The Oil Glut Courtesy of…China?
Ship tracking data from Bloomberg shows that 83 supertankers carrying around 166 million barrels of oil are headed to China, which has stockpiled an impressive 787,000 barrels a day in the first quarter of 2016—the highest stockpiling rate since 2014....
Energy Consumption Shift Puts India in the Spotlight
Access to energy sources at low prices will continue to drive the world’s political agenda, as energy is a component as well as an object of national power. The world’s primary energy consumption from commercial sources of energy has grown...
Keep Doha Expectations in Check
The weekend meeting between many OPEC and non-OPEC producers has helped spur the recent gains in the price of oil. We are concerned that market may be getting ahead of itself. The weekend meeting between many OPEC and non-OPEC producers...
An Expert Weighs in on $85 Oil…this Year?
After a 50 percent rally in oil prices between February and March, crude has retreated a bit as of late. The upcoming OPEC-Russia meeting in Doha looms over the markets, but few expect the outcome to have any material impact...
Which Companies Will Weather the Oil Price Storm
It is possible that prices may jump again but they will almost certainly stay below US$50 per barrel throughout 2016. Speculation may increase prices but, without any substantive changes in supply-and-demand, any rally will be short-lived — as has happened...
Oddly, U.S. Oil Exports Dropped after Lifting the Export Ban
Just over three months after the authorities lifted the four-decade ban on crude oil exports, the U.S. has actually exported less this year than it did over the same period the year before, when the ban was still in place....
Is the Oil Rally Over?
Oil prices have climbed by about 50 percent from their February lows, topping $40 per barrel. However, the rally could be reaching its limits, at least temporarily, as persistent oversupply and the prospect of new shale production caps any potential...
Oil’s Inventory Problem
Oil prices have shown signs of life over the past few weeks, as production declines in the U.S. raise expectations that the market is starting to adjust. As a result, Brent crude recently surpassed $40 per barrel for the first...
The Price of Oil is Falling Again Because…Iran?
The price of oil is seeing its biggest decline today since February 23. The ostensible reason is that Iran once again reiterated it would only consider capping its output after it reached four million barrels a day, its pre-sanction output....
The Next U.S. President Won’t Likely Dictate Energy Technology
There have been dramatic changes in the U.S. energy system under our current president – a big drop in the use of coal, a boom in domestic oil and gas development from fracking, and the rapid spread of renewable energy....
Meeting Japan’s Ambitious Nuclear Power Goals
Five years after the 11 March 2011 Fukushima accident, which put Japan’s nuclear power industry under intense scrutiny, official policy is still a shambles. In June 2011, the then prime minister Naoto Kan announced that Japan was phasing out nuclear...
Who Benefits from the Energy Sector Mess?
The US-led petrodollar era is being surpassed by a multipolar oil age in the Middle East. The transition is permeated by fundamental change and financial speculation that is penalizing the roles of the US and China in the region. ...
Can Oil Prices Find a Happy Medium?
What if I told you that there was a period in history where oil demand declined by 5 million barrels per day and non-OPEC supply increased by 5 million barrels per day, yet oil price rallied more than 50 percent?...
Oil’s Cold War
This is a financial cold war—nothing more, nothing less. While there are billions of reasons to cut output, and every major producing country is reeling from the loss of revenues, some are weathering the current bust better than others are,...
Riding the Storm Out on the North Sea
The oil price is struggling to stay above $30/barrel, little more than a quarter of the price 18 months ago. Recent forecasts for the UK industry have become much gloomier as a result. As recently as three months ago, industry...