The pandemic has caused some major producers to pause and defer investments in the petrochemical sector
With the crude oil landscape changing rapidly, the refining industry is faced with major adjustments. Several oil refiners have announced permanent closures in the United States and Asia, while some high-cost refineries in Europe could also be shut down over the next few years. Margins for processing crude into fuels are expected to remain depressed,…
Supported by all these bullish factors, Brent crude spot prices rose. Yet oil markets also face bearish pressures
Faced with gloom and some good news at the same time, crude oil markets continue to be in a quandary. Retrenchment and lack of capital investment could eventually lead to crude shortages, argued David Messler in a piece in Oilprice.com in June. The shortage could result in firming up of oil prices. Messler also points…
The pain is only just beginning to ripple through the U.S. industry in the form of bankruptcies and layoffs
In love and war, everything is fair. And U.S. President Donald Trump knows that well. After all, to him, the re-election bid is nothing but war. While campaigning in Midland, a region deep in the heart of the west Texas oil patch, Trump underlined: “And now we're back,” proclaiming euphorically, “and now we're just going…
The game is up: Oil and gas companies can no longer mask their financial frailty
The decline in oil demand accelerated by Covid-19 may be a sign of the future. Forty publicly-traded U.S. oil producers wrote down a collective $48 billion worth of the value of their assets in the first quarter of 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Quoting Deloitte, Oilprice.com points out that the collapse in crude…
Despite the recent unprecedented output cuts by oil-producing countries, crude continues to trade around $40 a barrel
Global economies are in distress. In the United States, the world’s largest economy, jobless claims rose last week for the first time since March. With measures to contain the COVID-19 virus keeping drivers off the road, recent data shows gasoline demand edging even lower. In South Korea, a large crude oil consumer, the economy is…
Iran, Venezuela and Libya have virtually been forced out of production. But that hasn’t made the lives of other producers easier
An uneven playing field exists in the crude oil marketplace. Two major producers, Iran and Venezuela, face sanctions on their oil sales from the United States. Meanwhile, Libya is in the midst of civil strife. These circumstances mean a considerable volume of oil isn’t available to the markets. Yet the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries…
Opinion remains divided but, to be fair, the crude oil market is not out of woods. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, is endeavouring to take a positive posture. Politically, he needs to stay positive. Global oil demand is likely to recover to above pre-pandemic levels, Birol said on July 6.…
The Chinese have stockpiled huge reserves of low-priced oil, giving them significant geopolitical leverage over Russia and Saudi Arabia
With the major stakeholders – Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States – emerging badly bruised from the last round of the crude oil price war, a new world order is set to emerge. The cost of the battle has been immense to all three. In April, as the battle erupted, the value of Saudi…
The long-term view is frightening. With long gestation periods, new oil and gas projects may not get online when needed
International oil and gas exploration and production are in the doldrums and won’t likely rebound any time soon. Canada has curtailed its crude output by one million barrels per day (bpd). The country’s active oil and gas rig count had fallen to an all-time low of 17 in early June, Baker Hughes reported. That was…
Current oil production cuts can’t continue for long or the Saudis, and others, won’t balance their budgets
The U.S. is putting extreme pressure on the major oil producers, Saudi Arabia in particular, to cut output, firm up crude markets and ensure the continuity of the U.S. shale revolution. But on the other hand, the administration of United States President Donald Trump doesn’t want oil prices to go much higher. In an election…
With the crude oil landscape changing rapidly, the refining industry is faced with major adjustments. Several oil refiners have announced permanent closures in the United States and Asia, while some high-cost refineries in Europe could also be shut down over the next few years. Margins for processing crude into fuels are expected to remain depressed,…
