Hoping for a Price Surge, Oil Companies Keep Wells in Reserve

The price of oil keeps dropping. But that didn’t stop a work crew from drilling a well recently on what was once a cornfield, carefully guiding the last sections of 13,000 feet of pipe spiraling into the hard Niobrara shale with a diamond-tipped bit. Their well, one of hundreds drilled by Anadarko Petroleum in eastern […]

America’s Top Shale Gas Basin in Decline

The natural gas drilling frenzy is grinding to a halt, as the industry struggles with excess supply. Natural gas prices have plunged to their lowest levels in more than a decade this month, dipping below $1.80 per million Btu (MMBtu). The shale gas revolution is an old story at this point, one that everyone is […]

Russian Oil Production Hits Record As Saudi Gambit Fails

In late October, we noted that for the second time this year, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the biggest exporter of crude to China. Russia also took the top spot in May, marking the first time in history that Moscow beat out Riyadh when it comes to crude exports to Beijing. “Moscow is wrestling with […]

Texas RRC Oil and Gas Production

The Texas RRC Oil and Gas production data is out. All the RRC data below is through October 2015 and all the EIA data below is through September 2015. Important: All the Texas RRC data is incomplete, especially the latter months. They will be revised upward as the Texas RRC gathers more data. The EIA data […]

Fracking Licences Granted In National Parks

Several firms are given the right to explore around 120 areas of the UK for shale oil and gas, including the Peak District. Licences to explore for shale oil have been granted in the Peak District Dozens of licences allowing companies to carry out investigations into fracking have been given out by the Government. Around […]

Norwegian Production Decreasing

Norway’s production levels are decreasing, according to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The NPD stated that Norway had an average daily production of about 1.993 million barrels of oil, NGL and condensate in November, which was 29,000 barrels per day less than October. The average daily liquid production in November was 1.598 million barrels of […]

What it costs to produce oil

The collapse in the price of oil has squeezed energy companies and countries that were betting on higher returns. Here’s what it costs on average to pump a barrel of oil in the 20 biggest oil producing nations. Total cost Cost breakdown Overall cost to produce one barrel of oil United Kingdom $52.50 Brazil $48.80 […]

Ignore ‘Breakeven’ Oil Production Levels Published By The Media

The market has been distracted by supposed “breakeven” levels of oil production published by various sources of the media. It was touted at $60 a barrel in October. Focus your attention instead on the current price action, which is very bearish and could bring Brent crude down to test $36 a barrel in the near […]

OPEC cannot kill shale oil

The minute oil prices go up shale oil production will go up again to its previous levels, says independent oil expert Dr. Mamdouh Salameh. OPEC can only slowdown its production, but shale oil’s real shortcoming is its wells depletion rate, he adds. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members including Saudi Arabia are no longer able to […]

Zombies Appear In US Oilfields

Drained by a 17-month crude rout, some U.S. shale oil companies are merely hanging on for life as oil prices lurch further away from levels that allow them to profitably drill new wells and bring in enough cash to keep them in business. The slump has created dozens of oil and gas “zombies,” a term […]

OPEC vs. the U.S. Oil Boom

After a year suffering the economic consequences of the oil price slump, OPEC is finally on the cusp of choking off growth in U.S. crude output. The nation’s production is almost back down to the level pumped in November 2014, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries switched its strategy to focus on battering competitors […]

Ways To Reach Billions Of Barrels Of Oil Trapped In Old Wells

Just a few years ago, you we’re hearing a lot about “fracking”, the technique revolutionizing the oil-drilling business. That business has plummeted with the drop in the price of oil. Now, drillers are using everything from electrically-induced shock waves to acid to bring up oil left behind by conventional drilling.

OPEC Unshackled From Quota Could Add Millions of Barrels

Everyone does what they want’ from now on, says Iran Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran could ship more crude to market OPEC’s new free-for-all production stance could lift the lid on millions of barrels of additional crude supply next year. “Everyone does whatever they want” now that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has effectively abandoned […]

Operating in a World of $50 Oil

While hopes for a reversal in oil prices may have faded just after mid-August when U.S. crude oil futures slipped to a six-and-a half year low, the battered petroleum industry continues to plod along in its search for ways to steer through these difficult times. Last month, some industry players met in Singapore for the […]

Crude Price Crash Could Drill a 19-Million-Barrel Hole in Future Supplies

Each day crude prices remain weak, it puts the industry one step closer to a potential day of reckoning. In the near term, that reckoning could be with the industry’s banks and credit investors, which are growing worried about the impact that low oil prices will have on the entire industry’s ability to pay back […]

More Russian Oil Drilling Shows its Resolve to OPEC

Russian oil firms are drilling more, showing the world’s top crude producer is ready for a longer fight for market share with OPEC, as its industry can carry on even if oil prices reach $35 per barrel. As OPEC prepares to meet on Friday in Vienna, Russia is sending a low key delegation for talks which are very unlikely […]

One Year Later and OPEC Still Hasn’t Killed Shale

“No change.” It was roughly one year ago that Kuwait’s oil minister succinctly delivered the message that would turn the oil market on its head. The group of oil producing nations had decided to keep the organization’s output at a ceiling of 30 million barrels per day, despite the fact that supplies were surging thanks […]

What it costs to produce a barrel of oil

Everyone in the energy industry is suffering as crude oil prices have slumped. But some oil producing countries are hurting more than others. In the United Kingdom, it costs $52.50 to produce a barrel of oil — which is trading right now around $42. Oil production in Brazil costs nearly $49 per barrel. Production costs […]

Saudis surge oil output even as prices drop

Saudi Arabia has raced ahead of Russia to become the world’s leading oil producer, Sputnik news agency has quoted a the Emirati news website Aliqtisadi as saying in a report on Wednesday. Although oil prices are at a multi-year low, Saudi Arabia has ramped up production, offering discounts to buyers as it aims to drive up its market share. Saudi Arabia previously said […]

Should We Worry As Oil Stocks Hit 3 billion barrels?

Nearly 3 billion barrels of crude petroleum and refined products are being stored by oil firms in the advanced economies according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Commentators have seized on the 3 billion figure as a shorthand way to convey how oversupplied the oil market has become. Large round numbers exert a powerful pull […]

The World’s 3 Billion Barrel Oil Glut

While talk of record backlogs of supertankers and an unprecented 3 billion barrels of crude oil stock-piles sound impressive – and are weighing on crude prices – the following stunning image provides some context for just what this means…   If the 3 billion barrels of crude oil gluttiness was put into tankers, the line […]

Oil Crash Means Biggest Boomers Halt Supply Growth in 2016

To understand what the oil price crash will mean for global crude supplies next year, look no further than the two nations that added more barrels to world markets in 2015 than anyone else. The U.S. and Iraq, whose extra crude this year equates to about 80 percent of the global surplus, will fail to […]

The Case For Peak Oil

All charts below were created with data from JODI, the EIA and OPEC MOMR. It is in thousand barrels per day and the last data point is September 2015. World crude oil production has taken off during the last two years due primarily to US shale oil production and higher output from OPEC. However very […]

Iraqi oil selling at $30

Iraq may increase oil output further in 2016, although less dramatically than this year, intensifying a battle for market share between OPEC members and non-OPEC rivals that has forced Baghdad to sell some crude grades for as little as $30 a barrel. Iraq’s output in 2015 has jumped almost 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), or […]

The Looming Bankruptcy Of Saudi Arabia

There’s two interesting little stories in this idea that Saudi Arabia is going to go bust in a couple of years as a result of the sagging oil price. Both are more general economic ideas than just the story of that oil price. The first is that mono-anything in economics is something we don’t really […]

Bakken Big Decline in September

The NDIC has published their monthly update for Bakken Oil Productin and all North Dakota Oil Production. Bakken production was down 24,424 barrels per day while all North Dakota was down 25,378 bpd. Here is an amplified version of the last 15 months of North Dakota production. September 2015 production is now below September 2014 […]

Oil Supply Outside OPEC to Stagnate by 2020

OPEC’s share of the global oil market will expand from 2020 as prices recover to $80 and supply outside the group stagnates due to spending cuts, according to the International Energy Agency. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ share of global supply will remain steady at 41 percent until 2020 then rise to 44 percent […]

Saudi Vice Oil Minister Sees Price Surge After Cutbacks

The scale of the global oil and gas industry’s spending cuts are making another surge in energy prices possible by diminishing future supply, Saudi Vice Minister of Petroleum & Mineral Resources Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said. Investments have been cut by $200 billion this year and will drop another 3 percent to 8 percent next […]

Saudi Arabia will not stop pumping

Saudi Arabia is determined to stick to its policy of pumping enough oil to protect its global market share, despite the financial pain inflicted on the kingdom’s economy. Officials have told the Financial Times that the world’s largest exporter will produce enough oil to meet customer demand, indicating that the kingdom is in no mood […]

Without Keystone, industry must find new paths for oil

Following the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, the oil industry faces the tricky task of making sure the crude oil targeted for the pipeline still gets where it needs to go. The pipeline, first proposed by TransCanada Corp. in 2008, was projected to carry 800,000 barrels a day of crude from Canada […]

« 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