Free Republic

ICYMI: CRUZ: We Have No Business Getting in the Middle of the Syrian Civil War; Goal Should be to Defeat ISIS Speaks with WRKO’s Jeff KuhnerHOUSTON, Texas – Today U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke with The Kuhner Report regarding the Obama administration’s disastrous foreign policy, the 2016 presidential race and the President’s decision to politicize the tragedy in Oregon.Below is an excerpt. Listen to the full interview here:Ted Cruz on the Kuhner Report (Audio)“I think it would be a mistake to get involved in the Syrian civil war. There have been voices in Washington eager for us to send...

Russian warplanes in Syria are targeting civilian oil refineries and trucks while deliberately ignoring ISIS facilities to allow the extremist group to continue its oil trade with the Assad regime, local activists claim. Citizen journalists from the Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently group claimed Russia's airstrikes are aimed at destroying local oil facilities which are mostly owned by the local population 'and have no direct links with ISIS'. Oil trucks that move between the ISIS-held cities of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, owned by civilians, are also targeted by Russian jets.

Don’t underestimate the impact of Middle East politics... The game being played in the global oil market today bears more than a passing resemblance to poker. Nobody wants to quit while they’re losing... Russia, meanwhile, is pumping the most crude ever, hitting a post-Soviet Union peak. But it may have difficulty maintaining today’s pace given a lack of investment in its aging Siberian fields... In other words, Russia is holding weak cards and the Saudis know it... The newest players at the table are U.S. shale producers. They helped the U.S. to increase output by 80% between 2008 and 2014...

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Monday ordered deep cuts to government agencies and a massive raid on state savings to make up for a more than $1 billion budget shortfall due to depressed crude prices and a drop in oil drilling. The state had more than $2 billion in various reserve accounts just one year ago, but oil prices - a key contributor to the state's wealth - have taken a nosedive in the past year. The Legislature's record-high $14.4 billion budget for the two years that began July 1 was built on oil prices and economic assumptions that...

As world leaders gathered in Paris last month for the United Nations climate summit, many seemed surprised that several large oil companies, including BP and Shell, endorsed a carbon tax as a "key element" of any international climate deal. Less surprising was the preference of those in the renewable energy sector to see a tax on carbon. The implication was of course that if major companies - oil companies in particular - want to tax themselves, who are we to stand in the way? It must be an indication that the climate crisis is so acute that even they have...

Eight years ago, Senator John McCain declared that Russia, under Vladimir Putin's administration, could only afford to be a major player in world affairs as long as energy prices remained high. In 2016, his thesis will be tested. With oil prices dipping below the $30 per barrel mark, and with Russian companies like Lukoil warning that prices might hover in the low $20s range—on top of sanctions that the United States, Japan and the European Union continue to maintain (through midyear at minimum)—has the Kremlin's luck simply run out? And what of the dream of recasting Russia in the twenty-first...

Beleaguered currency has lost more than half its value in last 18 months A dazzling display of festival lights makes Moscow look magical, brightening up the dark winter night. But the image of a bright, confident 2016 is a mirage. "To tell you the truth, we are really worried for our country," says Anya Zhurova, passing by and lured in by the light show. "We feel sick for our country and we hope our president [Vladimir Putin] can sort out all the plans he's made, but it's a difficult period." Like a heavyweight boxer, the battered Russian ruble will try...

Stuck in a recession and with no sign of a reprieve in the oil price, Russia could quickly descend into chaos if the money runs out, William Browder, a well-known critic of the Kremlin and chief executive of Hermitage Capital, told CNBC. "I don't think you can underestimate how bad the situation in Russia is right now, you've got oil below any measure where the budget can survive and you've got sanctions from the West. Russia is in what I'd call a real serious economic crisis," he said on Thursday. Speaking to CNBC in Davos where global business and political...

Picture the scene. It is 2016, oil costs on average $35 per barrel, and Russia’s recession rolls into its second year. The economy shrinks by 2-3 percent. Unemployment creeps up, and wages continue to fall, depressing consumer spending. The ruble devalues, driving up inflation. To keep price rises in check, interest rates remain high, discouraging investment. The government drains its reserves, hoping that the oil price picks up before they run dry. This was the nightmare scenario painted by Russia’s Central Bank in its December research paper. The bank, and Russia’s federal budget, is still planning for average oil prices...

Can Russia Survive Through 2020? 05 August 2011 By Sergei Petrov Strategy 2020 — the question of where Russia will be in 2020 — hangs in the air. There are a variety of scenarios being offered by leading economists, political scientists and other analysts, but one thing is clear: There will be no miracles in the next nine years. The prospects for a country mired in archaic institutions, an oil- and gas-dependent economy, systemic corruption, unprotected property rights, corrupt courts, fraudulent elections and an apathetic population can only be dim at best. I’m almost certain that Russia will not be...

The boom years left the US oil industry deep in debt. The 60 leading US independent oil and gas companies have total net debt of $206bn, from about $100bn at the end of 2006. As of September, about a dozen had debts that were more than 20 times their earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Worries about the health of these companies have been rising. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch index of high-yield energy bonds, which includes many indebted oil companies, has an average yield of more than 19%. Almost a third of the 155 US oil and...

Last year, 42 North American drillers filed for bankruptcy, according to law firm Haynes and Boone. It's only likely to get worse this year. Experts say there are a lot of parallels between today's crisis and the last oil crash in 1986. Back then, 27% of exploration and production companies went bust. Defaults are skyrocketing again. In December, exploration and production company defaults topped 11%, up from just 0.5% the previous year, according to Fitch Ratings. That's a 2,000%-plus jump. It's just the beginning, says John La Forge, head of real assets strategy at Wells Fargo. If history repeats, people...

Russia appears to be making preparations to establish a new airbase in Syria, this time along the border with NATO-member Turkey, a senior U.S. official tells Fox News. The move is bound to anger the Turkish government months after the downing of a Russian jet by the Turks. A handful of Russian military personnel, including engineers, has been seen in the vicinity of a largely abandoned airfield in Qamishli, a city in northeast Syria along the border with Turkey. The area is largely controlled by Syrian Kurds, with pockets of regime-controlled territory including the airport.Russia and Syria’s Kurds have a...

U.S. shale oil production is expected to fall for a seventh month in a row in February, declining at about the same rate as the month before as drillers manage to eke out a few more barrels from each new well, U.S. data showed on Monday. Total output was set to decline by 116,000 bpd to 4.8 million bpd in February compared with January, a U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) drilling productivity report said. Production was estimated to have fallen by about the same margin in January, despite some expectations that the decline rate would begin to quicken as companies...

A stunning new Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that one of the United States Navy’s top commanders was relieved of his command a few hours ago after he sent out an “email/posting” revealing that President Barack Obama was in the process of purchasing a multi-million dollar seaside luxury villa in the United Arab Emirates city (UAE) of Dubai. According to this report, the Commander of the US Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 15, Rear Admiral Rick Williams, posted a “pointed” query on 8 January [since deleted] to the US Naval Institute’s “Readiness Kill Chain” “recipients/responders”...

THE JACKI DAILY Show! Listen live at 2PM Eastern! Today's show is a fun departure from the average; Today, Jacki interviews Dina Dwyer-Owens talking about corporate values in her new book Values Inc. (with Enron the oil company as the teaching exhibit). The next segment brings a topical discussion with Economist Ed Ireland talking about frac'ing and earthquakes and what frrac revenus bring to the cities (new stadiums, schools, etc.) Topping it off with Chad Hennings talking about character in his new book Forces of Character. Now playing also on station KWEL in Midland-Odessa!

...Fayetteville Shale play officially bit the dust...tight oil horizontal rig count was down by 20...Bakken-Eagle Ford-Permian HRZ rig count was down by 14. The Bakken lost 3 rigs, the Eagle Ford, 4, and the Permian, 7.

Saudi Arabia is mulling the sale of shares in Aramco, believed to be the world's most valuable company, as part of plans to repair its finances and open up its economy. The announcement was made by the country's deputy crown prince as Saudi's secretive, state-owned oil firm grapples with the effects of oil prices nearing 12-year lows . Mohammed bin Salman told The Economist: "That is something that is being reviewed, and we believe a decision will be made over the next few months." The Saudi economy has taken a battering from the oil price decline and the finance ministry...

If you read Stephen Moore's column, he noted how the consensus over oil is wrong. We're not running out of oil. In fact, many have been saying we're going to run out since the 1930s: These stupid predictions of the end of oil have been going on for most of the last century. Just over 100 years ago, the U.S. Bureau of Mines estimated total future production at 6 billion barrels, yet we've produced more than 20times that amount. In 1939 the Department of the Interior predicted U.S. oil supplies would last 13 years. I could go on. The folks...

Russia’s oil-dependent economy appears headed for a second year of recession, and Energy Minister Alexander Novak says the blame falls squarely on the Saudis. The Russian gross domestic product fell by 4 percent in November from its level in the same month in 2014, and had shrunk 3.7 percent in October from its levels a year earlier, the Economy Ministry reported Monday. The reason, to no one’s surprise, is the plunge in oil prices over the past 18 months. The global average value of a barrel of oil has crashed from over $110 per barrel in the summer of 2014...