Last week I discussed what EROEI is-and how to use it.

This week I'd like to talk about how this key metric affects the balance of your energy investment portfolio.

Now, this is certainly not the only element in determining preferable stock moves, but it's critical that you know the EROEI because it could make you a lot of money.

Recognizing the real elements that determine the genuine cost of energy production, EROEI is becoming an important factor in estimating profit margins.

And those margins certainly influence the performance of a stock as we've seen all across the energy value chain in recent months.

EROEI refers to the amount of energy used to produce energy.

If this ratio produces a figure of 1.0, EROEI is telling us that it takes one barrel of oil equivalent to produce one barrel as a result.

Anything under 1.0 means that more energy is consumed in the production process than is gained as an end product.

EROEI has the advantage of being a useful yardstick throughout the energy curve - from upstream production sites (wellheads, generating facilities) through midstream (gathering, transit, storage and initial processing) to downstream (refineries, terminals, wholesale and retail distribution, end use).

Some applications of EROEI are already in wide usage, although we don't tend to think about them in these terms. Energy-efficiency ratings on appliances, heating and cooling systems, windows, or building supplies are an application at the end of the energy curve.

But how can we use this to fine-tune an investment portfolio?

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