Featured Articles
Oil & Gas Equipment Manufacturers will be Slow to Recover
Oilfield services, shipbuilders and other industries that rose with the pre-2014 oil price boom have had it hard. Since barrel rates fell, their previous patrons have become uninterested in doling out major purchase orders, leaving oil and gas equipment manufacturers...
How is China’s Low-Carbon Transformation Progressing?
China was responsible for 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2012. According to World Bank research, cities consume more than 65 percent of global energy and emit some 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Transforming cities into ‘low-carbon cities’...
Oil Output Freeze Looking Less Likely
Oil has broken down further today. The ostensible trigger was the larger than expected build in US inventories. However, the price of oil has been trending lower since the beginning of last week. It appears that our skepticism of talk...
The Permian Basin Bucks the Trend for Now
The collapse of oil prices has ground shale drilling to a halt, but the one region where drilling is still active, and even increasing, is in West Texas. The collapse of oil prices has ground shale drilling...
Are You a ‘Lithium Skeptic’?
We have gone electric, and there is no going back at this point. Lithium is our new fuel, but like fossil fuels, the reserves we are currently tapping into are finite—and that is what investors can take to the bank....
Saudi Arabia Plays a Balancing Act
It's possible that OPEC is crying wolf with hints of an output freeze next month in Algiers; but it's also possible that they are ramping up production to take the sting out of a freeze. This is a delicate...
Stacking the Deck before the Next OPEC Meeting
Saudi Arabia suggests it may be increasing its August crude output to a new all-time high as it could give it more leverage to influence the September informal talks on a possible production freeze, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing industry sources. Saudi...
Vietnam’s Ambitious Clean and Green Goals
In recent decades, Vietnam’s demand for energy has increased along with its rapid economic development. This surge in demand could provide the impetus to develop Vietnam’s emerging renewable energy industry. In recent decades, Vietnam’s demand for energy has increased along...
Are Conditions Setting the Stage for Higher Natural Gas Prices?
The U.S. electric power sector burned through a record amount of natural gas in recent weeks, a sign of the shifting power generation mix and also a signal that natural gas supplies could get tighter than many analysts had...
A New OPEC Meeting May Give Oil New Life
This Great Graphic from Bloomberg shows the September light sweet crude oil futures contract since peaking in early June near $52.75. It reached a low last week of about $39.20. The turn last week came on news that although oil...
Conditions now Could Set Up Higher Oil Prices Later
Another oil price downturn threatens to deepen the plunging levels of investment in upstream oil and gas production, which could create a more acute price spike in the years ahead. Oil and gas companies have gutted their capex budgets, necessary...
September Oil is Losing a Technical Battle
Today's 2.5% fall in the September light sweet crude oil futures contract extends the decline that began on June 9. It is the third consecutive loss and the fifth loss in the past six sessions. There are two important points...
Lithium’s Run is Likely not Over
So far, lithium has been the hottest metal of 2016, beating out gold, with exponential demand expected over the coming years. Although the price trajectory of the metal has been subdued in recent months, the fundamentals behind the long-term...
(Re) Calling All Oil Workers
The rig count has rebounded from the lows seen in late May; a small indication that oil companies in the U.S. could begin drilling anew. Shale drilling is a short-cycle prospect, requiring only a few weeks to drill and bring...
More Rigs could be the Oil Rally’s Greatest Foe
In an industry where anything could happen, surprises—often unwelcomed—are hard to come by. Oil is exactly such an industry at the moment. No one is sure where oil is heading, near-term forecasts range from $20 to $80 per barrel by the end of...