Is the U.S. Fracking Boom Based on Fraud?

In a 2016 interview with Fraud Magazine, former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow explained what he thought made him so successful while at the former energy corporation that’s now infamous for financial scandal. “I think my ability to do structured financing, to finance things off-balance sheet and to find ways to manipulate financial statements — there’s no nice way to […]

Welcome to a Truly Free Oil Market

At the point we’re now at, postponing the oil-price war won’t make a lot of difference for an industry that’s already breaking down under the weight of demand destruction. It’s too late to use diplomacy and artful negotiations to share the burden of output cuts that are now inevitable. The pumping free-for-all unleashed by Saudi Arabia and Russia is […]

US and Saudi Arabia Talk Oil Stabilization

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed Wednesday that he recently spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and they agreed all countries need to work together to stabilize energy markets.   Spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud regarding the #coronavirus and we agreed all countries need to […]

When Will the Oil War End?

How long can the vicious oil-price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia last? If history is any guide, the battle will be a long one. Riyadh has waged four price wars, including the current one, over the last 35 years. All of them lasted at least a year, and prices plunged at least 50%. This […]

Why Oil Prices Could Fall to $20 and Saudi Arabia Will Emerge on Top

Oil markets have been rocked by two simultaneous events. The novel coronavirus has knocked out millions of barrels worth of demand for oil, and a supply war between Saudi Arabia and Russia has added millions of barrels of supply. For the past week, most analysts have treated these developments as disconnected events. The supply war […]

OPEC and IEA warn developing countries could lose up to 85% of oil and gas income this year

Developing countries’ oil and gas income could fall to their lowest levels in more than two decades if current energy market conditions persist, the IEA and OPEC have warned in a rare joint statement. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol and OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo expressed “deep concerns” about the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, warning […]

Saudi Arabia Starts All-Out Oil War: MbS Destroys OPEC By Flooding Market, Slashing Oil Prices

With the commodity world still smarting from the Nov 2014 Saudi decision to (temporarily) break apart OPEC, and flood the market with oil in (failed) hopes of crushing US shale producers (who survived thanks to generous banks extending loan terms and even more generous buyers of junk bonds), which nonetheless resulted in a painful manufacturing […]

The Great Saudi Shale Swindle

Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas giant, Aramco, has been given the go-ahead to launch the Jafurah shale gas field project, which will be the biggest shale gas development outside the U.S. The official reason is that the project will boost domestic gas supply and end the burning of oil at its power generation plants. The […]

Saudi Arabia arrests at least 3 members of royal family

Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, left, speaking to his father King Salman in 2018 © AP Saudi Arabia has arrested at least three members of the royal family members in a new crackdown that appears to be part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to further shore up his control […]

Is The US Shale Boom Over? Four Major Threats To The Fracking Revolution

The U.S. is awash in cheap shale oil and gas. After decades of declining U.S. oil output, the fracking revolution unlocked vast oil and gas deposits and made America the world’s No. 1 oil producer. The once-massive U.S. petroleum deficit — $436 billion in 2008 — turned into a surplus last September. “We do not […]

USA December Oil Production Drops

A Post by Ovi at peakoilbarrel All of the oil production data for the US states comes from the EIAʼs Petroleum Supply Monthly.   At the end, an analysis of a three different EIA reports is provided. The charts below are updated to December 2019 for the 10 largest US oil producing states (Production > 100 kb/d). […]

Saudi Arabia seeks bigger oil cut as coronavirus slashes demand

Saudi Arabia is pushing to make a substantial cut in oil production when Opec and its allies meet next week, as global energy producers scramble to respond to the coronavirus outbreak that has crippled demand. The kingdom is asking producers including Russia to sign up to a collective production cut of an additional 1m barrels […]

Saudi Aramco launches largest shale gas development outside US

Saudi Aramco is launching the biggest shale gas development outside of the United States to boost domestic gas supply and end the burning of oil at its power generation plants, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser told Reuters on Monday. The world’s top crude oil exporter has for years battled for market share with rapidly expanding […]

‘Nail in the Coffin’: Era of Big Oil Sands Mines May Be Over

Canada’s oilsands industry may have already built its last big mine. The cancellation of Teck Resources Ltd.’s Frontier project in northern Alberta —which envisaged producing more crude than OPEC member Gabon — epitomizes the struggles of an industry that has already seen most foreign investors flee. It’s not clear that any other proposed mine would […]

No OPEC Oil Cut Decision Yet Says Saudi Minister

OPEC hasn’t made a decision yet on whether to extend or modify its agreement to cut oil output, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies are to meet next week in Vienna to assess their global cuts and output policy. Prince Abdulaziz is confident […]

Nigeria’s oil reserves to be depleted in 49 years – DPR

The nation’s crude oil reserves of 37 billion barrels, two per cent of which is being produced annually, will be depleted in 49 years, according to the Department of Petroleum Resources. The reserves, which stood at 37.45 billion barrels in 2014, fell to 37.06 billion barrels in 2015 and 36.74 billion barrels in 2016. It, […]

Non-OPEC Output Reaches New High

Below are a number of oil (C + C ) production charts for Non-OPEC countries created from data provided by the EIA’s International Energy Statistics and updated to October 2019.  Information from other sources such as the IEA and OPEC is used to provide a short term outlook for future output and direction. Non-OPEC production increased by 382 […]

Have We Passed ‘Peak Growth’ For Tight Oil?

Has U.S. oil production growth hit the buffers? Supply has boomed over the last decade, disrupting the market, domestically and internationally. But weak commodity markets and corporate strategies are now taking their toll, undermining the expected growth path in the near term. I spoke with our North American market expert, John Coleman, principal analyst, crude […]

EIA expects natural gas production and exports to continue increasing in most scenarios

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2020 According to projections published in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2020 (AEO2020), total dry natural gas production in the United States will continue to increase until 2050 in most of the AEO2020 cases, primarily to support growing U.S. exports of natural gas […]

The Shale Oil Bubble Accounted For 99% Of US Oil Production Growth Since 2007

Without the unprofitable and unconventional shale oil supply, U.S. oil production would still be below 5 million barrels per day. While we can applaud the shale industry for allowing the American Leech & Spend Surban Economy to continue for another decade, I wouldn’t count on it lasting another ten years. If we are lucky, we […]

Peak Shale Will Send Oil Prices Sky High

Much of the cheap oil has been produced, and the oil industry is increasingly relying on costly reserves. While the world is awash in supply right now, the market may begin to tighten up in the next few years, forcing prices higher. But the global economy will begin to sputter as a result of higher […]

Peak Permian Oil Production May Arrive Much Sooner Than Expected

In mid-January, Adam Waterous, who operates the private equity firm Waterous Energy Fund, made a prediction about the crown jewel of the U.S. shale oil industry, the Permian shale play that straddles Texas and New Mexico. “We think we are at or near peak Permian,” Waterous told Bloomberg. “The North American oil market has been grossly […]

The Energy Transition, Stupid

Johan Sverdrup is projected produce less than 1 kg of CO2 per barrel. The world average is estimated at 18 kg. (Photo: Ole Jørgen Bratland / Equinor) “Fit at 50”, “life begins at 70” and “the swinging 60s” were all slogans chosen to reflect oil price market sentiment in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. This […]

Russia Warns Market That Its Oil Production Could Drop

Russia may not be able to maintain the level of its oil production in the future due to the current taxation system on the oil industry, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday. Currently, Russia produces around 11.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and condensate. The energy ministry sees risks in […]

Oil Glut Overshadows Geopolitical Risk In 2020

The risk of oil supply disruptions from around the world has diminished, and rising non-OPEC production provides a “solid base from which to react to any escalation in geopolitical tension.” In its January Oil Market Report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that there is plenty of oil sloshing around, despite the U.S. and Iran […]

IEA Says Iraq Oil Supplies Vulnerable

Oil supplies from Iraq, the Middle East’s second-biggest producer, are “potentially vulnerable” amid rising political risks in the country and the broader region, the International Energy Agency warned. Crude prices briefly soared to a three-month high above $70 a barrel last week as tensions between the U.S. and Iran erupted in neighboring Iraq, where America […]

OPEC December 2019 Oil Production Data

All OPEC data for the charts below are from the OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report https://momr.opec.org/pdf-download/ OPEC crude oil production continued to slide in December.   OPEC production was down 161,000 barrels per day in December but that was after November production had been revised upward by 54,000 barrels per day. Angola had the largest […]

Saudi Aramco Chairman: Oil Industry Should Think In Decades

Energy transitions “take decades, even centuries” to complete, the chairman of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, said at a conference on Monday, adding that the industry should continue to think in decades. Because complete energy transformations take such a long time to complete, the oil industry should continue to think in decades, Aramco’s […]

US oil production hits estimated record 13 million barrels per day

U.S. crude oil production rose to an estimated record-high of 13 million barrels per day last week as the nation’s energy growth crossed a new threshold, according to a weekly report from the U.S. Energy Department. The increase production comes as the nation’s stockpiles of commercial crude oil fell by 2.5 million barrels last week, […]

2020 Will Be A Crucial Year For Oil

It’s the start of a new year and a new decade, and the oil market is as unpredictable as ever. Will OPEC+ extend its cuts? Will U.S. shale finally grind to a halt? Is this the “year of the electric vehicle”? Here are 10 stories to watch in 2020. Shale debt, shale slowdown. The debt-fueled […]

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