Saudi Arabia Partially Restores Oil Output

Oil has fallen from earlier highs after Saudi Aramco’s Abqiaq plant restored some production and is now processing just under half the output that was lost in Sunday’s drone attack. Bloomberg’s James Thornhill reports on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia.” (Source: Bloomberg)

The Concept of Peak Oil has Shifted

A particularly fascinating development in this current decade is that the concept of what ‘peak oil’ means has shifted, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC Secretary General, said at the Fifth Iraq Energy Forum in Baghdad, Iraq, Trend reports. “At the beginning of the 2010s, reports of peak supply were almost omnipresent; however, we are about to […]

No, Shale’s Not Dying, It’s Just Maturing

Recent headlines heralding the death of the U.S. shale boom are greatly exaggerated. But the fever pitch pace of shale development and U.S. production growth is slowing and it’s difficult to envision the sector returning to the same heights reached over the past two years. A slowdown was inevitable. Annual production growth of 1.5 million to 2 […]

Flaring, or Why So Much Gas Is Going Up in Flames

If you take a drive along the well-worn highways of West Texas, orange flames will punctuate your journey. Those are gas flares, and they’re lighting up the skies above West Texas oilfields like never before as drillers produce crude faster than pipes can be laid to haul the attendant natural gas away. Oil drillers say […]

USA Oil Production

The Real Reason Why US Oil Production Has Peaked Raymond James recently estimated that over the last three years the U.S. decline rate for oil has doubled from 1.6 to 3.2 million barrels per day. The drilled but uncompleted well inventory (“DUC”) is back to normal, so the number of wells being drilled and the […]

Permian Basin Scenarios

Seems we don’t know what future completion rates will be in the Permian basin or anywhere.  There are many different opinions on whether the completion rate might increase, decrease or stay the same.  In my view, the conservative assumption is to assume they will not go up or down, but that the completion rate will […]

US To “Drown The World” In Oil

The U.S. could “drown the world in oil” over the next decade, which, according to Global Witness, would “spell disaster” for the world’s attempts to address climate change. The U.S. is set to account for 61 percent of all new oil and gas production over the next decade. A recent report from this organization says […]

OPEC July Production Data

All data below, unless otherwise specified are from the latest OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report. All data is through July and is thousand barrels per day. OPEC crude oil production was down 246,000 barrels per day in July’ There is often a difference between what secondary sources say OPEC produces and what the countries themselves […]

The Gas Field Next Door

More Americans than previously estimated live within a city block of aged, underground natural gas storage wells, some more than a century old and most of them lacking modern designs to prevent major leaks, according to researchers from Harvard University. Using satellite imaging, researchers estimate that 20,000 homes and about 53,000 people across six states […]

Kurt Cobb: The wheels come off shale oil

A flurry of coverage about the gloom and outright calamity in the shale oil business appeared last week. Low prices continue to dog the industry. But so does lack of investor interest in financing loss-making operations for yet another season. Plunging stock prices portend more bankruptcies if circumstances don’t change. I received considerable pushback last […]

Oil Has a Millennial Problem

Oil companies have a problem, and his name is Robert Paver. This 22-year-old graduate, along with his fellow students of earth sciences at the University of Oxford, should be natural recruits for an industry that has a long and lucrative history in the U.K. But instead of contemplating a career at an offshore driller, he’s […]

The Bakken Oil Boom Is Facing A New Bottleneck

Bakken drillers could struggle to grow oil production as they may soon run into transportation bottlenecks. The latest snag comes from a new law in Washington State, set to take effect at the start of 2020, that would prevent refineries in the state from unloading oil from a rail car that has a Reid vapor […]

Will We Really See An Oil Glut In 2020?

There has been much talk lately about a potential oil glut in 2020, most notably by the IEA in their latest monthly oil report, but such predictions are predicated on two faulty assumptions, first being global oil demand estimates are accurate, and the second, strong US shale supply growth will continue unabated regardless of prevailing […]

Russia And OPEC Will Soon Face Test In Taming Oversupply Of Oil

The latest mission by OPEC and its partners to contain a crude oil glut is entering its most critical phase. Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major crude exporters have struggled to keep a surplus in check over the past six months. But oil prices remain stuck below levels most of the coalition need to fund […]

Saudi Arabia’s Big IMO 2020 Lie

The recent announcement that Saudi Arabia’s Alfanar Group is to set up an office in the U.K. to oversee its multi-billion dollar renewable investments there is interesting not for says but for what it implies and what it implies is extremely misleading, to say the least. The implication is that Saudi Arabia is at the […]

US Shale: Peak Oil Finally Arrives

Summary Shale seems to be hitting a plateau, and at the very least the rate of increase will taper off. It is also possible that in absolute terms it could fall in the months ahead. This has real impacts for the oil market. Discussion follows. This idea was discussed in more depth with members of […]

Ten Countries That Dominate Fossil Fuel Production

In this Sept. 7, 2018 file photo bucket wheels dig for coal near the Hambach Forest near Dueren, Germany. Despite its role as a renewable energy leader, Germany remains one of the world’s leading producers of coal. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy over the past decade, fossil fuels still dominate global […]

Tropical Storm Barry shuts 70% of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output

Nearly 70% or 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), of crude oil production in the U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico has been cut because of Tropical Storm Barry, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Saturday Natural gas output from offshore platforms in the Gulf has been cut by […]

The Shale Boom in the Permian Is Slowing Down

The promise of the Permian is shrinking. Producers in the nation’s oil-rich shale basins are dialing back growth plans in the face of a growing panoply of problems that’s killing returns and keeping skeptical investors at bay. The constraints are manifold: pipeline limits, reduced flow from wells drilled too close together, low natural gas prices […]

World Oil Production As Of March 2019

New tight oil estimates were recently released by the EIA. The chart below compares estimates from Dec 2018 to May 2019, where the Dec 2018 estimate is that estimate with the most recent month estimated being Dec 2018 and likewise the May 2019 estimate has May 2019 as the most recent month estimated. The May […]

Shale: An Existential Threat From Within

1. Petrochemicals underperform oil – The oil majors have undertaken massive investments in petrochemical projects, viewing plastics as a more durable investment than simply producing crude oil. With the spread of electric vehicles and peak demand looming, the soaring use of plastics is seen as one of the last refuges for oil companies. – But […]

THE UNITED STATES A NET OIL EXPORTER?? The Dirty Little Secret

The United States became a net oil exporter for the first time in 75 years, or so they say.  While the U.S. may indeed be exporting more petroleum than it imports from time to time, there’s a dirty little secret behind the data.  And one of those secrets overlooked by some energy analysts and the […]

Opec Is Not Dead Yet, But It Has Lost Control Of The Oil Market

The death of Opec, the oil-producers cartel, has been predicted many times in the past, but rarely from a member of the club which is why this time it might be correct. So, when Iran’s Oil Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, warned earlier this week on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting […]

The Oil Crisis Saudi Arabia Can’t Solve

Saudi Arabia’s CEO Amin Nasr’s message to the press that oil flows to the market are guaranteed, should be taken with a pinch of salt. Looking at the current volatility in the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the possibility of a temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Aramco CEO’s message might be a bit overoptimistic. […]

TROUBLE AT THE BAKKEN: Oil Production Finally Peaking?

Is the mighty Bakken Shale Oil Field finally peaking?  Well, according to the data from the folks at the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, oil production in the Bakken has been flat for the past six months.  And, to make matters worse, production has been flat even though oil prices increased from a low […]

Aramco Can Keep Crude Flowing if Hormuz Hit

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. has the experience and infrastructure it needs to keep crude flowing should supply through the Strait of Hormuz be disrupted, according to the chief executive officer of the state-run producer. “We are increasing our readiness,” Amin Nasser said in an interview in Seoul on Tuesday. “We can supply through the Red […]

US Tight Oil Estimate and Projection to Dec 2019

New tight oil estimates were recently released by the EIA. The chart below compares estimates from Dec 2018 to May 2019, where the Dec 2018 estimate is that estimate with the most recent month estimated being Dec 2018 and likewise the May 2019 estimate has May 2019 as the most recent month estimated. The May […]

Robert Rapier: The US Accounted For 98% Of Global Oil Production Growth In 2018

Earlier this month BP released its Statistical Review of World Energy 2019. The Review provides a comprehensive picture of supply and demand for major energy sources on a country-level basis. Each year, I do a series of articles covering the Review’s findings. In the first article of the series, I discussed the trends in global carbon dioxide emissions. […]

Tom Whipple: When Will Oil Production Peak?

Next to global warming, the end of our ability to produce ever increasing amounts of oil is one of the most serious developments that humanity faces in this century. Ten years ago, many were concerned that global oil production was about to peak; however, just as oil reached $148 a barrel and gasoline climbed to […]

Iran oil minister says oil market is ‘fragile and unstable’

The global oil market is “unstable and fragile”, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in a meeting in Tehran, Iran state broadcaster IRIB said on Monday. “We discussed the global oil markets and I said the market is highly manipulated by political agendas,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying by IRIB. […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Aramco Reaches $2T Goal
• Saudi Aramco shares surge 10% as historic IPO begins trading
• Blowout: Another Side of the Deepwater Horizon Story
• The World Is Getting Better. It’s Just That No One Tells You About It.
• Episode 22: Stop Flaring Natural Gas

• Technological Change, Depletion, and the U.S. Petroleum Industry
• Momentous Change in US Crude Oil Market, with Global Impact
• Eastern Europe Is Turning Into An Energy Battleground
• What Can We Learn From Peak Whale Oil?
• US Gulf Set for Record 2020 With Oil Production
• Brexit and Peak Oil