Saudi Arabia’s Oil Fears Look Well Founded

It’s starting to look like Saudi Arabia’s concerns over the oil demand recovery were well founded. At the start of the month, the joint leader of the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries announced a surprise output cut of 1 million barrels a day for February and March. Its co-chair, Russia, pushing for restraints to be eased, was granted […]

New York City to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings by 2030

New York City this week said it will join a growing list of U.S. cities banning natural gas hookups in new buildings. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday as part of his State of the City address that New York will “ban new fossil fuel connections in new construction by at […]

Is Another Oil Price Spike Likely Soon?

A number of analysts have been warning that the double-barreled price shock in 2020 which sent prices to historic lows (negative $37 a barrel, albeit only paper trades) drastically reduced upstream investment and delayed development of new oil production capacity, which could set the stage for a new oil price shock. Demand recovery coupled with […]

China Oil Demand at Risk

For Rachel Tian — and millions of other Chinese people — Lunar New Year festivities look set to be less of a family affair in 2021. The Beijing-based securities analyst would normally be preparing to drive to her hometown of Baoding in Hebei province, about two hours away by car, to spend time with her […]

Iran hit by blackouts and smog amid electricity production woes

Iran is suffering vast blackouts and intense air pollution in recent weeks, amid electricity production problems blamed on Bitcoin mining and a shortage in natural gas. Officials have said illegal cryptocurrency miners — who are paid to use farms of power-hungry machines to verify the legitimacy of cryptocurrency transactions — have been gobbling up power […]

Iraq oil minister sees oil at $60 in second quarter of 2021

(Reuters) – Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar expects oil prices to reach around $60 in the second quarter of 2021, he said in an interview with Iraq’s Sharqiya TV on Friday. (Reporting By Ahmed Rashed; Editing by Toby Chopra) reuters

U.S. EIA cuts 2021 world oil demand growth forecast

The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday cut its 2021 world oil demand growth forecast by 220,000 barrels per day from its previous estimate. In its monthly forecast, U.S. Energy Information Administration says 2022 world oil demand to hit 101.08 million bpd, up 3.31 million bpd from 2021. Reuters

Covid Has Disrupted Food Supplies

Agflation is back, and so are unhelpful fixes. Under pressure from falling incomes and higher inflation, Moscow has rushed to cap the cost of basic foods and introduced measures to curb wheat and other exports. President Vladimir Putin’s televised displeasure was a symptom of the strain governments are feeling everywhere. Fortunately, the problem is not yet at levels seen just over a decade ago. Unfortunately, […]

Peak Oil? Drivers—and Voters—Could Delay It for Years

You might be filling up your tank a lot longer than BP thinks. Ambitious green policies—from politicians and even the newly climate-conscious oil companies—suggest the world is moving at warp speed away from fossil fuels. But the transition might not be easy on consumers’ wallets, which is precisely why it could take a while. The […]

Chinese cities reportedly go dark as country faces shortage of coal, a major Australian export

Several major Chinese cities have reportedly gone dark as authorities limit power usage, citing a shortage of coal. Analysts said prices of the commodity in the country have shot up due to the reported crunch and some tie the shortages and blackouts to the unofficial ban on Australian coal. Chinese authorities have not tied the […]

Gail Tverberg: The Year Things Started Going Badly Wrong

Many people thought that COVID-19 would be gone with a short shutdown. They also thought that the world’s economic problems could be cured with a six month “dose” of stimulus. It is increasingly clear that neither of these assumptions is correct. Despite the claims of epidemiologists, our best efforts have never been able to reduce the […]

Is the demand for oil finally sagging?

Gulf states fear for revenue. A theory of possible “peak oil” has been around for a long time. The pandemic could now mark the beginning of a steadily falling demand. It was a thankless task when a team led by US geologist Max Steineke began their search for oil in the barren desert of Saudi […]

Yergin: Oil demand won’t fully recover until 2022

Global oil demand will likely take another year or so to return to pre-pandemic levels — by late 2021 or early 2022, according to energy expert and IHS Markit vice-chairman Daniel Yergin. Citing an interview with Saudi owned free-to-air television news channel Al-Arabiya, energy portal oilprice.com yesterday said Yergin’s expectations for oil demand are roughly […]

The beginning of the end of the oil era?

Was 2019 the year when oil demand peaked? This existential question still dominates the energy debate and reflects the unprecedented changes our society experienced in 2020. Only time will tell. But this new reality is possible, not only because of the devastating impacts of the pandemic but also due to major technological changes in transport, […]

The Economic Superorganism

As the energy transition proceeds and the world takes more aggressive steps to curb global warming, analysts from many disciplines are questioning how economic growth can be maintained, or if there are limits to growth—a concept first raised in the 1970s—that will also limit the progression of energy transition. Will we run into fundamental limits […]

OPEC Lowers Oil Demand Projection

OPEC cut forecasts for oil demand again as the group and its allies prepare to weigh up whether they can continue gradually restoring halted supplies. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reduced projections for global fuel consumption in the first quarter of 2021 by 1 million barrels a day, it said in a monthly report. […]

Prices Of Chinese Rare Earths Are Soaring

BMO Capital Markets says that a surge in the price of Chinese rare earth metals in November is a reflection of the geopolitical tensions between that country and the developed world. Commenting on the sudden price gains in a research note, BMO’s commodity analyst Colin Hamilton also said that as nations around the world consider […]

Russia said record global oil demand has already passed

The days of peak oil consumption for the global economy may be over and the trend could affect Russia’s budget revenue, the country’s deputy finance minister, Vladimir Kolychev, warned. “The peak of consumption must have already passed,” Kolichev told Bloomberg in a recent interview. The official said there is a long-term risk that hydrocarbon revenue […]

US EIA cuts 2021 world oil demand growth forecast

The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday cut its 2021 world oil demand growth forecast by 110,000 barrels per day to 5.78 million bpd. In its monthly forecast, the agency cut its oil demand growth estimate for 2020 by 240,000 bpd to 8.85 million bpd. reuters

De-Growth Will Define How We Live in the Future

Workers extracting oil from oil wells in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas on May 5, 2018. Oil production has been causing a sudden influx of money especially for local Texans despite the consequences to the natural environment. (Photo by Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images) You may have noticed that the nation entered a political crisis after […]

‘Unprecedented Collapse’ in Transportation Propels Slump in Oil Consumption, Says IEA

Amid the upheaval imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 global energy consumption in the transportation sector is forecast to decrease 10% year/year, led lower by an 11% drop in oil consumption, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday. This decline is expected to account for nearly two-thirds of the total expected year/year pullback in oil […]

Japan May Ban Internal Combustion Vehicles Next Decade

The Japan Broadcasting Corporation, better known as NHK, reported that the island nation is considering banning new internal combustion engine cars by the mid-2030s this week. While we will continue to maintain that such an effort seems unrealistic when confronting the current realities of the market, Japan’s alleged plan offers a bit more leeway than […]

Has peak oil been and gone?

If I had of said to most of you reading this a year ago that 2020 would see negative oil prices, the world economy collapse and record highs in the stock market, you would have laughed me all the way to a padded cell. The same can be said for oil, in 2019 energy analysts […]

The Peak Oil Era Is Suddenly Upon Us

A year ago, if anyone in the petroleum business had suggested that the moment of Peak Oil  had already passed, they would have been laughed right off the drilling rig. Then 2020 happened. Planes stopped flying. Office workers stayed home. “Zooming with the grandkids” replaced driving to see family. A year of global hunkering yielded the […]

OPEC Revises Oil Demand to 96m/Barrel in 2021

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has slashed its 2021 projection for global oil demand to 96 million barrel of crude as against 102 million barrels, a target set before the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier in the year. The Secretary-General of the organisation, Mohammed Barkindo, who made the disclosure said the current global oil […]

Pandemic brings forward predictions for peak oil demand

The COVID-19 pandemic this year has dented oil consumption and brought forward forecasts by energy majors, producers and analysts for when the world’s demand for oil may peak. The rise of electric vehicles and a shift to renewable energy sources were already prompting downward revisions in forecasts for long-term oil demand. While there is no […]

Oil’s Surge Toward $50 Risks Giving OPEC+ Yet Another Headache

With OPEC+ just days from meeting, those countries who favor ratcheting up oil production may be finding some support for their arguments from surging prices. Headline futures contracts jumped 30% this month with Brent at one point on Wednesday hitting $48.75 a barrel, the highest since March. Critically though, a much more fundamental shift has […]

The next commodity supercycle may already be underway

Goldman Sachs is replaying its best-selling hit: it has just proclaimed the start of another commodity supercycle. We are in the very early stages of a supply crunch that will last for years and ultimately drive resource prices through the roof – or so goes the argument. A global monetary and fiscal reflation boom will […]

China makes rare, but small, draw on crude oil inventories

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) FILE PHOTO: A China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) vessel is seen near oil tanks at the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)’s Dalian Petrochemical Corp in Dalian, Liaoning province, China October 15, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) – One of the standout features […]

China’s oil buying binge to run on in 2021 as tank operators, refiners stock up

FILE PHOTO: A China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) vessel is seen near oil tanks at the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)’s Dalian Petrochemical Corp in Dalian, Liaoning province, China October 15, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer China’s oil buying binge to run on in 2021 as tank operators, refiners stock up Energy & Environment Chen Aizhu Muyu Xu […]

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