Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
ExxonMobil announced a $19.3 billion write-down on Tuesday, a big hit to a company reeling from depressed oil and gas prices and a rapidly changing global energy market.
A liquified natural gas industry, as currently promoted by British Columbia’s Liberal government, is not viable at current natural gas prices, and the proposed industry tax regime actually “gives a subsidy to the LNG industry,” according to a royalty expert.
A mid-week update. New York oil futures traded around $82 a barrel this week until Wednesday’s stocks report showed an unexpected 7 million barrel jump in US crude stocks.
A mid-week update. So far this week, oil prices in New York and London continued the collapse that has been going on since mid-June.
A weekly update, including: -Oil and the Global Economy. -The Middle East & North Africa, -Ukraine, -Quote of the Week, -The Briefs
A mid-week update. Oil prices have been quiet this week trading around the Wednesday close of $93.88 in New York and $102.72 in London.
A mid-week update. After falling for two days, oil prices rebounded on Wednesday after the weekly stocks report showed an unexpectedly large increase in US refinery utilization and a drop of 4.5 million barrels in US crude inventories.
A weekly review, including:
-Oil and the Global Economy
-The Middle East and North Africa
-China
-Quote of the Week
-The Briefs
A mid-week update. Energy prices have climbed sharply this week as frigid temperatures brought on by the second polar vortex boosted demand for heating fuels across much of the US.
As U.S. natural gas prices flirt with the $4 mark, some skeptics of the so-called shale gas revolution think prices are headed much higher. Such a move would, not surprisingly, seriously undermine the official story that the United States has a century of cheap natural gas waiting for the drillbit.
It isn’t often that the world’s working stiffs get a chance to fleece rich investors. But that’s essentially what has happened as a result of the vast overinvestment in natural gas drilling in the United States. Strangely, the long-term result may be a plunge in supply and a huge spike in price.
Here’s the short version of why forecasts of low long-term oil and natural gas prices are almost certainly wrong: It costs more than that to get the stuff out of the ground.
