Free Republic

The federal forecast of U.S. shale production is sinking again for the third month in a row, but the decline is still just a thin layer off the top. Daily oil production at the nation’s six biggest shale plays is set to slip by 91,000 barrels from June to July, the Energy Information Administration says. That’s roughly 2 percent of the 5.48 million U.S. barrels anticipated next month, hardly the kind of decline oil-industry stakeholders had expected for after drillers sidelined nearly 1,000 oil-drilling rigs in the last six and a half months. “It’s a pretty resilient industry,” said Bill...

The connection between wastewater injection wells and an alarming increase in the frequency of earthquakes is getting a lot more scrutiny these days. First was Oklahoma, which has suddenly become the earthquake capital of the United States. The number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher more than quadrupled between 2013 and 2014 in the state. The culprit? Scientists are becoming more confident that the injection of wastewater into disposal wells causes fault lines to “slip,” contributing to the likelihood of an earthquake. The issue has become highly contentious in Oklahoma. But now the controversy has spread to...

In an effort to better present crude oil storage capacity and use across the United States, EIA has prepared new tables as part of the semiannual Working and Net Available Shell Storage Capacity Report. The new series show crude oil stocks held at refineries crude oil in tanks and underground storage in each Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD). Previously, this information was only available at the national level. Crude oil stocks in tanks and underground storage are used to calculate storage capacity utilization rates and to derive the quantity of crude oil held in pipelines and in transit by...

Te Saudi Arabian government delegation appreciate and fully support the decision of the Indonesian government to become an OPEC member again, because Indonesia is one of the founders of OPEC," Indonesian Energy Minister Sudirman Said said in the statement. Saudi Arabia is Indonesia's top crude supplier. Naimi will also push for Saudi state oil firm Saudi Aramco to invest in Indonesia's downstream sector, Said said.

Although data_opacity makes objective_analysis difficult, market observers reported in April that China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest oil_importer. This statistical inflection point needs context to understand global consumption trends. While oil bulls are anxious about China’s reduced crude growth appetite, fundamental shifts in Chinese currency and domestic consumption strategies point to long-term growth in Chinese hydrocarbon consumption generally. Keith Johnson wrote in Foreign Policy on May 11, 2015, “… China’s continued and, indeed, deepening reliance on volatile regions for the world for energy supplies, especially the Middle East, points to continued security vulnerabilities for Beijing for...

Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency has admitted what the oil and natural gas industry has been saying for more than 60 years: “Hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water sources.” EPA’s five-year-long study, requested by Congress, examined more than 950 pieces of information, including published papers and technical reports. While finding “potential vulnerabilities, some of which are not unique to hydraulic fracturing,” the report basically pronounces fracking safe. This conclusion should not be a surprise. In 2011, then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told a congressional panel there has been no evidence linking fracking operations to...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—If Texas were a nation, it would be the No. 3 dry natural gas producer in the world—ahead of Iran, China and Saudi Arabia. Eight individual states now each produce over 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, which would rank them among the world’s top 30 producing countries.

North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire’s bill to permanently ban new oil drilling in state waters along the 840-mile California coast was approved by the Senate Wednesday and now moves to the Assembly. Calling the coast a “worldwide wonder,” McGuire, D-Healdsburg, said his bill will protect the natural beauty of the coast, which draws 150 million visitors a year and contributes $40 billion to the state economy. The bill closes a loophole in a 1994 law that banned oil and gas development in state waters, which extend out three miles from shore, but permitted exceptions in cases where state oil...

There will be no US-style shale gas revolution in Europe, the president of the International Gas Union (IGU) has told the BBC."You cannot duplicate [the US experience] in Europe," said Jerome Ferrier. "Politicians are hesitating to accept shale development." Abundant shale gas in the US has helped domestic energy prices fall. As a result some European governments, not least the UK, are keen to develop their own shale resources. Mr Ferrier's comments come a day after a number of major energy firms called for a working price of carbon. Carbon pricing The IGU president, talking to the BBC at the...

Oil rising to $60/bbl is displeasing some people, particularly the shorts. Some of the more extreme –those calling for oil in the $20’s – have wisely fallen silent. Others, like Goldman Sachs, who a few months ago had set their flag in the 30’s, have unfortunately not gone so silent. They recently moved their flag into the 40’s but they continue to talk a lot. A better strategy – though one that would require some humility — would be to stop talking and listen. Recent and compounding data will soon wash away the walls of worry erected by the experts....

Wall Street's generous supply of funds to U.S. oil drillers helped create the American energy boom. Now that same access to easy money is keeping them going, despite oil prices that are languishing around $60 a barrel. The flow of money into oil has allowed U.S. companies to avoid liquidity problems and kept American crude production from falling sharply. Even though more than half of the rigs that were drilling new wells in September have been banished to storage yards, in mid-May nearly 9.6 million barrels of oil a day were pumped across the country, the highest level since 1970,...

In what is likely the final action in a lengthy environmental lawsuit against ConocoPhillips’ CD-5 project on the North Slope, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason denied the plaintiff’s final motion for a summary judgment to invalidate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Record of Decision and permits for the project. The suit was filed in 2013 by several residents of Nuiqsut, a nearby Inupiat village. The project itself, a satellite of the producing Alpine oil field near the Colville River, has been under construction since 2013 and is nearing completion. Although Gleason ruled in 2014 that the Corps did...

"We have very little food and ammunition, and we can't withstand the suicide bombers, snipers and rockets....All of us are thinking of committing suicide - Iraqi Federal Police Officer. Against this cataclysmic backdrop of bombs falling in Sana’a and with ISIS literally at the gates of the major Iraqi city of Ramadi, many US energy and security experts were shocked to hear President Barack Obama ignore the danger in a recent keynote speech in which he pinpointed global warming as an equally big risk for Americans. “Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our...

Saudi Arabia’s unwillingness to follow its longstanding policy of propping up oil prices means North Carolina might have to wait for offshore energy exploration. That’s the assessment of Daniel Fine, associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy and project leader of a group developing New Mexico’s state energy policy. Fine described a Saudi-led oil “price war” during a presentation to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society. In the video clip below, Fine explained how falling oil prices tied to Saudi Arabia’s new policy affect North Carolina’s energy options.

In the age of derivatives, swaps, and electronic money transfers, a new form of warfare has emerged: financial warfare. Recently, the US has passed sanctions on countries such as Syria, Venezuela, and North Korea , but the majority of energy related sanctions passed have been targeted at Iran and Russia. An estimated 68 percent of Russia’s government revenue is derived from oil and gas exports, while 80 percent of Iran’s revenue comes from oil exports. That presents a very large target for the use of financial weapons.

The nimblest and smartest competitors have worked relentlessly to increase their productivity. Leading-edge operators report that they can produce more profitably today at a price of $65 a barrel than they could at $95 a barrel three years ago. Where can they be profitable three years hence—$40 a barrel? $30? The oil patch today is afire with the same technological imperative and competitive mission that has powered the U.S. electronics revolution—think Moore’s Law—to dash headlong down the learning curve, crushing costs and prices and making up for it in volume. Today’s surge in production is coming predominantly from wells that...

Wall Street’s generous supply of funds to U.S. oil drillers helped create the American energy boom. Now that same access to easy money is keeping them going, despite oil prices that are languishing around $60 a barrel. The flow of money into oil has allowed U.S. companies to avoid liquidity problems and kept American crude production from falling sharply. Even though more than half of the rigs that were drilling new wells in September have been banished to storage yards, in mid-May nearly 9.6 million barrels of oil a day were pumped across the country, the highest level since 1970,...

Drillers found another 13 oil rigs to set aside this week, as the industry continued to tighten its belt amid low prices. The number of U.S. rigs chasing oil fell to a total of 646, while gas rigs rose by three to 225. Combined, the total Baker Hughes rig count fell by 10 to 875. Miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at four. The rig count, considered a proxy for industry activity, has fallen sharply since oil prices collapsed last summer. Exploration and production companies have slashed budgets and idled rigs as drilling for now-cheaper crude has become less profitable. Overall, Baker...

Seeing Saudi Arabia beat its head against the wall has been so fun that now Iraq’s petro-military apparatus has decided it, too, wishes to flood the world’s oil market with fresh supply and bring U.S. shale producers to their knees. To put this in terms Iraqis may grasp: Please do. Texans will meet you in the street with yellow roses. For all the that the Saudis have “won” because Brent has gained about $10 a barrel since January, it’s still as much as $20 cheaper than it was in November 2014 when the Saudi plan became clear. The U.S. production...

As the bloc’s 12 oil ministers meet in Vienna, the march of Isil jihadists in the Middle East is putting Iran and Saudi Arabia on a collision course with explosive consequences Thick black smoke rising from the Baiji oil refinery could be seen as a dirty smudge on the horizon as far away as Baghdad after fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) set fire to the enormous processing plant just over 100 miles north of the capital last week. The decision to torch the refinery, which once produced around a third of Iraq’s domestic fuel...