$1 Oil: Saudi Arabia's Attempt To Crush U.S. Shale

Oilprice ^ | Tom Kool

[nickcarraway]

After having crashed nearly 70 percent in the first three months of 2020, benchmark WTI prices are trying to form a bottom around $20 per barrel.

But this psychological threshold is looking increasingly shaky as global crude storage facilities are filling up at an unprecedented pace. OPEC and its partners officially ended their output cut deal today, following the words of Russian Energy Minister Novak that every producer is ‘’free to pump at will’’.

With a flood of physical crude set to hit the market, it will take weeks, not months, for global oil storage space to run out. The storage problem could grow even worse as refining capacity is coming offline due to coronavirus health risks and in some cases a (very) negative crack spread caused by a double whammy of low fuel demand and crude oversupply.

Oilprice.com’s Alex Kimani wrote on Saturday that refining crack spreads are now negative in both US and Asian markets. This means that refiners must pay for every barrel they refine into fuel, which will inevitably lead to even lower demand for crude feedstock.

The gap between supply and demand in oil markets is expected to grow increasingly pronounced this month. Trading giant Trafigura’s chief economist now expects demand for crude to fall by 30 million bpd in April as around 3 billion people remain under lockdown worldwide.

In the meantime, OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and the UAE are preparing to flood European and Asian markets with crude. Bloomberg reported that the Kingdom’s supply has now officially surpassed the 12 million bpd mark,

[DesertRhino]

Tell the Saudis we will withdraw our protection if they keep it up. They are helpless without us. An we cannot possibly get a worse government, or one more committed to hating America than the one there now.

How long will America be kicked around by a pipsqueak?

[mad_as_he$$]

Trump needs to encourage US refiners to use as much domestic oil as possible. I thought the money for filling the strategic oil reserve got stripped out of Porklus 2.

[thescourged1]

A shower of cruise missiles from (-insert angry oil producer here-) landing on oil terminals in SA comes to mind.

[Chgogal]

Sorry Saudies, shale oil will still be there. There will be different players drilling, granted that. Question is, will you still be there after the dust settles and we decide you are as much an enemy as Iran?

[Drago]

Yep, the domestic oil industry is getting crushed...the bankruptcies are starting...Whiting Petroleum declared yesterday:

http://whiting.com/investor-relations/

[jdsteel]

I look at it differently. I can’t think of a better time for the US military to respond to an attack from Iran (just wait, one will happen) by completely destroying their oil industry. I do mean completely.

Yeah, they’ll close the Strait of Hormuz for a short time...until we blow their little boats out of the water. Oil will skyrocket to what...$40 a barrel???

[Wuli]

The U.S. should at this point ban Middle East oil imports. We don’t need to participate in the Saudi-Russia oil supply war. Let them hurt each other while protecting our growing domestic supply.

[CondorFlight]

So when does the gas price at the pump rocket down to under $1.00 a gallon?

[eartick]

that is what is happening. the tap is getting turned off

[mad_as_he$$]

Sadly we may wind up coming out of this with only the big players in the patch. It will be ugly and innovation will lose traction.

[lodi90]

There layoffs will be in the thousands.
But it’s okay, because us oil and gas folks are just greedy bastards.

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Really sorry to hear that. One of few bright spots of the obama economy was your sector. It’s hard to see anything postive post Wu Flu Panic. We are going to be reeling with a totally nuked economy.

[LibertyWoman]

That ain't going to happen.They'll be screaming like stuck pigs soon enough because 'revenue' (tax) is drying up. There are less and less motor vehicles on the road.

I don't know what our President is thinking signing the trillion dollar deals plus handing out checks like Santa to everyone (not just us who contribute). Where is the money going to come from? Productive America is closed for business.

[hawkaw]

I agree. Only oil produced in North America should be refined.

[jdsteel]

Depends on the State. Here in PA we have almost $1 in taxes per gallon between the State & Federal take.

[Peter ODonnell]

campaign to the right, govern to the left.

Unfortunately, it’s the way things have often gone. But at least with Trump, there are some gains. It’s becoming a bit of a glass half empty situation but the Democrats would be rushing to oblivion three times as fast.

[SkyDancer]

States like WA will still have $3.50/gal gas.

[Blue Highway]

Under $1.00? It’s still over $2.00 a gallon in SW Florida.

[AlaskaErik]

This is going to decimate the State of Alaska budget.

[LibertyWoman]

Well as one of local politicians said here in east central Missouri, 'no scale of economy is worth sacrificing one human life'. I know that he must have worked on that all night long before releasing his bloviation on FB.

Look at the bright side: at least we'll be alive after cowering in place for weeks. Now, sustaining our lives, well that's going to be quite a different story.

[Zhang Fei]

[The drills will stop when there is no profit margin.

Small oil companies in America are Tremendously leveraged more and more by practically junk bonds.]

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The beauty of the bankruptcy process is that the assets will pass into stronger hands (i.e. the next round of stock and bond investors). There is unlimited money to finance the fracking sector. The amount of money in the next round of funding will shrink, because investors will demand a higher return to compensate for the risk, but there will be enough money to produce a huge amount of oil.