(Reuters) The first response of commodity producers to a drop in prices is normally to increase production – ensuring price falls become deeper and more prolonged.t stimulates production, because farmers try to make up by a larger volume in production the decrease in income resulting from the fall in prices.”
(Bloomberg) As oil crashes through $35 a barrel in New York, some producers are already living with the reality of much lower prices.
(Business Insider) The oil market is still way oversupplied. As a result, prices haven’t been able to recover after falling about 70% in the last year. In the last few weeks as oil prices have collapsed to post-crisis lows a number of factors — both technical and fundamental — have been working against the market.
(Wall Street Journal) Pumpjacks for an oil well near Williston, N.D. What will the global oil market look like in 2016? This year is closing out with the industry in turmoil. The price of oil is hovering in the mid-$30s a barrel, supplies are swamping the market, the U.S. is on the cusp of ending its decades-old oil-export ban, and geopolitical rivalries continue to sow uncertainty.
(Energy Matters) Every year I have a bet with a good friend on where the Brent oil price will be in December the following year. Last year I estimated $56.50, my friend $99, so this year I am a clear winner, even though I’m out by about 49%. Brent is trading at $38 as I write. I can extract little satisfaction from this since I got “close” for the wrong reasons.
(Aleklett’s Energy Mix) This year’s big news regarding the reporting of oil reserves in World Energy Outlook 2015 is that this annual report now discusses “resources that are technically possible to produce” and what proportion of these are proven reserves. When I was working on Chapter 17, The Peak of the Oil Age for my new book a few weeks ago I discussed the difference between technically producible resources and reserves.
(OilPrice.com) The EIA recently published a global oil consumption data sheet that provided a clear picture of where the global oil economy is currently heading. The data revealed that although there had been a substantial oil consumption increase in the Middle East (led by Saudi Arabia), Asia (Led by China) and Oceania, the rest of the world which included Russia , other FSU countries, the U.S., Japan and Europe experienced a consistent decline in their oil consumption rates over the last decade.
(Nikkei) Oil prices remain stuck at low levels, unaffected by the waves of risk washing over the world amid mounting geopolitical tension. What is driving that trend, and how long will it last? The Nikkei Asian Review put these and other questions to Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of research company IHS and a world-renowned expert on oil prices.
(CNBC) Unless the Fed shocks investors with a hawkish tone, oil conceivably could be a bigger factor for credit markets this week than the Fed’s first hike in nine years.
“Credit rating agency Fitch says defaults for oil and gas companies are already at the highest since 1999. Since the start of the third quarter, at least 12 oil and gas companies have defaulted on their debt. The ‘zombies’ bet that by shifting into survival mode they can hang on until oil prices recover, but the outlook is grim.”
Anna Driver and Tracy Rucinski, Reuters, “Zombies Appear in U.S. Oil Fields”
