A Backstage Pass to RBN Energy – New Premium Services Launching Today

RBN Energy is branching out!  Today we are launching our new premium services package called Backstage Pass.  Just like it sounds, this new service gets you deep into the details of the data and models we put together at RBN, providing what we believe is a whole new level of information access, insights and connections across energy markets.  Don’t panic.  The blog is still free.  But if you are like the many RBN members that have asked for a much broader range of services, then you will be happy to learn that the answer is now ‘yes’.  We are rolling out the service with what we believe is the definitive study assessing the crude-by-rail phenomenon.  Learn everything you need to know about our new premium services in today’s blog.  But be warned, this is an unabashed commercial plug for our new service.  We hope you find it intriguing.

Background

About two years ago we founded RBN with a simple business model – post a high quality daily blog covering important developments in the energy markets and hope that brings in enough consulting business to balance out the P&L statement.  It worked out well.  We completed more than 30 consulting engagements in 2013, with most involving asset acquisitions, project development and strategic analysis. The good news is that our consulting revenues have provided the resources for our team to step it up a notch or two. That is what we are doing today.

We call our new premium access services RBN Backstage Pass.  The idea is that as a subscriber you are gaining access to the resources behind the curtain so to speak – of our blogs and consulting services, providing information, insights and connections across energy markets.   Granted that is marketing spin.  So what is it really?

What’s in Backstage Pass?

• First is exclusive access to a suite of studies that we are calling Drill-Down reports. Only subscribers can get copies of these reports.  They are like a complete series of our blogs rolled into an in-depth analysis of an important market development.  Our first one of these is titled I’ve Been Working on the Railroad: Crude-by-Rail and explores the revolutionary impact of Crude-by-Rail.  We cover 171 new or expanded rail terminals in a 70-page report that examines infrastructure, transportation costs, price differentials and many other issues involved in the build out of Crude-by-Rail facilities.  During 2014, RBN will publish twelve of these reports, one every four weeks or so.  There is a schedule of publication dates for these reports here.
• Second is Powerpoint decks.  In 2013 the RBN team made almost 50 presentations covering a wide range of energy topics.  About half of those presentations were public conferences or other meetings that permitted distribution of the PowerPoint presentation decks in PDF format.  An RBN Backstage Pass subscription will give you access to all of our public presentation decks within 24 hours of the presentation.
• Third is access to our Blog archive.  A Backstage Pass subscription gives you full access to our entire archive of about 500 blog articles covering everything from Crude-By-Rail, to Ethane Rejection to Marcellus Natural Gas Pipeline Constraints.  You can use our sort and filter feature to find a specific article or to get a list of blog articles for a particular theme or date range.  With the launch of this service, access to blogs older than 30 days will only be available to Backstage Pass subscribers.
• Fourth is our Spotcheck indicators. At RBN, it is our thesis that by tracking and modeling the relationships between crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids we can best anticipate major upcoming developments in these interdependent markets. Using our SpotCheck market indicator pages, you can now follow these relationships on a daily basis. A Backstage Pass subscription gives you the ability to access and manipulate SpotCheck graphics over a multi-year time span. 
• Fifth are our new RBN Fundamentals Webcasts.  During 2014 we have scheduled three Webcasts exclusively for our RBN Backstage Pass subscribers.  These webcasts cover the most important developments happening in the energy markets.  Our upcoming Spring RBN Webcast Edition (April 2014) will examine Marcellus/Utica natural gas take-away capacity, crude oil oversupply on the Gulf Coast and the outlook for LPG exports

And finally we are planning a few Backstage Pass Get-Togethers.  Houston will be the primary locale but we are considering some other ”tour” locations. These will be social gatherings, but knowing RBN folks there will be a lot of market talk going on. No definite time or place yet, but we will keep you posted.

How Much?

With all those services you may be wondering - How much are they going to charge for all that stuff?  The answer is $75/month.  Yup, seventy-five bucks.  We are not trying to make a zillion dollars doing this.  It’s mainly a way to make sure we have the resources to keep the quality of our work where we want it to be, and to offer services beyond a simple (and still free) daily blog.

Everything is in place for you to sign up today if you wish and download the Crude-by Rail report right now.  Just make sure you are logged on to the site, then go to the Subscriber tab and click through to the Check-out page to put it on your credit card.  Or… if you have more than 10 folks in your company that want to subscribe in a package deal, the instructions for how to do that are also at the bottom of our Purchase page.

One more thing, if you join the RBN Backstage Pass team between January 8th and January 31st, 2014,you get your second month for FREE (a $75 value!) and you will be officially enrolled as a Charter Member of Opening Act – The inaugural band of hearty energy marketeers, analysts and others generally interested in what makes energy markets work.  In keeping with such a special standing, you will receive the commemorative MUG shown below identifying you as one of this elite group.

Does this mean that RBN is going to Change?

Well, sort of.  We will continue to provide the best energy fundamentals analysis we can in our blog.  But now we will organize, package and present that information in a coherent study, not just in random webpages.  We will continue to speak at industry events.  But now you can get copies of our presentations directly from the RBN website.  And don’t forget about School of Energy.  We will continue to offer our School of Energy programs and in the future may be providing special Backstage Pass School of Energy programs.  Stay Tuned!