Four months later, Buffett once again stepped in to increase his holdings in Western oil.
According to documents disclosed on the website of the US Securities Regulatory Commission, from June 6th to 7th, Berkshire increased its holdings of Western Petroleum common stocks for two consecutive days, totaling 2.5655 million shares, at a cost of approximately $153 million.
As of now, Berkshire holds 250.58 million shares of this energy producer, with a stock market value of approximately $14.9 billion based on Western Oil's latest stock price of $59.48 per share.
Buffett's last increase in holdings was in early February of this year. At that time, according to documents disclosed on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Buffett's Berkshire purchased a total of 4.3 million shares of Western Oil stocks from February 1st to 5th, at a cost of approximately $245.9 million, with an average purchase price of $57.18 per share.
Buffett's investment in Western Oil began in 2019. Starting from the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire made three consecutive quarters of large purchases of Western Oil stocks, increasing its stake in Western Oil to 20.9% and becoming the single largest shareholder of Western Oil. In August 2022, Berkshire obtained permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to purchase up to 50% of Western Oil's shares. Subsequently, Buffett continued to increase his holdings along the way. Buffett revealed in May last year that he is not seeking a comprehensive acquisition of the company, but Berkshire may indeed purchase more shares of Western Oil, which the company typically tends to buy at a price below $60 per share.
It is worth noting that Buffett's latest holdings have also been exposed recently. On May 15th local time, Berkshire submitted a 13F file to the US Securities and Exchange Commission website, which showed that the company sold 116 million shares of Apple in the first quarter. As of March 31, Berkshire holds 789 million shares of Apple, currently worth approximately $155 billion, accounting for approximately 40% of Berkshire's stock portfolio.
As of the end of the first quarter, Berkshire's top ten major holdings were Apple, Bank of America, American Express, Coca Cola, Chevron, Western Oil, Kraft Heinz, Moody's, Anda Insurance, and Davita Healthcare.
At the 2024 annual shareholder meeting, Buffett stated that he will continue to hold long-term investments in Apple, Coca Cola, and American Express, which have been very successful in the past. Despite a recent decline in sales, Apple is highly likely to remain Berkshire's largest holding company. At the same time, he also hinted that selling Apple was driven by a desire to avoid much higher tax rates in the future, rather than judging its long-term prospects.
Recently, the news of BHE Renewable Energy Company (a subsidiary of BHE) partnering with Western Petroleum to expand into lithium resources has also attracted market attention.
On the 4th Eastern Time, Western Oil Company, which Buffett holds heavily, announced the establishment of a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE), a subsidiary of Buffett, to deploy TerraLithium's direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology and related technologies for extracting and commercializing high-purity lithium compounds from geothermal brine.
BHE Renewables stated in a press release that TerraLithium is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Oil Company and holds a patent for DLE technology, which has the potential to process any lithium containing brine into high-purity lithium.
BHE Renewable Energy operates 10 geothermal power plants in Empire Valley, California, which process 50000 gallons of lithium rich brine per minute and produce 345 megawatts of clean energy. The joint venture has launched a project at BHE's renewable energy empire valley geothermal facility to demonstrate the feasibility of using TerraLithium's DLE technology to produce lithium in an environmentally safe manner.
Alicia Knapp, President and CEO of BHE Renewable Energy, said, "We are delighted to collaborate with Western oil companies to seize this opportunity and make Imperial Valley a global leader in lithium production."
Richard Jackson, President of Land Resources and Carbon Management Operations at Western Oil Company in the United States, said, "By leveraging our expertise in managing and treating brine in our oil, gas, and chemical businesses, combined with BHE's deep knowledge of renewable energy in geothermal operations, we can advance a more sustainable lithium production approach. We look forward to collaborating with BHE Renewable Energy to demonstrate how DLE technology produces the key minerals needed by society to achieve net zero goals."
As early as a few years ago, Buffett began to pay attention to the potential of geothermal lithium extraction. The geothermal power plants operated by BHE Renewable Energy Company not only provide a large amount of clean energy for the local area, but more importantly, the geothermal brine processed by these power plants is rich in lithium. In 2019, BHE Renewable Energy Company began promoting geothermal lithium extraction projects; In 2020, the project received approval from the California Energy Commission. If the project validation is successful, commercial operation is planned to begin this year.
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