5 Best Gas Stocks For 2014

Having to deal with paying both federal and state income taxes is bad enough. But when you're retired and living on a fixed income, having to pay taxes on your Social Security and pension benefits is almost an insult.

The vast majority of states give retirees a break when it comes to their taxes, exempting much or all of their Social Security and pension income. But according to figures from Wolters Kluwer and CCH as well as the Retirement Living Information Center, a small number of states give retirees much more limited tax breaks on their retirement income, generally taxing both Social Security and pension income. Let's look at six states that hit retirees hard at tax time.

6. North Dakota
North Dakota has generally low tax rates, ranging from 1.51% at the lowest bracket to a maximum of 3.99%. With relatively low sales tax rates of 5% and an average property tax liability of about $1,025 per person, North Dakota's taxation of retirement income adds only marginally to a reasonable tax burden for retirees. Retirees may also be eligible for a homestead credit against property taxes. Moreover, with energy companies Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR  ) , Kodiak Oil & Gas (NYSE: KOG  ) , and Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL  ) cashing in on Bakken riches, they'll be sending more tax revenue into state coffers, potentially allowing the government to give retirees further breaks in the future.

Hot New Stocks To Watch For 2015: Red Fork Energy Ltd (RDFEY)

Red Fork Energy Limited is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused in the midcontinent of the United States. The Company�� Big River project is exploiting the oil and liquids rich gas bearing Mississippi limestone formation (the Mississippi Play). The Company�� East Oklahoma project is located east of Tulsa in Oklahoma. The Company�� subsidiaries include Red Fork (USA) Investments, Inc. and EastOK Pipeline LLC. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Sally Jones] urrent RDFEY share price is 3.69, or 53.6% off the 52-week high of $7.95.

  Down 49% over 12 months, RDFEY has a market cap of $164.78 million, and trades at a P/B of 1.40.

  Red Fork Energy Limited is engaged in shale gas and oil exploration and production in USA. Red Fork Energy has a large landholding in Oklahoma with producing oil and gas fields, as well as highly prospective development acreage. The company has positioned itself in a premier on-shore, horizontal oil resource play, with a large and growing position in the Mississippi Lime oil and gas play.

  The company reported second quarter 2013 financial results with record sales of $6.985 million for the quarter, representing a 72.5%% increase from the previous quarter. The company had record gross production of 174.8 million barrels oil equivalents, a 33.4% increase from the previous quarter.

  Revenue and net income tracking:

5 Best Gas Stocks For 2014: Cosan Ltd (CZZ)

Cosan Limited (Cosan), incorporated on April 30, 2007, is a holding company. The Company is engaged in the production of ethanol and sugar, the marketing and distribution of fuel and lubricants in Brazil, and logistics services in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Company imports, exports, produces and sells ethanol, sugar, sugarcane and other sugar by-products. It distributes and sells fuel and other fuel by-products. The Company produces and markets electricity, steam and other co-generation by-products. During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 (fiscal 2011), it operated 24 mills. On February 18, 2011, Cosan, through its subsidiary Cosan S.A. Acucar e Alcool acquired 100% of the voting corporate capital of Cosan Araraquara Acucar e Alcool Ltda., (Usina Zanin).

The Company operates in three in segments: sugar and ethanol (S&E), fuel distribution and lubricants (CCL) and sugar logistics (Rumo Logistica). The sugar and ethanol segment operates and produces a range of sugar products, including raw, organic, crystal and refined sugars and consumer products under the Da Barra and Uniao brands, which are sold to a range of customers in Brazil and abroad, as well as produces and sells hydrous, anhydrous and industrial ethanol, which are sold to the Brazilian market. The sugar and ethanol segment also includes energy co-generation activities and land development businesses. Its fuel distribution and lubricants segment includes the distribution and marketing of fuels, mainly through franchised network of service stations under the brand Esso throughout the national territory, and production, distribution and marketing of lubricants licensed from ExxonMobil International Holdings B.V.. Its sugar logistics segment provides logistics services for the transport, storage and port lifting of sugar.

Sugar and Ethanol segment

As of March 31, 2011 the Company leased 437,698 hectares, through 2,128 land lease contracts with an average term of five years. During fiscal 2011,! it harvested from owned or leased lands 27.4 million tons, of the sugarcane and purchased from third-party growers the 26.8 million tons of sugarcane. During fiscal 2011, its accumulated sugar extraction was 139.0 kilograms of total sugar recovered (TSR) per ton of sugarcane and its agricultural yield was 91.4 tons of sugarcane per hectare. It produces ethanol through a chemical process called yeasting. It produces and sells three types of ethanol: hydrous ethanol and anhydrous ethanol for fuel and industrial ethanol. It sells ethanol through gasoline distributors in Brazil mainly at the mill that sell it to retailers that then sell it at the pump to customers.

During fiscal year 2011, the Company sold 4.3 million tons of sugar. The Company produces a range of standard sugars, including raw sugar, crystal sugar and organic sugar, and refined sugars, including granulated refined white sugar, amorphous refined sugar, refined sucrose liquid sugar and refined inverted liquid sugar. Its Sao Francisco mill and the Da Barra mill produce refined sugar. It also sells industrial alcohol, which is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. It sells sugar to a range of customers in Brazil and in the international markets. Its customers in Brazil include retail supermarkets, foodservice distributors and food manufacturers, for which it sells refined and liquid sugar.

Fuel distribution and lubricants

The Company�� fuel distribution business is engaged in sourcing, storing, blending and distributing primarily gasoline, ethanol, diesel and fuel oil through its retail network of approximately 4,500 Esso and Shell-branded stations. During fiscal 2011, it sold approximately 1.03 billion liters of fuels, consisting of 96.0% diesel and 4.0% gasoline, ethanol and other fuels to its industrial and wholesale clients. During fiscal 2011, Cosan Combustiveise Lubrificantes S.A. (CCL) sold a total of 166.4 million liters of lubricants. Its lubricant operations consist of a wholly o! wned Lubr! icants Oil Blending Plant (LOBP), located in Rio de Janeiro, with annual production capacity of 1.4 million barrels of lubricants per year, including 48,000 barrels of grease per year.

Sugar Logistics

The Company owns and operates a sugar-loading terminal at the Port of Santos in the State of Sao Paulo through its subsidiary Rumo Logistica. It offers logistics solution to sugar producers located in the Center South of Brazil by transporting sugar from the mill by truck or rail to be loaded at its bulk sugar port terminal in Santos. It also offer sugar storage services.

The Company competes with Copersucar, Sudzucker AG, Petrobras, Ultrapar S.A., Shell Brasil Ltda. and AleSat Combustiveis S.A.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  ADM's renewable-fuel business grabs most of the attention from investors. The drought has also had a big impact in this segment as well, as ADM has had to idle ethanol production facilities because of low corn supplies following the drought. Moreover, with sugar-based ethanol competitors Bunge (NYSE: BG  ) and Cosan (NYSE: CZZ  ) already benefiting from pricing disparities between sugar and corn, prospects of potential tariffs on U.S. ethanol in Europe could give Brazilian sugar-based ethanol a competitive advantage, further hurting ADM.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Partnership outlook
  I am still hoping that Codexis will be tapped by Raizen, a joint venture between Shell and sugar giant Cosan (NYSE: CZZ  ) , as its exclusive cellulase enzyme provider. Raizen has not been shy about its cellulosic ethanol ambitions -- planning a 10 million gallon per year facility -- but has yet to choose an enzyme technology. Investors should be careful not to assume that Codexis is a lock for the partnership (Raizen is the largest investor in Codexis), but with more than 580 million gallons of first-generation ethanol capacity the opportunity is enormous.

• [By Maxx Chatsko]

  Lesson learned
  The financial situation at Amyris is less than enviable. Whereas fellow industrial biotech company Solazyme has hit every major milestone and had no problem raising funds, Amyris has had to take the more dilutive route for shareholders. Still, large commercial partners Total (NYSE: TOT  ) and Cosan (NYSE: CZZ  ) haven't backed down in their support of the company. Total upped its investment in Amyris during several rough patches in the past year after incurring significant paper losses on the roughly 20% stake in the company. Total even has its own webpage for the partnership, which speaks to its long-term vision for Amyris' platform, especially in renewable diesel.

5 Best Gas Stocks For 2014: Groundstar Resources Ltd (GSA)

Groundstar Resources Limited (Groundstar) is a development-stage oil and gas company. The Company is engaged in exploration, development and production opportunities in international areas of interest. Through its subsidiaries, the Company�� primary operations are related to its interests in a production sharing contract in Kurdistan (Iraq), concession agreements in Egypt and a petroleum prospecting license in Guyana. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Damian Illia]

  The company�� revenues come from the fees charged for operating different domain names. Most domain names��fees are charged as per agreement terms with ICANN; however, fees received for operating the .gov registry are based on the terms of agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). As of September 2013, revenues of $125.9 million came from active domain names ending with .com and .net. Even though the company has presence all over the globe, the U.S. contributes 64.8% of revenues, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) contribute 15.5%, Australia, China, India and other Asia Pacific countries (APAC), 15.0%, and other countries such as Canada or Latin American countries, contribute 4.7%. Competition is increasing, especially with Latin script ccTLD registries and IDN ccTLD registries, as well as with other name service providers such as Neustar Inc. (NSR) or ARI Registry Services, and search engine providers such as Google Inc. (GOOG) Microsoft, Corp. (MSFT).

5 Best Gas Stocks For 2014: Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd (PBEGF.PK)

Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. (Petrobank) is engaged in the exploration and development of oil and natural gas in western Canada. The Company operates in two segments: the Heavy Oil Business Unit (HBU) and PetroBakken Energy Ltd. (PetroBakken). Its operations are conducted through its HBU, as well as its technology subsidiary, Archon Technologies Ltd. The HBU operates its heavy oil projects using Petrobank�� THAI heavy oil recovery process in the field. In addition, Petrobank owns 59% of its subsidiary, PetroBakken. Whitesands Insitu Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, owns heavy oil leases in Alberta and oil sands and heavy oil licenses and leases in Saskatchewan, and operates the Kerrobert Project. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Petrobank completed the Kerrobert Project, with all 10 expansion well pairs drilled. On February 28, 2012, Petrobank completed the sale of May River Property. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Dube]

  Peace River's most notable producers:

  PennWest Exploration (PWE), see article here.Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), see article here.Baytex (BTE), see article here.Strata Oil and Gas (SOIGF.PK), see article here.Petrobank Energy & Resources (PBEGF.PK), see article here.

  Cold Lake's most notable producers: