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Global Oil Job Cuts Top Quarter-Million as Rigs at Five-Year Low

(Bloomberg) — The number of jobs gutted from oil and gas companies around the world has now passed the 250,000 mark, with still more to come, according to industry consultant Graves & Co. "I was surprised it’s gotten this far," John Graves, whose Houston firm assists in oil and gas deals with audits and due diligence, said Friday in a phone interview. The industry has idled more than 1,000 rigs and slashed more than $100 billion in spending this year to cope with oil prices that have fallen by more than half since 2014. Oil services, drilling and supply companies are bearing the brunt of the downturn, having accounted for 79 percent of the layoffs, according to Graves. U.S. oil producers resumed their pullback on drilling this week, idling 10 rigs in an effort to cut costs and stem the rising tide of crude supplies that’s gutted oil prices […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale drilling boosted U.S. oil and gas reserves in 2014: EIA

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. Reserves of oil and natural gas in the United States shot higher last year, according to government data released Monday, setting records that reveal the extent to which a decade-long drilling boom has transformed the energy landscape. Proved reserves of natural gas rose by 34.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 10 percent, to a record high of 388.8 tcf in 2014, while oil reserves rose 3.4 billion barrels, or nine percent, to 39.9 billion barrels, the highest since 1972, the Energy Information Administration said in a statement. The EIA describes proved reserves as oil and gas that can be extracted using current technology and under today’s economic conditions. The increases, which were the sixth in a row, were driven by prolific production from shale plays that, through hydraulic fracturing, have produced vast amounts of fuel, creating […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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North Dakota ‘Man Camps’ Battle Pending Ban In Oil Capital

WILLISTON, N.D., Nov 23 (Reuters) – Providers of temporary housing for North Dakota’s oilfield workers are fighting a plan by the state’s energy capital to evict their "man camps," fearing it could set an example for others and add to the sector’s woes caused by a global commodity slump. Earlier this month, the Williston City Commission voted 3-2 in favor of an ordinance that would deny "man camps" occupancy permit extensions beyond July 2016. Should the ordinance pass in a final vote on Nov. 24, which appears likely, it would mark the first time since the U.S. shale boom began in 2008 that a community has evicted a "man camp," though other communities in Texas and North Dakota have blocked their arrival or expansion. Williston leaders say it is time for oilfield workers to plant permanent roots or use existing hotels for extended stays and point out to abundant […]

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Canada’s Energy-Rich Alberta to Cap Oil Sands Emissions

The Suncor oil-sands extraction plant near Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. CALGARY, Alberta—The government of oil-rich Alberta province in western Canada on Sunday pledged to phase out coal emissions by 2030, limit greenhouse gases from oil-sands production and implement an economywide carbon tax. The province unveiled the long-awaited plan one day ahead of a meeting in Ottawa among Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, and the leaders of other Canadian provinces and territories to discuss environment policy. Mr. Trudeau has pledged to develop a framework for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions before a United Nations summit on Nov. 30. The plan comes at a challenging time for coal and oil producers in western Canada that are struggling to cope with low commodity prices. “Our goal is to become one of the world’s most progressive and forward-looking energy producers,” Ms. Notley said at a news conference in Edmonton. “We are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Despite Cheap Gas, Coming Back to Peak Oil

Yesterday, in Virginia, I filled up my gas tank for $2.75 a gallon. At that price, even old peak oilers like my wife and I hardly think about poor old King Hubbard’s theory much these days. And though gas has been cheap in the U.S. for the last six months or more, I still think Hubbard was right that global oil production naturally has a point of peak production. I used to think that the peak of world oil production already came in 2006 . But with the rise of fracking and other extreme fossil fuels, now I’m not so sure. Could the oil peak come a decade or more in the future as the optimists mentioned in the infographic below predict? Or could the whole thing be some kind of confusing shell game, with financial markets moving petro dollars around in clever ways to make it look like […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The Case For Peak Oil

JODI World C+C The Texas RRC Production Data is out. There appear to be no big surprises this month. All RRC data is through September but the EIA data is only through August. Note: For all those not familiar with the Texas Railroad Commission data it is always incomplete. That is the reason for the drooping data lines you see in the charts. The EIA data is what they believe the final estimate will be. Texas C+C Final month production was just a little higher in September than August. That usually indicates a small uptick in production. But the data is so incomplete it is hard to tell. Bakken & North Dakota OPEC 12 was down 256,000 bpd in October. BH Total World

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The World’s 3 Billion Barrel Oil Glut

While talk of record backlogs of supertankers and an unprecented 3 billion barrels of crude oil stock-piles sound impressive – and are weighing on crude prices – the following stunning image provides some context for just what this means… If the 3 billion barrels of crude oil gluttiness was put into tankers, the line would reach a stunning 530 kilometers… Source: @JavierBlas * * * As we previously noted, via Bloomberg , Oil stockpiles have swollen to a record of almost 3 billion barrels because of strong production in OPEC and elsewhere, potentially deepening the rout in prices, according to the International Energy Agency. This “massive cushion has inflated” on record supplies from Iraq, Russia and Saudi Arabia, even as world fuel demand grows at the fastest pace in five years, the agency said. Still, the IEA predicts that supplies outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will decline […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Should we worry as oil stocks hit 3 billion barrels?

Storage tanks are seen inside the Exxonmobil Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, November 6, 2015. Nearly 3 billion barrels of crude petroleum and refined products are being stored by oil firms in the advanced economies according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Commentators have seized on the 3 billion figure as a shorthand way to convey how oversupplied the oil market has become. Large round numbers exert a powerful pull on the imagination but shorn of context they are meaningless and apt to confuse rather than illuminate. The statistic is technically accurate but the way in which it is being employed by analysts and journalists is hugely misleading. It would be more helpful to report the change, which is 240 million barrels, or 9 percent, over the last year. GLOBAL OIL INVENTORIES The 3 billion barrels figure being widely quoted is actually for a relatively small subset […]

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Federal charges filed for deadly 2012 oil rig blast

Federal charges filed in response to 2012 rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico that left three workers dead. Photo by James Jones Jr./Shutterstock NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 20 (UPI) — The U.S. Justice Department said it filed criminal charges in response to a 2012 oil platform incident in the Gulf of Mexico that left three workers dead. Three rig workers were killed following an explosion on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico operated by Black Elk Energy. The company said a third-party investigation found contractors on the rig failed to follow basic safety standards during construction work . The U.S. Interior Department described the incident as one of the worst in terms of the loss of life since the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in 2010. Three individuals and companies Black Elk, Grand Isle Shipyard and oil field services company Wood Group now face charges from the Justice Department ranging […]

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Low Crude Prices Catch Up With the U.S. Oil Patch

The ingenuity and easy money that allowed American oil companies to keep pumping through a year-long price crash appear to be petering out as U.S. crude slides toward $40 a barrel. U.S. companies have stunned global rivals by continuing to produce oil —particularly from shale deposits—ever more cheaply as American crude prices plunged from over $100 a barrel in 2014. But the recent drop toward $40 a barrel and below puts even the most efficient operators in a bind. The worst-case scenario most major producers have discussed in the past six weeks with investors involved a price of $50 a barrel. That is beginning to look optimistic as Saudi Arabia continues to produce near-record volumes and major exporters such as Iraq have increased output. Many oil executives, including BP BP -2.33 % PLC CEO Bob Dudley, expect prices to be “lower for longer.” The U.S. Energy Department is forecasting […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple