In one of the better pieces dealing with European gas supply issues associated with the Russia-Ukraine political crisis, this article cites a recent study published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies which pinpoints Ukrainian fiscal instability as the most likely cause of a European gas supply disruption. “The difficulties that Naftogaz Ukrainy is having,… Keep reading →
The US Department of Energy is conducting a test sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Five million barrels of sour crude are being offered for April, 2014 delivery from the West Hackberry and Big Hill sites on the US Gulf Coast. The sale is reportedly timed to coincide with US refiners’ annual… Keep reading →
The US Energy Information Administration – DOE’s statistical arm – today released its Short-Term Energy Outlook, which includes commodity price forecasts and anticipated supply/demand fundamentals. Included below are some comments from EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski about the report: Crude Oil “EIA expects strong U.S. crude oil production growth will help reduce WTI prices to an… Keep reading →
The Saudis threatened to block fellow GCC member Qatar’s land and sea borders unless it cuts all Muslim Brotherhood ties, shuts down Al Jazeera and expels think tanks Brookings Doha Centre and the Rand Qatar Policy Institute. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Doha last week to protest Qatar’s Muslim Brotherhood support,… Keep reading →
One emerging theme at CERA Week, currently underway in Houston, is the need for major oil companies to reduce capital expenditure amid range-bound oil prices and escalating costs. Chevron CEO John Watson reportedly said “One hundred dollars per barrel is becoming the new $20, in our business.” So ostensibly oil prices need to increase by… Keep reading →
Continental Resources’ Chariman and Chief Executive Harold Hamm will not lose his controlling interest in the company as a result of divorce proceedings, according to an Oklahoma District Court judge. Continental is one of the largest oil producers operating in the Bakken Shale and Hamm’s roughly 124 million shares in the company are estimated to… Keep reading →
The US oil market has been moving on cold weather and the Keystone Pipeline’s southern leg activation, which is alleviating the glut of crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub. While most of the attention has been on whether President Obama will green light the northern portion of the pipeline, the southern portion was constructed… Keep reading →
The idea that global oil production was nearing its peak, only to plateau and then decline was a common view in the energy world for many years. The geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted in the 1950’s that US oil production would peak in the 1970’s, a forecast that held true until technology allowed companies to… Keep reading →
IEA’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report called for Opec to maintain current production levels of around 30 mmb/d amid developed world demand resurgence that has depleted OECD oil inventories by 1.5 mmb/d in the last three months of 2013, the steepest quarterly decline since 1999. “At this time of year, when the global oil market… Keep reading →
Breaking Energy has followed the US oil export issue since it first became a realistic question, as domestic production surprisingly surged. The issue steadily gained traction and there is currently a wealth of views on the topic. A series on Forbes called “The Weekly Oil & Gas Follies,” rounds up interesting, thought-provoking and silly industry-related… Keep reading →
