WTI crude oil prices fell to their lowest point since early February on Thursday, giving up virtually all gains since Russia invaded Ukraine. WTI crude for September delivery tumbled -1.5% to close at $89.26/bbl while Brent crude for October delivery fell -2.1% to $94.71/bbl. WTI crude has lost ~9.5% over the course of the week, marking the largest one-week percentage decline since April amid growing fears that oil demand will collapse when western nations descend into a full-blown recession. While oil producers are certainly beginning to feel…

There is a fairly blithe assumption in government circles that shale production can be raised at will. That assumption is about to be put to the test as the American shale drilling and fracking industry attempts to respond to the entreaties and outright demands of legislators, members of the administrative branch’s leadership, and even the president himself to put more capital toward increasing production. This is happening, but at a level and rate that will be insufficient to boost production significantly. In fact, data from the most recent…

This week, the Biden administration revealed that it will release as much as 180 million barrels of crude oil in a bid to calm oil prices, which have remained above $100 per barrel for an extended period of time. The International Energy Agency, meanwhile, is coordinating a smaller but international reserve release of some 60 million barrels and has called an emergency meeting to discuss how exactly to go about it.  It remains unclear whether part of the 180 SPR release in the United States will be a completely separate endeavor or if some…

Oil prices rose early on Thursday, with Brent firming above $90 a barrel, as fears of a Russia-Ukraine conflict that could disrupt energy supply to Europe trumped a strengthening U.S. dollar after the hawkish Fed statement on Wednesday. As of 10:00 a.m. EST on Thursday, WTI Crude was up 0.96% at $88.18 and Brent Crude traded above $90 per barrel, at $90.78, up by 0.91%. On Wednesday, Brent broke above $90 for the first time since 2014 due to the simmering tension between Russia and the West over Ukraine and another decline in the U.S. inventories…

U.S. presidents have long been made by their advisers to understand the dangers of benchmark oil prices staying above the US$75-80 per barrel (pb) level for extended periods of time. As the Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmarks continue to spike back above that level – and threaten a sustained move even above US$90 pb – there will be renewed pressure on President Joe Biden to act to bring oil prices down to below the ‘danger’ levels. The danger for a U.S. president in oil prices being above these levels for…

The $1 trillion Infrastructure Bill has finally been passed by a bi-partisan Congressional vote and signed into law by President Biden. The Bill has undergone many revisions and different negotiated iterations in order to satisfy both sides of the aisle. As with any compromise, there are plenty of dissatisfied parties -- some think that the Bill kowtowed to Big Oil and was gutted of its most promising climate mitigation clauses, while others think that it’s a bloated threat to the United States deficit that threatens to take away coal and…

The planned Cambo oilfield in the U.K.’s North Sea, thought to hold 800 million barrels of oil, faced significant pressure in the lead up to COP26, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared hypocritical in his promise for a clean energy transition while giving the go-ahead on a new oil exploration project. Following the global climate summit, will Cambo go ahead? The proposed exploration would take place in the Cambo oil field, located around 125km west of the Shetland Islands, at a depth of between 1,050m to 1,100m underwater. Johnson continues…

Nearly 60% of S&P 500 companies have reported third-quarter 2021 earnings, and the energy sector has again emerged as a standout performer. According to the latest FactSet data, the Energy sector is reporting the second-largest positive (aggregate) difference between actual earnings and estimated earnings (+15.9%), behind only the Financial sector.  Within this sector, Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) ($3.18 vs. $1.90), Chevron (NYSE:CVX) ($2.96 vs. $2.20), and Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) ($1.22 vs. $0.92) have reported the largest positive EPS surprises.…

The United Kingdom could be ready to officially put nuclear power back on the map. That's because UK ministers are planning on putting nuclear power "at the heart of Britain’s strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050," a new report from the Financial Times reveals.  In what is one of the boldest statements about the future of nuclear in a major geographic area, government documents will lay out a "net zero" strategy for the UK as well as a cost assessment of implementing the strategy to meet the 2050 goal.  Then,…

Last year, shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, governments everywhere unveiled massive monetary and fiscal stimuli (over $15T globally) in a bid to forestall the economic fallout of the pandemic. The U.S. federal government stepped in with a broad array of measures, pumping about $4 trillion into the economy; sending cash directly to households, boosting unemployment benefits, and creating several new grant and loan programs for businesses. It was not long before politically influential players…

The writing is on the wall for the fossil fuels industry. For decades, climate scientists and environmental activists have been urging the world to move away from dirty and finite energy sources like coal, oil, and gas and to transition toward renewable energies that have a much lighter impact on the climate and the environment as a whole. While the world has been slow to respond to these escalating pleas for decarbonization, it looks like the global community has finally entered the clean energy transition in earnest.  Peak oil is just around…

Europe is being ravaged by an unprecedented energy crisis, and it may already be spreading. Asia, the world's biggest buyer of gas and coal, may be next, with China particularly vulnerable because of the size of its economy. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the big problem for China is not natural gas. It's coal, which powers the majority of its power plants, Bloomberg reported this week, citing state-run outlet China Energy News. According to a report in the news outlet, Chinese power plant operators are finding it hard to buy enough coal to keep…

With the global electrification drive in full swing, electric cars have constantly been improving in terms of mileage, performance, charging time--and costs. And, Wright's law has so far proven to be right. According to Wright's Law, aka the learning curve effect, lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cell costs fall by 28% for every cumulative doubling of units produced. The battery pack is the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, and the sticker prices of EVs have been falling with declining battery costs. By 2023, the cost of Li-ion batteries…

Tropical storm Nicholas, which was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane yesterday, made landfall in the early hours of Tuesday in the Matagorda Peninsula, threatening dangerous flooding in the U.S. oil heartland just days after another hurricane, Ida, shut down almost all offshore oil production and a lot of Gulf Coast refining capacity. The progress of the hurricane pushed oil prices to the highest in six weeks on Monday, as more than 40 percent of U.S. offshore oil production, or close to 800,000 bpd, still remains shut down from Ida. The last…

The UN has drawn criticism for what is seen as allowing China to continue using coal until 2040 while calling on other big economies to phase it out by 2030. The criticism follows a Monday speech by UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Climate Action, Selwin Hart, who called on Australia to join other OECD economies in committing to phase-out coal use by 2030 as a means to achieving net-zero status by 2050 and contributing to the 1.5-degree Paris Agreement target. “National governments responsible…

India's crude oil demand has been on the mend since mid-summer. It is likely to continue along this same vein for quite a while, with at least one refiner planning to boost refining capacity considerably. India, the world's third-largest oil importer, has become a key factor for oil prices because of its overwhelming dependence on imported crude. During the latest wave of Covid-19 infections in the country, oil demand suffered an expected slump. But now things are looking up. Reuters reported last month that in July, Indian refiners increased run…

Saudi Arabia had intercepted a ballistic missile attack on facilities owned by state oil major Aramco in the Eastern Region, Reuters has reported, citing the Saudi defense ministry. Earlier reports said Aramco facilities in Dharan had gone on lockdown because of a suspected attack. The Iran-affiliated Yemeni Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attacks on Sunday, saying it had used ballistic missiles and drones. Ras Tanura, which is home to extensive oil infrastructure, was not the only target of the attack: the Houthis also targeted Aramco…

There’s a breaking energy story that could potentially be a repeat of Texas’ multi-billion dollar Midland Basin… A basin that has been producing since the 1930s and won’t reach peak production until 2035 at a phenomenal 3.8 million boe/d … The most trusted name in natural resource assessments—Wood Mackenzie--says this new discovery is analogous not just to the giant Midland, with a development value of $540 million, but to two other world-class basins. In fact, it could become the biggest stock story of 2021……

As Asian oil demand looks set to increase over the next decade, Cambodia is taking advantage of the opportunity with its first crude oil production.  Cambodia’s plan is to extract oil from the Gulf of Thailand oil fields in a joint project with Singapore's KrisEnergy Ltd, a plan that has seen several years of delays.  The development was announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen on social media, "The year 2021 is coming and we have received a huge gift for our nation — the first oil production in our territory". Going on to say,…

Crude oil prices rose further today after the Energy Information Administration reported an oil inventory draw of 6.1 million barrels for the week to December 25. A day earlier, the American Petroleum Institute also helped boost prices by estimating a crude oil inventory decline of 4.785 million barrels for the same week. Last week, the EIA had estimated a modest inventory decline, to the tune of 600,000 barrels, which nevertheless helped prices continue higher as it coincided with positive vaccine updates that traders linked to an anticipated…