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Conoco stops its shale gas exploration in Poland

WARSAW ConocoPhillips, the U.S. energy company, is withdrawing from shale gas exploration in Poland as it has not encountered commercial volumes of the gas, the company said on Friday. ConocoPhillips said its subsidiary Lane Energy Poland has invested around $220 million in Poland since 2009. It drilled seven wells over its three Western Baltic concessions. "Unfortunately, commercial volumes of natural gas were not encountered," Tim Wallace, ConocoPhillips country manager in Poland, was quoted as saing in a statement. ConocoPhillips was the last major oil company looking for shale gas in Poland, after Chevron withdrawal at the start of this year. (Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by William Hardy)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Norway Will Divest From Coal in Push Against Climate Change

Photo A coal-fired plant in Germany. Norway’s $890 billion government pension fund will shift money away from companies using coal. Credit Patrik Stollarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Norway’s $890 billion government pension fund, considered the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, will sell off many of its investments related to coal, making it the biggest institution yet to join a growing international movement to abandon at least some fossil fuel stocks. Parliament voted Friday to order the fund to shift its holdings out of billions of dollars of stock in companies whose businesses rely at least 30 percent on coal. A committee vote last week made Friday’s decision all but a formality; it will take effect next year. The decision — which could seem paradoxical, given that Norway is a major producer of oil and gas — is certain to add momentum to a push to divest in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Winners and Losers When Oil is $50 a Barrel

Major technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) have dramatically expanded U.S. oil and gas production. By year-end 2014, U.S. daily crude oil production from shale layers had increased 230 percent over 2010 levels, and total U.S. crude oil production had risen 67 percent. Despite that dramatic, unprecedented growth, the price of West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”), used as a global benchmark for oil pricing, remained between $80 a barrel (bbl) and $110/bbl from October 2010 until late November 2014. The unrelenting and massive increase in U.S. oil supply should have driven down the global price of oil. It didn’t because as these new U.S. supplies were coming online, geopolitical conflicts were flaring up in key oil-producing regions around the world. For example, there was a civil war in Libya. Iraq faced threats from ISIS. Both the United States and Europe imposed new sanctions on Iran, significantly curtailing […]

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Oil Prices Fall as Traders Await OPEC Meeting

NEW YORK—Oil prices sank to a one-week low Thursday as traders assessed ample global crude supplies ahead of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Friday meeting. An oversupply of crude oil, largely due to robust production from the U.S. and some OPEC members, is keeping prices more than 45% below their highs from last June. Many analysts and investors expect the global oil glut to shrink in the coming months as demand increases and U.S. production falls in response to spending cuts. For the time being, market watchers say, world-wide crude output continues to exceed consumption. Light, sweet oil for July delivery recently fell $1.64, or 2.7%, to $58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell $1.77, or 2.8%, to $62.03 a barrel on ICE Future Europe. OPEC, which opted against cutting production at its last meeting despite plunging oil prices, is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil prices fall as OPEC seen keeping production high

SINGAPORE Oil markets fell for a third day on Friday ahead of an OPEC meeting where the oil group is expected to stick by its policy of unconstrained output for another six months, keeping the market oversupplied. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi said he was 100 percent comfortable with the oil market, the Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper reported on Friday. After cautious early trading in Asia, prices started to fall on Friday as the first Europeans began dealing. Front-month Brent futures LCOc1 were trading at $61.73 per barrel at 0720 GMT on Friday, down 30 cents. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 39 cents at $57.61. Prices had already tumbled 5 percent over the previous two sessions as investors looked for the global oversupply to continue. "Prices came under pressure as Iraq … exports are now expected to rise approximately 5 percent in June as various fields boost output," […]

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Oil trader Hall sees U.S. crude above $65 despite high OPEC output

NEW YORK Renowned oil trader Andy Hall expects U.S. crude to rise above $65 a barrel despite high global production of oil led by OPEC, citing the drop in U.S. oil rigs as a factor. "Despite a collapse in rig counts in the U.S., oil production has yet to register a sustained decline. But it will come," Hall said in the monthly letter to investors in his $3.3 billion Connecticut-based hedge fund Astenbeck Capital Management. Some in the market believe oil prices have found a floor after last year’s rout. While drilling has become more efficient, Hall argued that cannot compensate in the near-term for the 60 percent drop in the U.S. rig count. "Oil prices will continue to work their way higher over time toward the global marginal cost of production, and in our view that is above $65 WTI," Hall said, referring to the U.S. crude benchmark, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Fall as Traders Await OPEC Meeting

NEW YORK—Oil prices sank to a one-week low Thursday as traders assessed ample global crude supplies ahead of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Friday meeting. An oversupply of crude oil, largely due to robust production from the U.S. and some OPEC members, is keeping prices more than 45% below their highs from last June. Many analysts and investors expect the global oil glut to shrink in the coming months as demand increases and U.S. production falls in response to spending cuts. For the time being, market watchers say, world-wide crude output continues to exceed consumption. Light, sweet oil for July delivery recently fell $1.64, or 2.7%, to $58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell $1.77, or 2.8%, to $62.03 a barrel on ICE Future Europe. OPEC, which opted against cutting production at its last meeting despite plunging oil prices, is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil prices fall as crude glut overshadows strong fuel demand

SINGAPORE Oil prices fell on Thursday as a large crude glut overshadowed strong global fuel demand ahead of a meeting on Friday in which OPEC looks to be unlikely to change its production quota. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to continue to produce about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) above demand, adding to a glut that has left millions of barrels stored on tankers without a buyer. Front-month Brent futures LCOc1 were down 30 cents at $63.50 per barrel by 0717 GMT. U.S. crude futures CLc1 dropped 40 cents to $59.24. Energy advisory Wood Mackenzie said on Thursday it was unlikely OPEC would agree to cut output at its June 5 meeting and that it expected the group’s crude output to remain just above its 30 million bpd production ceiling through 2016. The company said it forecast Brent to average $60 a barrel […]

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Natural Gas Rebounds Despite Data Showing Second-Largest Surplus on Record

Natural gas prices dipped, then rebounded to near unchanged as traders who respond to charts boosted the market despite new data showing the second-largest weekly surplus on record. Prices bounced after falling just past a one-month intraday low of $2.557 a million British thermal units. That could have been enough to scare a slew of bearish traders into quickly unwinding pre-existing bets that profit when the market falls, traders and analysts said. Such trades are closed out by buying futures to cover the position, which can feed into a price rally when it is done in large numbers at the same time. The front-month July contract lost 0.8 cent, or 0.3%, to $2.626 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had fallen as much as 3% in the morning before, flip-flopping around unchanged the rest of the day. The low point came after the […]

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NYMEX July gas futures settle at $2.626/MMBtu, down 0.8 cent

The NYMEX July natural gas futures contract settled 0.8 cent lower at $2.626/MMBtu Thursday following a US Energy Information Administration storage report that showed a build well above expectations. US natural gas in storage rose 132 Bcf to 2.233 Tcf in the week that ended May 29, the EIA said in its weekly storage report, compared with analysts’ consensus expectations of a 118-122 Bcf injection. "The 132 Bcf injection was the largest injection since 2003 and the second largest injection ever reported," Kent Bayazitoglu, head of energy market analytics at Gelber & Associates, said in daily commentary. The reason for the much larger-than-expected injection, Bayazitoglu said, was mild weather that suppressed demand during the week ended May 29 and continued strong growth in supply. In other words, supply continues to outstrip demand. Article continues below… Platts Natural Gas Alert provides global coverage of the major natural gas and LNG […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple