Short-Term Energy Outlook 2015 and 2016

The EIA has just released their Short-Term Energy Outlook for January. They have now included their predictions for 2016. Here is what they expect for US C+C. I have made the first projected production for December 2014 though the EIA says they have production data for December. All date is in million barrels per day through […]

US shale economics challenged as crude, natural gas prices collapse

The plunge in crude oil prices over the past six months has led to a predictable deterioration in well economics across key US oil and gas basins, with virtually all major plays now earning average internal rates of return of less than 20% – a scenario that contrasts sharply with July 2014, when many were […]

Why Europe no longer fears the Russian gasman

A MILD winter and robust European Union policy have blunted the edge of what was once Vladimir Putin’s most effective foreign-policy weapon: the politicised export of gas. Contrary to some expectations, Russian gas has been flowing to Europe across all four main export pipelines this winter, while the Kremlin’s flagship new pipeline project, South Stream, […]

What Is Behind the Drop? Simple Economics

The oil industry, with its history of booms and busts, appears to be in the early stages of its latest downturn. The price of oil has plunged more than 55 percent to under $50 a barrel since June. That is the lowest price since the depths of the 2009 recession. Oil analysts predict that the […]

Oil price crash bankrupting ‘small oil’

Sherri McDaniel is already feeling the sting of the drop in crude oil prices from more than $115 per barrel in June to less than $50 in early January. She is president of ATEK Access Technologies, a small Minneapolis firm that owns TankScan, a wireless monitoring system that keeps track of fluid levels in oil […]

North Dakota oil output forecast tabulated using internal model

A stark breakdown from North Dakota projecting how falling oil prices could affect production was formulated using proprietary corporate data and a state official’s personal model. Late last Thursday, the Department of Mineral Resources caused a stir in world oil markets by releasing slides from a presentation to the state legislature that included a range […]

It’s Time To Become More Resilient & More Engaged

If there’s one message to take away from this newly-updated Crash Course video series, it’s this:  It’s time for you to become more resilient and more engaged. Things are changing quickly and nobody knows how much time we have before the next economic, ecological or energy related crisis erupts.  Nobody knows when, but we do have a pretty good idea […]

The Oil Price Fall: An Explanation in Two Charts

Don’t worry.  It’s not complicated. I offer a simple explanation for the recent fall in oil prices in just two charts. Oil prices move up and down in response to changes in supply and demand.   If the world consumes more oil than it produces, the price goes up.  If more oil is produced than […]

Venezuela’s Maduro seeks support from Saudi Arabia on oil prices

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman in Riyadh on Sunday as part of a diplomatic tour of OPEC members to discuss falling oil prices, which have hit its economy hard. The Saudi side in the meeting included Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and several princes including Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin, intelligence chief […]

Carolyn Baker and Dmitry Orlov: Interview on the Lifeboat Hour

Carolyn and Dmitry Orlov discuss collapse, US-Russia relations, climate change, the future of oil prices, and what we can expect in 2015

Saudi prince: $100-a-barrel oil ‘never’ again

Saudi billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told me we will not see $100-a-barrel oil again. The plunge in oil prices has been one of the biggest stories of the year. And while cheap gasoline is good for consumers, the negative impact of a 50% decline in oil has been wide and deep, especially for […]

U.S. Oil Shales: Still Growing Fast

Summary How long would it take for the U.S. oil production to go in decline? Why have shale operators waited for six months since the beginning of the oil price correction to reduce drilling? What are breakeven oil prices for U.S. shale plays? What are the implications for the price of oil? It has been […]

The central contradiction in the modern outlook: ‘Planet of the Apes’ vs ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

 When talking about the perils of climate change or resource depletion, soil degradation or fisheries collapse, water pollution or nuclear waste–how annoying it is to have one listener respond dismissively, “They’ll figure something out. They always have.” It’s a nonsense rejoinder and yet, it often gains the assent of many–as if this assertion were a […]

An Endless Sea Of Energy

With crude oil prices in a strong corrective mode, energy depletion is understandably not on people’s minds these days. However, this is a scenario that many of us might have to deal with at some point in our lifetimes. Yes, the world currently has more than abundant supplies of crude oil. US tight oil production […]

Renowned universities join to solve world’s water woes

The Arava desert, a salty wasteland dotted with tufts of scrub, gets only about an inch of rain each year. And yet cows lazily low at dairy farms that collectively produce nearly 8 million gallons of milk annually. Orange bell peppers flourish in a long swath of greenhouses that skirts the Jordanian border. Kibbutzim with […]

The oil price collapse: what’s so special about it?

  As I said in a previous post of mine, strong price oscillations are expected at or near the production peak. Prices can go up and down, but the drops don’t last for long and the overall trend is clear: it goes up.  Graph by Frances Coppola.  Cassandra’s legacy by Ugo Bardi

Is Sustainable Development an Oxymoron?

“Better is the enemy of more.”   We love Eleanor Roosevelt. And Eleanor Roosevelt loved the United Nations. While it does not necessarily follow that we too love the United Nations, we have always felt that the central idea of a United Nations was a good one, in fact it is really the only one […]

Our ‘energy slaves’ impact environment

When I explain to people that I have not purchased electricity for 10 years, they are envious. When I tell them I have not bought gasoline or oil or a smog check for four years, they are amazed. When I tell them they can do the same thing simply by shifting their priorities, they yawn. […]

Strategic Petroleum Reserve needs ‘modernization’

Rapid changes in the location and type of oil production inside the United States require a “modernization” in the way the country stockpiles crude for emergencies, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday. More specific recommendations about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — 691 million barrels of oil stashed in underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas […]

New year, new worries?

This is the first Oil Big Five post for 2015, and we’re happy to still be sharing with you some of the big issues and topics our global oil editors and analysts are tracking. The start of a new year often brings the dreaded New Year’s Resolutions, and we’d like the oil industry to promise […]

Peak Gold Has Arrived

While there is a lot to pay attention to in the markets in the short term, is there a longer-term story in gold that we should be watching? The CEO of Goldcorp (NYSE: GG), Charles Jeannes, recently put forth a case for peak gold. He argued that miners are not discovering as much of the […]

Colorado Groups Work to Balance Oil, Gas Production and Environment

Following last summer’s stand-off in Colorado between the state’s pro-environment and pro-energy forces, an unofficial triumvirate consisting of Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED), the University of Colorado and Governor John Hickenlooper’s task force is upping efforts at finding a balance before tensions – and tempers – heat up again. It is no secret to […]

All Over America, Government Officials Are Cracking Down On Preppers

Why would the government want to punish people that are just trying to work hard, become more self-sufficient and take care of their families?  There are approximately 3 million preppers in the United States today, and often they appear to be singled out for punishment by bureaucratic control freaks that are horrified at the thought […]

House of Saud: Generational shift seen in royal succession battle

The deteriorating health of King Abdullah, a son of the founding monarch Ibn Saud, has Saudi royals preparing for a succession battle that will focus mostly on who will be the next crown prince. The deteriorating health of King Abdullah is casting a shadow over Saudi Arabia, where a growing dispute over succession is dividing […]

T Boone Pickens sees $100 oil

Legendary business magnate and oil tycoon T Boone Pickens believes oil will return to $100 in 12 to 18 months due to a recovery in demand for the commodity. Pickens was speaking to the Fox Business Network Thursday, just after oil dropped to a 5 ½ year low of $48.98. The BP Capital Management’s Chairman […]

Bakken Oil Producers Need $55 To Keep Production Steady

North Dakota needs an oil price of around $55 per barrel at the wellhead and a fleet of about 140 rigs to sustain production at the current level of 1.2 million barrels per day, the U.S. state’s chief regulator told legislators on Thursday. Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms outlined breakeven rates for wells […]

Everything Has Changed: Oil, Saudi Arabia, and the End of OPEC

Saudi Arabia’s decision not to cut oil production, despite crashing prices, marks the beginning of an incredibly important change. There are near-term and obvious implications for oil markets and global economies. More important is the acknowledgement, demonstrated by the action of world’s most important oil producer, of the beginning of the end of the most […]

Nearly 2% Of Global Crude Could Be Cash Negative at $40 Brent

A recent analysis by Wood Mackenzie found that 1.6 percent, or 1.5 million barrels of oil per day (MMbopd), of global oil supply could be cash negative on an operating basis if Brent crude falls to $40/barrel. Wood Mackenzie’s analysis of 2,222 producing oil fields, which account for 75 million barrels per day of total […]

A hard look at population control

In November, 13 women in India died after undergoing sterilization procedures at a state-run “population control camp.” No wonder. The doctor, R.K. Gupta, operated on 83 women on Nov. 8 in assembly-line fashion; government “guidelines” proscribe that 30 patients should be the maximum. To me, even more shocking than the deaths themselves was the fact […]

The Oil Crash Looks A Lot Like 8 Other Classic Bubbles That Burst

Oil might have been in a bubble that’s now popping. Gluskin Sheff Chief Economist and Strategist David Rosenberg observed in his Friday morning research note that: “Well, with perfect hindsight, oil was in a classic bubble: parabolic price moves, tremendous excitement, widespread participation by the investing public, a ton of leverage.” Rosenberg noted that, when […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy