Japan’s recent deal to import US LNG at Henry Hub benchmark prices appears largely symbolic, but is important for the sector as it could represent the beginning of a larger trend away from oil-linked LNG prices for the world’s largest LNG importer.
“They [the deal’s negotiators] were very surprised they were able to pull it off,” a source familiar with the negotiations recently told Breaking Energy. Keep reading →
In its Monthly Oil Market Report released today, the International Energy Agency said positive economic indicators from the US and China, strong financial market activity and cooler Northern Hemisphere weather combined to push global oil price benchmarks above nine month highs in early February.
Bringing incremental oil production volumes to the global market has been challenging for producers. The recent deadly hostage crisis at a remote Algerian natural gas plant has led firms to re-evaluate their security protocols in the region, with one company pulling its staff out of Nigeria due to safety concerns, said the IEA. Keep reading →
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Tuesday warned that expectations of growth in non-OPEC oil supply this year–seen as essential to meeting global oil demand in the long term–were subject to a high level of risk, particularly in the U.S.
It’s happening again.
It’s not even close to the summer driving season — in fact, it’s not even springtime — but as surely as February gives way to March, gas prices have begun their annual ascent. Keep reading →
Accounting firm Ernst & Young released its Oil & Gas Center’s quarterly outlook this week highlighting the major trends expected in various petroleum industry sectors over the near term. It’s done on a quarterly basis and provides an overall view of main themes to be watching. It is primarily generated as an internal document, “so everyone knows what’s going on and highlights are sent to clients,” Foster Mellen, Senior Analyst with Ernst &Young’s Oil & Gas Practice told Breaking Energy.
Some points of interest include the long-overdue startup of Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan field and how companies may cope with US natural gas prices that have persistently remained below historical norms. Keep reading →
Energy prices have been rising fast. But not enough to derail the economic recovery. Not yet anyway.
Over the last month, crude oil prices have risen over 4% and are approaching $100 a barrel. Analysts think they’ll soon trade in the triple digits. Gasoline futures are up even more, rising 8% over the last 30 days. At the pump, drivers are now paying 14 cents more a gallon than they were in mid December. Keep reading →
The world’s most influential oil producer, Saudi Arabia, reduced its oil production towards the end of 2012, causing many to conclude the Kingdom sought to reinforce global oil prices, but the Internal Energy Agency has a different take.
Saudi Arabia had been pumping oil at 30-year highs for most of 2012, but cut back supplies by just below 300,000 barrels per day in December to 9.36 million b/d, the IEA said in its most recent Monthly Oil Market Report. Keep reading →
The New York Energy Forum held its annual kickoff meeting last Thursday night, where leading market analysts presented their views about where oil and natural gas markets are headed this year. Sanctions-bitten Iranian crude output, the interplay of fundamentals and financial factors in oil markets and the US petroleum output boom were all topics of discussion.
Global benchmark crudes West Texas Intermediate and Brent have been range bound for the past two years and the speakers expected little change in 2013, despite an uptick in global oil demand. Keep reading →
US refining economics have been under pressure in recent years, particularly on the East Coast, where lack of infrastructure or bottlenecks forced some refineries to process crude imported from overseas markets at prices linked to the more expensive Brent benchmark. But independent refiner PBF Energy saw an opportunity and bought 3 major facilities between late 2010 and early 2011 in an effort to access increasing volumes coming on from the Bakken region and Western Canadian oil sands via rail.
PBF acquired 2 refineries located in Delaware City, Delaware and Paulsboro, New Jersey from Valero with a combined refining capacity of 370,000 b/d. Crude was traditionally transported to these plants via barge and ship along the Delaware River, but PBF constructed a crude rail unloading facility at the Delaware City refinery designed to accept shipments from the Mid-Continent and Western Canada at prices linked to West Texas Intermediate – the US benchmark grade – currently trading at a roughly $20/barrel discount to Brent. Keep reading →
It is an urban myth that if the oil industry drilled more, gasoline prices would decrease. The myth relies on the premise that as more oil supplies are introduced, market forces would take over and domestic prices would fall. But it turns out that increasing domestic production has virtually no effect on gasoline prices.
The US already increased production. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), US oil production reached 310,403,000 barrels per month in October 1970 that became the historic peak. Ever since that time, production changed course and it has been in a steady decline. By 2005, production sank more than 50 percent to approximately 150,000,000 barrels per month. The bottom was reached in September 2008 when production sank to 119,477,000 barrels per month. Since then, for the first time since the 1980’s, monthly production changed direction and it has been trending upward. Last July, the US touched a new record of 196,405,000 barrels per month, a production level the US has not witnessed for over a decade. Keep reading →
