Category: Oil and Gas Industry

If Oil is so Cheap, then Why isn’t Gasoline?


Crude oil prices have dropped dramatically since last summer. Strangely, over the same time period, gasoline prices have fallen much less.

If a barrel of oil today costs less than half what it did last summer, why hasn’t the price people pay at the pump decreased a similar amount?

Sweet or sour?

It’s tough to say exactly how much the price of crude oil has fallen because there are many varieties, from light to heavy and sweet to sour. Prices vary widely based on the oil’s location and quality.

Could a Dutch Water Recovery Technology in Texas Eliminate Drought?


Texas is famous the world over for two things on a massive scale: oil and droughts. Now the slick but dry state is becoming famous for water: that precious element that both resolves the drought problem and makes it possible to pump more oil out of the ground.

Not only does Texas have the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford shale, but it also has the Gulf of Mexico and its massive oil deposits and endless gallons of seawater that are now economically treatable thanks to next generation water processing technology.

Oil Price Analysis has Led All of the Way to the Creation of #Rigcountguesses


Predicting and diagnosing the trajectory of oil prices has become something of a cottage industry in the past year. But along with all of the excess crude flowing from the oil patch, there is also an abundance of market indicators that while important, tend to produce a lot of noise that makes any accurate estimate nearly impossible.

Lithuania Signs LNG Deal with U.S. Company


Lithuania has signed a non-binding agreement with Louisiana-based Delfin LNG for the supply of liquefied natural gas. The Baltic state hopes to break away from Russian imports.

Consider These Factors When Pondering Indefinite Cheap Oil


Oil’s rapid decline since August of last year has been dramatic. To listen to some commentators you would also think it is unprecedented and irreversible. Those claiming that oil will continue to fall from here and remain low for evermore, however, are flying in the face of both history and common sense. The question we should be asking ourselves is not if oil prices will recover, but when they will. 

Figure 1: Inflation adjusted WTI since Jan 1985. Chart from Macrotrends.net 

Crude Production Reaching Storage Limit


Producers prepare for drastically low oil and gasoline prices in the coming months as stockpiles increase. The United States has been producing a million more barrels a day than it is consuming in the last seven weeks.

The U.S. Department of Energy reported American supplies are at its highest capacity in 80 years. Crude inventories have been reaching overcapacity in storage tanks, otherwise known as “tank tops.” Companies are reducing drilling in the short-term, but excess supplies do not expect to decline until later in the year.

The World Appears to be Swimming in Oil


In 2008, Canadian economist Jeff Rubin stunned the oil market with a bold prediction: With the world economy growing at 5 percent a year, oil demand would grow with it, outpacing supply, thus lifting the oil price from $147 to over $200 a barrel. 

Is there a Logical Oil Price?


If you have been following the price of oil over the last few months, the chances are you are a little confused. On the one hand, you have the likes of A. Gary Shilling who, in this Bloomberg article, loudly trumpets the prospect of oil at $10/Barrel, and on the other, there is T. Boone Pickens, who, at the end of last year was predicting a return to $100 within 12-18 months. Pickens prediction has moderated somewhat as WTI and Brent crude have continued to fall, but in January he was still saying that oil would return to $70 or $80/barrel in the near future. So, who is correct? 

The Darwinian Nature of Commodities (Oil) in an Interview with Stan Szary


With crude oil prices collapsing and small American oil producers faced with grim choices for survival, the Darwinian nature of commodity market cycles rears its head, dictating that only the fittest will survive—and only the fittest of the fittest will thrive. As the herd of small companies that formed the backbone of the shale boom is culled, there emerges a new focus on junior players who are sitting on prime prospects where oil can be produced at $20 per barrel or lower and still turn a healthy profit at today’s prices hovering around $45 – $52 range.

Keeping the Arctic Oil Industry’s Dreams Alive


Oil companies have eyed the Arctic for years. With an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil lying north of the Arctic Circle, the circumpolar north is arguably the last corner of the globe that is still almost entirely unexplored. 

As drilling technology advances, conventional oil reserves become harder to find, and climate change contributes to melting sea ice, the Arctic has moved up on the list of priorities in oil company boardrooms.