The romance of drilling for oil has peaked

When the price of crude oil goes through one of its periodic downturns, as it is doing now, it sends a shiver through the oil industry. History promises that higher prices will return. Until then, US shale companies are under severe pressure and big oil companies wonder about the viability of new projects. There is […]

Oil Falls Below $50 for First Time in Over a Year

Oil crashed below $50 a barrel for the first time in more than a year as Russia signaled little urgency to commit to supply cuts, while U.S. crude stockpiles continue to grow. Futures tumbled as much as 1.8 percent in New York, after sliding 2.6 percent in the previous two sessions. Just days before talks […]

Saudi Output Reaches Record as Trump Presses for Cheaper Oil

Saudi Arabia is pumping more crude than at any time since its first barrel was extracted 80 years ago, responding to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to keep driving oil prices lower. Saudi daily output reached 11.2 million barrels a day, from 10.8-10.9 million barrels earlier this month, according to a person familiar with […]

Canada Is Now A Land Of Oil Trains

Canada’s oil industry is facing record-low prices for its exports, a glaring lack of infrastructure to bring its product to market, and an uncertain long-term outlook. But none of that is stopping the oil patch from increasing production. And as one pipeline project after another fails to launch, the industry is relying more heavily than […]

Number of wells producing oil, gas declines

The number of wells producing crude oil and natural gas in the United States declined in 2017, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). © Shutterstock Oil and gas producing wells dropped from a peak of 1,039,000 in 2014 down to 991,000 in 2017. The decline can be primarily attributed to advances in technology […]

US shale oil forecasts too optimistic

The fracking of hard-to-reach oil reserves has helped the US regain its crown as the world’s top crude oil producer. But even the International Energy Agency (IEA) is now worried that the shale boom has been overhyped. Since it first came on stream a decade ago, US shale oil has been hailed as the great […]

US Expected to Produce Half of Global Oil and Gas Output by 2025

Relentless American shale development is set to allow the U.S. to leapfrog the world’s other major oil and gas producers, with the potential for the country to account for roughly half of global crude and natural growth by 2025, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. In its annual World Energy Outlook report, the IEA said […]

In OPEC’s Heartland, Billions Are Spent to Boost Oil Capacity

OPEC members may be weighing oil production cuts again, worried that a slowing global economy will undermine prices, but in the group’s Middle East heartland producers are spending billions to add output capacity for the long term. As the global oil industry recovers from one of the worst slumps in its history, the biggest international […]

Saudi Arabia to cut oil output by half-a-million barrels per day

Saudi Arabia plans to reduce oil supply to world markets by 0.5 million barrels per day in December, its energy minister said on Sunday, as the OPEC power faces uncertain prospects in its attempts to persuade other producers to agree a coordinated output cut. Khalid al-Falih told reporters that Saudi Aramco’s customer crude oil nominations […]

Oil Could Hit $100 If Supply Crunch Worsens

Oil prices are likely to be “biased to the upside” for the rest of the year as demand from refineries rises in November and December, according to Citigroup Inc. An average price of $80 a barrel for this quarter is “realistic,” with spikes to $90 or even $100 possible if further disruptions worsen a supply […]

Russian Oil Output Nears All-Time High

Russian oil production moved closer to an all-time high before the nation meets with OPEC partners to discuss future supply. The country’s crude and condensate output averaged 11.412 million barrels a day last month, according to data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit released Friday. That’s about 160,000 barrels a day more than two years […]

Michael Lynch: A Better Approach to Conventional Oil Exploration

The advent of commercial production of oil and gas from shale has made geological risk seem, to many, a thing of the past. But the history of oil exploration is one of trying to overcome the odds; for small companies, one too many dry holes means failure and substantial amounts of research and effort have […]

Canada’s Economy Expands on Oil Extraction

Canada’s economy grew for a seventh consecutive month in August, led by crude oil and financial services, keeping the momentum going for higher interest rates. Gross domestic product climbed 0.1 percent on the month, Statistics Canada said Wednesday from Ottawa. That beat the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey for an unchanged reading. Alberta’s oil […]

Michael Lynch: Is $100 Oil Inevitable?

Bloomberg:  “Rising oil prices are prompting forecasts of a return to $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, creating both winners and losers in the world economy.” The media is full of stories predicting that the oil price will go over $100 a barrel within a year or two while others predict “lower, […]

OPEC in Maximum Production Mode

Saudi Arabia gave the strongest indication yet that it’s trying to stop oil prices from rising further, saying that OPEC and allies are in a “produce as much as you can mode” to assure customers that they can meet demand and remove any uncertainties about looming shortages. The kingdom has already boosted oil production to […]

U.S. Shale Has A Glaring Problem

Oil prices are down a bit, but are still close to multi-year highs. That should leave the shale industry flush with cash. However, a long list of U.S. shale companies are still struggling to turn a profit. A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Sightline Institute detail the “alarming […]

New Iraqi National Oil Company aims to produce 7 million bpd

raq is seeking to produce 7 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) through its newly established National Oil Company and to export 4 million bpd in 2019, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on Saturday. FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi speaks during a news conference in Basra, Iraq June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani […]

Don’t mention the oil price

OPEC has urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policy in a break from the past, as the oil producing group seeks to avoid the risk of U.S. legal action for manipulating the market, sources close to OPEC said. Proposed U.S. legislation known as “NOPEC”, which could open the group up to […]

What the Permian Oil Boom Looks Like

The first clear indication that I had entered an area experiencing an oil boom was the Halliburton Co. office with a “Now Hiring” sign out front on the north side of Artesia, New Mexico. Next came a couple of equipment rental places with some unfamiliar-looking equipment on their lots, then the first of what were […]

OPEC, allies struggle to fully deliver pledged oil output boost – internal document

OPEC is struggling to add barrels to the market after agreeing in June to increase output, an internal document seen by Reuters showed, as an increase in Saudi Arabia was offset by declines in Iran, Venezuela and Angola. FILE PHOTO: A man fixes a sign with OPEC’s logo next to its headquarters’ entrance before a […]

Iraq Wants to Know How Buyers Use Its Oil

Major OPEC producer Iraq would like to know how and where its oil will be used, as demand rises for Middle East cargoes to replace shipments from fellow group member Iran. Iraq’s state-run Oil Marketing Co., known as SOMO, is asking buyers of its Basrah crude to specify the final destination country for its cargoes, […]

The Permian Oil Boom Is Showing Signs of Overheating

At 10:30 p.m. on an 85F August night in Penwell, West Texas, a 69-year-old repairman is hammering away at the frame of an 18-wheeler in the forecourt of an abandoned truck stop. The song Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynrd blares from the radio. “I’m making more money than I ever did,” says Don Suggs, who […]

Oil flowing at new site within petroleum reserve in Alaska

Oil is flowing from a drill site in what is now the farthest-west producing site on Alaska’s North Slope, ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc said on Tuesday. Production at Greater Mooses Tooth 1, a prospect on the western edge of existing Arctic Alaska oil development, started last Friday, ConocoPhillips said. Production at GMT 1 is expected to […]

The Russian Oil Decline

Oil Supply Tailspin I have previously explained the breakdown of global crude oil production. As the date for renewal of US sanctions against Iran approaches (November 4), the market presumes there will be constriction on the supply side moving forward. Supply is driven less by aggregate production and more by how much volume actually makes […]

Saudi-Russian Cooperation Marks New World Order For Oil

Global oil prices are continuing their upward trajectory amid concerns that more Iranian barrels will be removed from the market once U.S. sanctions hit the country’s energy sector Nov. 4. Oil market jitters are also being exacerbated by supply disruption problems in Venezuela, Nigeria and Libya—all OPEC members. Additionally, geopolitical factors are putting upward pressure […]

Saudi Crown Prince to Trump: We’ve Replaced All Iran’s Lost Oil

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, facing U.S. pressure to tame surging oil prices, insisted that the kingdom is fulfilling promises to make up for Iranian crude supplies lost to American sanctions. “The request that America made to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries is to be sure that if there is any loss of supply from […]

Oil and Gas This Week Podcast: Why Peak Oil Demand Doesn’t Matter

MP3•Episode home•Series home•Public Feed By Mark LaCour & Jake Corley. Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio streamed directly from their servers. In this Episode of Oil & Gas This Week – Why Peak Oil Demand Doesn’t Matter, The Oil And Gas Situation: […]

Venezuela’s Oil Exports Are Falling Even Faster Than Expected

A delay in port repairs following a tanker collision is putting additional pressure on already pressured Venezuelan crude oil exports, Reuters quoted anonymous sources close to PDVSA as saying this week. It seems that Venezuela’s woes are only multiplying as time goes by, although news from official Caracas sources seems more upbeat. Oil, however, appears […]

Saudi Arabia to invest $20 billion in spare oil production capacity

Saudi Arabia will invest $20 billion in the next few years to maintain and expand its spare oil production capacity, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday. Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity stands at 12 million barrels per day. Reuters

Too much oil? Texas boom outpaces supply, transport networks

The west Texas drillers that drove the shale revolution have overwhelmed the region’s infrastructure with oil production -driving up costs, depressing regional oil prices and slowing the pace of growth. The U.S. government continues to forecast the country’s oil output rising to fresh record. But competition for limited resources in Texas is making it harder […]

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