to keep the solution stable and useful. Soon the Soviets were dumping the stuff down their oil wells to keep them humming.
Once the Cold War was over, the technology was licensed in the West. For a while, Monsanto took a stab at producing the "miracle water" commercially, but gave up when shareholders balked because the venture was too far afield from agriculture.
In time, the technology ended up in the hands of a very small company that, frankly, didn't know what to do with it. The previous management spent years trying to sell equipment that would enable buyers to produce their own "miracle water."
Now new management is onboard and has hit upon a far better idea: The company will produce the stuff itself and sell it to willing buyers -- a much higher-margin business. The firm can make a handsome profit selling hypochlorous acid for $5 a gallon. That price looks really good compared with the product currently used to remove bacteria from wells -- which costs as much as $35 a gallon.
Already, as we said, the "miracle water" is in use in a small patch of the Western U.S. This one region is home to 9,000 wells. If every one of them used this solution, they'd each use 400 gallons of the stuff every week. Multiply that by 50 production weeks per year and that's 180 million gallons each year, at $5 per gallon.
That's $900 million... for a company with a market cap today of only $19 million.
The story gets better... because as you might imagine, the applications go way beyond the oil field.
Hospitals can -- and will -- use this solution. For decades, they've used liquid ammonia to keep surfaces clean. Result? Many bacteria have developed a resistance to liquid ammonia. But the "miracle water" can kill those bacteria on contact. Workers don't even have to wipe off the surface; the stuff simply evaporates.
And get this: Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals must eat the cost if a patient becomes infected while under the hospital's care. So there's ample incentive for hospitals to put "miracle water" to work.
As we said, the company's under new management. The guy running the show has a track record. He grew his last company from a market cap of $80 million to $5 billion. That is, every dollar invested turned into $62.50.
Just one problem: As we said, the firm has a market cap of $19 million. It's not even a microcap; it's a nanocap. If only 500 readers of The 5 acted today to buy a mere $1,000 of shares each, that could spike the share price 2.6% within hours -- or much more if "momentum traders" saw the action and swooped in.