Predictions for the change in oil price through to 2017

After a dismal start to the year, oil prices staged a partial recovery, with dated Brent Blend, the global benchmark, rising by almost 70% from a 13-year low of US$26/barrel in January to US$44/b on May 10th. The rally was driven in part by stronger economic data from China and robust gasoline demand in the […]

Norway Opens Arctic Oil Exploration in Russian Border Area

Norway awarded licenses to 13 oil companies as it expands into an entirely new part of the Arctic Barents Sea in an area previously disputed with Russia in a bid to stimulate exploration at a time of low crude prices. Statoil ASA, Lundin Petroleum AB and Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA were among companies that were […]

A Chat with Steve Ludlum of Economic-Undertow.com

KunstlerCast 277 — Steve Ludlum is a native mid-westerner who has spent most of his 65 years on the East Coast. Steve is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who has also been at various times an amateur naturalist, artist, designer and writer. He currently studies economic issues, resource and energy depletion, monetary policy and the […]

Venezuela crisis deepens

It was around noon when a food truck rolled up to a Venezuelan state-subsidized supermarket in the town of Guarenas just east of the capital. But, to the fury of the long line of people waiting out front, the cargo wasn’t unloaded. Instead soldiers took it away. “We want food!” the crowd roared in protest, […]

Bring on the zombie killers to clear the way for the energy revival

Oil prices may be headed higher, but a bust like this one isn’t over until bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions clean up the detritus left behind. Almost two years after oil prices hit their most recent peak at $107 a barrel, most analysts believe the worst is over. Prices for West Texas Intermediate bottomed at $26 […]

The Real Economy Is Already In Recession

You are about to see a chart that is undeniable evidence that we have already entered a major economic slowdown.  In the “real economy”, stuff is bought and sold and shipped around the country by trucks, railroads and planes.  When more stuff is being bought and sold and shipped around the country, the “real economy” […]

Why the Economy Should Stop Growing—And Just Grow Up

Listen to the political candidates as they put forward their economic solutions. You will hear a well-established and rarely challenged narrative. “We must grow the economy to produce jobs so people will have the money to grow their consumption, which will grow more jobs…” Grow. Grow. Grow. (Photo: Jessica Lucia/flickr/cc) But children and adolescents grow. […]

Peak Oil: Where To Begin?

The unpleasant truth now and soon is that the ready supply of oil and gas which we almost always take for granted [the occasional price spike notwithstanding] is on its way to becoming not-so-ready. A host of factors now in place are steadily converting possibility into likelihood. Thinking that we’ll just implement a few crash […]

Shell’s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

A leak from an undersea pipeline network operated by Royal Dutch Shell spilled nearly 90,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico last week. The leak occurred about 90 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Glider Field near the company’s Brutus Tension-Leg Platform. The US Coast Guard (USCG) and Shell have recovered over […]

Researchers Just Solved One of the Biggest Problems for World Hunger

Planet Earth is doomed with a fast growing global population and a limited amount of farmland to produce food for everyone. That means that we’re going to need to figure out how to maximize what we’ve got—and researchers just made a major breakthrough in getting the most from our crops. Biologists from Cold Spring Harbor […]

Helicopter economics and the relevance of ‘Peak Oil’

The lingering relevance of the heady days of “Peak Oil” and the prospects of “helicopter money” from central banks find a place in our round-up of the week’s best markets comment and analysis from the Financial Times. Taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, the pieces come from our line-up of industry contributors […]

Is Saudi Arabia calling the market’s bluff over oil?

Oil market watchers have been keeping a close eye on Saudi Arabia ever since it announced last month that it could very well increase oil production if and when it wanted to, but analysts at Energy Aspects explained on Tuesday that the major oil producer could be calling the market’s bluff. Saudi Arabia threatened to […]

An energy miracle? But we already have it!

“EnergySkeptic” recently commented on an article appeared in “Nature” in 2014 on the possibility of cheap photovoltaic cells entering the market of solar energy. The post is short enough that I can reproduce it in full, below. It is interesting because it shows the problems with the idea of the “miracle breakthrough” in energy that […]

Kunstler: Border Lines

If the Obama Justice Department was really honest about its “guidance” on transgender bathrooms, it would have stated clearly a requirement to provide a new, separate, third category of bathroom or changing room for people identifying themselves as transgender. This would have given such persons a safe, private place to perform their necessary bio-functions without […]

Oil Markets Balancing Much Faster Than Thought

Oil markets are only a few months away from a much closer balance as demand holds steady and supply drops off. Several reports from the three major energy entities more or less say the same thing – the supply overhang that the world has experienced over the past two years should narrow and start to […]

Saudi Arabia’s attempt to reduce reliance on oil has the world rapt

Saudi Arabia has captured the world’s attention with the announcement of an ambitious agenda, called Vision 2030, aimed at overhauling the structure of its economy. The plan would reduce historical high dependence on oil by transforming how the kingdom generates income, as well as how it spends and manages its vast resources. It is supported […]

Yergin: Where Oil Prices Go From Here

Leaders of major oil-exporting countries used to talk about “saving the oil” for their grandchildren. But now the grandchildren are in charge, and they want to monetize the oil. That is certainly so in Saudi Arabia, where Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—a grandson of the country’s founder, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud—has launched an ambitious […]

The Future of Geopolitics and Energy Markets

Energy prices and geopolitics have been interconnected since the beginning of the twentieth century, but expanded globalization, increased industrialization, and booming fossil fuel supplies have made this relationship increasingly brittle. The political actions of energy-producing states such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and the United States impact energy prices. Conversely, energy prices affect the geopolitical […]

100 Things You Can Do to Get Ready for Peak Oil

SPRING Rethink your seed starting regimen. How will you do it without potting soil, grow lights and warming mats. Consider creating manure heated hotbeds, using your own compost, building a greenhouse, or coldframe, direct seeding early versions of transplanted crops, etc… Your local feed store has chicks right now – even suburbanites might consider ordering […]

Bakken’s 1 Million b/d Production Unlikely to Hold

With the number of uncompleted wells continuing to rise in the Bakken Shale, it is doubtful the 1 million b/d production level can be maintained into next year, North Dakota chief oil/natural gas official Lynn Helms said Thursday in releasing the state’s latest production statistics. Noting that he expected a bigger drop than 10,000 b/d […]

We are all Albertans now

It would be easy–too easy–to point to the wildfires which have devastated huge areas of northern Alberta near Fort McMurray, the hub of tar sands mining in Canada, and say that Albertans are reaping what they have sown. Yes, it’s true that climate change is coming to one of the very areas which is contributing […]

Isis claims responsibility for deadly suicide attack on Baghdad gas plant

Militants have launched a suicide attack on a natural gas plant near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and injuring a dozen more. During the assault, which extremist militant group Isis said it had carried out, a car was blown up at the entrance to the facility approximately 20km north of Baghdad. Six people then […]

Iraq Sees $15 Billion in Aid Through 2017 as IMF Deal Looms

Iraq’s possible loan accord with the International Monetary Fund may unlock at least $15 billion in aid this year and next, central bank chief Ali al-Allaq said, helping OPEC’s second-biggest producer repair finances battered by cheap oil and the war with Islamic State militants. Allaq said in an interview in Beirut he expects Iraq to […]

Syria – the war can be limited

Every time the Syrian Arab Army beats the jihadists, new combatants arrive in Syria in their thousands. We are therefore forced to admit that this war is being cultivated from the exterior, and that it will last as long as soldiers are sent to die. So we must understand the exterior reasons which continue to […]

Rethinking the oil addiction

Oil prices become the news number three these days. The first lines are occupied by earning reports for the Q1 and Central bank rates. The black gold of the global industry is climbing to the $50 per barrel. However, the point is still unreachable. WTI changed hands at $46.16 a barrel, close to a six-month […]

Resource Doom Postponed Indefinitely

“Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever” was the title of an urgent report written by the legendary asset manager Jeremy Grantham in 2011. Grantham proclaimed the advent of a resource scarcity “paradigm shift” that was “perhaps the most important economic event since the Industrial Revolution.” As evidence, […]

Why Pipelines Still Rule

When assessing U.S. oil production declines and what it means for midstream companies many times we are asked, “What happens to crude oil pipeline volumes if production declines as the EIA expects, by approximately 800,000 barrel per day (bpd) compared to 2015?” That’s a very good question. To clarify, the 800,000 bpd decline in U.S. […]

Geophysicist Ole Kaven on Man-Made Earthquakes

Apparently things are moving and shaking in Oklahoma, literally. In the past 8 years earthquakes in the “Sooner State” have increased from 2 a year to 2 a day. Is the expansion of gas and oil exploration during that same period of time a mere coincidence? This week on Sea Change Radio, we hear from Ole Kaven, a […]

Michael Lynch: Whatever Happened To The New Oil Paradigm?

Roughly a decade, many analysts argued that oil had entered a “new paradigm” where strong demand and restricted supply would mean permanently higher oil prices. This is not to be confused with either the “Superspike” argument made by Goldman Sachs or the “peak oil” theory; the former was talking about price reaction to supply disruptions […]

Debunking the myths

In Monty Python’s Holy Grail King Arthur tells the black knight that he has no arms left, to which the knight replies: “It’s just a flesh wound.” This was how Standard Chartered’s Paul Horsnell described the so-called resilience of US shale production as he went on to critique commonly held views in the market. The […]

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