Falling oil prices are bringing down prices of high-risk bonds many companies used to finance their capital intensive unconventional drilling programs. “Most of that decline has occurred in the last 30 days. It’s already making it harder for oil companies to reach out to the financial markets to fund more of their drilling operations, as ‘in the high-yield space there’s a distinct lack of liquidity in the market right now,’ said Larry Whistler, president and chief investment officer at Nottingham Advisors.” [Fuel Fix]

Despite calls from some cartel members to hold an emergency meeting, the oil producer groups looks poised to stand its ground and keep production levels unchanged for at least a quarter. It’s not really a surprise because the group must have known the decision not to cut production would send oil prices lower, even if they didn’t anticipate the extremity of the current decline. “’Our expectation in OPEC is that after 2020, the oil industry in the U.S. will decline’ due to the nation’s low reserves, El-Badri said. The U.S. won’t become self-sufficient in oil and will continue to depend on Middle Eastern supply, he said.” [Bloomberg]

Solar company SunPower invested $20 million dollars in energy management firm Tendril and SunPower licensed the company’s software. “In 2012, with a still early and pretty competitive market around home-energy software, Tendril went through a shakeup and did a substantial round of layoffs. But as Tendril stabilized, some like Smart Grid News’ Jesse Berst predicted that Tendril could now finally be positioned for substantial growth, as the market had been growing significantly for home energy software and Tendril has been an early mover in new ways to use energy data.” [Gigaom]