(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.
“It’s very clear that the production of oil and gas has carried [Texas] through this boomlet. Once the golden goose leaves, there’s nothing left but them regular gooses.”
Texas state Representative Garnet Coleman
The long-awaited OPEC decision came on Friday. With the Saudis and their close allies adamant that they would not cut production unless Russia and Iran and other OPEC members agreed to cut too, the meeting had no where to go but to continue existing policies. Indonesia was readmitted into the cartel and the output ceiling was adjusted to 31.5 million b/d reflecting the realities of the addition of Indonesia and of actual current production. While the cartel will reconsider the issue in June, the final decision led to considerable pessimism among traders. Global over-production is now running some 1.8 million to 2 million b/d and there is a good possibility that Iran will add at least another 500,000 b/d to the glut in the first six months of 2016. OPEC is hoping that stronger demand for oil will erase at least some of the over-production next year, but many see overproduction continuing into 2017.
(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.
(CBS) VIENNA – OPEC nations decided Friday to keep producing oil at their current high levels, effectively acknowledging their inability to push up crude prices.
