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Shale Spending Surges
The international oil industry is dominated by the state oil companies and the 5 super-majors (Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, and BP). However, “World Oil” reports that when it comes to capital spending to develop new production, the shale operators, largely independents which do not own refining capacity, are leading the world. The large companies typically… Read More
Vitol’s View
“World Oil” reports that Vitol, the world’ largest independent trader, sees the oil production of OPEC and its allies as “lower for longer” as they try to reduce the global glut and raise prices. Kho Hui Meng, the head of Vitol’s Asia group, thinks that production quotas must be extended beyond mid-year, just to keep… Read More
Equilibrium?
In a recent article in “Oil Voice” entitled “Oil Prices Plunge to Where They Should Be”, Art Berman makes the case that the recent drop to $45 is merely a correction based on market fundamentals. He contends that given production, inventory levels, and demand, this is just the market seeking balance. Berman rejects the conventional… Read More
Major Improvement
Independent shale operators have proven quite resourceful and resilient in dealing with the oil price collapse. By cutting costs and cancelling projects, they were able to rebound and are capable of making a profit at current, or even lower, prices. Consequently they are largely responsible for driving the current level of activity in the Permian… Read More
How Low is the Floor?
European natural gas buyers have had access to Norwegian pipeline gas as well as LNG (liquefied natural gas) from Algeria and Qatar. However, the Europeans have always relied more heavily on pipeline gas imports from Russia than they would have liked. This dependence on Russia has made them susceptible to economic and geopolitical blackmail. Now… Read More
