(National Geographic) President Barack Obama’s rejection of a controversial U.S.-Canadian oil pipeline signals U.S. leadership on climate change, but it’s not expected to stop the growth in Canada’s oil production —at least not anytime soon.
(Barrons) A Lombard Street economist writes that a decline below this level is more likely than a sustained rally.
(Inside Higher Ed) The impending collapse of civilization should, as Samuel Johnson said about being hanged in a fortnight, wonderfully concentrate the mind. For most of the interview subjects whose responses Matthew Schneider-Mayerson analyzes in a recent book, that collapse is inevitable, if not already underway.
(ArtBerman.com) Only 1% of the Bakken Play area is commercial at current oil prices. 4% of horizontal wells drilled since 2000 meet the EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) threshold needed to break even at current oil prices, drilling and completion, and operating costs.
The leading producing companies evaluated in this study are losing $11 to $38 on each barrel of oil that they produce, the very definition of waste.
(bakkenshale.com) More energy companies are exiting the Bakken Shale Play as they struggle to adapt to the prolonged low oil prices.
(FORBES) As an investor in start-up companies, I am always working to test my assumptions and update my understanding of where the energy sector is now, and the direction it is moving in towards the future. Some key questions for this dynamic year: Is the current oil crisis the marking of a step change towards a cleaner energy industry or merely history repeating itself? While today’s oil price at $45-50 per barrel is probably too low to be considered the new normal, what should we expect moving forward?
(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. went short oil and gas companies last quarter, bringing its total exposure to the industry below $12 billion for the first time since it started breaking out that risk to investors at the end of last year.
(Reuters) PBF Energy Inc, one of the largest independent oil refiners in the United States, spent heavily in recent years to build the rail terminals at its Delaware City complex that it needed to take delivery of large loads of crude coming from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields.
But now it is considering eliminating those deliveries altogether, and replacing them with foreign crude imports, according to two sources familiar with the situation. It has even closed its small Oklahoma City office that was only opened in 2013 and had served as a hub for the company’s trading in North Dakota’s oil, the sources said.
(Platts) Platts Energy Economist Managing Editor Ross McCracken takes a look at OPEC’s spare crude production capacity. Much has been made recently of the US’ new spare capacity, but OPEC’s role has also shifted, as he explains.
OPEC’s spare production capacity is estimated by the US Energy Information Administration at 1.54 million b/d, a mere 180,000 b/d above the level reached in 2008 when oil prices hit their record high. But don’t panic! Oil inventories are at very high levels. The International Energy Agency puts global oil stocks at 147 million barrels, which it notes could notionally deliver 1.6 million b/d for just over 90 days in the event of a major supply disruption.
“”The industry is under so much pressure that you need to have a clear plan. You need to balance capital expenditure against production. Our capex in 2015 will be around 30 percent lower than in 2014.”
BG Group CEO Helge Lund [Q: how will that impact production in 3-5 years?]
