(CNBC) Oil prices pared some of their losses on Wednesday after falling to near seven-year lows earlier in the week, but those hoping for a rebound next year may be disappointed.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told CNBC that crude prices could continue to fall in 2016, presenting a challenge to governments that are trying to encourage the use of relatively expensive sustainable energy.
(CNBC) The collapse of the housing bubble sent the world spiraling into recession. The collapse of the energy and commodity bubble threatens to be just as damaging. That few are willing to even use the term “bubble” with regard to the boom and bust in the price of oil, copper, iron ore, and other materials tells how early we still are in the painful unwind phase.
(Peak Oil Barrel) The EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report has US shale oil on a steep decline. The below shale oil production charts are the EIA’s estimate of what shale production will look like through January 2016. Keep in mind this is the EIA’s estimate and not hard production numbers.
(Reuters) A global oil supply glut will persist through 2016 as demand growth slows from a five-year high and key OPEC members maintain near-record output, the International Energy Agency said, even as low prices curb supply outside the producer group.
(NY Times) The oil industry, with its history of booms and busts, is in its deepest downturn since the 1990s, if not earlier.
Earnings are down for companies that have made record profits in recent years, leading them to decommission nearly two-thirds of their rigs and sharply cut investments in exploration and production. More than 200,000 oil workers have lost their jobs, and manufacturing of drilling and production equipment has fallen sharply.
(Bloomberg) Oil extended losses below $40 a barrel amid speculation a record global glut will be prolonged as OPEC abandoned its long-time strategy of limiting production to control prices.
(Wall Street Journal) The standoff between major global energy producers that has created an oil glut is set to continue next year in full force, as much because of the U.S. as of OPEC.
(Bloomberg) OPEC signaled no respite from the global oil glut that has driven prices to a six-year low.
(CNBC) Plunging oil prices have left many crude-exporting countries with budgets that simply won’t balance.
For many of the biggest producers — places like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Algeria — oil accounts for the majority of the country’s exports and gross domestic product. Collapsing prices have meant dramatic declines in government revenue at a time when many political leaders are working to maintain social stability through liberal spending.
(CNBC) Just a few miles from Houston’s Astrodome, a cluster of subterranean salt caverns will soon be able to store enough oil to fill the famed stadium.
By the end of 2016, phase I of Fairway Energy Partners’ Pierce Junction crude oil storage facility will come online, touting three caverns capable of socking away a combined 10 million barrels of black gold.
