Five threats to US food supply chains

The coronavirus pandemic has upended food supply chains, led to closures of meat producing plants and left Americans with the unsettling experience of seeing empty shelves at supermarkets. Coupled with the run on toilet paper that led to severe shortages, recent events are leading Americans to wonder if the nation’s food supply is secure. Experts […]

Heinberg: How much is a barrel of oil worth?

If you were an oil futures trader wanting to unload a May 1 contract on Monday, April 20, a barrel of oil was worth $-37. That’s right, traders were, in effect, willing to pay someone—anyone—to take ownership of a commodity that powers modern industrial society, and has suddenly become too abundant. The reasons for this […]

World on brink of `a hunger pandemic’

The head of the U.N. food agency warned Tuesday that, as the world is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, it is also “on the brink of a hunger pandemic” that could lead to “multiple famines of biblical proportions” within a few months if immediate action isn’t taken. © AP Photo/Matt Dunham Volunteers for the Edible […]

Gail Tverberg: Is there a way forward?

Many people are concerned today with the low price of oil. Others are concerned about slowing or stopping COVID-19. Is there any way forward? I gave a few hints regarding what is ahead in my last post, Economies won’t be able to recover after shutdowns. We live in a world with a self-organizing economy, made up […]

Kunstler: Flight Path

This age of battling narratives tends to conceal the broken consensus behind it. What’s gone is a broad social agreement that there are certain fundamental realities, and then codes of conduct that follow from them. When anything goes, don’t expect people to do the right thing, or even know what it is. The Covid-19 debacle […]

The Real Oil Market Is Drowning and OPEC+ Deal Can’t Rescue It

The physical oil market, where millions of barrels of real cargoes are traded each day, needed OPEC+’s historic cuts to global crude production months ago. On Sunday, producer nations pledged to limit output by an unprecedented 10% of global supply. While there’s skepticism the cuts will prove deep enough — demand has plunged by far […]

Tracking global energy transition in turbulent times: solar stutters, coal keeps growing

As the extent of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on economic activity and power demand emerges, newbuild activity in global power faces old and new sets of challenges. The short-term focus has been shifting due to coronavirus-related disruption of manufacturing activity and logistics, but delays will most likely be short-lived. The global power capacity […]

Global economy to contract 3% in 2020

The global economy is projected to contract by 3.0 percent in 2020 from a year before due to the coronavirus pandemic, suffering the worst setback since the Great Depression in the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday. The IMF slashed its projection by 6.3 percentage points from its estimate in January, when the spread […]

The Reality Of The End Of Oil

The Oil Age has powered the world for well over a century. There have been two general schools of thought about how it will ultimately end. There were those who believed that oil production would peak and begin to decline in the face of high global demand. This is essentially the peak oil argument, which […]

How the Pandemic Wiped Out Oil Demand Around the World

Global oil demand is being destroyed as the coronavirus forces people around the world to remain indoors and avoid all unnecessary travel. Currently, more than two-thirds of the world’s population are in lockdown, meaning no one is driving, flying or doing much that would require the use of crude or its derivatives. The ramifications for […]

Millions Of Barrels Of Oil Nobody Wants Are Floating In The Ocean

Oil demand is in a freefall, thanks to improvements in battery technology, the proliferation of green energy alternatives, and — let’s face it — a world on lockdown due to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. All of these factors have come together to push barrels of oil to their lowest price in decades, but production hasn’t […]

How Will This Change Us? Is There Room for Optimism?

Heidi and Tom head into a freewheeling conversation with MIT Futurist and optimist Andy McAfee. As co-founder and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Andy studies how digital technologies are changing the world. Even Andy, sees the gravity of this moment. Heidi pushes hard on the big […]

Why everyone is now an amateur gardener during COVID-19

Whether it’s fear of an impending apocalypse, not being able to find what they want at the supermarket or simply having more time, an increasing number of Australians are turning their hands to growing their own fruits and vegetables. Landscaping and permaculture suppliers have reported an unprecedented demand over the past month from those with […]

This Is What The End Of The Oil Age Looks Like

The Oil Age has powered the world for well over a century. There have been two general schools of thought about how it will ultimately end. There were those who believed that oil production would peak and begin to decline in the face of high global demand. This is essentially the peak oil argument, which […]

Move over Peak Oil, now there’s too much of it

The world’s thirst for oil has evaporated. Highways are empty. Planes are grounded. Factories are dark. The unprecedented collapse in oil demand has sent crude crashing to 18-year lows. Supply, on the other hand, remains largely resilient amid a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. US producers don’t want to be the first to […]

Supplies Are Starting To Get Tight As Food Distribution Systems Break Down

All across America, store shelves are emptying and people are becoming increasingly frustrated because they can’t get their hands on needed supplies. Most Americans are blaming “hoarders” for the current mess, but it is actually much more complicated than that.  Normally, Americans get a lot of their food from restaurants.  In fact, during normal times 36 percent of all […]

Saudi Arabia Lets Prices Collapse

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it will raise its oil exports to a record 10.6 million barrels per day starting from May despite a global supply glut, escalating a price war with Russia. Oil prices are languishing at 17-year lows as the coronavirus pandemic threatens a painful global recession that could further sap demand. US […]

The Other Emergency Is Crashing Oil Prices

A barrel of Western Canadian Select diluted bitumen reached a record low of US$7.63 this week. Meanwhile a black market bottle of Purell hand sanitizer fetched $138 on the internet. There you have the frenzied volatility seizing global oil markets as the economy slows to a crawl around the world. One bottle of hand sanitizer is worth […]

The World Is Running Out of Oil. Here’s How to Be Prepared

Oil substantially impacts the products and activities that people become familiar with during their daily lives. Individuals immediately make a connection between oil and the fuel for vehicles. It serves that purpose, but oil also plays a role in the production of many plastics and chemicals, as well as asphalt and tar. It’s safe to […]

Oil Tumbles to 18-Year Low

Oil tumbled to an 18-year low as coronavirus lockdowns cascaded through the world’s largest economies, leaving the market overwhelmed by cratering demand and a ballooning surplus. Futures in London plunged by 9% to the lowest level since March 2002, while New York crude dipped below $20 a barrel before settling just above that level. While […]

COVID-19 Demonstrates the Importance of Plastics

Over the span of just a few weeks, the world’s priorities have shifted significantly. COVID-19 has made it abundantly clear that not only do we still need oil and natural gas, but the world would not be able to tackle this threat without products that are made possible by these resources, including plastic. Cities and […]

Covid-19 triggers 20% drop in oil demand

Early figures are suggesting that the outbreak of Covid-19 could have a significant impact on global oil demand, with Arij van Berkel, a director at US-based research firm Lux Research claiming that “early indications by traders suggest a 20% drop in demand.” “In a sense, the current demand decrease is a preview of demand projections […]

Oil Prices Won’t Go Negative, An Analysis Of Crude Storage Capability

Summary As investors get increasingly bearish, analysts start to talk about the potential for low or negative oil prices. However, that’s simply false. COVID-19 will cause a worst case 960 million barrels, but likely half of that, and we can assume all of that will be stored. Production will decline rapidly by 20-30% in the […]

The Impossible Challenges Created By Growing Population

In the period 1975 to 2019, world population increased at an average of 83 million per year. The 2019 increase was the difference between approximately 140 million births and 57 million deaths. The annual emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion, cement manufacture and deforestation are currently 40 billion metric tons, of which almost […]

Yergin: Oil crash has similarities to 1998, 1930s

The Permian Basin oil and gas industry is caught in the crossfire of two crises: a demand shock caused by the impact of the coronavirus, and a supply shock as Saudi Arabia and Russia flood the markets with crude as part of a price war. “Two crises have hit the oil market at the same […]

Why Preppers Weren’t Really Prepared For The Pandemic

Among the many lessons of the pandemic thus far is that the world was — and remains — woefully unprepared. But not everyone in the world. For one cohort, COVID-19 has presented the very crisis they’ve long awaited, what they sometimes call “The Big One.” They are preppers, also known as survivalists; they stockpile food, guns, and emergency equipment […]

Global Economic Consequences of COVID-19

The panic resulting from the events starting with the deaths in Wuhan keeps spreading globally faster than the spreading of the virus itself. Quite apart from the immediate health dangers, now a new economic danger looms large globally. We are facing the prospects of a deep and lasting global recession regardless of the health policy […]

Stock Markets Price in Doomsday Scenario for Oil

Holly Black: Welcome to the Morningstar Market Update. I’m Holly Black. With me is Allen Good. He is equity analyst at Morningstar in Amsterdam. Good afternoon. Allen Good: Good afternoon. Black: So, you’ve had a very busy sector to keep an eye on over the past couple of weeks. Can you tell us what’s been […]

Oil Demand To Plunge By 10 Million Barrels Per Day

As major economies go into lockdown, oil demand continues to fall off a cliff. On Monday, WTI fell into the $20s. “The additional quarantine measures imposed in France, Spain and elsewhere over the weekend has spurred a ‘world championship’ in demand loss forecasting this morning,” Bjoernar Tonhaugen, Rystad Energy’s head of Oil Markets, said in […]

Kunstler: Things Have Changed

At least in wartime, the bars stay open. That’s how you know this is a different thing altogether from whatever else you’ve seen in your lifetime. Even those of us who signed up for this trip — that is, who expected a long emergency — may be a little bit in cosmic awe at just […]

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