Saudi Arabia plans $27bn in bond issues
Saudi Arabia is returning to the bond market with a plan to raise $27bn by the end of the year, in the starkest sign yet of the strain lower oil Continue Reading
Syria’s Oil Industry Largely Destroyed
Syria’s oil industry, like most of its industries, is in a state of collapse. And even recent gains, according to analysts, won’t come close to bringing it back. “We have great necessity to have oil production to make the economic wheel go forward,” said Afif Dalla, a political analyst in Damascus, but “I think in general we won’t be able to reproduce the [former levels of] oil production again at the same time of the existence of these terrorist groups.” As long as the war drags on, he adds, no sector of the Syrian economy will recover fully. Since the onset of the Syrian war in 2011, government oil production has nearly stopped, with current production estimated at less than three percent of pre-war levels. In recent days, some local authorities have re-opened one of the country’s largest oil fields, more than doubling the country’s small output. But the […]
U.S. crude stockpiles fall more than expected in week: EIA
Oil storage tanks are seen at sunrise with the Rocky Mountains and the Denver downtown skyline in the background October 14, 2014. U.S. crude stocks fell last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell 4.41 million barrels to 455.28 million in the last week, a bigger decline than the decrease of 1.5 million barrels that analysts had expected. U.S. crude imports fell last week by 370,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 6.6 million bpd, or about 2.5 million barrels over the course of the week. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 542,000 barrels, EIA said. "The report was distinctly bullish for crude, with refining up and imports down, while modest builds for the products tilts bearish," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Clipper Data in New York. After initially extending […]
Yes, she confirms, that’s the same
Shell’s Polar Pioneer in Port Angeles, Wash., on May 12. Photographer: Jason Redmond/Reuters In a windowless conference room in Anchorage, a dozen Royal Dutch Shell employees report on the highest-profile oil project in the multinational’s vast global portfolio. Warmed by mid-July temperatures, Arctic ice in the Chukchi Sea, northwest of the Alaskan mainland, is receding. Storms are easing; helicopter flights will soon resume. Underwater volcanoes—yes, volcanoes—are dormant. “That’s good news for us,” Ann Pickard, Shell’s top executive for the Arctic, whispers to a visitor. Overhead, a bank of video monitors displays blinking green radar images of an armada of Shell vessels converging on a prospect called Burger J. Company geologists believe that beneath Burger J—70 miles offshore and 800 miles from the Anchorage command center—lie up to 15 billion barrels of oil. An additional 11 billion barrels are thought to be buried due east under the Beaufort Sea. All […]
U.S. energy group wants oil and gas in presidential debate mix
Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, wants U.S. presidential candidates to lay out vision for energy. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) — With the first debate coming this week, the American Petroleum Institute said it wants to hear how presidential candidates will navigate the era of abundance. Fox News announced a roster of 10 candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president for this week’s debate. Real estate mogul Donald Trump is leading in public opinion surveys alongside former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker . The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the interests of the oil and gas sector, said it wants to hear how each candidate, including Democrats, plans to steer the United States as it takes a global leadership position in terms of oil and natural gas production. API President and Chief Executive Officer Jack […]
Pioneer bucks trend by planning more rigs in Texas
Pioneer Natural Resources moves against tide with plans to spend more on rigs in shale basins in Texas. Photo by Calin Tatu/Shutterstock AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 5 (UPI) — Despite posting a loss for the second quarter, Pioneer Natural Resources said it would increase its capital budget for the second half and add more rigs. Pioneer said it lost $218 million in the second quarter, joining its peers struggling to generate revenue during the downturn in the crude oil market. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Scott Sheffield said in a statement the company was seeing benefits from operations focused largely in the Spraberry/Wolfcamp shale basin in Texas. "As a result, we are putting rigs back to work and plan to return to an activity level during 2016 that can result in a similar growth trajectory that we were delivering in the second half of 2014 before the downturn," he said […]
API: Oil, natural gas boost 2015 US trade balance
The oil and natural gas industry continues to drive US economic gains in 2015, a trend that could accelerate under free trade policies, noted American Petroleum Institute Chief Economist John Felmy in comments about the Aug. 5 midyear trade report from the US Department of Commerce. “Despite a very competitive global market, the US energy revolution continues to push our trade balance in a positive direction,” Felmy said. “Oil imports remain on the decline, and strong exports of petroleum and refined products are creating new opportunities for America to bring wealth and jobs back to US shores.” Bolstered by the surge in US oil and natural gas production , the total US trade deficit had dropped to $508 billion by 2014, after peaking at $762 billion in 2006. Today’s report, covering trade data through June, shows that the US trade deficit among petroleum and petroleum products fell 56.1% compared […]
Explorers In Need of Cash Are Selling Oil Fields as Last Resort
Energy explorers reeling from the rout in oil prices are looking for liquidity in an obvious place: their rocks. Having exhausted other ways to raise cash as a glut of global supply depresses prices, a slew of producers from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to Comstock Resources Inc. announced more than $2.4 billion in asset sales last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Selling oil and gas fields to pay off lenders and fund new drilling — often a wildcatter’s option of last resort — is surging after a six-month lull. There’s more to come — by one estimate, another $20 billion this year — as executives at Occidental Petroleum Corp., Whiting Petroleum Corp., Penn Virginia Corp., Exco Resources Inc., Chesapeake Energy Corp . and Ultra Petroleum Corp. have all said in recent weeks that they are selling assets or exploring sales. The surge shows how the industry’s two-pronged strategy […]
Fracking-Related Earthquakes Could Ding Credit Quality
CCOs Concerned About Compliance IT Systems: Survey More authority and stronger organizational support are helping to increase the effectiveness of corporate compliance programs, yet persistent concerns remain about information technology (IT) systems’ ability to fulfill compliance program requirements, according to “In Focus: 2015 Compliance Trends Survey,” a joint effort between Deloitte and Compliance Week. In addition, third parties continue to be the single biggest worry for surveyed CCOs.
The Link Between Oil Reserves and Oil Prices
Last December the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest estimate of U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves . Although natural gas reserves rose, the real story was crude oil reserves. The EIA reported that U.S. proved reserves of crude oil and lease condensate had increased for the fifth year in a row, and had exceeded 36 billion barrels for the first time since 1975: There are two reasons for this increase in proved reserves. The first is that despite >150 years of oil production in the U.S., new fields are still being discovered. In March 2015 the EIA released its update to the Top 100 U.S. Oil and Gas Fields as a supplement to the December report. This was the EIA’s first update on the Top 100 fields since 2009. The most significant addition to the list was the Eagleville field (in the Eagle Ford Shale), […]